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attended, he laughed and declared her “a divine interven- tion Lutheran.”
“I remain one today,” said Finkelstein, now a member of Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Greenville. Responders came from a variety of denominations or faiths—or no faith at all. Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, Baptist, United Brethren, Disciples of Christ, Pentecostal, Mennonite, Congregationalist, Church of Science, Assembly of God, Russian Orthodox, Nazarene, Four-Square Gospel, Chris- tian, Missionary Alliance, Mormon, Jewish and Buddhist. Many said the Lutheran church offered a message that was the opposite of what they had heard as children—or had ever heard.
Acting on grace COURTESY OF ANTHONY AUER
“I am Lutheran because I experienced grace before I ever knew what the word meant,” said Anthony Auer, Pasa- dena, Calif.
Auer was a young actor trying to make a go of it while supporting a family—selling cars, pants, water beds. One day he saw an ad for a sixth-grade teacher at Bethel Lutheran School in Encino, Calif. He applied and was inter- viewed by the pastor and school board. “They asked me what my qualifications were, and I responded that I had none,” he said, adding that he told them he had taught general education classes at a uni- versity and thought “teaching sixth-graders would be like teaching college freshmen.” He got the job.
A few weeks into the school year he was cast in a play with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. He apologized to Bob Blacka, then pastor of Bethel, who asked what time requirements he would need. “I explained we would be in rehearsal for three weeks and then would run in the eve- nings for two months. Without batting an eye he said, ‘Then we only need to hire a substitute for three weeks.’ What an act of grace.”
Auer went from teacher, to church member, to semi-
nary, and then into retirement after 30 years as a pastor. He is now a member of American Lutheran Church, Burbank, Calif.
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www.thelutheran.org
So, back to grace … Patsy Koeneke, Corpus Christi, Texas, grew up hearing a steady stream of fire and brimstone preaching that told her if she didn’t do better she would go to hell. Attending church with her fiance’s Lutheran family, she heard grace preached from the pulpit for the first time. Now as pastor of St. Mark Lutheran, “I’m so happy to serve in a church that teaches and believes what the Bible says: that nothing we do or don’t do can separate us from the love of God,” she said.
Jim Rossi was a devout Roman Catholic plagued by similar troubling questions regarding sin and damnation. At his fiancee’s Lutheran church, “the Holy Spirit took me by the hand and showed me the way,” he said. The bulletin stated “all are welcome at the Lord’s table,” the confes- sion was spoken aloud as a group, and he was told God (not a priest) forgives him. The sermon was about hope and love.
“As the cup was lifted [by] an eloquent and dignified woman … I knew I had found what I had searched for since childhood,” he said.
Rossi said he is an active member of New Hope Lutheran Church in Columbia, Md., “not out of obligation or eternal reward, but because the Holy Spirit calls me.” For Jo Young, it was about welcome. She had been sending her youngest daughter to a Sunday school with friends but didn’t agree with some of the church’s teach- ings. Asked by her daughter to find a different Sunday school, she contacted three Lutheran churches and heard back from two—one a dry response, another warm and welcoming.
Their first Sunday, teenagers gathered around her
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