I ♥ my Teaching Parish

I have from time to time on this blog mentioned my Teaching Parish, Galilee Evangelical Lutheran Church in Roseville, Minn. This time, I want to gush about it.

Teaching Parish, known until this year as Contextual Leadership, is a requirement for Master of Divinity students in their first two years at Luther Seminary. Basically, it allows students to get a foothold in church leadership and apply some of their coursework to a real, live congregation. It's a pretty loose involvement, and it's not all that scary. As a classmate and I recently explained it to a Master of Arts student, "In Teaching Parish, you get your feet wet. On internship, you get your pants wet."

Unlike my future internship site, which has more than 3,000 members, Galilee has somewhere between 200 and 250. It's the smallest congregation I've ever been part of. It's also the most close-knit church community I've ever been part of. They do fellowship very, very well at Galilee. There is also a great deal of involvement from a large percentage of the congregation. My wife's family, which has come to worship with us at Galilee a couple times, was blown away by the number of Sunday School teachers installed last year—as many or more teachers than at my in-laws' 3,000-member home church.

It seems like not long ago at all that Tracy and I first visited Galilee as a potential Contextual Leadership site. But it's been nearly two years, and I've got less than a month to go in my formal relationship with Galilee. And it makes me a little teary-eyed. Although some students consider Teaching Parish another hoop to jump through on the way to ordained ministry, the people at Galilee have made my experience easily one of the most valuable parts of my first two years at seminary. So much of my coursework would have been far less meaningful (and far more overwhelming) without being able to put it in practice. And Galilee has certainly affirmed my call to pastor-hood more than anything else at seminary.

In my two years at Galilee, I've attended dozens of worship services, delivered about a half-dozen sermons and children's sermons, served as assisting minister a couple times, taught Sunday School for much of last year and led a Bible study at a fantastic men's retreat last summer. I've been working one on one in confirmation classes this year with an exceptionally bright student named Joanna who is about to become Galilee's only confirmand this year, and it has been a really rewarding experience as we both have gotten to know the Old Testament better. Meanwhile, I've learned so much from a member of the congregation who happens to be an emeritus professor at Luther. On Sunday, I got to lead my first adult forum, on miracles in the book of Acts, and Tracy was a lay reader for the first time. Tracy has also had the chance to get involved with the reorganization of the church library. It has been a great opportunity all around for both of us.

What has been especially exciting, for me and for all the people at Galilee, is that the congregation is now in the process of calling a new pastor. Dick Carlson, my original supervisor at Galilee, retired in October. Since then, the congregation has been blessed with Pastor Mike Hanson as an interim shepherd, and I've learned a lot from him as I've interviewed him for several course projects.

And last night, in a key phase of that transitioning process, Galilee held a church-wide meeting to review its Congregational Mission Profile and present it to St. Paul Area Synod Bishop Peter Rogness. I had never gotten to see this process before—I've always been on the pastor's end as my dad went from call to call—so this was new to me. And it was inspiring to hear the people of this congregation that I've come to love talk about their hopes for remaining a close-knit (but not closed-door) community while recognizing that they have a Christian responsibility to welcome more people into that community. Galilee has a lot of opportunities, given its location at the intersection of neighborhoods that are home to people of different cultures and incomes, and I can't wait to see how things will turn out once a new pastor is on board.

So thanks be to God for Galilee! I'm going to miss these folks. That's enough gushing for one blog entry. Unless, of course, any of you readers have any great Contextual Leadership experiences of your own to share ...