Dr. Rich's Melheimian Maxims

Five Rules for Fishing for People (and fish, too)

We crossed Lake Vermillion to get to the extraction point. A 4 wheeler with a boat trailer drove down into the water and we pulled right up into the cradle. He locked us up in 30 seconds for the 5 minute portage up to Trout Lake in the Boundary Waters. It was rainy and overcast - perfect weather for a Walleye.

Terrible weather for a Melheim.

"There are only two rules for fishing," said our guide Jim, who retired from teaching junior high math to pursue his other love. "First, you have to go to where the fish are. Second, you have to keep the right bate on the hook."

"There's got to be a third," I said, naive yet confident. "Everything comes in threes."

"Well," Jim said with a wink. "Having the right guide doesn't hurt either."

"And fishing on a choppy, gray, rainy, overcast day?"

"Yeah, that, too."

"And what about trolling?"

"Most people go too fast. No fish is going to work that hard. You've got to put the right stuff in the right place at the right time under the right conditions in the right way. Then you let nature take it's course. You'll get fish. One other thing: when you feel that first hit, don't do anything but let go of the line. Let it run out for a slow 10 seconds before you snap your wrist and set the hook. Then reel in slow, steady and firm. And always, always let the fishing net bring the fish into the boat. Don't pull it out with the line or it'll snap with the weight."

Eight hours later with our limit of Walleye and bass, we puttered back to the extraction point. Jim knew whereof he spoke.

All the way home I thought of Jesus' metaphor to the fishermen, and how it related to what I had just experienced.

1. Go Where The Fish Are
If there's plenty of fish in the sea, but your church isn't exactly catching its limit and they're not exactly jumping into your boat, you've got to ask yourself "Where are the fish?" (You might have to get out of your building for a start.)

2. Keep (the right) Bait on Your Hook
What's the right bait for your target catch? If you're fishing for Walleyes it's either worms or leeches. Lake Trout like small lures. (The best is the Sutton Silver Spoon.) In muddy or iron-rich water, some say rattle baits are best because pike can locate the lure by sound. If you haven't decided what you're fishing for (target audience), then you'll never know what to put on the hook. And, if what you're putting on the church hook isn't getting any bites, it seems to me you have three choices:
    A. You can either sit and lament the fact that no one likes the liturgy any more... er... the spinner anymore, or you can...
    B. Appoint a fish committee to dive down and interview the fish to see what they're biting on today or you can...
    C. Put the kind of bate the target fish are biting on onto the hook and start fishing

3. The Right Guide
It helps to have someone who knows what they're doing in the boat with you. Someone who does this every day. Someone who knows the target fish inside out. Someone with the kind of sensitivity, knowledge and experience that gives them a hard-won insight into the mind and habits of the fish.

 If you're looking for 18-30 year olds, you might want someone who lives in that world. Or someone who has been around a long, long time and has had success reaching that world. You can waste a lot of time and money going to the wrong place with the wrong bate and the wrong guides (what does it cost to replace a youth worker every three years?) or you can find the right one and treat them right.

4. The Right Conditions
I hate being cold. I hate being cold and wet. Hence, I hate sitting out in the  rain. For some reason on Wednesday, that wasn't a problem. I was accomplishing what I set out to do, and seeing results every ten minutes. I could have been safe and dry and warm sitting in my office that day, but I doubt if any fish would have showed up. If the joy of the prize is worth a little discomfort, then get out of your element, get uncomfortable and realize it's just part of what it takes to catch what you're hoping for.

5. Working Too Hard
If you try too hard, you'll scare the fish away. ("Look, a young couple with kids! Quick, grab 'em!") Bring the right bait to the right place in the right conditions and leave the rest to God.

That night I cooked the following for my family, and there wasn't a piece of fish left:

Recipe 1: Citrus Delight (Reasonably Healthy... except for the butter)

Smear a little butter (or substitute) on the bottom of a glass baking pan. Line the bottom with large horizontally cut onion slices. Place the fish on top. Cover the fish with large orange and lemon slices. Douse the whole thing with lime juice. Bake at 425 for 1/2 hour.

