Last week I spent three days in Minnesota at a beautiful Airbnb with eight other seminary classmates of mine.  We haven’t been together for 40 years! About half of us were retired and the others still in ministry. We had a lot of catching up to do!

Throughout our time together, we went around and each pastor took 30-40 minutes telling the others what they have been doing since 1987. There were a lot of stories, plenty of laughs and even some tears. Some were in big congregations, but most were in small to medium size churches. Two stayed in one church throughout their entire ministry and one had twelve different calls. But almost all had some stories of struggles within their church, divisions they had to deal with, improprieties that shook the people’s trust and a shrinking attendance.

When it came to my turn, I talked about all the young families in our church, the building of a sanctuary, the generosity of the congregation, and the joy of doing ministry here. I also shared with them the heartache of having to close two campuses after Covid. I told them how well the kids are doing, the gift of grandchildren and now enjoying empty nesting with Gretchen.

That night, lying in bed, saying prayers before falling asleep, I was filled with gratitude for Christ Lutheran.  There are a lot of hurting, struggling and rapidly declining churches out there. Many pastors are counting the days until retirement, without enough pastors to fill in the gaps after they leave.

I always knew that CLC was a special place, but if this congregation is really your only experience of church, then you really don’t know how unique, gifted, healthy and joyful our church truly is. From a median age of about 30 years younger than the average to different styles of worship to the number of people on Sunday to the dynamic staff to the far-reaching ministries, Christ Lutheran’s got it going on!

We may nit-pick the little things now and then, but when I heard what my friends over the past 40 years had experienced, I am in awe of this place, and my heart is filled with gratitude for this call.

Thanks be to God!
Pastor Scott