Denver Musings

I’m in Denver at a Mission Developers Training Program, run by the ELCA, our sister church in the US. I did this training seven years ago, but they’ve updated the program.

There’s, by far, MUCH more theological reflection than in 2002. Mary S Drier from Luther seminary took us through four basic theological foci, but through a missional lens. Thinking about justification by faith, the Two Kingdoms, theology of the cross, and Law and Gospel, through missional eyes was worked I tried to do in seminary (and ever since), but with limited success.

But this is work that we MUST do, if we’re to engage the post-Christendom world as Lutherans, with a rich, yet specific, theological tradition.

However, it seems like we were just getting going when the time came to an end. I guess there’s a lot to do with limited time. But still, FINALLY, someone talking about mission from a distinctly Lutheran perspective. I almost peed my pants.

This afternoon, many of us went door-to-door in suburban Denver under the guise of being representatives of Lord of the Hills Lutheran Church (great name, eh?). I wasn’t thrilled about doing this, but I figure that I might as well engage the whole experience.

But it was actually a lot fun! I met some guy who said he played for a band called One Republic. I figured he was either feeding us a line or One Republic was some garage band who played the local hillbilly bar.

So, I looked him up, and, this is the guy who answered the door (btw he owns three little, yappy dogs). He was the only guy interested in the church that we met that day.

So far I’m learning some new stuff and meeting some cool people. Tomorrow we do more theology and put more tools in our toolkits.

That’s assuming I can sleep. My roommate’s snoring is loud enough to announce the apocalypse.