Why I truly miss my 75-mile commute
I used to commute from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Hallock, Minnesota. One interstate, two state highways, three turns. 75 miles.
Then, for a time, I commuted from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Fargo. Interstate all the way. 75 mph speed limit, give or take. 75 miles.
There were many things to dislike about the journeys — unpredictable weather, straight flat roads, MPR fund drives. Plus, of course, there were the high gas bills ($540 in April) and 2+ hours roundtrip just sitting.
I’d rather not go back to commuting that distance. With great joy I walked 1 minute to a coffee shop for my first meeting of the day yesterday. Later, I road my bike 10 minutes to my office. I love it.
But I miss many things about the commute as well.
I miss hearing hours of quality in-depth reporting from MPR and NPR.
I miss turning off the radio and just being, thinking quietly by myself for minutes on end.
I miss seeing the horizon in the distant North Dakota sky. I miss the sun rises and sun sets.
I miss passing farmers working in their fields.
I miss watching the crops grow day by day, and then in the fall seeing the lights of the sugar beet trucks out in the fields harvesting all night long.
And, though they were sometimes annoying, I even miss passing the semi-trucks coming down from Canada reminding me that goods don’t magically arrive on the store shelves.
I particularly miss the semi we passed on I-29 almost every Sunday afternoon with its multi-layer cargo of hogs with their snouts pointed outwards presumably headed to market.
I don’t want to go back to the long commute. I’ll suppose I’ll learn to manage OK with my current 2 miler. But, those other 73 miles, they were quite the ride.
image by Julia Starr
A Lutheran, a Presbyterian, and a Zombie walk into a bar…
a Thoughtful Christian.com post
The question was on the tip of my tongue last weekend when Rev. Mark Hanson, the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, spoke at a town hall forum in Moorhead, Minn. But I didn’t ask it. I feared my question wouldn’t be taken seriously. And, looking at the five hundred or so Lutherans gathered, it was probably the right call. I mean, let’s be honest, there’s a certain type of crowd that comes out to a standing-room-only event on a Friday night to hear a church bureaucrat speak. Folks had burning questions about church social statements, denominational strategy, and why it took their rural congregations 18 months to find a new pastor. I get that. But, even so, I so wanted to ask the question. Maybe I should have.
You see, Fargo-Moorhead last weekend hosted two VERY different events. Both synods on the Fargo and Moorhead sides of the Red River hosted their annual assemblies, so Lutheran pastors and lay leaders gathered to worship, conduct business meetings, approve budgets, and learn from speakers and workshops. On Saturday, though, downtown Fargo hosted something rather different than the Lutheran assemblies — the Downtown Zombie Pub Crawl. (The fourth annual Downtown Zombie Pub Crawl no less!) More than 1,000 people responded “Yes” to the Facebook invitation. They dressed-up like zombie — lots of blood and guts and scary makeup — and visited various downtown pubs. I have no way of knowing what percentage of synod assembly participants joined the ranks of the undead, but I have a good guess it was closer to zero than two.
Which leads me to my unasked question. Of course, it’s ridiculous because we can’t know. But, let’s consider it briefly. Ok, so here it goes: where would Jesus have been — the synod meetings or the Zombie Pub Crawl?
I mean, Jesus was all about getting people together and having a good time. He was certainly for more than a little imbibing — his first sign in John was turning gallons of water into wine — and I can totally see him rocking out to a disco ball. Who did Jesus tend to hang with but the outcasts, the folks on the margins, the folks for whom respectable society had no time or energy. Does that remind you, even a little, of zombie culture these days?
And, the synod meetings, as good as they were (much better than most Presbytery meetings, but that’s another post), didn’t push me to those margins. They didn’t send me into that uncomfortable space where I questioned my faith or my assumptions. They affirmed how to be a good Lutheran — boy they did that — but not as much how to be an edgy one. They told me about denominational resources and entertained me with hunky-dory illustration-filled preaching, but they did not convict me.
