Guest Blogs

This post continues the Mission Table’s “Year of Partnership” highlighting the new and strategic ministries of the Minneapolis Area Synod. Our Redeemer Oromo Evangelical Church is one of the strategic ministries and worships in Minneapolis.

By Pastor Asefa Wakjira
Our Redeemer Oromo Evangelical Church, Minneapolis

There is a 28-second video on YouTube where a journalist asked famous reggae singer Bob Marley about his incredibly successful music career. Here is an exact transcript from the video: 

Journalist: Are you a rich man?
Bob Marley: What do you mean rich? 
Journalist: You have a lot of possessions? A lot of money in the bank?
Bob Marley: Possessions make you rich?  I don’t have that type of richness. My richness is life.  

Reflecting on my journey through the candidacy process to become a rostered leader in Minneapolis Area Synod, I feel like Bob Marley.  I believe I’m rich in life. What has made me feel rich in life is the gift of friendship.   I found pastors, chaplains, and spiritual directors who were genuinely eager to show me the way and cheer me on in my candidacy journey.  They were generous with their time and attention.  I believe this comes from God.  After my candidacy was approved, the Synod worked with me to make my ordination day special.  The ordination day was beautiful. Many pastors and ministry friends in our synod showed up. There were also friends from the chaplaincy world who participated in amazing ways. My parents even came from Ethiopia, despite the challenging visa process these days. Many people from different Oromo Churches in the Twin Cities gathered, and a few friends and family members travelled great distances to Minnesota.   

Pastor Asefa with the Our Redeemer Oromo Council Members: Obbo Aaron Abdissa, Adde Wubitu Sima, Obbo Deresu Taressa, and Adde Lydia Ashana (L to R)

The Apostle Paul said, “God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).  God uses people who show up in a meaningful way to meet our needs. For me and my Church, Our Redeemer Oromo Evangelical Church, God blesses us richly with the accompaniment of our synod and other local partners.  Life and ministry flourish when we walk together.   

I’m grateful for the journey and accompaniment I have been provided with. It may not be easy to step out of the circles that we know and are comfortable with. But we are called to reach out to help individuals and communities who are in need.  That is how we become rich in life. Jesus said, ‘I came that they may have life and have it abundantly’ (John 10:10). Irrespective of the environment that tears community and country apart, we are called to be together. Abundance and rich life is found in community.  

This post continues the Mission Table’s “Year of Partnership” highlighting the new and strategic ministries of the Minneapolis Area Synod. Bread of Life Deaf Lutheran Church is one of the strategic ministries and worships in Minneapolis.

By Janie Barlow
Communications and Office Manager at Bread of Life Deaf Lutheran Church

Bread of Life Deaf Lutheran Church may surprise some people. Some of you may be trying to picture in your minds how Deaf people can worship and how they honor God in their fellowship. For most of you, perhaps we are something new for you to learn about. For some of you, we are partners in ministry or have become acquainted with each other. Perhaps you have seen some of our leaders and members at different Synod events with American Sign Language interpreters. Here’s the scoop!

We are Bread of Life Deaf, also known as BOLD, and our number one focus is Deaf Ministry. We serve the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deaf Blind community in the Twin Cities area as well as the farther parts of Minnesota. In recent years, our livestreams have also reached Deaf individuals and Deaf ministries across the United States. We even connect with some Deaf and Deaf ministries in Africa! Our church has been Deaf-run, Deaf-owned for 70 years now! Psst, that means we are older than the ELCA and MAS. We had a building that we owned for 68 years. Recently, we moved to live under Minnehaha Communion Lutheran Church to live without the added stress and financial responsibility of maintaining a building with an aging congregation, as we decided to instead shift our focus and our ministry back to the Deaf community.

Through the years, we have had a number of hearing Pastors lead or take over our congregation (“hearing” is what we call the population that have full use of their ears). We have supported all the hearing Pastors in taking their time to learn our language, American Sign Language (ASL). We also teach and support them as they learn our culture and our needs. We have had two deaf or hard of hearing Pastors in our 70 years of ministry. We have had a Deaf Deacon, Dorothy Sparks, for well over 30 years. We have grown in numbers and we have declined in numbers. We are currently in the same situation that many small churches are in – we are working to figure out what and how our ministry works and what that looks like in this day and age while trying to do it all with a small group of regular people. We know that we want to serve our Deaf community and its members, and we can also serve our local community. Combining the two or serving the two are easier said than done. We also are in great need of supporting and lifting up potential future Deaf leaders to serve in Deaf Ministry. With all of this discerning and planning, it is easy to get overwhelmed.

