Greetings! Boozoo!

Sara, Boysen, Palmer and I are grateful to find ourselves living the dream in Bagley, MN. As you can note by the picture, we are baseball fans, with a Bucket List of visiting as many ballparks as possible. This picture was taken during Spring Training, 2017. The mythology of baseball mimics our Christian faith:

  • In Genesis, Paradise is described as a green, walled space. Sounds like a ballpark to me!
  • George Carlin, in his famous “Baseball and Football” routine, highlighted some more insights:
    • “Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game.”
    • “Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.”
    • “Baseball has the sacrifice.”
    • “Baseball has no time limit: we don’t know when it’s gonna end – might have extra innings.”
    • “In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! – I hope I’ll be safe at home!”

Imagine our ministry here like a baseball game. Sara is the Physical Therapist—a healer who keeps us in the game—she works at the Sanford Clinic here in Bagley.

Boysen and Palmer are both middle infielders. As seventh and ninth graders, they are in the middle of their school years, learning to field what life brings.

And I suppose—as a Pastor, I’m something of a coach, or a pitcher, maybe a catcher, aligning the defense, and calling a game. Perhaps an umpire? Jesus is the manager, who invites his disciples to play. Sometimes I am at my best—or the church is at its best—when the pastor simply steps back and watches the team play together.

My home town is Park Rapids, MN, and like Sara, I grew up in Moorhead. Most recently we served in Walker, MN—for eight years at Hope Lutheran Church, and the last five years with the Episcopal faith communities on the Leech Lake Reservation. That’s a big part of what attracted us to Faith in Bagley—you are known as a congregation with deep roots in the White Earth/Rice Lake community. We are grateful for this place, this time, and the opportunity to play and work with you in the fields of our Lord.

The life of faith—at Faith Lutheran Church—is not a spectator sport. God calls us to play, until someday we find ourselves safe—at home.

 

Play ball!

Pastor Mark