In my position as mission developer for The Project F-M I meet with lots of 20-30 somethings who aren’t connected to faith communities. Often, I hear stories of folks who view the institutional church as not open to questions, as expecting its members to fit a certain mold, folks who see the church as either dishonest or unaware of its own failings. And while I could give counterexamples here or there, usually I just listen because their experiences speak for themselves. Many many young adults in Fargo-Moorhead see the church as out of touch and not for them.
To be honest, I still don’t know how to answer the question. I don’t have any idea how Bishop Hanson would have responded. But here’s my hope — for my call, and for my church. I dearly hope that next year the synod assemblies and the Zombie Pub Crawl once again occur on the same weekend. And, if they do, I want to be edgy enough, to respond to Christ’s call enough, to be downtown instead of at the synod business meetings. And, there I’ll stand on a street corner with a bottle of wine and some bread, and I’ll preach of a man who too is undead. Jesus Christ. Jesus who cured the sick and caused the dead to rise. Jesus, whose blood was poured out for the salvation of the whole world. Jesus who lived on the edge and died there because of it. Jesus, who is promised to be present when we share the bread and drink the wine remembering him. Jesus, who loves Lutherans, and zombies, and a good party.
image by lusi
Additional Resources from www.TheThoughtfulChristian.com
-
Everyday Parables: Learnings from Life, by James Taylor
-
Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed, by William R. Herzog II
-
“Parables of the Lost: Luke 15,” by Thomas W. Walker (Adult Study)
-
“Understanding God’s Grace through Parables,” by Adam Fischer (Youth Study)
Into perils unknown
Last week, with a heavy heart, I announced to the Session at First Presbyterian Church in Hallock that I have accepted a new position. Talk about bittersweet. I love and cherish that congregation and have been honored to be called their pastor. It will be — already is — very hard to leave. But, sad as it is, my partner and I intend to tackle our next adventure together: Megan has been assigned to med school rotations in Fargo.
Not many people on this earth can say, when moving to the twin cities of Fargo, ND and Moorhead, MN that they are moving 1) south, 2) to a warmer place, and 3) to a much larger metro area. What a life we live!
My new position is both very exciting and very scary. Beginning in April, I will serve as Mission Developer for The Project F-M, a new vision and venture to cultivate a 21st century faith community in the Fargo-Moorhead area. What does that mean? Beats me. Seriously….who knows what God might be up to.
This is a bit of what I do know. Calling a Mission Developer is the third step of a process begun several years ago when an idea struck in a church basement (why do all the best ideas come in church basements or parking lots?). The group gathered was discussing the fact that there exists 45,000 persons between the age of 20 and 40 in Fargo-Moorhead unconnected to an organized faith community. And so, The Project F-M began. After an initial phase and gathering of support in local churches, a Community Organizer was hired for a year to listen and assess the interests, stories, and build relationships among F-M’s young adults and larger community. Now it’s my term to jump in as Mission Developer.
Funding has come from generous churches, two ELCA synods, and the national Lutheran church. It’s officially an ELCA call so I’m very grateful that the ELCA and PC(USA) are in full communion. I look forward to serving with my brothers and sisters of the Norwegian sweaters.
Stay tuned for more about The Project F-M in later weeks. (Current web presence is quite minimal, but it’s here.) Now, though, please pray for a smooth transition, but mostly for the kind folk in Hallock who have welcomed me so well.
I’ll close with a prayer found both in Lutheran and Presbyterian worship resources:
Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
image by Mattox
The delicious taste of rural ministry
also posted at the CENTURY Blog
The farm-to-fork movement is uber-hip. But this post is about something even more local: tasty backyard garden-grown food in season. It’s one of the perks of rural ministry.
My partner and I are shareholders in an organic farm that operates under the community-supported agriculture model. We love our weekly box teeming with vegetables grown by people we know at a farm we can visit-and help weed.
What’s even better is the apple crumble delivered to my study desk recently, still hot, and filling the whole church with the smell of baked-apple goodness. The apples were from a church member’s tree—I can see her house from the window of the manse.
There’s scrumptious plum jelly, also made with produce from a member’s tree, and on many summer Sundays I return to my office after worship and find a bag full of tomatoes or apples picked that morning. They have discolored spots and are oddly shaped, but they taste as sweet as the land on which they were grown.