One thing that has not changed in the 70 years of BOLD would be the way that we have worship. Worship is ALWAYS expressed in American Sign Language (ASL). ASL is our core, is our safety, is our culture, and is our connection to one another. Fellowship comes easy when it comes to the Deaf community. We all have different backgrounds, different degrees of hearing loss, different devices (or none) used to hear, and different skill levels of signing but that doesn’t stop us from being welcoming and connecting with one another. Our music is not your music. When we have music in our worship service, our music is loud and deep with bass and drums beating. We FEEL the music, and worship through this music. We also SHOW our worship as we sign to the heavens and praise our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. As we pray each week, our hands move in prayer as if we tell a story. Sometimes, a gospel story turns into a small performance – ASL can sometimes look like that! We cherish and fiercely protect our culture and Deaf ministry.

That’s not to say that we exclude others – quite the opposite. If we have visitors who are learning or want to learn ASL on any level, they’re welcome! If we find others that want to learn about us and truly want to understand how to be an ally for our church and our community, welcome! If you’re simply curious about how a Deaf church worships or you’re visiting by an invitation of one of our community members, we welcome you! Each one of us is a child of God, and through God, we are the family and body of Christ. We have been here for 70 years, and with God’s Blessings, we hope to be around for many more!

This post continues the Mission Table’s “Year of Partnership” highlighting the new and strategic ministries of the Minneapolis Area Synod. All Nations Indian Church is one of the strategic ministries and worships in Minneapolis.

By Dr. Kelly Sherman-Conroy (right)
All Nations Indian Church, Minneapolis

It was a typical morning at All Nations Indian Church. Volunteers were out front helping us beautify the landscaping by planting, trimming, and bringing life to the grounds around our building. In the middle of this joy and hard work, one of the pastors was outside picking up used needles on the ground when word came that someone was overdosing behind the church in the parking lot. Some of us rushed to help, others kept the landscaping moving forward, and still others gathered at the Spirit Fire to pray. That’s daily life here. You learn to expect the unexpected.

Living in the heart of the Native community means we carry the weight of the opioid and fentanyl crisis, houselessness, and the generational trauma that has touched so many lives. But alongside all of that, I also see resilience, laughter, generosity, and healing every single day. Our Spirit Fire never goes out. People come to sit by it, to pray, to cry, to laugh, or simply to be.

Community at the Table

Twice a month, we host a potluck and community meeting at the church. It’s not just a meal; it’s a gathering of neighbors, Native Community leaders, Native and non-Native organizations, and multijurisdictional representatives who sit around tables together to ask: How can we face the challenges before us? How can we begin to heal?

These conversations are helping us build a culturally specific response to trauma. We know our community can’t heal through one-size-fits-all approaches. It has to come from lifting up our Indigenous ways, honoring language and story, and recognizing that trauma is carried across generations. Sharing food, listening, and learning together is part of how that work begins.

Meeting People Where They Are

We’re also finding ways to walk alongside our unhoused relatives through what we call our Community Helpers program. Folks who are unhoused often help us care for the church and grounds, and it’s become about so much more than work.

We get to hear people’s stories. We laugh together, share food, and listen. Sometimes what people need most is simply to be seen and welcomed as part of a community. Through this ministry, we’ve learned that offering dignity and belonging is just as important as offering shelter or aid. For us, it’s about meeting people right where they are in their journey, no matter what that looks like.

Mental Health Ministry: A Sacred Call

One of the most urgent needs we see is mental health care. Too many of our relatives carry heavy trauma without safe places to turn. That’s why our Mental Health Ministry has become such an important part of who we are.

We’re blessed to have an in-house Native American counselor walking with us. That matters deeply, not only because culturally grounded care is essential, but because mental health services are often simply unaffordable. By offering free sessions, talking circles, and connections to other practitioners, we’re making healing possible for people who might otherwise go without it.

We’re also working to build a culturally specific response to trauma through this ministry. Healing isn’t only individual, it’s generational, communal, and spiritual. We honor Indigenous practices and wisdom, knowing that Creator meets us in all of it.

