Author: Rod Anderson

Pastor Rod Anderson reflects on the enduring message of “What the World Needs Now Is Love” and its relevance today.

Hanging on the dining room wall above our Thanksgiving table is a beautiful needlepoint representation of “Grace” created and gifted to us by a sweet elderly woman, who is now deceased. I’m sure it’s familiar to many, but few will know that it is the official Minnesota state photograph. Because its story is worthy of remembering and repeating at Thanksgiving family gatherings, I’m providing it for your convenience. May it inspire gratitude in your heart and that of those with whom you share Thanksgiving.  The following article on “Grace,” the Minnesota state photograph, first appeared in 2015 on Mnopedia, an…

In the morning, when I arrived at the senior living community where I’m chaplain, a work crew was already at the main entrance redoing and renewing all the landscaping with new plantings and mulch. Immediately, wise advice given to me years ago by a creative church consultant friend popped into my mind. “Renew and refresh the landscaping around the front of your church frequently,” he said. “It’s the first impression first-time visitors receive about your congregation.” First impressions are lasting impressions, and we never get a second chance to make a first impression. This is a common-sense truth that may…

Our neighborhood is called Cedar Forest, and we’re surrounded by numerous red cedar trees. Many have grown from young seedlings to mature evergreens on our corner lot during the 46 years we’ve lived here. But even more than the cedars, I’ve cherished the seven oaks that will soon be showing their autumn colors in our front yard, plus a couple in the side yards, for their calling to mind my childhood on the farm. When I was in high school, my parents officially named our fifth-generation family farm, recording and registering it as Oak Park Farm at the Goodhue County…

Early in my ministry, I realized that the most significant days on the annual church calendar coincided with legal holidays. These were days off for many with regular jobs. Meanwhile, festive holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter were the busiest for pastors. Please understand that I’m not complaining! I loved working really hard to give my very best effort for the Lord, the church, and its people on each of these beloved days of celebration. I cherish the seasonal nature of the liturgical church year with its immense opportunities for teaching and learning the faith and life of the church…

I am writing today from the American Cancer Society’s Sandra J. Schulze Hope Lodge here in Rochester, Minnesota, right next to the Mayo Clinic medical complex. The late Sandra Schulze was the wife of Best Buy founder Richard Schulze, who made it possible for anyone receiving cancer treatments to stay here for free. My wife, Julane, and I are living here for six weeks while she receives daily Proton Beam Radiation treatments for squamous cell skin cancer on her face. Ten years ago, when she received a liver transplant resulting from Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (the non-alcohol-related type of cirrhosis), we…

My morning walk to the mailbox to get my newspaper is a favorite part of my wake-up routine all year around, especially when my timing is right to hear an early chorus of bird songs. Winter has been cold and blustery, long and hard, but the blue jays, red cardinals, and black-capped chickadees never fail to make their presence known. But now comes spring and new wake-up notes and melodies of robins and warblers. Wake up … it’s Passover Jewish Passover comes around the time of the vernal equinox when equal day and equal night mark the transition from winter…

Now comes the 40-day annual season entered on Ash Wednesday by Christians, both Roman Catholics and Protestants. This season is historically intended for self-denial and prayer, worship, and service in preparation for the observance of Holy Week, Good Friday, and Easter. The journey through this time, scripturally and personally, has always been very important in my faith life and church life! But when I write for this spirituality column in this EP Local News, my preferred intention is to be focused “ecumenically” in hopes of offering something of spiritual value to all readers regardless of their faith orientation. Could it…

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and in anticipation of Black History Month, I made the drive to Gustavus Adolphus College to take in a 90-minute conversation between Black English and African Studies Professor Phil Bryant and our first Black Minnesota Supreme Court Justice, Alan Page. Christ Chapel on the campus was packed with students, faculty and staff, and campus visitors like me, numbering more than a thousand. Trust my estimate, please – I was Interim College Chaplain in that room at Gustavus from 2011-13. Of course, Page needed no introduction for most attendees. Still, hearing that he was inducted…

Decorating a saguaro cactus is a prickly undertaking, but with ladders and lifts, they do it each year all around the southwest’s Sonoran Desert. We traveled to Phoenix this Advent to spend time with close friends to mark the first anniversaries of both their parents’ deaths in the past year. Like with many people, this season of family gatherings brings grief to the surface, but more importantly, also faith, hope and love that still remain! Picture the saguaro’s lighted form as metaphorical, representing worshippers with arms lifting up bright lights to pierce the darkness in this holy season of joyful…