Recipe 2: Golden Delight (Absolutely Simple and Delicious)

Dip the fish pieces in egg whites and roll in potatoe buds. Pour a cup of Canola oil into a large frying pan and heat on high. Place the fish in until crispy light brown on one side, then flip. When done on both sides, place on paper towel and dab lightly.

(PS - There was one more rule:

6. Using the Net To Pull It Into The Boat (Rather than hoisting it in with the line)
Okay. I'm out of ideas for the metaphor here. You'll have to figure that one out and let me know. )

Incubating the Babies

My neighbor up the road, pastor/artist Rev. Mark Horst at the local UMC church, had a cup of coffee with me and a chat about justification/sanctification/Methodist/Lutheran polity & language last week.

Lutherans like to talk about sanctification... And that’s usually about all we do with it.

Some of Mark's Methodist buddies like to talk about holiness. To them, it' both personal AND social. (“Don’t let your new birth be a still birth... how many are the born again drukerds and whores...”)

It seems to me that a simple, natural, doable way of calling parents to nurture their kids “every night in ever home” (our mission statement) might be needed. Not another artificial church-fun PROGRAM but a simple and eminently doable natural PROCESS integrated into the core of what the family is doing anyway. Since most parents of young children have a routine when they put their babies to sleep, and that routine/ritual may include songs, stories and prayers anyway, inviting them to simply be INTENTIONAL about of growing in holiness night by night by night might be a way to go that would work for every parent.

It's clear that a "premie" baby needs an incubator. And if those who put their babies to sleep every night simply see themselves adding the additional warmth, care, nurture and support of a "home incubator" every night, that's an easy thing to ask them to do. Adding a reflection of the day, plus some simple prayers, scripture songs, and blessing to the nightly ritual AND intentionally calling on them to continue this EVERY NIGHT night that their child/teen lives under their roof - this we may actually grow these babies in the faith to Christian maturity. Step by step. Night by night. Care by care. Prayer by prayer.

The odd thing that occurred to me since my talk with Pastor Mark is this:

The “baby” in the faith just might be a 32 year old dad... Or mom... Or grandma.

They need it, too.

So, we as professional pastors and teachers must ask ourselves: Is the system we have in place doing the parent's incubation for them, or calling them to do the incubation? We can either feed the children, or feed the feeders.

Which has more exponential possibilities?

Three Questions for Wednesday's Coffee Break

I spent three hours yesterday doing a nuclear stress test - on a treadmill and on a table in a gamma imaging tube trying to find the source of a nagging pressure I've had in my chest for the last few years.

I tell you this to "stress" the fact that I don't want to waste time.

The mainline church is stressed. It may be dying. Maybe it should. Maybe it has to. Maybe the vehicle God used to bring the faith to this continent for the last 500 years has outlived its usefulness. Maybe the tree needs to die in the forest and fall in order to make space and nutrients for the new growth. Or, maybe a shoot will come forth from the stump of Jesse and grow into something beautiful with all the best of the DNA of the first tree and none of the dead wood.

I like to think I'm working on the living end of the dying church, trying to birth something new - or at least trying to find the healthiest DNA left in the old church and replicate it before the patient dies.

 

Birth is always messy. Only an institutional death is slow and antiseptic. If you try to create something new, it will be messy. Guaranteed. There will be pain. There will be push. There may be some embarrassment. There will be tearing. You may need to call out for drugs!

If you don't try to birth something new, you will have much more peace... as you slowly and quietly slip away.
 

God will build the church. No question about that. The only three questions are:

1. Will there be any Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians there when it happens?
2. A second, more important question might be - does it really matter?
3. If your answer to #2 is yes, then what will you do about it today?

Georges Pompidou of France always used to say, "Conception is more fun than delivery."

Let me know if you want to fool around with the future.

That's enough discussion for your Wednesday afternoon coffee break.

