First of all, tell me a little about your family, growing up in Hutch, what made you decide to become a pastor, etc.

Actually, being a pastor was first suggested to me in eighth grade, by an Apple II computer! We were using the computers in a “careers” class to help us find vocations that fit our interests and abilities. I laughed it off at the time, but by tenth grade, that’s more or less what I had settled into—being a pastor. It just fit where no other career I’d tried on had.

My family has been wonderfully supportive (if a little incredulous at times: “And you’re going to be a what???”) right from the get go. In fact, Dad’s been my driving companion (he’d call it a chauffeur) for all my first call interviews, while Mom and Jeff have made sure my dog, Nikki, has been well cared for. It’s meant a lot to me how much encouragement I’ve received from them and the rest of the family.

Hutchinson was a great place to grow up! I really liked being in a small enough town that I knew people, but still being close enough to the Twin Cities that I could catch baseball games, concerts and the occasional touring musical. Although it hardly seems possible, my 10-year reunion is coming up in just over a year, and I’m actually looking forward to seeing where all my classmates wound up. Me, I was boring. I’m doing exactly what I said I’d do way back in tenth grade, and I did it just exactly the way I said I would! Talk about ho-hum. I hope they’ve had more adventures.

What was the best college experience you had?

Ringing in Sue Graff’s bell choir at Faith set me up for the wonderful experience of being in Tintinnabula, the newly-formed bell choir at Concordia. Ringing with that group would have been fun under any circumstance, but with so many of my fellow Carillon Kids alumni making up the balance of Tintinnabula, it was a real blast.

Of course, the musical highlight for just about everyone at Concordia is the annual Christmas Concert. I’m no exception…I loved participating in the concert each year. I’m very excited that my first call will be in Eastern North Dakota, so that it’ll be easy to get back to Cobberville each year for the concert. There’s just something that grabs me from the very first chime to the final compline.

A close second would have to be my stint as an ensemble member in “Jesus Christ Superstar.” I’d been in the pit orchestra in Hutchinson several years, but JCS at Concordia was the first and only time I ever crawled up out of the pit to perform on stage. I don’t claim to have danced well, but it was a tremendous experience performing that show to sold out houses for weeks.

What was the worst (that you can talk about :)?

You mean aside from living in a men’s dorm for four years? Probably getting sick at the Orchestra Hall performance of the Christmas concert, and having to duck out before anyone heard me play a single note.

What was your favorite class at sem? Prof?

Favorite class? That’s hard. I really did the “liberal arts” thing, and took a smattering of all kinds of subjects that interested me. If I had to pick a couple as favorites, I’d probably have to go with Shakespeare and the film class I took my senior year. Who ever knew that I’d enjoy Buster Keaton so much?
 
Favorite prof, though? That’s easy. I had three:

Larry Alderink was one of my favorite professors in the religion department. I loved the way he tweaked and provoked us in order to get us to think outside our comfort zones. Considering the “tough questions” of our faith is such an important activity for anyone who wants to grow in their relationship with God, and Larry always pushed us towards those questions. Not only that, but he was one of the best discussion leaders I’ve ever known…even my brother, who sat in on a Family Day class with Larry, thinks so.

Steven Paulson was my other favorite religion professor at Concordia. He followed me to Luther Seminary because he couldn’t bear the thought of never having me in class again…or at least that’s what I let myself think. Truth be told, I was thrilled when I heard that Steve was joining the faculty at Luther. He’s one of my true mentors, and one day I fully expect to boast that I studied under the great Lutheran scholar Steve Paulson, who was himself a pupil of Gerhard Forde (of whom I’m a great admirer). Besides, the man was (in)famous for his electric blue blazer and offbeat ties.

I never actually had a class from June Rauschnabel, but she’s one of my favorite profs at Concordia all the same. June founded and directed the bell choirs at Concordia, and has been a good friend to me. It was largely on her recommendation that I had the opportunity to ring in Twin Cities Bronze, one of the premiere bell ensembles in the country.
 

Do you have a focus for your pastoral ministry?

