Good Shepherd has defied predictions of some

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Morris

God bless the friend who came over and sat next to me at the free supper at Faith Lutheran of Morris Monday evening. Was a nice event with Chinese food. I'm so glad I got the heads-up about this. 

A few months ago there was a similar free meal at First Lutheran. Faith and First are the two ELCA churches in Morris. That's the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. 

Would anyone disagree with the notion we ought to have just one ELCA church in town? That's a tough nut to crack. Blending of the two might be hard emotionally for a lot of people. Some might not come back. I have been arguing that we ought not think of ourselves as being either "First" or "Faith" in affiliation. Rather, we should just see ourselves as ELCAers, welcome to attend a service anywhere in the ELCA name. But these matters are not so simple. 

The friend who sat next to me belongs to Good Shepherd, the church out north of Morris a short ways. Out in the windswept open spaces, epitome of "rural." My friend indicated to me what I had been suspecting, that Good Shepherd is experiencing steady growth with no apparent end in sight, and that it is blessed with an asset that all churches covet: "deep pockets" members. As they say, "money isn't everything but it sure keeps you in touch with your kids." Or, from my childhood reading of Mad Magazine: "Money's honey, my dear sonny, and a rich man's joke is always funny." 

We cannot pooh-pooh the importance of money, obviously. I grow concerned as I try to meet the expectation of an occasional check written out to First Lutheran of Morris. I'm concerned about the practicality of contributing $ to a sinking ship. Any ELCA church might be viewed on these terms now. The news media tells us that the so-called "mainline" churches are in descent. Our Star Tribune of Minnesota has been very up-front about this. BTW I have not accepted "mainline" as the proper term, as I think this has been lifted from its drug use context. My suggested term is "mainstream." But my protestations have proven vain as they almost always are. 

There were doubters about Good Shepherd when it was first created. My family had to put up with a power outage of several hours as the church building itself was literally moved from its former location. It used to be south of Alberta, quite detached from any town. It definitely had its heyday. It was doing fine through the 1960s. The big change in rural demographics came along. 

My family went there for the annual lutefisk supper. We found the supper refreshing compared to some others because we didn't have to wait as long to get seated. You know how it can be when you're handed that "number" and asked to sit in the sanctuary! But the supper at the old rural church was quite fine, quite accommodating. 

But the church could not survive there. Down to just a handful of families, it had to give way to the pressures for change. Very nice that it was not simply demolished. Today it looks most viable, on the upswing in fact with its LCMC affiliation. Of course that is the more "conservative" Lutheran entity. And is "conservative" the answer to everything? 

 

Good or bad with youth?

There is a school of thought that maintains young people are being driven away in droves by the conservative momentum in the Christian faith. If so, how do we reconcile this with the robust health of Good Shepherd, comparatively speaking? 

I believe my own minister has admitted to my church being stressed financially. Unless of course this is just posturing to try to induce people to give more. What? Churches would do that? My late neighbor claimed in the closing stages of his life, when he was in care facilities, that the church was overly assertive in trying to get him to bequeath assets. If he was not exaggerating, then I'm very disappointed in our church. But hey, "money's honey," right? 

I got curious about whether Good Shepherd could really establish itself. I got to wondering if the church was too much attuned to the old values. Many of us equate "old" with "conservative." But here's a revelation: maybe the youth aren't alienated as much as we thought. It appears Good Shepherd is making strides while the ELCA churches are going the other way. 

Is this just a rural phenomenon? Something odd has in fact been happening in rural outstate Minnesota. For sure we did not used to be like this. As an amateur sociologist I must wonder why. So much can be understood with economics, so is that the answer? 

My First Lutheran was once the most mainstream institution you could find. It leaned conservative because churches by nature leaned conservative. We seemed so reverent and proper.

The Good Shepherd Church sanctuary

I remember wondering if the Good Shepherd church in its early days would get a paved parking lot. Many amenities to be weighed. Could this church on the windswept prairie cut it? 