Swimming Upstream (with Charismatic Presbyterians)

Here's an interesting note from a guy who's trying something new called UpStream Project. Read on, and if you resonate, drop Scott an e-note:

Your Fifth Church systems vs. solution argument is dead on the mark.  We (the mainline church) have a system that we have sown into for decades and now we are reaping a harvest of empty pews.  Somewhere we forgot to connect kids to the adults.  We set up artificial transitions that took them out of relationships instead of into relationships.  They are hungry for connection to a community and relationship with God. They want a taste of eternity and we give them pizza.

I am just starting out and building a ministry called the Upstream Project.  Along the way I'd like to have some like-minded and like-hearted folks to talk with and share ideas with.  I have lots to talk about and not enough space here.  Would love to chat or email as time allows.  I am on a journey to change the world of church.  Seems like you are on the same path.  Glad for the company along the way.

Scott

Scott Wilcher left his family-based youth ministry in a charismatic Presbyterian church in Virginia Beach, VA, after 7 years and started a ministry called UpStream Project, whose purpose is to inspire and equip churches to reach and retain the next generation. The name comes from the example of the salmon that swims against the current to make sure the next generation gets a good start, even at the cost of its own life.

Why Penguins?

Back from D.C. where Debbie Streicher did her unusually usual marvelous hospitality for the Bible Song conference Saturday. Deb had some leadership folks over for wine and conversation Friday night. Jon Messer (Jon the Baptist) drove up from Richmond to spend/invest the 36 hours with me. He's the guy with two little boys who bless people at restaurants.

During the Saturday event, I was asked about the Penguins again - our Faith Inkubators' mascots:

Why penguins?

Penguine must incubate their eggs under extremely harsh conditions, and the father almost always has to be involved.

You can fry an egg in two minutes. You can boil an egg in two minutes. You can't, however, incubate an egg in two minutes.

It takes time. Attention. Commitment. And, in the penguin's case, a team of consistent caregivers.

Sit on that one this week.

Transmissions, Toledo & Turf Wars II

I'm on the road in a different city each week for the first quarter of 2007, listening to Christian Educaiton directors across the church. I am finding that the majority are passionate, frustrated, under appreciated and close to burn - out. They know that information is simply a sub-set of faith formation. They know that Christian education is foundational to every other ministry of the church, and that all of the ministries of the church need to be on board if there are to be systemic solutions to the systemic problems in Christian education. (Lack of volunteers, lack of parental support, and - sadly - lack of pastoral support). They know that the solutions to their problems won't come if they aren't allowed to make changes in the rest of the programs of the church. They also have heard, "That's not your area" enough to know that they're fighting a turf war everytime they suggest systemic solutions to the systems' problems.

1.  Just let a Christian Education director approach the worship team and say, "I need to have the children singing and signing their Bible Songs twice a month, and I need their art in the powerpoints during the offering every Sunday."

2. Just let them tell the pastor - "I want children to be doing the children's sermons from now on."

3. Just let the confirmation teacher tell the Sunday School people, "I want the kids to know this, this and this before they enter confirmation and I need you to have them equipped by the time they get to me at this age..."

4. Just let the family ministry director tell the pastor, "These are the messages I need parents to hear twenty times next year... from the pulpit"

5. Just let them tell the pastor, "I need you down in the fellowship hall for ten minutes 30 times next year" and "I need that group of 9 adults who hog the largest teaching space in the church to move to a smaller room so I can use it for the kids who out-number them six to one."

Just let anyone who thinks systemically step out of their role for a moment and say, "We need a unified plan that grows a family from baptism day to graduation day and beyond" and "this plan will integrate and impact all of the key things we do here - worship, education, evangelism, stewardship, music, fellowship and service."

They will be told to go back to the basement, close the door, and stay out of other peoples' areas and turf.

And the Jeep Wrangler build on the Volvo body with the Pinto engine will continue to roll down the line to the next stop, and the next, and the next. And the child who isn't incubated by parents every night will show up at a Sunday School system that doesn't integrate what it's teaching with the home, the the home won't be reinforced and challenged in the pulpit, and the kid will go on down the line to a confirmaiton program that doesn't teach them how to be a living cell in the body of Christ. And the confirmaiton program will give way to a senior high ministry that doesn't call the kids back to teach and role-model the faith to their little brothers and sisters. And the non-integrated church will lose the bulk of their kids at confirmaiton, and finally run out of money and close.

