All interns who are preparing for leadership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are required to complete a internship project. The internship project is a major task that deepens the intern’s learning of leadership skills, while also engaging the intern’s curiosity and/or passion about a particular topic in collaboration within the congregation. The project can take on a variety of forms: it can be a stand alone project or not, usually reflects the intern’s learning goals, but most certainly the project is meant to enrich the intern’s learning while engaging the life of the community in some new way.
Some of you might know that GLOW (Grace Lutheran on Wednesday’s), Grace’s mid-week meal and Bible study program, started as an intern’s project in the early 2000’s, and continues to this day. Even though GLOW’s format and structure has changed over the years, it continues to be a space where God is so clearly present in conversation, fellowship and study.
Well, the time has now come to announce my internship project proposal. After receiving feedback from Pastor Sarah, the Internship Committee and the Congregational Council, I joyfully report that I am designing, organizing and implementing a Walking Palm Sunday Worship Service to take place during the 8:30am service on Sunday, April 5.
On this Sunday, our community will gather for the start of worship in Grace’s courtyard, and then we will proceed by walking into and through our neighborhood stopping at various places to participate in the different parts of the worship service. Yes, we will be walking around our neighborhood and taking worship with us. So bring your tennis shoes and your spirit of adventure! We’ll bring the water.
The hope of the Walking Palm Sunday Service is to invite our community to look and consider our immediate neighborhood with the questions: “What is God doing here? And how is God calling us to join in what God is doing here?” Often times, we walk or drive by areas and buildings a million times and never wonder or pray about what God is doing in this particular place.
You may be wondering why on earth I selected such a project.
The genesis of Walking Palm Sunday Service relates to how some members of Grace community articulated Grace’s future in the neighborhood. Earlier this fall, I conducted a Social Analysis project in which I interviewed members of the Grace community, and neighbors/community stakeholders about their experiences of Grace Lutheran Church. To read the full Social Analysis report, click here. When I specifically asked people about Grace’s future in the neighborhood, every single person gave me some version of this response: “I don’t know what our future looks like or where God is leading Grace, but I know our neighborhood is changing.”
I heard the people of Grace connecting their future as a community of faith to the life and direction of the neighborhood. Clearly, Grace feels connected to their neighbors, but also see the neighborhood rapidly changing. It’s only natural to wonder how Grace will continue to relate to the needs of the changing community.
In my experience, the best way to start answering a question is to try out some experiments and test out some of my assumptions. Thus, I think of the Walking Palm Sunday Worship Service as a small experiment to encourage active listening, prayer and reflection about what God is doing in our midst. Sure, we can meet in Hope Hall or in the North Room and discuss the changes in the neighborhood, but moving beyond our building to physically connect with our neighborhood will give us a fuller picture and provide us the fodder for deeper conversations. Sometimes, following and learning from the Spirit means walking out of our building to meet God in places we might not expect to meet God.
I am excited about this project. I have a deep passion and interest in following the Spirit’s creative leadership in both our lives as individuals and as a community. I am excited about what the Holy Spirit will do and reveal to us through this worship experiment in the neighborhood. I am excited and give thanks that the Holy Spirit has stirred up in this community a sense of wonder and gifted us with wide-open hearts and minds, eager to embrace God’s leading, wherever, however, and whoever that includes.
I look forward to experimenting with you, people of Grace! And, of course, if you have questions please reach out. I’d be delighted to connect.
In Faith,
Vicar Beth