ELCA NEWS SERVICE
November 10, 2006
Lutherans Bring 'Hope for the Prairie' in the 21st Century
06-169-MRC
ABERDEEN, S.D. (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) is a rural, small-town denomination, according to
the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA.
Delivering a keynote address at "Hope for the Prairie: Vital
Congregations for the 21st Century" conference here Nov. 5-6,
Hanson said 48 percent of the church's 10,549 congregations are
located in rural and small town settings.
More than 170 participants of the conference focused on the
future of Lutheran congregations and ministries in North and
South Dakota with emphases on what the church has accomplished
there and congregational resources designed to keep ministries
renewed and vitalized.
It would be interesting to know what percent of the 4.85
million members of the ELCA can trace their family histories back
to rural and small town life, Hanson told participants. "That's
certainly true for me and (my wife) Ione," he said. Hanson's
parents were born in South Dakota, and Ione was born in western
North Dakota.
In response to the "Hope for the Prairie" theme, Hanson told
participants, "Our hope is in God, (and) our source of hope is
the gospel -- the good news that God has become flesh in Jesus
the Christ. God has bent down from God's mighty throne to meet
us in our frailty, in our humanity, in our brokenness to embrace
us in love and forgiveness and reconciliation."
"The trouble is (that) if our hope gets too outwardly tied
to the look of things, then precisely when we most need hope it's
most absent. If you tie your hope to the price of crops or the
price of cattle, if you tie your hopes or to the variation of
weather, or the fluctuation of membership in your congregations
or whether the school board will consolidate or keep going, then
when precisely you are in need of hope, hope is most absent. But
when hope is in a living, loving and ever-present God, then we
can claim hope even when all around us (there are) signs of
despair," he said.
Hanson offered a few hindrances to hope and sources of hope,
along with "myths" about people living in rural and small towns.
"Nostalgia is a hindrance to hope, but living memory is a
source of hope and there's a difference between nostalgia and
memory," said Hanson. "Memory embraces the past in order to
understand and inform the present, (while) nostalgia dwells in an
idealized past (that is) unattainable and thereby disparages the
present," he said.
"Congregations that are stuck in nostalgia long to make
ministry today just like it was in whatever period they are
nostalgically longing for that probably never really existed.
And, that longing to recreate the past in the present becomes an
obstacle to living memory and to engagement in vital ministry
today," said Hanson. "And yet, living memory is necessary for
hope-filled ministries of tomorrow. I think we are increasingly
becoming a society absent in living memory, absent of the stories
of scripture. We are becoming a biblically illiterate church.
How will you know what God is up to today if you don't you know
the biblical narrative of what God has done in the past?"
A second hindrance to hope is loss, Hanson said. "Loss
becomes an obstacle to hope But lament can provide an occasion of
hope," he said. "Loss is very real in the prairies. You know
the themes -- our young adults are not returning, there are not
as many family farms, parishes are losing pastors. We can't deny
change, we can't diminish the significance of losses, but we can
lament them. Lament becomes a communal act of faith," he said.
"We are called to be a people of lament which frees us then to be
a people of faith."
A third hindrance to hope is "fear and the absence of trust"
but "faith is a source of hope," Hanson said. "Trustworthiness
begins from a posture of listening."
Hanson also cited certain "myths" about rural life as a
fourth hindrance to hope. "I think you can help us confront the
myths of rural life, so that telling the truth becomes a source
of hope. You know these myths better than I do, but I'll tell
you some of the myths I hear. One is that everyone in rural and
small town America is active in a church, so there's no need for
evangelism in our part of the world," he said. "The statistics I
read are that 40 percent of rural and small town Americans are
unchurched, and when you (reach) the Pacific Northwest it's over
80 percent."
Another myth Hanson named was that "poverty in America is
(only) an urban issue. One in five children living in poverty
live in rural communities," said Hanson. "The largest class of
people that are on welfare are rural, White women. The largest
number of growing and persistent poverty (exist) in counties in
the Midwest and the Great Plains. But poverty is hidden, and it's
more difficult to live in hidden poverty than in poverty that is
known to others," he said.
There are signs of hope, said Hanson. "The ELCA is deeply
committed to ministry among people living in poverty. When we
talk about a farm bill, we are quite clear that it must contain
adequate provisions for food stamps, provide for nutritious
programs including school lunch programs and programs that will
address hunger in the United States and abroad," he said.
"I think we know all too well the divisions among people of
faith around issues such as abortion, stem cell research, end of
life, gay and lesbian people in society, and deeply held
convictions about personal morality. We need to continue to have
(conversations on those topics), but I see great convergence
going on among people of faith around our common commitments to
ending poverty and making poverty and hunger history," he said.
"I sit at tables with Buddhists and Muslims, Jews and
conservative Pentecostal Christians and Roman Catholics. What
brings us all together (is) the common conviction that we can and
must end hunger in the world." Hanson told participants that
they "begin that process by developing the food that feeds the
world."
Another myth Hanson cited is that rural and small towns are
"racially homogenous. You know that's not true. American
Indians are returning to reservations. Latino migration and
immigration permeates all over the land. Immigrants from Eastern
Europe, Africa and Asia are coming to rural communities as the
second and third migration (entering) the United States looking
for work and often taking on work that others don't want to do.
We need to be welcoming hosts of our new neighbors and friends,"
he said.
"We have great assets," said Hanson. "Our Lutheran
theology, our Lutheran identity is an asset upon which we build.
This is not a time to forsake being Lutheran. I think it's a
time to build upon the strong foundations of being Lutheran."
Ryan Taylor, a rancher, freelance writer and public
relations professional for a beef co-op, Towner, N.D, delivered a
keynote presentation Nov. 6. Taylor performed rope tricks while
sharing personal stories and "cowboy logic" insights. "You've
gotta pull people together to have 'hope for the prairie," Taylor
told participants.
The conference included a series of workshops on topics
ranging from new models for collaborative ministries to reaching
young adults.
The Rev. Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl, bishop of the ELCA South
Dakota Synod, Sioux Falls, closed the event with a challenge to
participants. She told the ELCA News Service that the "challenge
for us is to (remain) spiritually strong and share our faith with
one another." She said, "God did not bring us into this phase of
history or this time in the life of our church or our land for no
reason. There is a purpose, mission and witness that is here and
uniquely our (own)."
DeGroot-Nesdahl said the "passion of the people" on the
prairie is to be treated fairly and "to have the circumstances
of their lives and of the land truly acknowledged by the
government, (to ensure that people) are treated with justice and
to be held accountable to how we treat the land." She added that
"our farmers are keenly aware of that, and that they are
marvelous stewards of the land and all that is in it."
"Hope for the Prairie" was sponsored by the ELCA South
Dakota Synod, the ELCA Western North Dakota Synod, Bismarck, and
the ELCA Eastern North Dakota Synod, Fargo. The Rev. Richard J.
Foss, bishop of the ELCA Eastern North Dakota Synod, preached the
sermon Nov. 5 at opening worship. The Rev. Duane C. Danielson,
bishop of the ELCA Western North Dakota Synod, preached Nov. 6
during morning devotions.
- - -
A video news report on this story is available at
http://edits.dmz.ELCA.org/news/video.html
Audio comments from Bishop DeGroot-Nesdahl related to this story
are at http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/061110.mp3
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
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