The mainline church has systems problems. We'd better get systemic with our answers.

And for Christ's sake, we'd better start planning and talking and integrating.

For Christ's sake. And for our own.

Transmissions, Toledo and Turf Wars

I sat across the table from a systems engineer at dinner Friday night. Craig works for a company that builds the chassis for the Jeep Wrangler. His company was a spin-off that focuses on only one thing - and on doing that one thing well. They make the chassis for the off-road vehicle, then their work literally disappears through a hole in the wall to a painting company. The painting company applies the paint that is ordered, then their work literally disappears through the wall to a transmission company. The transmission company installs the transmission and sets the tires on the chassis. Then their work literally disappears through the wall to Daimer/Chrystler... who finishes the car and puts their name on it.

Four separate companies. Four separate specialties. One unified plan. One final product.

I got to thinking about how disjunct and truncated the ministries and programs are in most churches. There is no "beginning with the end in mind" when it comes to youth, family, or adult ministry. There is no unified plan. There is little to no thought about intentionality, integration of programming, or what a "finished product" should look like.

Heck, most departments in most larger churches don't even talk to one another.

Children's ministry rarely talks to youth  education. Evangelism rarely plans anything with worship. Music rarely considers it's role in family ministry. Stewardship rarely talks about the arts.

One church I met with this week doesn't even have regular staff meetings.

Imagine this for a moment:

My systems engineer across the table is in charge of one important piece of the car. His work is foundational to everything that happens. If he doesn't have a plan - or if he doesn't do his part according to the plan - the end result will be a real mess.

Now, my engineer friend knows he is supposed to build a chassis for a Jeep Wrangler, but he thinks Wranglers are too dangerous, so he decides that he wants to build a Volvo instead. He takes it upon himself to vere from the plan... for the good of all concerned, of course.

So he starts building Volvo chassis and sends them through the wall... one after another.

The paint company on the other side of the wall is supposed to paint the chassis with a silver rust resistant paint. Those are the specifications. The manager has never lived in a cold climate with salt on the roads, and so he thinks rust-resistant additives are a waste of money. He decides to cut corners and apply something less expensive.

The non-rust proofed chassis are placed on the belt one-after-another and away they go. Once they are out of sight, they are not the paint company's problem.

The transmission company has a bunch of unsold Ford Pinto transmissions recalled from the 1986-88 models - which they bought on Ebay. They don't exactly fit into a Wrangler body or onto a Volvo chassis, but that's not their problem. They're cheap! And since word came down from management that they had to cut costs this year, they jerry-rig the trannies onto the chassis and hook up the tires, before sending them happily on their way.

On the other side of the wall the mother company is supposed to put everything else together, but they are finding gaps and flaws all over the place. The seats don't bolt in in the right places. The hood won't close on the alien transmission. And, top it off, once they put the finished product on the truck to send it out into the world, no one is going to want to buy it. It's shoddy. It's ill-conceived. It's got a major design flaw. And it will rust.

If they only had been working on a unified plan! If they only would have thought about the outcome on the other side of the walls and had talked about how their part fit with the others! If they only knew that they were on the same team!

But no, each owned their own turf and went about their own business as if they didn't need to know what was happening on the other side of the wall.

So, what does this have to do with anything?

I'll tell you tomorrow.

Peter Drucker on Line Two

I only spoke with him twice, although I have a number of hand-typed letters he knocked out to me on his manual typewriter buried somewhere in my file cabinet.

Once I was trying to get him and ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson together. Drucker had just turned 92. The Rev. Hansen was about to start his call as presiding bishop of the national church. For some reason I had this hair-brained idea that the granddaddy of American business management might have something to teach the new captain assigned to supervise the last voyage of a declining church. The meetings never occurred.