I asked a very knowledgeable member of my church his reading of Good Shepherd back then. He replied with skepticism. He observed "I think the parking lot will be the least of their problems." 

Seems like the passage of time has been very kind to Good Shepherd Lutheran of the LCMC. So shall we say "congratulations?" Well why not? Still we must weigh the background of how this church got so much momentum. 

Surely you can guess the one big catalyst, right? It was the issue of accepting gay people. I mean, accepting them as 100 percent equals. That means eligibility to be pastors, a helluva sticking point. 

My friend at the dinner said "gays are welcome to attend our church but they just cannot be pastors." 

It would be hard to argue that this one limitation is awful to live with. So why not just attend and accept the premise that the pastor is heterosexual with the traditional family with children? Is that such a big deal? You are probably aware that the Methodists have been fighting like hell over that issue, getting fractured. 

 

Here I go

I am going to offer my take on this issue which could offend some people. My impression of gay people is that they are gregarious by nature with a liking for performing in front of other people. I think they take to theater activities quite in excess of their numbers. Therefore I think they'd feel a special attraction to the ministry. Seems to accommodate their nature, based on my lifetime perceptions. 

Yes I'm stereotyping some. And heterosexual people become bothered if they notice a disproportionate portion of the clergy being gay or LGBTQ or whatever the terms are now. I have a hard time keeping up with it. For the life of me I cannot fathom a lot of the "gender" stuff going on now. I read news articles about all the conflict but I have no grasp of why anyone would want to change their gender. And such a fuss over all this, I have no idea what Jesus would say. 

If gays were in the clergy population in a way reflecting their percentage of the overall population, maybe the old traditional Christians wouldn't seem so aroused by the issue. I don't think clergy should be much concerned about sexual activity at all. It's not germane to their mission. And, only heterosexual people can reproduce, procreate. 

I'll get shot down by people crusading for 100 percent equality, that's for sure. Can I be friends with gay people? Well of course I can. I have been, I'm sure. I don't like to see a lot of attention devoted to sexual orientation, period. But such is life in the USA now. 

Again I wonder, what would Jesus say? I'll suggest that Jesus would be totally offended by this man named Donald Trump. And yet, as I conversed with my friend Monday night at Faith Lutheran, I wanted to tell her that I suspected that 100 percent of the Good Shepherd members voted for Trump, and for Dr. Scott Jensen and for Michelle Fischbach. The killer for Collin Peterson was this photo where he stood smiling next to Nancy Pelosi. What's so terrible about Nancy Pelosi? 

So I could not fit in with Good Shepherd, unfortunately. Still I'm left with some unease as I ponder writing out more checks to First Lutheran of Morris. Is the day coming when the building will be closed down? My mother will not have to deal with that, as she died five years ago. She could not have told you what "LGBTQ" stood for. She wouldn't know what a drag show was. RIP Mom.

 

Addendum: Would the Good Shepherd members all approve of a presidential ticket of Trump with Marjorie Taylor Greene? 

First Lutheran Church of Morris MN

Addendum #2: I have mentioned here the free suppers that have been at both Faith Lutheran and First Lutheran. The previous dinner at First had markedly poor attendance. This came up in our conversation Monday, and I suggested that First gets people discouraged 'cause it's on multiple levels. Faith Lutheran is all on one level. 

First has this notorious design that clearly predated any sensitivity whatsoever about handicapped access. Or elderly access. People didn't live as long back then. 

Oh of course there's an elevator now. Just one elevator way on the other side of the building from the sanctuary. Technically it accommodates. I still think the building's design is a turnoff, maybe subconsciously. There are steps leading to the building from the outside. Then once inside, you can choose: go up some steps or down some steps. This is called split-level. You go down the steps to the fellowship hall. Generations have accepted this configuration. But with passage of time, the limitations become more stark. 

So Faith Lutheran is all on one level. I think this promoted the good turnout for the Monday supper. The most ideal situation would be a new church on Morris' outskirts for all ELCAers, designed on the Wal-Mart concept with big paved parking lot. But the ELCA is being held back by the winds of change among the faithful, I guess.

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com