Hospitality, power, and mission: A review of the writings and leadership of Roger W. Fjeld.

It all began in the little town of Primghar, Iowa, where Roger Fjeld was born and grew up. Where is Primghar, anyway?, And how did this rural community shape this foundational Lutheran theologian and church leader and his passion for mission?

In his book Blue Highways, author William Least-Heat Moon writes about the secondary roads in the United States. These are the two-lane highways that link small rural towns in our country with a county seat or a larger city. These are the highways that provide you with the best scenery and connect you with the farms of our rural countryside from one small town to another. These are the highways that take young men and women to colleges, universities, and seminaries to seek an education and training for a vocation.

One has to take a blue highway to even get close to Primghar, Iowa. And once there, one would wonder what shaped this future theologian and church leader who shared good news wherever he served. What is it about this place and other places like it in the church that have produced such good and solid leaders over these last generations? Perhaps one clue is to be found in Roger's own writings. In an article he titled "Hospitality" he quotes Henri Nouwen: "Hospitality means primarily the creation of a free space where strangers can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people but to offer them space where change can take place. Hospitality wants to offer friendship without binding the guest and freedom without leaving the guests alone." (1)

This is the "hospitality" that Roger learned on his family farm in Primghar, the hospitality that was their social life, a time for doing farm business with a neighbor and for mending fences. "The coffee's always on, you know." This rural hospitality warmed the days and created, in Roger's words, "free space where neighbors became family, or close to it." (2) Graced and shaped by this understanding of hospitality, Roger's pastoral and theological leadership offers people space where change can take place. This hospitality accompanied Roger in his studies at Wartburg Seminary and in graduate school and was the hallmark of his ministry which has been an influence on my own ministry as a colleague and partner in mission and a sharer of the Good News.

My memories of Roger's leadership are many. I can attest to his offering space where change can take place in leadership style, beginning with his service as the assistant to the district president of the Central District, American Lutheran Church (ALC) to his tenure as President of Wartburg Seminary. Along the way our paths crossed at Commission for a New Lutheran Church (CNLC) meetings, assignment meetings for seminary graduates, rural ministry conferences, synod and churchwide assemblies, Conference of Bishops meetings, and one time when I served as Bishop-in-Residence at Wartburg Seminary. Several examples stand Out.

The first was at a rural ministry conference at Wartburg Seminary where during the question-and-answer time someone asked him in a rather direct manner why the seminary was not training and producing graduates who would be "evangelists" for the church. In the questioner's opinion, the seminary was failing the church by not fulfilling this responsibility. Roger's response was typically to the point: "Send us some students who have an aptitude for evangelism and we will train them for that ministry." That response remains a challenge to this day for a church body that sees outreach as one of its priorities.

A second memory was the timely presentation that Roger gave to the newly elected bishops of the ELCA in December, 1987. The title of his lecture was "The Bishop and Power." Among the many good thoughts he shared, Roger summed up his topic by saying, "A bishop's power is a power and a command of God to preach the gospel, to forgive and retain sins, and to administer and to distribute the sacraments. The gospel is the only source of power in the life of the church. It is the only unambiguous power we have." Those were words that set a tone and words that we needed to hear about the ministry most of us had newly begun. To this day, I have yet to find a more concise and apt definition and description of what it means to serve in the office of bishop in the ELCA.

A third memory involves observing Roger as he led a faculty meeting at Wartburg Seminary. Not only was everything done in good order and in good time, but he gave opportunity for faculty to participate in meaningful ways. What stood out for me was how well the president and the faculty knew their student body as individuals, each one with strengths and weaknesses. Hospitality gave students space where growth and change could take place. The atmosphere of this meeting carried over to my participation with students and faculty during my residence at Wartburg Seminary. Hospitality was a daily reality in this community, and Roger's leadership set the example.

Finally, in an article he titled "Setting the Tone for Our New Life Together," Roger struck a chord for how life together in our new church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), might be strengthened and expanded by the way in which we choose to live together. He defined "tone" as the "quality of our communications with each other, the amount of care we exercise in getting to know each other, the respect we show for the institutions and patterns which were dear to others in the old churches." (3) Like many other articles Roger wrote about the beginnings of the new church, these words still challenge us to live out the "tone" that would strengthen rather than weaken the body of Christ.