The second time I was writing a book called The Fifth Church and trying to get some friendly advice directly from Mr. Drucker on moving the Titanic mainline church from its collision course with an ice berg called irrelevance.

"Peter Drucker on line two..." interrupted me in a staff meeting. It was one of the fondest phrases I've ever heard in my life.

“Melheim? Sounds German.”

I apologized for being Norwegian.

“Three questions you’ve got to ask before you try to turn this around,” he said with a hard German accent and a smile in his voice.

• "What is our      business?"
• "Who is our      customer?"
• "What does the customer      consider of value?"

That sums it up pretty clearly.

Before we go about trying to market the church, grow the church, or stop the bleeding of the church, we’d better give those questions some thought. Let me give you two world-class examples of contemporary companies who know the answers to these three questions in their respective fields: Starbucks and Apple.

Example 1: The Coffee Shop That Isn’t Just Selling Coffee

I stepped out of Starbucks on a frosty

Minnesota

morning with the steaming cup of Jo in my bare hands and sipped in the steam.

"There is coffee on at my office, three doors down from the store," I thought to myself. "Why do I find myself drawn to this place to lay down $1.54 each morning?"

It isn't the coffee. Our office coffee is just as good. It isn't the price. I'm normally a notorious penny pincher who demands my staff use paper recycled from the trash to print notes. Paying for something that could be free goes against my cheapskate nature.

What is it? Why do I go most every morning?

I had noticed Mary in the corner by the fireplace that morning when I first walked in. 15 years earlier I had married her daughter when I was their pastor. Mary smiled and told me of two new babies in the family. Thomas Loome, owner of the antique bookstores in

Stillwater

, sat in the overstuffed chair by the door reading his daily Wall Street Journal. He smiled and asked what I was up to today. Mark Youngdahl was corralled in the corner with some friends. Mark had been a member of my congregation a decade and a half ago. He had since joined a growing non-denominational church. "They worship 10,000 and have 1000 members. Your church has 5000 members and worship 1000. Any questions?" he asked with a wry smile.

So, what would drive a skinflint Norwegian out on a frosty morning to buy coffee that could have been free? Why is this daily pilgrimage a cheap preacher's habit?

There was and is one word: Smiles.

I find myself looking about the place in anticipation the moment I walk trough the door. Perchance there is someone I know. Perchance there will be a laugh, an encounter with someone who knows my name. Perchance a smile that says ,"You are a friend. You are alive. You are valued. You are you and I know it."

So, what does this mean? Ask yourself the Drucker Three:

• "What is Starbucks      business?"
• "Who is their customer?"     
• "What does their      customer consider of value?"

Example 2: The Music Empire that Isn’t Selling Mere Music

They just sold their billionth iTune.

Apple and their college drop-out CEO know how to market.

What are they selling? Music? No, music is only a part of it.

The 1,000,000,000th sale occurred over the internet only a few short years after their first song was sold, changing the way my kids think (and expect) things should be done and delivered.

Immediate. Cheap. High Quality. Personal. At their fingertips. What they want when they want it.

Apple pretty much invented the category and pioneered the delivery system for music sales over the net. It now owns 80% of the market for online music.

People carry their iPods with them where ever they go. They wear them on the outside with pride, buy gadgets to go along with them, and are happy to be seen with them. They are tuned in to them constantly. They happily purchase and don Apple apparel and attach Apple stickers on their cars, skate boards and guitar cases. They are evangelists - telling others about their iPod experience at every opportunity. They love to show them off to friends, strangers, and non-pod believers alike. When one gets broken, they run right to the Apple store and get their precious companion attended to, knowing they don’t want to be caught without it, and knowing they will be treated right.

Again, ask yourself the Drucker Three:

• "What is Apple’s      business?"
• "Who is their      customer?"
• "What does their      customer consider of value?"

So, What Does This Mean?

What is Starbuck’s business? Some would call it the “third place” concept. In our busy world, we don’t have time to know too many people and we don’t have energy to go too many places. We may only have the resources and emotional capital to reside in three main places of comfort. Our homes are first place. (Usually.) Our work or school may be the second place. Where is your third place? Where are you drawn when you have the time? Do you want to you go where everybody knows your name? For many, that place is the Starbucks.

