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Welcome to
Hope Lutheran Church

We are Welcoming a New Pastor!

Welcome Pastor Jon!

Pastor Jon Barsness joined our congregations on May 1, 2024. Pastor Jon is from St Bonifacius, MN. He and his family are getting settled into the Hope Parsonage and he is ready to hit the ground running to serve our congregations.

Pastor Jon has a degree in Ministry Leadership, a Master’s degree in Ministry and Organizational Leadership. and is currently pursuing his Master’s Degree in Divinity. Pastor Jon and his wife, Anna, have a son Ethan, who will be graduating from high school this spring. Pastor Jon established a ministry called Strive To Abide, and through this work, he has been leading and developing curriculum, teaching, and preaching at events for about four years.

Through the call process, the Synod reminded us that we may have to “grow our own” due to a shortage of available pastors, and that, essentially, is what we are doing. Pastor Jon is ordained through the National Association of Christian Ministers. He is technically coming to us as a lay minister because he is not yet ordained through the ELCA. However, he will be serving as a full-time pastor to our parishes. Jon grew up in the ELCA church, is very familiar with the teachings of the Lutheran Church and is working toward his ELCA ordination.

Once he has taken the required classes, which will take approximately 2 months, he will seamlessly transition into being our interim pastor. It is the hope of the call committee that he will be treated as an interim from the beginning as he will be serving us in that role. Once Jon completes his second master’s degree, we will be able to officially call him as our Pastor. We anticipate that time frame to be about 2 years.

As was discussed previously, the interim pastoral agreement with Pastor Jon will be between Hope Lutheran and St Paul’s Lutheran. There will also be a Pastoral contract with Bethany-Elim. As we begin this transition to sharing one pastor with three congregations, we ask for your patience and support. It is vitally important that we all approach this with an open-mind, a flexible attitude and that we are willing to do some give and take.

Going forward, things may not be exactly as they have been. There are going to be some changes. First and foremost, there are simply not enough pastors to serve the number of congregations. Secondly, the financial benefits of sharing a pastor provide us with a more realistic and attainable budget. As the call committee worked with the other congregations, it is evident that we share the same love of God, that we want our congregations to be able to move forward with a pastor, and we are willing to work together to make this partnership successful.

Once Pastor Jon has had an opportunity to learn about the needs of each congregation, we will be establishing a service schedule. Please be patient, flexible and willing to try new things. The hope is that we are building a faith community, and if a service time does not work for you in your congregation on a given week, you will feel welcome to attend another service that fits your schedule. We will communicate updates with you as we work through the process, so please watch for updates through email, bulletins, on the website and newsletters.

This is an exciting time for all of our congregations and the call committee feels that Pastor Jon is an excellent choice for our faith community. He is passionate about sharing the Bible, teaching and working with members of all ages. We know that each of you will give him and his family a warm welcome! May God bless each of us as we move forward!

The Executive Boards of St Paul’s, Hope and Bethany-Elim Lutheran Churches

Link to Letter from Executive Boards

Hope Lutheran - Minneota

Bethany-Elim - Ivanhoe

St. Paul’s -
Minneota

Last month we began to look at the three most frequently used terms by biblical writers: believer, follower, and disciple. Last month we examined the word disciple. This month we will dig deeper into the term follower. As a reminder, we’ll take them in reverse order with the most frequently used term first.

How are you doing at making disciples? It was a question I had never been asked. In all my years of church life, I had never been asked about my basic obedience to Jesus’ final and most straightforward command: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you,” (Matt. 28:19-20a).

I was at a conference in Thailand and our trainer was a long-time missionary working in Southeast Asia. His work with a previously unreached tribe in a neighboring country was built on one basic strategy—obey Jesus and make disciples who in turn make disciples.

My paradigm of discipleship was largely based on the idea that more information would form me into Christ-likeness. The method was to read more books, attend more seminars, and, if I wanted, to have a mentor. Discipleship then was much more about spiritual formation than about actually learning how to obey Jesus and make disciples.

Spiritual formation is of immense importance and I’ve benefited from good books, great seminars, and some terrific mentors. But the discipleship of my youth largely ignored the idea that I should obey Jesus and make disciples who also obey Jesus and make disciples. It was there in Thailand that I began a journey toward understanding obedience-based discipleship as opposed to knowledge-based discipleship. This led me to understand our term this month – follower.

How does one become a disciple? The biblical answer to this question is summed up in the words, “Follow me.” Nowhere in Scripture are we told to pray the sinner’s prayer, sign a card, raise our hand, or walk an aisle. Rather, we are asked to respond to the call of Jesus to “follow me.”

We see this call repeatedly in Jesus’ words to Phillip (John 1:43), Andrew and Peter (Matthew 4:18-20), James and John (Mark 1:19-20), and Matthew (Luke 5:27). The three would-be disciples (Luke 9:57-62), the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-22), to small groups like the disciples (Luke 9:23), and to large crowds (Luke 14:27).

They not only began their life of discipleship by responding to Jesus’ invitation to follow me, but they continued their life of discipleship by following Jesus.

Jesus’ followers became known to others, not as Christians, but as followers of “the Way” (Acts 9:2, 19:19, 23, 22:4, 24:14, 22). They were also people of the “way of truth” (2 Peter 2:2) and those who followed “a new and living way” (Hebrews 10:19-20). Why this particular language? Clearly, it signified that being a disciple of Jesus implied a way of life, a path to be followed, and a life to be imitated. Because of this biblical emphasis on following, I’ve stopped asking people if they are Christians and started asking them if they are Christ followers or disciples. Interestingly, people seem to pause for a moment before they answer. Why is that? Because language shapes perception and using more biblical language shapes a more biblical understanding which makes people take a reflective pause.

– Grace and Peace Pastor Jon