Today’s post comes from Stephen Richards at St. Luke’s and James Episcopal Church in Minneapolis. He shares the story of the learnings and transformation their community has experienced by being a learning partner in the Riverside Innovation Hub. Steve has previously shared some of the story of their journey through a video on our blog.
I’ve been asked to respond to the question, How has your faith community experienced transformation as a partner in the Riverside Innovation Hub? I feel that any response to this question requires a two-part answer. Prior to the COVID pandemic, the work at St Luke’s was building momentum. We had a clear plan and goals for how we were continuing and expanding our work and partnership with RIH. PeaceCraft, the initiative that evolved from this, was very integrated into our faith community. The public church framework was becoming our lingua franca, or common language. Then COVID hit and it felt like everything came to a screeching halt.
At first, there was a felt sense of grief and lament. We’d lost so much and initially struggled to find our way to next-steps. However, the public church framework of listening, discerning, and applying what we had learned helped us rise up from the ashes.
Despite not being able to enter a physical building during the time of COVID, it feels we have been spiritually resourced by RIH to find ways to connect with God and others outside of it. In fact, it has become very natural to turn our attention out and towards others. For example, when a homeless encampment appeared around Lake Nokomis in summer 2020, some members of our community supported and worked with local groups who were providing food and resources for families. They felt that this work and our mission values inter-connected. I immediately recognized the public church framework playing out. This work was also immediately validated by our church as an expression of authentic Christian faith.
Finally, and as we look to COVID restrictions being lifted, we feel our new community is once again being drawn into the work of accompaniment, interpretation, and discernment. We’ve become curious. We are wrestling with the tension of programming vs innovation. Where it seems we have become too focused on programming, there is a restlessness and desire to turn our attention outside. We are finding ourselves existing in the thin-space between balancing the needs of the faith community and those of the neighborhood. We are also willing to ask why we are doing things. We are not rubber-stamping the old ways. In one sense, our partnership with RIH has led us to the idea that the work we do is never truly done, and also not necessarily measured by definite outcomes. Instead, we celebrate what has gone before and remain open to new movements of the Spirit amongst us.
Rev. Dr. Robert Michael Franklin of the Candler School of Theology was our speaker at the Christensen Symposium on October 1, 2020. He spoke on his recent book, Moral Leadership: Integrity, Courage, Imagination. This book addresses much of how the Christensen Center for Vocation attempts to implement our various initiatives with congregations, students and our Augsburg colleagues. A video of his talk is shared below.
