June 2019

In 2011 Lisa Mensinger walked into Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church and moved into our hearts. It didn’t take long for us to see how the Spirit walked with her or, perhaps, the way the Holy Gust blew her into our life together.  

It is said that the Holy Spirit loves company. Well, so does Lisa.  Together they explored more and more ways to draw people into the web of God’s grace. Youth ministry morphed into expanded relationships with parents, faith coaches, mentors, and adult partners in service events and ELCA youth gatherings. The Spirit and Lisa couldn’t leave our worship well enough alone. Youth led midweek Lenten worship. Then, Lisa became fully involved in worship planning. All along the way, she continued to develop abiding relationships.

Then it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to Lisa, that she should heed the call for public ordained ministry. She walked with mentors, spiritual directors, and with us, discerning her way. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, her heart burned as Jesus appeared in the scriptures for her. Later she walked as a student chaplain into hospital rooms and waiting rooms, learning to be Christ for those in distress. Now, her training calls her into a new walk in ministry, serving an internship with Elim Lutheran Church, an urban congregation in Ogden. 

We share in Lisa’s Holy Spirit-ed walk. Long before she entered seminary (which means, “seedbed”) I believe that our community of faith was Lisa’s seedbed. The Spirit was planting, cultivating and nurturing Lisa’s call among us. We are in mission together, in a different way and in a very personal way.  We have provided scholarship assistance through our mission support. We pray for Lisa.  All of this has proved to be mutually bene˜cial.  Together, we have grown in our faith.  We have learned that mission support goes beyond “what we are doing for another.”  In church language, this is called “accompaniment.” It is accompanying one another, a walking together, learning and supporting one another. In Tanzania we say, “bega kwa bega,” °- hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder. 

When you think on all of this, we are walking on holy ground, with Christ.

​Pastor Steve Klemz

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