What is Apple’s business? Music? Songs? Music delivery systems? Not merely and not hardly. So what are they selling? They are selling an image. In the process they are defining four words for a whole generation.

Cool. Style. Choice. Experience.

One other word: When my son’s iPod broke a week after the warranty expired, he asked me to bring it into the Apple Store on the outside chance he could still get it fixed. The geeky techno priest college student at the "Genius Bar" - the cool place where they fix all Apple products at Mall of America - said: "Ah, what's a week? You're an Apple customer. You’re one of us! Here's a new one."

My son walked out of the mall with a new iPod, even though it was his own fault it broke and his own fault he brought it in after the warranty expired. Now he thinks Apple is even more cool than before because he is one of them, and they believe in and practice…

Grace!

You think he’s going to ever switch from Apple? Not a chance.

So, what are they selling?

Cool. Style. Choice. Experience and grace, too? You can’t touch that!

So, you might want to ask yourself: What would it take for a person’s third place to be your church? And what would it take for a person to think of your church as the grace place in their lives?

 

Back to Marketing and the Church

Before you can think of marketing your church, lock yourself in a room or sit down by the beach and crank out a paragraph on each of the Drucker Three. If you can’t answer these questions, don’t expect to change anything.

• "What is your      business?"
• "Who is your      customer?"
• "What does your customer      consider of value?"

 

 

Thought for Sunday

Every family is a church.
Every parent is a bishop.
Every church is a seminary (seed bed).
Don't go for an MDIV degree unless you've already been a pastor.
The official seminaries don't have the time or the talents to train your heart.

Heading North

My great grandpa got kicked out of Norway for preaching without a license. He had his choice of going to jail, or going to the Dakota prairies.

Big choice, huh?

Three generations later I  was born on the Canadian/Dakota border. The vast expanse dubbed "the Great American Wasteland" by those who thought there was nothing worth seeing between Ohio and the Pacific Ocean.

I'm heading up to the northern prairie today, crossing the border and going to Alberta, Canada,  to speak to 100-120 pastors about reforming the church one night at a time, one home at a time. Dr. Rollie Martinson is the other keynoter. Rollie used to bounce me on his knee when he was a college student and I was a toddler. He's the guy who told me "don't go get a doctorate. Go on the road and get your education first."

After that I started what became Faith Inkubators.

Anyway, out of the blue this morning I opened my email to find a perfect piece to use in my talks, send by pastor friend Paul Owen from Michigan. I print it in it's entirety, since it's all about living and dying and rising as a church in the north country, and about another Norwegian Lutheran pastor who got families into small group ministry long before it was the fad that it is today.

A Peace of Piety
By Dr. Cam Harder, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon

