I love Rotary, and I got a hole-in-one at their golf tournament last week!!!

 

I’ve been part of Rotary for a long time. I don’t have the specific year that I joined. But I remember Newell Krogmann encouraging me to get involved with a local service club. I was still relatively new to Blaine and wanting to learn more about the community. Joining a service club made sense. I remember when I was growing up learning more about Kiwannis. One of the singing groups in which I was in sang for them every year. They provided chaperones for our local Prom because one year a student was in a terrible car accident. They stepped up to help. 

I didn’t know anything about Rotary when I came. They met every week at the Clubhouse of the Tournament Player’s Championship golf course. I still remember my first meeting. About twenty-five people attended—a mix of men and women. They provided a free breakfast and a speaker who talked about something in the community. I don’t remember who the speaker was, but I remember that the topic was interesting. 

So I started attending every Wednesday. Eventually I joined. The dues weren’t bad—about $800 a year. I got a free breakfast from my dues. I thought to myself, “I have to eat breakfast somewhere. Why not do it with other people who want to serve the community?” 

Our local Rotary club does quite a lot of service project. Since I’ve joined I can remember passing out dictionaries in the local elementary schools; helping HOPE 4 Youth and Stepping Stone; picking up trash on the side of the road; supporting a partnership in Guatemala; and providing mentors in a youth program called Strive. 

Two years ago I was asked if I would serve as the President of our local club. The timing wasn’t great for me as our congregation was moving into our new building. But I’ve always believed that we don’t always get to choose when we serve. So I said, “yes.” The tasks didn’t take an extra amount of time. I wrote an email once a week, helped lead the meetings on Wednesday, and led a Board meeting once a month. I was really pleased that during the year I arranged for our Club to do some strategic planning. This worked out very well. Our club reorganized our committees and set some objectives. 

Every year our local Rotary club puts on a fundraising golf tournament. It’s a best ball tournament at the Refuge golf club. It’s the only fundraiser that our club does. It makes over $40,000. In the past year that money has been given to a large number of groups in the community. Groups who have received money are Achieve Services, Alexandra Houses, bikes for Kids, Blaine Police Explorers, the Miracle League, HOPE 4 Youth, Stepping Stone, the Jim Smith Foundation, Lee Carlson Center, MNAdopt, Reel Hope Project, the Anoka Hennepin Educational Foundation, the Spring Lake Park Education Foundation and HOPE for the community. I’m sure I’m missing some organization who have received funding in that list. 

I think this is a very impressive array of groups who have bene helped by the golf tournament. 

Last Thursday I was golfing at the tournament. It’s a best-ball tournament with four people on each team. I’ve recruited the same team for a number of years—John Carney, John Altrichter, and my wife, Amy. We golfed fairly well—we ended up at twelve under. 

Our last hole of the day was #14. It is 167 yards. I pulled out my four iron and hit my shot. It was a good shot. I knew that it had landed on the green and was near the hole. Because it was late in the day the shadows didn’t let me see where the ball finally rested. Someone was near the hole and started shouting that the ball was in the hole. That couldn’t be as that would be a hole-in-one. And I’m not a good enough golfer to hit a hole-in-one.

So I started walking towards the hole before everyone on the team had completed their shot. I needed to see for myself what I was hearing. I got to the green and didn’t see the ball. The person who was shouting told me I had a hole-in-one. Really? I walked to the hole and there was my yellow ball in the hole. It was a hole-in-one. 

I couldn’t help taking a picture, which is on the top of this blog post. 

Wow. This had never happened to me before. I am not convinced it will ever happen again. The four of us celebrated on the hole and went to the clubhouse.  

It was a blast telling everyone that I had a hole-in-one and then taking some pictures. Everybody had basically the same response. Their face had the look of “are you kidding me?” I discovered that getting a hole-in-one is like telling people that you’ve had a baby. Everyone is happy for you and is ready to slap you on the back. 

I did some research and discovered that According to the National Hole-in-One Registry, the odds of the average golfer making a hole-in-one are 12,500 to 1. The odds of a PGA tour player making an ace are 3,000 to 1; a low handicapper is 5,000 to 1. I don’t golf enough to have a handicap, but I’m happy to break fifty for nine holes. I did have another birdie at the tournament.

 

More interesting statistics. The average years of playing golf for a player before making an ace is 24. Tiger Woods has had twenty aces in his lifetime.

I don’t know what I’ll do with my golf ball that landed in the hole, but I’ll figure something out. 

I am not a good golfer, so I don’t anticipate every getting another hole-in-one. Though the shot I hit was a good shot, I was completely lucky that it went in the hole. However I'll never forget that shot and that it happened at the Rotary golf tournament.

I live in a two-church family. This is how it works

 

This past weekend I had the opportunity to volunteer at the annual Festival that St. Joseph of the Lakes Catholic church shares every year during the second full weekend of August. This is a big deal in our household as my wife, Amy, chaired the team that ran the Festival. The team that coordinates the Festival works very hard—and once again provided terrific leadership. They had a challenging year in their planning. Their main musical act on Saturday night, GB Leighton, had to pull out for health reasons; they weren’t sure at certain moments if they could have fireworks and even last week the City of Lino Lakes hadn’t issued a liquor license. 

Just getting such a parish of thousands of families to be on the same page regarding the purpose of this event is not always easy.  

I helped out at the Pull Tab stand on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. I led outdoor worship at Chain of Lakes on Sunday morning and then went over to St. Joe’s for the afternoon. I even missed the Chain of Lakes golf tournament that took place on Sunday, so I could be at the Festival.

