MONDAY MUSINGS

June 9, 2008

Westphalia

This past week it was my privilege to participate in a workshop dealing with Interim Ministry.  The added plus was that the workshop was held at a Roman Catholic retreat center and sponsored by the Evangelical Church of Westphalia in Germany.  We flew into Dusseldorf, stayed in Bielefeld and worked at Schwerte outside Dortmund.  My German language skills have deteriorated since high school but as the days went on I was able to follow more and more of the conversations.  By the time of the workshop my ear was much better and some of the vocabulary even came back.

The situation in this regional church body is quite different.  They have a surplus of ministers while we have a shortage.  The length of their pastorates is quite long which means there are fewer ministerial transitions.  After three days of talking and discussing I think they concluded that Interim Ministry might offer some helpful tools as they seek to reenergize the German churches.

Pat and I are always eager to travel, to see more of the great diversity of God’s world.  This was a special opportunity as we were hosted so graciously and saw a number of different aspects of German church life.  We attended a concert which was a fund raiser for a new organ in one of the congregations.  We traveled to Lubecke to visit a church home for the elderly, providing transitional care for senior citizens.  We attended the annual gathering of Sunday School teachers and youth in Unna, about 1,000 people working with the Christian Education challenges of Germany.  We ate in a building that had been a church but now was a gracious dining restaurant, blending its former use with its present manifestation.  At every place we met clergy and lay leaders of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, an energetic community seeking to adjust to the changing realities in German as they move from a state-supported institution to one supported by members.

Travel is a broadening experience, learning again that our lives may be normative for us but so many others live with such different realities.  I look forward to a future time to revisit our new friends in Westphalia, reinforcing my conviction that membership in the Church of Jesus Christ gives me a world family.  What a privilege.  Peace.  John Krueger