Then there’s the retired farmer who pickles beets and makes his own sauerkraut—and shares with the pastor.
Sure, your downtown church may have a Starbucks nearby, but I have ten gardens within walking distance, and they don’t take cash, credit or debit. It tastes good to be a rural pastor.
image by Andrew Dubock
Where your bagel came from
Your eyes are not deceiving you. That, indeed, is the US Capitol, live wheat, and a combine. This isn’t the work of Photoshop, rather it’s the Urban Wheat Field facilitated by the Wheat Foods Council and the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG). And how’s this for cool points: a member of our congregational (and a member of the committee which called me) is Second Vice President of NAWG.
Last week, must have been big for agriculture on Capitol Hill, because a few days before Stephen Colbert gave his hilarious and compelling testimony (discussed here), the wheat industry came together to educate Members of Congress and the public of D.C. about wheat. Turns out it doesn’t grow in the back of grocery stories. Part of the Farm to Fork movement, the D.C. display included a quarter-acre of live wheat in pallets, and areas to learn about milling, baking, and nutrition.
Several Members of Congress were in attendance, and our congregation member Erik Younggren, even made it back to church on Sunday! Erik also blogs about his wheat farm at the awesome url MyWheatFarm.com
Farming has received some more time under the spot light in recent years, with Michael Pollan’s influential work and documentaries like Food Inc. Community Support Agriculture also seems to be taking off, and Farmers’ Markets are the new cool thing. But often and especially, what gets lost in the discussion is the less glamorous areas like wheat farming which supply most of what you eat on a daily basis. Here’s a few fun facts for you:
- 80% of wheat farms are family owned
- half the US wheat crop is used domestically
- one bushel of wheat contains about a million kernels, weighs 60 pounds and can produce 42 pounds of white flour (60 lbs of whole-wheat flour)
- Kansas in the largest producer in the US followed closely by North Dakota
- wheat is grown in 42 states in the US
A view about the wheat life cycle is below, and Erik also put up a nice post on how Family Farming is not Coporate Farming.
Shifting Culture: Laws against texting while driving
This week, the Grand Forks City Council passed a law that makes it illegal to send text messages while driving. I’m glad the ordinance passed — and it certainly took them a while. For some time now, in the state of Minnesota, it’s been illegal to text and drive. I hope such laws mark not just forward-thinking government but the beginning of a true cultural shift against the use of cell phones while driving.
Though in Grand Forks, a texting-while-driving citation will only cost you $15 (yes, North Dakota fines are ridiculously low!) a fine in Minnesota can range up to $131. In fact, this week, the Ramsey County Sheriff’s office launched a two-day crackdown on texting or emailing while driving. Lawbreakers (I won’t call them “illegals,” but think about it) received a warning on Thursday, but if caught Friday, will receive a ticket with a fine. In Minnesota, it’s also illegal for those under 18 to talk on a cell phone while driving.
I’m in favor of such laws, because I believe common sense — and scientific data — points to the fact that looking at a cell phone and using one’s hands to type a message with a tricky little keyboard is not in any way conducive to safe driving. Or to put it another way: when you text and drive you endanger yourself, other drivers, and any cyclists or school children nearby.
And if the data doesn’t convince you, surely these stories will. Backpacking Dad (a friend of a friend) tells in “Why I Won’t Text and Drive” how he often texts and drives, but for some serendipitous reason he abstained yesterday and consequently avoided a head-on collision with a swerving driver. So sadly, Chris wasn’t so lucky. His story is told in the post, “Honor Chris today – Pledge to never drive distracted again” Chris, a young father, died after a collision with a driver who was texting. The texter crossed several lanes of traffic, and police officers found an active text message on her iPhone at the scene.
Texting and driving kills. But we do it anyway, some folks justifying the dissonance to themselves as Backpacking Dad did, saying, “I’m a good driver.” Others of us know it’s dangerous, but that knowledge just isn’t enough to stop us.
