Northern Great Lakes Synod Keynote 1
Diagnosis: Challenges and Opportunities
Pastor Jon Anderson - Rural Ministry Director Luther Seminary and Faith+Lead - May 2025
janderson008@luthersem.edu Rural Ministry - Faith+Lead Core Topic: Rural Ministry - Faith+Lead
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Opening Question
https://unsplash.com/@sbrison
How might we join the work of God in planting and watering seeds in Northern Great Lakes Synod and God’s world?
Where are we going?
Devo - Bible Study
Diagnosis
Noticing - Forces in Our World
What’s Happening in Our Lives
Pivoting
Re-membering
Photo by Gabriel Jimenez on Unsplash
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1 Corinthians 3:6-8a NRSVue
3 And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people but rather as fleshly, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, 3 for you are still fleshly. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling[a] among you, are you not fleshly and behaving according to human inclinations? 4 For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not all too human?
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose....
6 1 planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, .... 9For we are God's servants, working together; ... I Corinthians 3: 6-9
Photo by Amber Ford on Unsplash
O Lord, maker of all things,
you open your hand and satisfy the desire
of every living creature.
We praise you for crowning the fields with your blessings
and enabling us once more to gather in the fruits of the earth.
Teach us to use your gifts carefully,
that our land may continue to yield its increase,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
(Evangelical Lutheran Worship, p. 62)
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“What is God up to in the lives of our neighbors?
What keeps you up at night? Your neighbors?
Photo by Fabian Centeno on Unsplash
The Age of Acceleration - Thomas Friedman Thriving in the Age of Accelerations - The Aspen Institute
Technology
Globalization
Environmental
Social - Institutional Stress
Isolation
Three non linear accelerations
“Upload the old fashioned way, one human to another. Human to human interaction and community”
Rural - [Suburban] - Urban Differences - Interdependence
Artificial Intelligence - Fear or Stewards
Pope Leo XIV lays out vision of papacy and identifies AI as a main challenge for humanity
Threat and/or Gift
I am more concerned about the human beings using AI than the computers. We often turn gifts for good into tools that damage.
“AI into IA….that would be to turn artificial intelligence into intelligent assistance, intelligent assistants, and intelligent algorithms.” ― Thomas L. Friedman,
Left Behind - Wuthnow 2019
1. Moral and Cultural Displacement
2. Attachment to Place -
3. Distrust of Distant Authorities
4. Symbolic Invisibility -
5. Decline of Institutions -
6. Desire for Respect
Wuthnow's analysis resists simple economic explanations for rural discontent; instead, he emphasizes that cultural identity and moral community are central to understanding the frustrations and fears of rural Americans.
Chat GPT - 5.11.25 What does Robert Wuthnow the religious scholar identify as the key issues for rural and small town people in Left Behind
Issues out there….And close to home….
Families
Parents - Mom - 88 - keep in independent living
Children - Only as happy as least happy child
Work - Not a simple time to lead or to be an employee
Friends - Samuel
Community -
Photo by Selena Parker on Unsplash
Challenges and opportunities in congregations and Church.
US Christian Decline May Be Stabilizing: 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study | Pew Research Center.
3% down baptized - 2% down participating - Year after Year
Switching most from participating to not
Three reasons - Elizabeth Drescher
Scharen - Strong center (Christ) and porous boundaries
Belong, Become, Trust
Mixed Ecology
Huge Generational Shift From the Age of Association to Authenticity - Faith+Lead
“... the focus is on discovering and expressing one’s true self.
Institutions are seen suspiciously—as confining at best to one’s journey of self-discovery and oppressive at worst (as indeed many have been)
Our hunch - churches should focus on discerning and joining the Triune God’s presence and movement in their personal and congregational lives and in their neighborhoods.
This means presence, curiosity, deep listening, and experimentation.
Age of Association - Charles Taylor
Inhabiting the Between Times
Age of Authenticity
Inhabiting the Between Times
andy-henderson-E9Hv8kHcf78-unsplash
Congregations' Largest Sources of Concern/
& Pride | Faith Communities Today - 2020 - slide 2022
A Moment of Opportunity
We can adjust, learn, and flourish
Planting & Watering
Remembering - Re-Membering
Re-Membering
To include
To be put back together
God’s recreating healing work
Re-membering Whose we are
Re-membering who is missing
Remembering - Re-Membering
Crow River -
Mike Button - Faith Lutheran
Plant for a future we will not know
Diagnosis & Pivot
Living communities of Jesus
Following a living God who we best know through Jesus
Our community’s faith life and our own faith life are a result of planting and watering by others before us.
How do we best plant and water faith, hope and love in our time for God’s preferred future?
Michael Pancoast - Zion Anoka with permission
How do we as leaders help people take this journey?
The Faithful Innovation Process
The Challenge �Is Spiritual
Moving from asking church questions to asking God questions …
Churches that thrive will orient their communal culture around practices and relationships that
connect
faith and daily life and
answer questions about
meaning,
belonging,
hope and
purpose.
God loves to work through the small
Allen Stanton -
Allen Stanton’s book, The Gift of Small is a helpful book in a world that often fails to value the gift of small seeds and smaller membership congregations.
The book speaks to lay leaders, pastors and regional church leaders about the people, organization and work of smaller membership congregations as they live out their important and distinctive vocations. The Gift of Small: Embracing Your Church’s Vocation | Fortress Press
Staying focused on God and God questions - helps you not get stuck.
Most Powerful Expression of the Church?
Churchwide?
Synod?
Congregations?
Churchwide staff
Bishop - Bishop Staff
Congregation
Pastor, council, staff, governance
All focused in…. Or like our heart - pump out and then pull in through lungs of worship then out
All the baptized living out their ministry in daily life….
Integrate faith - life
Practice the faith - shifting seasons
Love God - love neighbors - all your neighbors
Plants, animals, people near/far
All the neighbors….one another
Power - Dynamite -
Equipment Room Sign
Apprentice ministers
Discussion - Opportunities and Challenges
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Q&R
God gives the growth… Creating, Calling, Sending …
Thanks - Our next conversation will focus on four key pivots Faith+Lead sees serving the Gospel.
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Pr. Jon Anderson
Director of Rural Ministry at Luther Seminary
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/jon.anderson.986
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jon.anderson.986/