Our Community of Grace

Our Community of Grace

Over my life, I have worshipped in many different denominations. As the son of a preacher who is the son of a preacher, church was always a major factor in my life. But the thing is, I never felt a home, or at peace, in any of those congregations. I did what I was supposed to do, participated actively, but deep down something was missing, something wasn’t quite right.

Through a random series of events, I found myself church-less later in life, and seriously questioning if I had “missed something at orientation”. Church just never seemed to fit. Maybe it wasn’t them, maybe it was me. Then, one day, the local Lutheran pastor asked if I would help out at youth group. That one night became a few nights, which became a few months, which became a paid position as the parish youth worker.

There was something about this youth group that was different to the rest; something about this church community. I didn’t know what it was, I just knew that I wanted more of it. A few weeks into my paid role in the parish, I made a mistake on something minor. I was so devastated that I’d dropped the ball, that I was furiously messaging the pastor, grovelling for forgiveness. The response I got was along the lines of “Are you okay?” It was then that I was introduced to a completely foreign concept: grace.

This was the thing that was different, this was the thing that had me coming back again and again. Most of my adolescence was spent, literally sweating or crying in bed, wondering if I had “blown” my salvation that day. Did I say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, did I earn my salvation enough today? But grace took all of that away. I no longer grovelled before God but danced before the throne in total freedom. For the first time in my life, I knew peace.

I’d left home at 19 to go to Bible College to follow in my father’s footsteps, but never entered the ministry, because who wants to spend their life telling people they’d “fallen short every day, but if you just try a little harder, maybe tomorrow…?” But now that I had grace, I knew what being a pastor actually meant! So, I entered the Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) program and began studying so that eventually I could become a General Ministry Pastor (GMP). My journey into the Lutheran Church took 33 years, about 12 different churches, 5 different denominations, and a lot of sleepless nights. But grace changed all of that. Now, I get to spend my life sharing the peace that is available through the grace of God.

And so, I would like to encourage everyone as we approach General Synod, to come back to that community of grace that grabbed me all those years ago. Grace is what set the Lutheran Church apart from all the other denominations I had worshipped in, and grace is what we need as we discuss some of the difficult topics ahead of us. It is my prayer that we would remember the ludicrous amounts of grace that have been poured out on all of us, and that we in turn might pour that out on each other. That these difficult topics wouldn’t actually be difficult at all, that we would remember that we are all one in the same Spirit, which means we share the same grace, the same peace.