Spiritual connections: Snowbirds flock to churches

My wife, Julane, and I just returned from another trip down memory lane in Arizona, where we spent a year of seminary internship at Shepherd of the Valley in 1972/73.

The congregation was the largest in our denomination west of the Mississippi at that time, and it was a very eventful and impactful year for our family, and especially for my ministry. Our first child was born and baptized there, so grandparents, uncles, and even a great-grandmother showed up — all “in the family” snowbirds!

As fall turned to Christmas and then winter up north, more and more church visitors arrived, mostly from the Midwest.

Every Sunday morning, we’d set out tables in the courtyard for nametags. The table for Minnesota had nametags shaped like the state of Minnesota to fill out. So, too, for Wisconsin, Iowa, and North and South Dakota. Without even reading the name on the tag from afar, smiling worshippers were helped to connect for conversations about travel, accommodations, hometowns, and home churches, with a coffee cup in hand! Not to mention, many tee times and tennis matches were set for the upcoming week!

So, it was there I learned on internship that snowbirds flock to churches! 

Fast forward to the year 2000, when my denomination encouraged congregations to consider funding the birthing and establishing of new mission starts across the United States of America. This underscored the fact that not only foreign missions were important but also that new and developing communities in the U.S. were important mission fields. 

So, our St. Andrew Lutheran Church here in Eden Prairie funded the establishment of Spirit of Grace Lutheran Church in Sun City Grand, Arizona. We worshipped there again a couple of weeks ago in February.

The beautiful contemporary sanctuary was packed with gray-haired worshippers, and the 42 choir chairs were also filled with gray-haired sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses. We were inspired, and any church across the land would be thrilled to have an enthusiastic worshipping community like the one we experienced there.

So, again, I learned from these elders that snowbirds flock to worship.

God brought to mind the comfort of the Holy Spirit and the promise of the resurrection on our last church stop as we remembered the Memorial Service for my mentor and internship supervisor, Pastor Dick Hamlin, just a few years ago.

It was there that we celebrated his life and his promised resurrection in a grand service that I had the privilege of conducting alongside the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Grand Canyon Synod Bishop, the Rev. Deborah Hutterer, and several other robed pastors. It was a grand service for a grand servant of the Lord!”

Pastor Dick was more than just my mentor! He made a habit of writing and printing Mentoring Moments cards to be handed out wherever he visited. I’ve saved every one of them and refer to them often for their wise guidance and inspiration.

One more stop for the inspiration of it … Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center was bustling with activity as snowbirds and locals alike from the valley gathered for refreshing and renewing faith in this quiet and beautiful setting amongst the “boulder” desert peaks. I picked up the retreat center’s “Lenten Journey’ Devotional Booklet for its scriptures, devotional reflections, and prayers on the way from Ash Wednesday to Easter. 

In the Bible, “desert” is a kind of “code” word for “wilderness” – that place between where we’ve been and that place where we are going! This is something we snowbirds have come to understand when we flock to churches, at home or away!  

Thanks be to God! 

Editor’s note: Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN) contributor Pastor Rod Anderson also serves on the EPLN Board of Directors. He was the senior pastor of St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie.

Interested in contributing a faith-based column to EPLN? Email editor@eplocalnews.org.