Focus? What’s that?

Seriously, I think the nature of the pastoral office doesn’t lend itself overly well to a very narrow focus. In order to be a good pastor you really need to be something of a generalist. Knowing at least a little bit about a lot of things makes you a good conversationalist; it also helps you to connect important spiritual truths to the things that people know from their day-to-day lives.

I prefer to think of my ministry as having certain emphases, rather than a single focus. To me, the basic task of the pastor is Word and Sacrament ministry, which is done in four primary areas: Worship leadership, preaching, teaching, and visitation. The fate of the pastor is to be twirling between these four areas each and every moment. But that’s what makes ministry so exciting and rewarding, at least to me. There is both rhythm and variation within the vocation.

Short-range plans?

Furnish a house; settle into ministry in my new church; breathe.

Long-range plans?

Pay off student loans; start a family (more of a goal than a plan at this point); perhaps someday return to school to pursue a doctorate.

Why have you decided to have an "exceptional ordination"? (I understand why- it would just be nice to explain it to the congregation)

Basically, it boils down to one thing: I think that lay people are the heart of the church. Pastors and bishops are needed in the church because it’s good to have a public leader, and someone who will preach and teach out of faith and knowledge. That’s why God calls people to be pastors and bishops. But the fact is that everyone who is baptized is a priest in Christ’s church, and is fully authorized (even commanded!) to do priestly things like proclaiming the Good News, serving others in love and humility, and…yes, even presiding at the sacraments. Although we usually let pastors do some of those things for the sake of “good order,” it’s important for you to know that those activities are your birthright as a child of God and a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.

So there’s really nothing different about pastors, bishops and lay folk at all, except that God’s given each of us different abilities, and different vocations within which to use those abilities. My gifts might make me a good pastor, but that’s no better (or worse) a calling than someone else, whose gifts make her an ideal doctor. Or farmer. Or teacher. You get the idea. You know the expression, “People is people”? That’s true whether them people is pastors or whatever. People is people, and Christians is Christians.

Even though our church denies up and down that anything important has changed, the fact is that our Episcopal neighbors do not have exactly the same understanding of ordination as we Lutherans do. To us, “pastor” is just a vocation that a person is given, and ordination is the beginning of service in that vocation. The Episcopal understanding is that pastors are “ontologically changed” at ordination…in other words they’re fundamentally different from lay people after they’ve been ordained. Same thing for bishops: They’re fundamentally different from both pastors and lay people. The ELCA isn’t formally teaching this, but it’s implied so strongly by requiring a bishop for ordinations, that I’m not at all comfortable with it. Anything that smacks of denigrating the laity is inappropriate, I think.

I don’t want my ordination to be a slap in the face of the very people I’m called to serve

What's scary, exciting, etc about this?

There was a time when it was uncertain if I could be ordained in the ELCA if I did not submit to a bishop presiding. That was not so much scary (I was still several years from graduation) as it was frustrating; I’ve been faithful to the traditional Lutheran teachings all my career at seminary, yet it looked like all of my studying might be thrown away because the church had changed its teaching.

I’d like to see revival within the ELCA; I think our church is stagnating in many ways. History teaches us that the way revival comes is by a return to our confessional roots and an emphasis on the reality of Christ’s kingdom both now among us, and imminent in its full revelation in the not-so distant future. We Lutherans risk becoming bland and lukewarm unless we rediscover who we are: We are Christ’s and Christ’s alone. Not only that, but we have a marvelous tradition that reminds us that the heart of life is in God’s gracious gift of love; that Jesus saves us freely when (and because!) we can’t do a thing for ourselves; that each of God’s people is precious, and is gifted and commanded to be a minister; and that God’s Word is open to everyone, not just an elite few with masters and doctoral degrees.

I hope that my career as a pastor might see revival come to this church, and I hope that my ordination might be one tiny step in the right direction.

Will you have any involvement in the WordAlone Network?

