A Letter from Pastor Erlandson This past month of January I taught a class from Luther Seminary called “Church Based Community Organizing in St. Paul.”  The class met many visiting speakers (pastors and lay leaders) and made several site visits to see the breadth of ministry being done by churches in St. Paul, and ISAIAH’s work of social justice.  The prevailing question throughout the course was “What is the work of the Church?”  They found it goes even beyond traditional Word and Sacrament ministry: preaching, teaching, worship, youth and family ministry, counseling and visitation (though it certainly does include these things!) When we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, which drives us out into the community to listen to people, we find that the work of the Church also includes:  building relationships with our neighbors, responding to urgent needs (like food and shelter), and addressing community issues like mortgage foreclosures, racism, poverty, education of our children, domestic violence, safety and crime.  Scripture reminds us that social justice is also the work of the Church. So we find this coming month that the work of the Church gives us a variety of new possibilities.  We have the opportunity to raise funds for our local foodshelf (Hallie Q. Brown) on Souper Bowl Sunday, February 5th.  We find ourselves meeting with Minnesota’s Governor Mark Dayton and the Metropolitan Council about state-wide issues and racial equity, in a public meeting organized by ISAIAH.  And this month we will have new opportunities to tutor children in reading at Benjamin Mays Elementary School. Towards the end of February, we begin the season of Lent (on Feb. 22), a more traditional and familiar portion of the Church’s work, as we gather for worship, and receive ashes on our foreheads as a sign of repentance for our sins.  Then we embark on this annual 40-day season of repentance and renewal.  Over these forty days we will all have the opportunity to participate in creating artwork for the church which illustrates the many ways in which scripture guides us in our spiritual renewal. So what is the work of the Church?  It is whatever the Spirit of God drives us, the baptized Body of Christ to do, when our eyes and ears are open to the scriptures and to our neighbor’s need.  So let’s keep our eyes and ears open to the Spirit, and to our neighbors.  Thanks be to God for all the possibilities! In Christ, Pastor Jim Erlandson I will be participating in a 12-week Anti-Racism Dialog Circle every Thursday evening from February 2 through April 26 at First Lutheran Church in St. Paul, as part of the Saint Paul Area Synod’s strategy to look at ways to address racism and increase diversity in our churches.  This will be my continuing education this year, part of the commitment I have made through the synod assembly resolution Redeemer wrote in 2010 “Becoming a Multi-cultural Church”.