A few years ago, I lived in Scotland for a year. Driving laws there are much stricter than the U.S. (and, ironically or not, people are way better at driving in the first place). In Scotland, it’s illegal to text and drive, because it’s illegal to touch a cell phone at all while driving (handless systems are allowed). It’s also illegal to eat while driving — which makes sense to me because it’s dangerous to try to eat a burger and fries and drive at the same time, no matter what fast food restaurant lobbyists might argue.
(As an aside, Grand Forks city council member Tyrone Grandstrand is noted in the Herald as saying, “he wouldn’t want to ban talking on the phone or combing your hair or eating a burger while driving, things that may be a bit distracting, but is not sufficiently dangerous to require a law.”)
As I understand U.S. history, drinking and driving has been illegal for a hundred years, but prior to the 1970s had a much higher blood alcohol level designation (.15) and was rarely enforced. Back in the day, even when DUI or DWI was enforced, it was seen as a minor offense. But in the 70s, thanks in large part to a campaign by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), laws were strengthened and a cultural shift occurred. DUI is now a significant offense with quite negative consequences in society. DUI carries large fines, and though laws vary by state, can lead to jail time, huge fines, and suspension and losing one’s license.
So I hope the laws against texting and driving in Minnesota and Grand Forks signal the beginning of a larger movement. Though I’m not aware of a large movement like MADD’s against DUI, perhaps that’s just around the corner and a cultural shift is coming. Either way, think twice, hold your thumbs; it’s a matter of life and death.
Update: Check out this great application OTTER that has some real potential and fancy-cool usability options. Thanks, Erik!
image by Michal Zacharzewski
Citizenship and the merits of dead trees
Maybe I’m becoming an old fuddy-duddy, but in recent weeks I’ve found myself speaking glowingly for the old-fashioned dead tree paper edition of the local newspaper.
No, it’s not that I think the Grand Forks Herald is a particularly stellar paper, anything but that. I do think it’s unfortunate, however, that subscribing to a local newspaper has become anathema to twenty-somethings. So much so, in fact, that I’m finding my usually optimistic perspective challenged by my peers’ reading habits, or lack their of.
To put it in a phrase: I read the local paper to better understand my neighbors. For me, it’s a question of ethics and ideas. And despite the helpful use of Twitter and blogs, in this town of 50,000 there’s no better way to follow local happenings than the newspaper. From letters to the editors to school board meeting reports, from traffic ticket statistics to mosquito spraying schedules, from stories of local movers-and-shakers to those on a small disc golf tournament nearby, the paper informs me of local goings-on and local perspectives in ways unparalleled by other media.
Maybe if I worked at a big office the local gossip I might pick up there would suffice. Or maybe if I listened to North Dakota radio stations or watched the TV news I could live without my paper. Maybe if I lived in a larger news market, I wouldn’t need the newspaper. But as my life is, were I to cancel my subscription I feel confident I would become a poorer citizen and pastor.
For example, earlier in the summer I voted in local elections of which I wouldn’t have known were I not following the candidate profiles and studying the sample ballot in the paper. Similarly, this week’s Forum Communications series, “Running with Oil” on the North Dakota oil boom is fantastically informative on a state issue (out west, mostly) I could easily overlook otherwise.
Let me be clear, I’m not exactly praising the quality of the paper, bless its heart. The website is horrendous, partly making the dead tree edition so superior. The local stories are fine, but certainly often of questionable quality and the coverage beyond local and state issues is paltry. Most editorials are too mainline, non-confrontational, and safe. I’m not praising the Grand Forks Herald for Pulitzer quality work, I’m praising them for a product that gets the job done — informing me of local happenings, keeping local politicians on their toes, shining the light of scrutiny where their resources can manage.
When I was in college at St. Olaf, the student government funded a program that put racks of free newspapers in every dorm and student hangout area — the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal, if my memory serves me. You’d see college students hanging out waiting for friends while reading up on the news. It was a beautiful site. Surely many college students today read their national and international news, like me, online and through internet-based news aggregators. But nothing beats that dead tree at my doorstep each morning, informing me which roads are closed on my morning commute.
image by Kay Pat
Connect Online
