Catching Up and Processing.

I realize that I haven't visited this space in a couple of days. My time in Minneapolis/ St. Paul provided immense food for thought. I think I'm still processing a lot of the conversations that took place in Minnesota, because I see similar conversation threads appearing in people I'm speaking with in Los Angeles.

I had three meetings scheduled in the Twin Cities. My first meeting was with Pastor Thiem Baccam of the Lao Evangelical Lutheran Church of Robbinsdale, Minnesota. I found Pastor Baccam through the ELCA Asian American Pacific Islander Church listing. I pretty much cold called him, and he graciously agreed to be interviewed for my project. I was engrossed in Pastor Baccam's life story and ministry experience. He was raised as a Christian in Laos, but fled his home country in the mind 1970s. He and his family relocated to Iowa. While he identified as a Christian in Laos, he became Lutheran when he lived in the United States. He went on to attend college and seminary in Iowa. His ministry experience is also filled with incredible, blessed, and challenging events. He was called to lead a Laotian congregation in the Twin Cities area when he left seminary. His congregation fluctuated in size, nested with white congregations, had their own physical church building until Minneapolis seized the building for eminent domain as the church sat in an area of the city that was being redeveloped and revitalized, and making the space to minister to first and second generation Laotians. Parts of my conversation with Pastor Baccam resonate in my head. He and lay leaders within his congregation had to restructure the liturgy for worship so that worship communicates to his congregation's context. He also wrestled with having separate language services; he currently has one service which is bilingual. He stated there is challenges in such worship, as the first generation is comfortable worshiping in Laotian and the second generation is comfortable worshiping in English. Pastor Baccam has provided pastoral care to both groups, but also letting both populations know that room must be made for community to exist as a *single* community, as opposed to a community separated by language and generational differences. Pastor Baccam is highly invested in the younger people in his congregation, seeing ministry leadership traits abound in this population. He wants to grow leaders from within his church; he encourages such leadership in worship and organizing community activities. He believes that part of his ministry is to strengthen the priesthood of all believers.

Pastor Baccam's congregation has experienced numerous changes. He stated the congregation has nested in several buildings, even owning their own building at one point. Membership increases and decreases. Latinos, Blacks, and Whites are now coming to worship in his bilingual Laotian/ English services. He's wondering how to be an inclusive church, recognizing that the life of this congregation continues to change and evolve. He's partnered with the Pentecostal congregation that shares the same church building and they're having their first joint worship service on July 10th. He is also working to strengthen the relationship with the white congregation that owns the physical property of the church. They share in fellowship activities, but Pastor Baccam acknowledged that there are some cultural differences between the two communities that hamper clear communication. In speaking with Pastor Baccam, he is living in a space where he as the opportunity for creative ministries. Since I only spent time with him, I wonder what ministry within this congregation will look like in the coming months and the next few years.

My next meeting was transformational and incredible. I read about Church of All Nations in Dr. Joanne Doi's Asian American Theologies class. In Sang Hyun Lee's book, "From a Liminal Place: An Asian American Theology," he talks about the diverse population within the congregation at Church of All Nations. How can such a diverse population worship as a single community? What does the church leadership look like theologically and physically? What advice would the lead pastor (in this case, Pastor Jin Kim) have for future leaders of the church? What advice would the pastor and staff have for congregations that are wrestling with a sense of identity? I spent a couple of hours in the church staff meeting. I was intrigued by the meeting; I've sat in meetings where the church is concerned about the needs of the immediate congregation and the physical building of the church with little regard to the church catholic. I also realize this can be seen as an unfair statement because no church meeting is the same and each church has its own unique concerns. But I can speak to the church meetings I have attended (and at different congregations) and the similarity was focusing on the immediate needs of the immediately present congregation.

Part of looking at the greater church was from the pastor and one of the staff returning from a Korean caucus meeting. Changes in ordination processes (similar to the ordination of LGBT clergy within the ELCA) are coming about within the PCUSA. In Pastor Jin's keynote address to the caucus, he stated that the Holy Spirit has left the PCUSA. Pastor Jin and the staff talked about this present time being a critical period within the PCUSA's history, and also a critical period in history for the Korean church in America.

In visiting with Church of All Nations, much of the conversation with Pastor Jin focused on identity and the state of mainline Protestant traditions in the United States. I was intrigued by a list I saw on the wall titled, "Who We Are." It is a ten-point list that was created at their Board of Deacon's Retreat on May 2, 1010. Their "Top 10" can be found if you scroll down on this page. In pastoral identity, Pastor Jin spoke to me about transforming character. They have an internship program where there is not an assigned time limit; character cannot be developed within a rigid amount of time. Transforming character is something that cannot be confined to the constraints of time; it is instead carefully developed.

I was excited and challenged by my conversation with Pastor Jin and interacting with the staff at Church of All Nations. I cannot fully describe in words on this blog how I was impacted by the visit. There are so many topics in my head, particularly transformation versus deformation, fear in church communities, placing fears and apprehensions on the Holy Spirit to freely love people as they are, self-esteem, and Jesus being victimized but never playing the victim. I will probably come back to this space to communicate my experience with the people of Church of All Nations.

With all of this processing, I will use my next post to talk about my visit to Luther Seminary, my frustrations with theological education, and my journeys in the southern California area.