When I was up in Spokane in August the air quality was so bad from the Canadian fires and the Eastern Washington fires that I barely wanted to be outside. What a difference a few weeks makes. I flew up early on a Monday morning and will fly back to Boise tomorrow. I think I have had around seven one-on-one conversations with pastors in the area. I spoke with a retired pastor connected to One River, Ethics Matter about the Columbia River Treaty. I met individually with two of our chaplains and heard about hospital chaplaincy coming out of the global pandemic. On Monday afternoon I sat in on the Eastern Washington/Greater Spokane Lutheran Campus Ministry Board Meeting with our brand new campus pastor. I love when a meeting can be a walk-and-talk and one person was willing to meet out by the Spokane River on a beautiful Pacific Northwest afternoon. Life and ministry are hard but ministers are also resilient. The conversations are holy and humbling; feels so similar to the humble work of pastoral care in the congregation and I am grateful that some skills are transferable. There is plenty that is new and there were moments in the office this week when I was reminded again and again of how steep my learning curve is. Fortunately there remain many friends, mentors, and co-workers willing to help me get caught up and equipped.

One of those co-workers has been outgoing Director for Evangelical Mission (DEM) Mary Morrow. Friday was Mary’s last day and I remain so grateful for her work for our synod and churchwide these past five years and our many conversations since my election. Synod staff and a few synod council executive committee members took Mary and husband Bob out for lunch Friday as part of our thank you.

Earlier in the week, I finished up my six-week series on Martin Luther’s treatise Freedom of a Christian. We started with more people than we ended with, but I was impressed with how many individuals came for the entire series. I am more convinced than ever that in a geographically large synod like ours, video-conferencing can be a great way to connect and help people grow in Christian discipleship. Always the church camp counselor at heart, I will never give up in-person encounters. Incoming DEM Pastor Liv Larson Andrews will lead a discussion of Vine Deloria Jr’s God is Red beginning in Advent. Stay tuned.

As I drove around Spokane and Spokane Valley under clear blue skies, I had a flood of memories of my internship year (2003-2004). I was down the road in Cheney, WA with now closed Emmanuel Lutheran and LCM at Eastern Washington. My memories started with the LCM board meeting Monday. They continued as I remembered days off and cluster gatherings around Spokane. Then on Saturday night I preached the first of three worship services at St. Mark’s Lutheran. I had not been in that sanctuary since an evening worship service during my internship year. The last person to exit the sanctuary was retired professor Dave Haugen who was part of the weekly mens group at Emmanuel, Cheney. I have always remembered Dave’s kindness and encouragement and it was such a delight to talk with him this many years later. He and his wife moved to Spokane from Cheney several years ago. Sunday morning at St. Mark’s included two more worship services and a forum in-between during which we had a wonderful conversation about the synod and life and ministry today.