Recovering the “P” word To paraphrase an old Pete Seeger song: “Where have all the people gone? Long time passing . . .” That’s the song of our churches, the sound of silent pews. Most Christian congregations in Canada are emptying, as sociologist Reginald Bibby notes. He thinks it’s due to a loss of mission and identity. "Simply put,” he says in Unknown Gods, “the organization continues to operate, but few people know why." Like the energizer bunny, the Church in Canada keeps "going and going and going." It’s just not sure where—or why. I suppose we’re feeling a bit lost. For 1500 years our church was THE CHURCH of Christendom. It was established by kings and emperors. Its language and standards governed public debate about morality. We knew our purpose: missionaries were to convert the heathen who lived out on the edges of “civilization; clergy were to keep the institution running and recruit missionaries; laity were to give money and prayers to the “real” ministers and be law-abiding citizens. Oddly enough, the Reformation didn’t change much. Certainly it spawned more religious groups. But many became wed to kings and countries as much as ever. In Germany, Scandinavia, even in Upper and Lower Canada the church was the voice of civil morality. Clergy owned the ministry and had the politicians’ ear. We had power. But not any more. The Canadian public and its leaders have mostly turned away from the church. Clergy don’t have much status. Churches are not the moral voice of our nation. And Canada is not a “Christian” country in any recognizable sense. Many congregations I know respond by dropping into survival mode. Staying alive becomes their reason for being. Others live under a pall of quiet grief: “we’re not big and strong any more.” But I think there is room to celebrate. After all wasn’t this how the Christian church began? Small, weak, no big buildings, no endowments? Yet that early church, small and scorned by the Empire, was a hotbed of Spirit life. They knew the truth of Paul’s claim in 1 Cor 1: “God has chosen the weak.” They had little strength to rely on—so they trusted in God. And that’s where Life begins! There is a piece of Lutheran history that I think might help us to rediscover that Spirit-livened, apostolic church again. It’s Lutheran Pietism. I know—its name is not much loved in our church. In recent decades it’s been denounced by liberals, distorted by conservatives. But it was the deepest source of spiritual renewal in my young adult life. The form of Pietism that shaped me came out of Norway. It began with the conversion of a farmer turned blacksmith and broom-maker named Hans Nielsen Hauge. After a profound encounter with Christ, he began to see that Norway’s peasants were starving economically and spiritually. Their land was being gobbled up by the church and the state. Its people had no access to the Bible. Its pastors had become privileged partners of the state rather than servants of Christ. So Hauge began travelling throughout Norway, gathering lay people to read the Bible in (legally forbidden) small groups. Together they learned how to pray. He preached the gospel and called them to repentance and faith. Most alarming to authorities, Hauge put his faith into economic action. Hauge writes in his autobiography: “It was my heartfelt desire to benefit others and provide people with jobs without regard to personal glory or self interest." A brilliant entrepreneur, Hauge established two successful co-ops--a book-bindery and a sawmill. They were run by unemployed peasants. In these co-ops he integrated regular Bible study and worship with work and communal living. Profits were held in common and a trust fund was established to care for those who couldn’t work. Hauge quickly roused the ire of government and clergy. He was imprisoned for his illegal gatherings and his health was permanently broken by the hardship he endured. In fact he died without seeing many of his dreams realized. But Hauge ignited a fire in the Norwegian people. He began a movement that renewed the spiritual and political face of Norway and restored a measure of dignity and freedom to its poorest folks. Haugean Pietism saw some changes when it crossed the Atlantic. It became somewhat less social and more individualistic. In some places in Canada its lively, devotional approach to scripture was overlaid with the Biblicism of more influential denominations. At times legalism distorted its face. Nonetheless Pietism’s truest impulses took root in our Canadian Lutheran Church. I know because they took root, however imperfectly, in me. These are gifts it gave me. They are gifts I believe our church needs to re-energize its life and mission: 1) a desire to introduce people to the risen Christ—not to doctrines, however orthodox or radical they may be, not to worship practices ancient or contemporary, not to positions on moral issues however important, but first and foremost to Christ; 2) the courage to share our faith experiences verbally and live like they matter, not self-righteously but with the bold humility of forgiven sinners; 3) a commitment to really put the Bible in the hands of our laity—to give them tools to dive deep into the stories, trusting that the Spirit will use them to reshape their lives; 4) training in the disciplines of personal devotion and small group prayer; 5) willingness to give ministry back to all the baptized and return our clergy to the place given them in Ephesians 4—that of “equipping the saints for the work of ministry;” 6) enough love to move out of our churches and engage the economic and social struggles of our communities with grace. I suppose you see, as you read this, that many of these things only the Spirit can give—desire, courage, commitment, determination, love. Pietism isn’t a program or church structure. It’s the Spirit moving us to love Jesus, love others, and to feed that love with Bible study, prayer, and hard work on others’ behalf. So there aren’t any motions to be passed about it at church conventions. But there are prayers to be prayed that the Spirit will come. There is reconciliation to be sought within the church. There is a Bible to be read. And there is a world to be touched—a world that really needs the embodied love of Christ.

Rev. Dr. Cam Harder has been Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and
Director of Contextual Education at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in
Saskatoon, SK since 1997.

You can email Cam at [email protected].