A Tribute to Jim
This Sunday, August 2, marks the 50th anniversary of Jim’s ordination into the ministry of, what was then the ALC Lutheran church, and later became ELCA. Because of the pandemic we aren’t able to celebrate the way we wanted to, but I don’t want the day to go by without recognizing a significant milestone in his life. Normally there would have been a recognition at the St. Paul Synod assembly, a luncheon with other 50th classmates at Luther seminary, and possible participation in the morning services at Gloria Dei. And our family would have had our own little gathering to celebrate with their Dad. However, I decided to write the story of Jim’s ministry in honor of his 50th.
Jim was ordained into the ministry at Dovre Lutheran Church in tiny Newburg, ND on August 2, 1970. Dovre was his home congregation, two miles from the farm where he grew up. It was a bright sunny day, and he was enthusiastic to begin his work as a parish pastor. He had accepted a call to a 3-point parish in McVille, ND. (Jim had the distinction of being the only member of his seminary graduating class to specifically request an assignment to the Eastern North Dakota synod! Others who were assigned there started immediately planning their escape route!)
We were in McVille for 5 years. Jim had 3 services every Sunday. He’d start in one of the country churches at 8:30, then drive 15 minutes or so to town for the 9:45 service, and then another 15 minutes to the other country church for 11:15. That’s where he learned to give short sermons! If you’ve ever listened to one of Jim’s sermons, you’ve never had to listen past 15 minutes—and maybe not even that long. For one thing, he had to finish up and get on to the next service, but more than that—he believes that if you can’t say what needs to be said in 15 minutes or less…well, there’s just no point in going beyond that!
While in McVille, Jim started attending a once-per-week class at a hospital in Grand Forks, 65 miles to the east. The class was called Clinical Pastoral Education, (or CPE) and it was meant to help parish pastors deal more effectively with numerous issues that arise with parishioners—illness, death, addiction, personal crises, etc. He found himself really liking this CPE stuff, and he eventually decided to take a year off from parish ministry to attend a full year of CPE classes at the State Hospital in Jamestown. That year was literally life-changing, as well as career-altering for him. He found a new sort of calling within the larger field of ministry, and he began on the long path of certification to become a CPE Supervisor. This path took him (and now our family of 3 children) 3 years in Jamestown, plus another year in Rochester to become minimally certified.
At that point it was 1979, and he was hired as a chaplain on the staff of the Regional Treatment Center in Fergus Falls, MN. After another 6 years he became fully certified, and spent over 20 years there as a CPE Supervisor, and chair of the Chaplaincy Department. So—what does that mean, in practical terms? It means he trained hundreds of pastors, seminary students, parish nurses, and a few other lay people in the fine art of dealing with people who are in fragile situations—health issues, addiction issues, death, relationship crises. They also simply learned how to relate more effectively with people they came in contact with in their own ministries.
Jim carved out a unique ministry in two different ways during his years at the Regional Treatment Center. First, he worked closely with people who were truly on the fringes of society—persons with mental illnesses, developmentally challenged, and/or with chemical addictions. He had 2 services each Sunday—one was for those persons who were hospitalized with mental illness or chemical addiction. That was a rather ‘normal’ service, with the possible exception that he hardly ever made it through a sermon (usually 10 minutes or less!) without someone asking him a question, making a comment, or…walking out. That never shook him in the least. He would patiently answer the question or comment, but his bottom line message always, always was: God loves you—no matter what!
Some of those people heard that message every Sunday for 20 years!
His second service was a short service for persons with developmental disabilities. Many of them had no means of communication, but it was amazing to watch how they understood—and sang—the simple songs that were sung every Sunday: “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know”, “ The B-I-B-L-E”. Every few years Jim would hold a confirmation service for persons whose families wished to have their loved ones confirmed. The Catholic Bishop and the Lutheran Bishop would both come and participate. I found it amazing to watch the two bishops and Jim lay their hands of blessing on persons who would never be able to lead what we would call a normal life, but somehow they seemed to understand that same basic message: “Jesus love you—no matter what!”
