Who is this new church?

I've lived in south Minneapolis for 15 years now, so my roots are deep enough to make me a little skeptical when someone new comes to town and tries to try to tell us who we ought to be. If you are wondering about Jacob's Well, and who I am to think we need another church in south Minneapolis when there is already one on nearly every block, well... read on.

First, who am I?

I grew up in Wisconsin (being next to WI is one of the best things that ever happened to MN, by the way!)

I am a St. Olaf ParaCollege grad in sociology, anthropology and religion.

Master of Divinty from Yale University.

Post-grad work at Luther Seminary in St. Paul.

I spent my early years as a pastor in Papua New Guinea (PNG) where my wife, Kris, and I started our family. I had been there in college doing research. Kris had lived and studied in France, so going overseas was a natural. In PNG I worked for the indigenous church supporting local leaders, helping with development projects, and generally encouraging them to put the brakes on 'western Christianity' so that they could figure out what Jesus looked like in Papua New Guinean clothing. I spent about 7 years there.

In recent years I've been Executive Pastor at Bethlehem Lutheran (41st & Lyndale). Read my blog "What is this new church?"

My passion is and always has been leading journeys of discovery. I believe discovering what God has to do with our lives is the greatest and most significant journey we ever get the privilege to be on. Leading journeys of discovery through Jacob's Well is a big risk. Afterall, I'm leaving a large, growing, established church to start from scratch, but I can't imagine anything more important, worthwhile or exciting.

What else... Kris and I have 4 kids who have grown up in the Mpls Public School system, we live in the Jacob's Well neighborhood.

I hate easy answers, or actually answers at all. I live for insights and better and better questions that move us - and God - out of the box. I think our job as followers of Christ is to spend our lives discovering just how big God really is. That's what Jesus did. That's who Jesus was.

I love to sail, play basketball, run around the lakes, spend time with Kris and my kids, read, write, drink really good coffee (it should always be too thick to stir but too thin to plow) and... why kid myself, I don't have time for half the stuff I listed already.

What I really look forward to is meeting you. I hope to talk to you and hear your story at Jacob's Well some day.

Peace,

Greg

Oh yes, why start a church in south Minneapolis when there are so many already? That's easy, we don't need another church, but we desperately need a new kind of church. I bet you agree.