Leadership in Family and Faith

Another unique part of our ministry is our pastoral leadership. My mother, Rev. Joan Conroy, is our Senior Pastor, and I serve as Associate Pastor, we are both Oglala Lakota Sioux. Leading together as both pastors and family means we navigate this journey not just as colleagues in ministry, but as kin. That’s become one of our strengths as a community, it’s a reminder that ministry itself is about family, in every sense of the word.

And if you really want to see that sense of family alive, come join us for Elder Bingo. You’ll hear more jokes and laughter than numbers being called. It’s its own kind of ministry, one rooted in joy, humor, and community.

A New Way of Mission Ministry

We believe God is calling us into a new way of thinking about mission. For too long, “mission” has meant one church giving while another receives. At All Nations, we are inviting our partners into something much deeper, a relationship of mutual care where we give and receive together.

It means seeing one another as kin, not projects. It means asking: How do we show up for each other? How do we share not just our resources, but our hearts, our time, our prayers?

Things Happening This Fall

This fall, we’re leaning into that call. We’re inviting our partners into book studies and conversations about colonization and healing. We’re continuing our Community Healing events that welcome anyone — our Native community, our neighbors, and anyone who comes to find support and care.

And thanks to the generosity of the Lilly Grant, we’re also blessed to be walking alongside our friends at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church and San Pablo Lutheran Church for the next five years. Together, we’re learning what it means to lay culturally specific foundations for each of our ministries that are rooted in relationship, healing, and shared mission.

In November, we’ll gather with our partner congregations for a Wopila, a traditional celebration of thanksgiving. It’s our way of giving back, of honoring the generosity we’ve received, and of reminding ourselves that gratitude is its own gift.

Building from the Ground Up

All Nations is, in many ways, building from the ground up again. Every week, we welcome visitors from congregations across the area who want to learn, pray, and walk alongside us. Their presence is a reminder that we are not alone, and that our story is tied to the wider church.

We are also an ecumenical congregation, living into the roots of both the United Church of Christ and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. That partnership has been part of our identity for more than 30 years, and it continues to shape how we live out our call: to be a community where traditions come together for the sake of healing.

We are surrounded every day by the prayers, hands, and hearts of our community. We are guided by Creator God, who calls us to love our neighbors in bold and courageous ways. And we are strengthened by the belief that together, we can create something life-giving and lasting.

As pastors we are grateful and hopeful, and we invite you to walk with us.

By Pastor Colin Grangaard, YAGM Alum
First Lutheran Church of Crystal, Brooklyn Park

God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear: You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me.

Flare up like a flame and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

(Rainer Maria Rilke
Book of Hours, Book I, page 59)

It has almost been 20 years, but if we looked through my photos together, I bet I could still come up with all their names. Eddie played Celtic football until he blew his knee out. Craig was close to my age (at the time) and had the funniest sayings from a brief stint in the Navy and his home in Aberdeen. Lee gave me cooking tips I still use every day. Tom was called “Mr. President” because he’d been in recovery the longest and had a way of setting the new guys straight. For a year, I was welcomed as a volunteer at the Bethany Christian Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland, through the ELCA program, Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM).

That’s where I learned how our faith practices can save and sustain lives. The Bethany counsellors taught me how to pray from the heart. Every shift change, the staff and volunteers would gather for a handover. Craig’s dark mood or Lee’s distracted preoccupation during our AA/NA step meetings would come up and then be incorporated into our prayers.

That’s where I heard my call to ministry. Traveling overseas was initially the appeal, but I hadn’t imagined how the experience would change me. During my year, I saw redemption, the forgiveness of sins, and the work of the Holy Spirit. I saw healing and transformation up close and in person.

Years later, and after another long-term overseas experience, I remember turning 30 in my first ordained call at Trinity Lutheran Church in Moorhead, MN. It was right about that time that I began to notice that my call to young adult ministry had become less a call to spend time with peers and more another ministry of accompaniment in the midst of the big milestones of young adulthood.

Ten years after my own YAGM year, my wife and I were called to return to the close-knit YAGM community, this time as YAGM Country Coordinators. My family and I lived in Jerusalem from 2015 – 2019 alongside six to eight YAGM volunteers among the Palestinian Lutherans of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL).

The Jerusalem/West Bank iteration of YAGM falls within a six-mile radius. We were privileged to see each other often as we accompanied ministries of the ELCJHL. My wife and I provided educational retreats, hospitality, and a safe place for rest and reflection while staying pretty hands-off… or at least meddling as little as possible. We trusted that despite each year’s challenges, in the midst of complex and conflicting narratives, that the experience itself would do its own work on each of the volunteers – and us. After all, the YAGM program has a way of making big shadows in which the participants and the Spirit move.

