About four years ago, a young female Lutheran pastor came to town, only she wasn't at a Lutheran church. She was called as pastor of a non-denominational church here in Columbia. It's more like a Union church, where a number of people of different Christina backgrounds came together back when Columbia was being formed, and decided to form their own church. My impression is that the church was formed from activist-type people from a variety of main-line churches.

So she gets a job at this church as their pastor. The local Lutheran Synod office does not recognize this as a "Lutheran" specific ministry. That in itself is not a big deal, except in the Lutheran (ELCA) tradition, all rostered leaders in the ELCA have three years to find a new "Lutheran specific" church job if they want to remain on the ELCA roster. If you leave a church job, and you want to keep your status as a "rostered" leader in the ELCA, you then have three years to find another one.

She came to the local Lutheran church pastors meetings we have once a month, and introduced herself. Since the church she was a pastor of was not connected to any specific denomination, she didn't have any "official" clergy meetings to go to in order to find support and collegiality within. She didn't have that connection. So she came to the place where she was familiar, her old tradition. She knew the lingo, she knew the traditions, etc. But funny thing... I'm not sure the other pastors knew what to make of her. She was running a different show.

So she and I and a few other pastors connected every now and again. We'd go to lunch after these meetings I was telling you about, or we'd all just get together in between meetings to catch up, talk ministry, or compare note about where we were, what was happening in our spiritual journey's etc. These times ended up being times where we had some very good, and very meaningful, real heart-talks, talks about the God-stuff in our lives and ministries.

Incidentally, I've heard this is ideally what the monthly official clergy gatherings are supposed to be all about. But they typically end up being places where people share official news, and debate the finer points of church doctrine. It's not that church doctrine is, shall we say, not important, but God help us all if this is the limit of our delving into the soul issues. There are nice people there and all that, and I'm sure each has a vibrant relationship with the Spirit. But I don't get the same sense of openness and desire for connecting in the same way as those of us in the unofficial gathering I talked about above. Earlier in my ministry I got disillusioned with these official gatherings because I came with this expectation that I would find partners in the journey of the soul, and I found instead more emphasis on "institutional" issues. Again, it's not that institutional things are necessarily "bad", they need to be done as well. I just brought with me a different expectation. However now that I have changed my expectations of these meetings, I am not disappointed as much. I still desire what I did before, but I do not anymore expect this gathering to fill that need. That I think I must find on my own.

Anyway, on with the story. So she's torn between what she needs to do to stay in the ELCA system (i.e. find herself a church job within three years, or get dropped off the roster - losing that security, per se), or ride out the wave she's on doing this other gig with this unaffiliated church. We connect over the succeeding three years, she and I and some other local Lutheran pastor-friend types, those of us that would get together every now and again.

I remember her talking about the pro's and con's of staying or going. Please realize these weren't the only things she talked about. In fact the thing that stands out the most about her main topic of discussion over the three years she was here was her growing interest and desire to be a disciple of Christ. And there were some deep discussions we all had about this.

Then she shares she's started taking classes in DC from a guy that started a "church" that ministers primarily to the fringe people; homeless people, drug addicts that want to get clean, etc. Basically this "church" caters to the marginalized in various ways. And she'd come to our get-togethers, and talk about what was happening, and where things were going with this, and how she was really feeling a call to work with the underprivileged in this way. So she ends up leaving this suburban church gig, and goes off to work with this man, literally helping the marginalized on a daily basis, spreading the light in that way. She'd sold her car, moved to DC, and began living a very frugal , simple lifestyle.

And since then we've talked a few times. And every time we talk, I ask her about this "church" she's at, and it's unlike any church I've ever heard about. There are gatherings everyone comes to, where people share and talk and are open and vulnerable, and speak about God in their lives, and talk about the power of the Spirit... and for them, this is REAL!

She sounds very fulfilled in this place. She sounds like she's part of God's grand design in a small way. I don't get the feeling she even misses the ELCA. The fact that she's been dropped from the ELCA roster I don't think even passes her mind. I don't know if she's even a pastor there with them, they don't call themselves pastor.

I think there's a new wind blowing across our religious landscape. We're changing, from the roots up. What will be church 50 years from now, won't look like what was church 50 years ago. I'm seeing things change, I'm feeling things change...

Remember that CCR song from years ago -- There's A Bad Moon Rising; I see a bad moon risin'. I see trouble on the way. Don't come around here no more, it's bound to take your life, there's a a bad moon on the rise.

What's happening I think is the exact opposite of this, but people need to be warned nonetheless.
There's a Good Sun risin', there's a good thing on the way. If you come around here now, it's gonna take your life. There's a Good Sun on the rise.

We're coming to the dawn. And I don't think it is affiliated with "brands", it's affiliated with Spirit. People will be attracted not so much to denominations as they were in the past, but to mission, and Spirit. In the Gospels John the Baptist says; I baptize you with water, but there is another one coming, and he will baptize you with fire and the Spirit. Are the denominations going to go away? Perhaps eventually, but what I'm saying is I don't know that denominations will be the thing that will draw people into the "fold" so to speak. What will draw them is the heart, the passion, the Spirit... the Risen Christ, not in an historical sense, but in a living, real sense. That, my friends, has always been the thing that has drawn people! And that has always made a difference in lives!

Can I get an Amen!?!?!