Although I am a member of WordAlone, some bad experiences with a handful of the more radicalized members of its e-mail list have made me cautious about the group. The ELCA was culled together from many smaller church bodies, and there has been anti-ELCA sentiment among certain folks from before day one. WordAlone ideally should be about revival, as I described above, but many of these folks I tangled with are members just because they hate the ELCA. I am a WordAlone member because I love this church and want to see it experience revival and renewal.

Obviously not everyone who joins WordAlone has a chip on their shoulder! And some of those with chips might even have good reasons for them. But I remain cautious, all the same; there were far too many inflated egos, unkind words and glaring assumptions being kicked around that list for me to feel entirely at home within WordAlone right now. My policy is probably more one of casual endorsement than of active membership at this time.

That said, I’m tremendously grateful to WordAlone for campaigning for the exception that allows me to be ordained in this Lutheran church without compromising my Lutheran beliefs. And I have the utmost respect for the Network’s theological panel, which includes both Steve Paulson and Gerhard Forde, whom I mentioned as among my theological forebears. The WordAlone movement has a lot of firepower, and the ability to bring about great change, for good or for ill. I’m praying that it’ll ultimately be a tool for great good.

What are your hopes/prayers for your ministry?

My internship supervisor, Martin Taylor, was an exceptional pastor in every possible way. I have no greater hope for my ministry than that it might be an echo of his own ministry, and that I might grow to be as good and faithful a pastor as Martin is.

What are your hopes/prayers for Faith congregation?

That you continue to be in motion! Treading water is deadly to the church, and I’ve been so delighted to see all of the motion at Faith in the last several years, both physically and spiritually. A stream that flows is fresh and clean, and that’s how God intends Faith to be. Not so surprisingly, that’s also how God intends faith (little “f”) to be. Keep on flowing; keep on moving. That is my prayer for you.

Have you set a date for your ordination? Any special plans with the service you'd like to share at this time?

I’m in the process of finding a date that will work for all of the people I’ve asked to participate in the service. God willing, sooner rather than later is the plan. Most likely the middle of March will be the time, but nothing is set in stone yet.

Among those who have been invited are my internship supervisor, Martin Taylor, who will fly out from Washington to preside at the service; Bishop Rick Foss of the Eastern North Dakota Synod, who is a solid pastor and will be preaching; and Walt Wietzke, my pastor in St. Paul. I’m also hoping to have Twin Cities Bronze, the top-notch bell ensemble I was a member of, provide special music…perhaps with the Ringers of Faith? (What do you say, Sue? Roxanne?)

The service will be at Faith, regardless. As soon as I know a date and time, I’ll make sure that word gets out. And everyone (and I do mean everyone) is invited! This is to be both a celebration of the completion of my studies and the assumption of my vocation as pastor, and I’d like anyone and everyone who has supported me these last ten years to be a part of this special time.

How did you know you were called to become a minister?

For some people it’s like Paul: They’re bumbling along, minding their own business, and then God gets ‘em. “You! Yeah, you! I am the Lord! You’ve got work to do for me, and you’d better get to!” Blinding light, fear and trembling…you know the drill. A terrifying, exhilarating experience of being called by the God of the universe.

For others, like me, the experience of being called isn’t half as dramatic: As we go through life, some things seem like they might fit, and we try them on. We stare into the mirror, we tug on a sleeve here and adjust a collar there, but finally we realize that, no, the fit isn’t right. There’s something else we’re drawn to, something that will be the perfect fit. When we finally try on ministry, we know. It just fits. It’s right. No tailoring needed, no alterations necessary. That’s how it’s been for me.

Like I said, not half as dramatic as a “Paul” experience…but, in a way, I trust it more. It has the ring of truth because it’s basically the same story as anyone with a vocation can tell. You try some things on. You try others. You finally figure it out. Being a pastor fits me, and God hasn’t let me twiddle my thumbs in ill-fitting “clothes” for long. He’s kept on pushing me toward the proper fit.

Bible verse that has meant the most to you during your discernment?

Probably Jeremiah 29.11:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Anything else you want to add!

I think if I add anything more, I might be accused of being, um…“wordy”! *LOL*
 

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