Joe Davis
Poet-in-residence, Redeemer Lutheran Church, Minneapolis Age: 28
Looking back, Joe Davis sees the Spirit in
a series of “connecting points” that led him to the Lutheran church. Raised Pentecostal, he found a place at Lutheran Campus Ministry at Minot (N.D.) State University, where service trips to New Orleans and Washington, D.C., taught him about “praying with hands and feet.”
AGAPE (David Scherer) brought Davis to Minneapolis, where today he is one of several young adults living at Redeem- er’s Glenwood House and engaging in relational ministry in the community. In addition to composing and perform- ing poetry, Davis teaches creative writing classes every Friday at a high school. “I sometimes joke that I’m a ‘Luthercos-
A friendship with Lutheran hip-hop artist
“All of my favorite pastors and preachers use poetic images. All of my favorite poets have theol- ogy in their work,” Joe Davis said. “Faith is being fully
tal,’ ” he said, “but in my heart of hearts I’m ecumenical and interdenominational. Still, the Lutheran church is my favorite.”
enfl eshed in the living, breathing word—our relationship to God is poetry. I believe that we are co-creators with God, forming a beautiful, beloved community that we long to live in. Everyone has a creative spark.”
Jonathan Hemphill
Pastor, Another Level Ministries, Los Angeles Age: 35
T e road Jonathan Hemphill has taken to follow
God’s call reminds him of T e Wizard of Oz: requiring “courage, strength and facing obstacles.” His path—not unlike Dorothy’s—has also led him back home: in this case, to the ELCA. Growing up Lutheran in his native Los Angeles,
Hemphill said, “I always knew [the ELCA] was where I belonged, but there didn’t seem to be a clear path for someone like me.” Hemphill was ordained by the American Baptist
“Our heritage and theology is rich, but our system has to change to attract people under 40 and people of color,” Jonathan Hemphill (right) said. “We need
to recruit competent, relevant, contextual leaders … [and teach] budgeting, how to manage changing communities, Spanish-immersion.”
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www.thelutheran.org
Churches and started a successful “Christian Club” at a community college. He also founded a mission, which quickly grew out of its borrowed space and moved to an ELCA congregation. About then, Hemphill recalled, “my home pastor said, ‘You need to come home.’ ” Hemphill entered the TEEM (T eological Educa-
tion for Emerging Ministries) program, an alternate route to ordination in the ELCA. T is fall his ordina- tion will be transferred to the ELCA as he continues serving as pastor of Another Level Ministries, now a synodically authorized worshiping community.
and faith intersect?
How do poetry
the ELCA’s calling?
What is
JOSH COLLINS
DAVE NAGEL
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