In his writings and sermons one finds the depth and wisdom of Roger's understanding and love of the church. Here one also discovers the theologian and missional leader. What becomes equally clear is that the major themes of his theology and leadership have been carried forward steadfastly in his ministry of the gospel for over forty years. His essays and sermons reveal a clarity of thought and a mind expressed openly and honestly. At the center of his writings, whatever the topic or issue might be, one finds a sense of trust in the gospel and a hope in a loving and faithful Creator God whom we know in Jesus Christ.

Most of Roger's essays, many of which have appeared in Currents, are characterized by their timeliness. Yet issues that were addressed a decade or so ago are still of major concern to the church today. Two of Roger's essays written within six months of each other in 1994, "The Righteousness Factor" and "The Costly Legacy of Distrust," make this point. Both addressed issues of that time, namely, the first draft of a statement on human sexuality in the ELCA and the ensuing tone of the debate within the church. Roger points out a danger when we as the church take on controversial issues. A curious thing happens, he writes in the first essay, when "we who regularly confess that we have no righteousness except that which Christ has given us, find ourselves declaring some people righteous and others unrighteous, on the basis of what they believe or practice. It is as though we remember our sinfulness in generic and liturgical conversation, then forget to bring that understanding with us into these divisive debates. " In these debates, he said, we would do well "to address them with more humility; with more awareness that all parties to the debate are broken and every human attempt to declare the righteousness of God is tainted by our own pretensions of righteousness." In summary are words that could shape our attitudes toward our present study on sexuality: "We need lots more light and lots less heat, as we try to offer something which will provide guidance with the life of the church, and a word of counsel to a world that has badly distorted God's intention for us as sexual beings." (4)

The second article examines the costly legacy of distrust stemming from the Watergate incident that continues to manifest a negative spirit in our society today. As Roger points out, we need to be concerned about this "continuing distrust" that pervades our society and our view of government. Here he rightly connects this sense of distrust to the institutions of the church. "It has always been easy for American churches to buy into an individualistic understanding of Christian faith. It has been easy to locate the church only in local congregations and then to let local congregations become gatherings of the like-minded, rather than expressions of the body of Christ and outposts for the gospel. Now we pay for that acquiescence as Americans become blatant consumers of rewarding religion rather than disciples of Jesus." Roger calls for us to rediscover the importance of institutions "for our lives and then re-embrace our institutions and shape them for service." (5)

This, of course, leads to Roger's favorite theme, the mission of the church. Sometimes mission appears as the subject of an essay; it is always the object of whatever he writes or whenever he speaks. For example, in a sermon on Acts 13 to the Wartburg Seminary community at the beginning of the academic year in 1988, Roger spoke about the seminary being a "set-apart and a sending-out community." The seminary sends its graduates off with all the preparation they can muster. But that is not the point. The point is this: Have the graduates been sent off for their ministry with a renewed passion and toughness for mission? Has the seminary been a place where mission is the foundational priority for their vocation as ministers of the gospel? where excitement about the outreach of the task of the ELCA is front and center? "We can, we will," promised Roger, "through God's grace and power. Let us seek to be a sending community of set-apart people!" How else would one describe Roger's own lifelong quest for mission as o ther than full of "passion and toughness"?

Some essays that were directed to the church, its congregations, and synods were written to help us remember that all of the efforts and energy we have taken in recent years to plan, organize, and launch a new church were preliminary to the main event. "The main event is mission," Roger would say. Whether encouraging congregations to gear up for mission or exhorting their call committees to question all candidates on matters having to do with the vision and mission of the church, one finds a zeal to have gospel and mission central to the life of congregations. That there would be a hunger for the Word and that there would be worship and sacramental life undergirding the congregation's understanding of its ministry should be central to any interview.

In another essay written in 1992 on "The Changing Face of Mission,"

Roger speaks of new language to talk about "world missions" or "global missions." This new language mirrors an appreciation for other people and cultures. The "mission fields" now have become churches, "with their own resources and leaders and with missionaries in new, more complementary roles. And now, more and more, we talk of 'partner churches,' seeing them as both sending and receiving in mission." (6) The Companion Synod program of the ELCA has taught many in our congregations and synods the truth of the changes in global mission that Roger has described. The watchword is now "Think globally, act locally!" He adds in the same essay, "As the face of mission changes, this is the newest dimension: Christians learning to think of themselves as citizens of the world and conceiving mission accordingly." It is a mission that seeks to accompany our partners and to serve the world as one.