“You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me.”

It is exciting that the Minneapolis Area Synod will soon be sending out three young adults to YAGM orientation for a year of new experiences. Izzy Demarest will be heading to Argentina/Uruguay, Kristie Olson will go to Central Europe, and Masame Fletcher will be heading to the UK (I heard she might be going to Edinburgh!).

You, too, are invited into their journey. Each young adult is tasked with raising at least $5,000. We are grateful that the YAGM program is made possible through the generous support of members throughout the ELCA. Please also consider accompanying these individual young adults in their year of service through sponsorship. Through regular newsletters and social media posts, you will get to witness their growth and work as the year — and their lives — unfold.

This post is one of the monthly posts blog posts written by the deans of the conferences of the Minneapolis Area Synod.

By Pastor Rhonda Hlavinka
Salem English Lutheran Church, Minneapolis
Dean of the Central Conference

South Minneapolis Day Camp is a collaboration of more than 15 congregations that come together each summer. This amazing group effort goes back way before my time at Salem, but for the past nine years I have had the privilege of serving as one of its leaders. Several years ago, we decided we needed a name other than just a geographical description and “Building Beloved Community – South Minneapolis Day Camp” was birthed.

I tell people all the time that this group of leaders from all these congregations is one of the best teams I get to work on. Each year, we gather in January to begin planning for one special week in June and pick a theme. We collaborate on everything from rotations, special guests, daily stories, and volunteers. We even have our very own songwriter, Gus, who, with the help of our campers, writes a day camp original each year.

What I want to share with you, aside from the background above, is a few of the reasons why this collaborative ministry – this chance to do church together – is so beautiful.

• When you gather 15 church staff from different congregations, you pool a whole lot of creativity, skills, resources, and passions that none of us could do on our own.
• While we are made up of congregations that range in size, likely none of our congregations would be able to host a day camp on our own. (Participation among congregations this summer averaged 6 kids per congregation.)
• There are some years that congregations have participants, and some years they don’t – but it doesn’t matter because we are all still committed to being in this together.
• Instead of having to do everything on our own, we get to lean into our individual gifts as leaders. We even stretch into new skills once in a while. (Who knew I could become so good at volunteer coordination?)
• This once-a-year camp makes a difference for kids and families.
  • Some of these kids from other congregations, I only see once a year. But still, there is a special relationship we have forged that neither they nor I forget.
  • Because we offer camp for 5 full days, we give families a real option instead of day care for an entire week.
  • We offer our campers opportunities they may not get anywhere else. (Addressing environmental justice with an entire cardboard city, dancing and drumming with our Haitian friends from Afoutayi, and a middle school field trip to George Floyd Square, Calvary Food Pantry, and All Nations Indian Church … just to name a few.)
  • We strive to teach kids agency – to know they are an active part of their community and they make a difference. (They have talked with legislators, written letters to the mayor, practiced community organizing, and created their own protest signs about the things that matter to them.)

I could go on, but then this blog would be way longer than it should be. So here’s the main point, I suppose. (And it’s not just that our day camp is super cool.) The point is that God’s intention is for all of us to live in beloved community, and that kind of God-intended community is not something we do alone. Beloved community is Church Together. (Did you see how I brought our theme for the year right back around?)

Now, for those of you who like numbers and figures, here’s some of the math from our 2025 Building Beloved Community – South Minneapolis Day Camp:

109 K-8 Grade Kids
+ 20 High School Youth Mentors
+ 46 Adult Volunteers
+ 10 Special Guests
+ 15 Church Staff during the week
+ 166 Shirts Tie Dyed!
+ 90 Painted Kindness Rocks
+ 1 New Song written by Gus and the Kids
+ 750 Snacks delivered by the Snack Fairy!
+ 1 Free Little Library with…
+ 70 Shingles painted by kids
+ 30 Separate Rotations
+ 68 Stuffies made by elementary kids in Art!
+ 10 Openings and Closings with…
+ 50 Songs to sing
+ 1 Middle School all-day Fieldtrip
+ 1 Story Book as Inspiration for it ALL
______________________________________________
= So Much Beloved Community!

Part of the financial support for the South Minneapolis Day Camp comes through the Synod’s Summer Youth Program. The Summer Youth Program is funded through the generous mission support given by Minneapolis Area Synod congregations – thank you!