Secondly, he was teaching CPE to pastors and students who also entered that environment—many of them scared to step foot into a hospital setting where these “fringe people” were living day in and day out. But over the years, hundreds of students learned that once you can relate to someone with mental illness or chemical dependency, you can relate a lot better to the rest of the world as well. Remember Jesus words about “the least of these”? Jim lived those words and taught them by example over and over again.
During this same time, Jim was working very part-time as a clinical counselor for Lutheran Social Service, where he led groups for people experiencing grief, as well as counseling individuals and families who were seeking help with a variety of issues. It seems that Jim never felt that one job at a time was quite enough! He had the energy, but more importantly he felt a calling, to use the gifts he was given in a variety of places.
Then in 2000 the State of MN, in its continuing effort to close down state institutions, declared that the Regional Treatment Center no longer needed a head chaplain. The State called it “retirement”, and so our family held Jim’s first retirement party! But since he was only 56 years old, and since our retirement account was mighty thin, Jim continued to work. He held a part-time position at First Lutheran in Fergus Falls, plus he became an itinerant CPE supervisor—he traveled to other hospitals in the region, both MN and ND, once again touching the lives of many students. Bemidji, Brainerd, Staples, Madison, MN, Jamestown, ND. He also was called upon to do some interim work in congregations who had experienced unthinkable damage at the hands of their pastors. Obviously he was keeping very busy in his “retirement years”!
In 2004 he received yet another call—one we had certainly not anticipated. A CPE supervisor/friend of his asked him to move to the Twin Cities to work at Mercy and Unity hospitals, heading up the CPE programs there. And so, we sold our home on the lake (people thought we were crazy to do so!), and moved to Shoreview. For the next six years, Jim once again had students—this time in an acute hospital setting. But the message was the same—you are dealing with people in hurting situations who need to experience the best you can give them: a listening ear, a caring heart, and a message of love.
During this period of time, our home church—Gloria Dei Lutheran in St. Paul—had an opening for a part-time visitation pastor. As noted above, Jim was not one to shy away from multiple jobs, and so he was hired to visit homebound persons from Gloria Dei.
In 2010, he officially retired from Mercy and Unity. And once again we gathered family, friends and colleagues together to celebrate his retirement. Retirement party #2.
Ha! Just because he had now reached the ripe old age of 66 did not mean he was done with his ministry! In addition to his work at Gloria Dei, he once again took his CPE skills to a variety of places. This included the Lutheran Brethren Seminary back in Fergus Falls. Every winter for 6-7 years he traveled one day/week for 8 weeks to teach CPE to their senior class. On other days he would teach at a Fairview hospital, or an Allina hospital. He loved teaching students, expanding their minds and challenging them to spread that basic message: “God loves you—no matter what”.
Then came 2013. A heart murmur turned into open heart surgery, with a bypass to boot. An additional ablation procedure was needed a few weeks later to correct a few thousand extra heart beats that he was experiencing as well. A bone-on-bone hip was also needing attention, and that surgery occurred in late December. I was diagnosed with colon cancer, and needed surgery and follow-up treatment. Work no longer seemed to make sense the way it had in the past.
And so, this humble servant of God was ready to become fully retired. 43+ years of ministry, which he describes not as a career but as a calling. Hundreds of sermons, hundreds of students, thousands of lives touched by that same basic message that Jim believes to his very core. And so followed Retirement Party #3!
We have a long-standing family joke that comes frequently in family conversations: At some point when our kids were young, one of us asked them: “What was the sermon about today?” The answer came back: “God and Jesus”. I don’t know how many times that same question, followed by that same answer, was repeated in our household—but it was many!! Sometimes we would groan, sometimes we would laugh. But you know what? That is what every sermon of Jim’s was about—God and Jesus!
In the spirit of celebrating 50 years since Jim was ordained, I wanted to write a synopsis of Jim’s work, and to state how very much I admire and respect what he has done during his years of ministry. He has done it with great humility (no one would ever accuse Jim of drawing attention to himself!). He has done it with great energy (very seldom did he have just one job!). And he has done it with great love. I have no doubt that he will, at some date long into the future, be welcomed into paradise with these words: “Well done, good and faithful servant!”
Soul Stories 