Other themes that Roger touches on with great insight in his essays in Currents describe the importance he places on developing community and leadership for the church. These include an insightful essay on the "Rural Crisis" (7) and another on the role of "Ministry with Youth in This Third Time of Testing." (8) The former indicates an empathy and understanding of rural life and the vocation of farmers within the created order, and the latter offers a critical analysis of youth ministry today and how youth can and should be challenged by the church. Throughout his essays, again and again, Roger expresses his love and passion for the church and its gospel message and is a staunch defender and eloquent advocate for the institutions of the church, especially our seminaries that have become for the ELCA a "Foundation Priority."

One would be remiss in acknowledging Roger's missional leadership if one did not mention his command and comprehension of American civil religion. In some ways Roger's understanding of this field of study is the other bookend that stands opposite his emphasis on the importance of mission for the church. In his chapter on "American Civil Religion: A De Facto Church" in the recently published book The Difficult but Indispensable Church, (9) Roger strikes a hopeful and positive note despite his critical analysis of the civil religion that is prevalent in our nation.

Repeating the question whether or not the United States is a special nation, as this religion would maintain, Roger suggests that we use the text from Luke 12:48 to assess our place: "Everyone to whom much is given, of [him or her] will much be required." Why? Because "so much has been given to us by God who is both righteous and merciful, so much is expected of us as stewards of those gifts. Our allegiance must be to a transcendent God whose righteousness and mercy are both beyond our understanding. Our calling is to serve both that righteousness and that mercy in our dealings with each other and in our commitment to the one world in which we are called to live as servants." (10) The reader will find in this chapter helpful insights on issues of religion in public life that are currently looming large in the United States, insights that are theologically informed and presented in a clear and thoughtful way.

Serving Out his calls as a pastor, assistant to district president, administrator in church offices, and President of Wartburg Theological Seminary, Roger has not only proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ, but he has himself brought good news through the hospitality he has shared. Above all, Roger knows that there is power to be found in that gospel for one serving in the ministry, and this power can be passed on by offering space where change can take place. Why else would he always have signed his letters with these words, "Power to you"?

Power to you, Roger, and thanks for your hospitality, your sense of mission, your leadership in the church, and the theological insights of the gospel of Jesus Christ that you have shared.

(1.) Henri J. Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975), 51.

(2.) Roger W. Fjeld, "Hospitality," Currents in Theology and Mission 14:3 (June 1987).

(3.) Fjeld, "Setting the Tone for Our New Life Together," Currents in Theology and Mission 15:3 (June 1988).

(4.) Fjeld, "The Righteousness Factor," Currents in Theology and Mission 21:4 (April 1994).

(5.) Fjeld, "The Costly Legacy of Distrust," Currents in Theology and Mission 21:5 (October 1994).

(6.) Fjeld, "The Changing Face of Mission," Currents in Theology and Mission 19:5 (October 1992).

(7.) Fjeld, "The Rural Crisis and the Church's Ministry," Currents in Theology and Mission 12:2 (April 1985).

(8.) Fjeld, "Ministry with Youth in This Third Time of Testing," Currents in Theology and Mission 22:4 (August 1995).

(9.) Fjeld, "American Civil Religion: A De Facto Church," in The Difficult but Indispensable Church, ed. Norma Cook Everist (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002).

(10.) Fjeld, "American Civil Religion: A De Facto Church," 190.

Charles Maahs, bishop emeritus and former member of Wartburg's Board, gives a summary overview of the writings and leadership of Roger Fjeld. It is in his writings and sermons that one finds the depth and wisdom of his understanding and love of the church. Here one also discovers the theologian and missional leader. He endeavored to make Wartburg a sending community of set-apart people. He showed empathy for and understanding of rural life and the vocation of farmers, and he had strong feelings about what the church should be doing in youth ministry to challenge and encourage young people. He is a sharp critic of American civil religion but positive and hopeful about the vocation of the church in America today. His letters always ended, "Power to you!"