The Community Church

LATINO MINISTRY: Signs of Progress

Preparations for Latino ministry in our community through Holy Trinity continue. This work parallels efforts being made in two communities immediately to the west of us: Powderhorn (El Milagro) and Phillips (St. Paul’s). Through a partnership that includes the Minneapolis Synod, ELCA and Holy Trinity, a mission developer is being called. The expected date of arrival is October. The call will be for a period of one year. The task assigned to this person will be to lay the groundwork for beginning Word and Sacrament ministry in the area and specifically at Holy Trinity. The call will be for three quarter time. Holy Trinity will make a contribution of $10,000 to this project.

We believe that the ministry model that informs Holy Trinity’s participation will be effective and efficient. The vision is that there will be one unified congregation that has regular worship services in three languages: English, Swahili and Spanish. Swahili worship services have been conducted for 12 years. It is the judgment of the Church Council that our present building can accommodate these three language groups at very little additional cost. Virtually all new resources will be placed in outreach efforts. It is often church property expense that limits mission development.

Children of Latino families will almost certainly move directly into the English language sessions of the Summer Program and the Church School. Over the next year we are not expecting the mission developer to do all the preparatory work. The following is a partial list of tasks to be embraced by the congregation.

1. Study the book Harvest of Empire, a history of Latino people in America.
2. Visit Latino businesses and agencies in the area.
3. Develop a list of ‘interested’ Latino people.
4. Conduct a festival with a Latino culture theme.
5. Learn additional Latino music to be used in liturgical worship.
6. Conduct a second round of Spanish classes (in the fall of 2005).
7. Continue the gathering of funds for the development of at least the first three years of Latino ministry.

Congregations must continuously adapt ministry and service to the ever new realities of a community. It would be well to remember that Holy Trinity came into existence 100 years ago through the efforts of people intent on ministering to the new realities of this community. Twenty-five years from now or perhaps even much sooner, an entirely different set of realities may come to define this community. We trust that our successors in congregation ministry will have the wisdom to make the necessary adjustments. Our task now is to demonstrate this same wisdom.

There will be many opportunities for the congregation to discuss this new facet of ministry. The process is only beginning to take shape. We need to move carefully, but also with intentionality.

Ronald K. Johnson, Pastor

VCS Week 1: God’s Amazing World

This week marks the beginning of the first VCS session for the summer of 2005. If you have not ventured to see what the gym looks like, it is well worth the trip. Here are a few highlights of what the week will bring:

The Learning Experience:
The session is designed to encourage both experiential learning and critical thinking. In the Small World Village, the children will “experience” the diversity of the creation; and learn to think critically about it using the tools of scientific reflection. In the classrooms, the children will be engaged in deliberate biblical and theological study linking these perspectives to evolution, the necessity to care for the earth, and decisions the human family must make as citizens of God’s creation. The music component also helps children to explore the week’s theme. Music can stir the imagination in a way that can increase learning, commitment and understanding. In the felting workshop children will make felted pouches and hats.

Small World Village:
In keeping with our tradition, the gym has been. For the next days it looks like a rainforest, ocean, glacier, volcano, sandstone formation (complete with its own dinosaur dig), and a solar system. The children are busy digging up bones, looking at life at the microscopic level, cracking geodes, and making ice formations. They are also working on a variety of projects designed to carry through the theme of the village.

Image of Story:
During the week the children will be encouraged to consider the metaphor of “story” in conjunction with both Genesis and the world of science. It is clear how Genesis is a story or set of stories. What might not be so clear however is that science, too, constructs stories. Here we will follow the work of theologian Philip Hefner who explains that the vast facts science provides for us about ourselves and the world are embedded in narratives—or stories. It can be very difficult to try to integrate the stories science presents us with the stories of our faith, if we see them as competing stories. If we see them as complementary stories, the difficult becomes not quite so insurmountable. Our task this week is to help children learn how these stories can be brought together to arrive at an expansive, satisfying understanding of God’s creation.

Experiments:
Along side biblical study the participants will work on several scientific experiments, all of which are designed to help children see and experience God’s amazing world. They will learn to blow up a balloon using not breath but a chemical reaction, polish pennies using acids, make plastic out of milk. A highlight will come on Wednesday for grades 3 – 6 when they will observe a pig dissection.

In all it promises to be a week filled with new ideas that we hope will be a step toward help the children of our community explore the nature of God.

Stacy K. Johnson, Pastor

Working to Reverse a Tragedy

Five years ago Congress passed a major piece of foreign policy legislation. It became known as “Plan Colombia.” The five year goals were stated as strengthening democracy, promoting human rights and the rule of law, fostering socio-economic development, and reducing coca cultivation in Colombia. These goals have not in any sense been realized. It is not that more time is needed for the plan to work. The truth is that the strategies employed are wrong.

Colombia is the third largest recipient of foreign aid dollars. Eighty percent of the money has been directed to military/police strategies. At first the target was articulated as drug cultivation/ trade. More recently the rationale for the program has been defended on the basis of fighting terrorism.

By any standard of measure the situation in Colombia has become worse. This is the testimony of agencies working in the region and, more important, people living in the country. A delegation of such people recently visited us to tell their story. Colombia is now home to what the U.N. calls the worst humanitarian crisis in our hemisphere. More than 3 million people have been forced from their homes and are now internally displaced. Women, children, Afro-Colombian and indigenous people disproportionately face violence, hunger and impoverishment—the results of more than 40 years of armed conflict.

Colombia needs help but it should have much more the character of economic and social assistance for the development of a sustainable peace. Current policies undermine food security and environmental health, displace people and extend human rights violations.

The House of Representatives will be debating this matter within the week. The debate will be stimulated by a proposed amendment to cut military aid to Colombia. The goal is to shift the direction of U.S. policy so as to have the opportunity to actually address the goals articulated for “Plan Colombia.”

Holy Trinity is a participant in an advocacy project called Sal y Luz. It is coordinated by Lutheran World Relief. We are asked to contact those who represent us in the House. We have visited with Congressman Martin Sabo. We believe that our visit helped to ‘educate’ him on the issue. We need to encourage him to speak on the issue in the floor debate. It is best to phone his office and/or send an email (MN:612-664-8000; DC:202-225-4755); email through http://sabo.house.gov). The message can be very simple. Please speak and vote in favor of shifting the spending priorities of Plan Colombia to economic and social assistance. Please reduce the military/police assistance.

Ronald K. Johnson, Pastor

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