Hundreds of people attend the Festival. When I drove over to the church early Sunday afternoon the parking lot was full.

Ever since Amy and I met we have been a two-church family. During our very first phone conversation, Amy asked me about my profession. “I’m the pastor of the Presbyterian church in Plainview,” I said. “Well that’s interesting,” she replied.

And indeed it has been “interesting.” Not “interesting” in a passive-aggressive way. Instead “interesting” in that it is truly “interesting” to learn and participate in a different faith tradition.

Amy and I are both religious professionals. I've been a pastor since being ordained in 1993. When I first met Amy she was the Administrator at a Real Estate company in Rochester. She then got her Masters in Servant Leadership. And when the Administrator position of the Catholic church where we attended became open, she applied and got the job. When we moved to Blaine, a similar position became open at St. Joseph of the Lakes. She got the job.

I participate at St. Joseph’s of the Lakes. I am on the schedule to be the Cantor at their Saturday afternoon Mass; I volunteer my time on occasion; and I’ve gotten to know many of the families who attend. I even received a volunteer appreciation certificate from the congregation. When I received it, I thought that I might be the only Presbyterian pastor in the country who has a volunteer appreciation certificate from the local Catholic church.

Amy participates at Chain of Lakes even more than I participate at St. Joseph’s of the Lakes. She attends worship at Chain of Lakes almost every Sunday. She led the Praise Band when we were in between staff people and currently sings in the Band. She participates in small groups and serves.

Our faith brings us together—it is the foundation of our relationship. We don’t look at St. Joseph’s of the Lakes as her congregation or Chain of Lakes as my congregation. We see them as unique places where each community of people is living into the call that God is sharing with them. Amy and I want to see each congregation succeed in an extravagant way.  

It's not like Amy is Catholic, and I'm Presbyterian. Instead we're followers of Jesus who travel on this journey together. Our identity is formed in an expansive faith that is not divided by labels.

What had made our two-church relationship work is each of us wants to participate. We don't participate out of obligation. I want to participate in the choir at St. Joseph’s of the Lakes. I don’t need to be reminded by Amy to sign up for a date to cantor. Amy wants to be in worship at Chain of Lakes. I never have to ask her if she is attending worship. She values the friendships she has made. She wants to see people of the congregation.

Amy and I have almost identical beliefs about God and the church. Sometimes we’ll discover that we look at an idea differently—but not often.

Our daughter, Hannah, has participated in both congregations and is certainly a better person because of this. She has been surrounded her entire life by adults who care for her. It doesn’t matter if these adults attend the Catholic church or the Presbyterian church. What matters is she learned that adults care for her and that she can trust adults. Someone once asked me if Hannah would be confused by attending two different congregations as Presbyterians and Catholics don't agree on faith. First of all, Presbyterians and Catholics agree on more matters of faith than we disagree. Plus, Hannah has the intelligence to sort our her own personal beliefs. She's not confused at all--in fact she's been enriched by her experiences. 

I actually dream of having one church in each community—one place where people attend each weekend. I don’t think this will ever happen in my lifetime, but I take Jesus seriously when he said in John 17 that he wanted his followers to be one. I don’t think Jesus wants to see his church divided into three branches and hundreds of denominations. 

At a minimum I would love it if every congregation could see themselves as satellites of the one church. Some large churches have satellite congregations. What if every congregation saw itself as a satellite of the one church? People of faith would then not see themselves as all that different from their neighbors who attend different churches. 

The metaphor that I often use for describing faith is a path. We ride in different cars on that path. Amy grew up riding in the Catholic car; I grew up riding in the Presbyterian car. We get in each other's car. Sometimes she drives; sometimes I drive. We enjoy the view from each of our cars. My dream is that followers of Jesus will travel together in a large bus.

Neither Amy and I ever thought that we would land in a two-church family. It’s a good life. And hopefully our lives illustrate what God desires for God’s church.

Have you had your Barbenheimer moment?

 I had my own Barbenheimer moment as I had the opportunity to watch both the Barbie movie and Oppenheimer. I didn’t watch them back-to-back as that would have been almost five hours of movie watching. But I’ve seen both, and I’m glad that I did. Both have important spiritual themes. 

Barbieheimer, of course, is the phenomenon of watching both the Barbie movie and the Oppenheimer movie. The term came from the suggestion to watch both movies as a double feature. 

I saw Oppenheimer at the AMC theatre in Roseville. Both Amy and Hannah were busy, so I drove down by myself to the theatre. The line to purchase tickets wasn’t long, but I was surprised by the cost of the ticket. $18? I go to movies all the time, but I hadn’t paid that much for a movie. I walked into the movie at the start time. And then watched previews for twenty-three minutes. Twenty-three-minutes! I only know because the previews became so long that I started wondering myself how long they were going to last. It got to the point of when a movie preview came on, I thought, “another one?” 

The movie is an excellent description of the process through Oppenheimer’s eyes of building and then exploding the first atomic bombs. I’m interested now in reading “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” the book on which the movie was based.  The movie brings out all sorts of ethical questions. Was the death and damage of those two bombs worth it? How were the Russians able to get the bomb themselves? Why was Oppenheimer targeted for security lapses and then denied a security clearance? 

A surreal part of the movie happened after the successful test of the bomb. Oppenheimer was applauded by everyone he encountered at Los Alamos, the place where the scientists and their families lived as the bomb was being developed. The applause came because the project was a success. But that short-term revelry quickly led to the sobering reality that the weapons which had been created could literally destroy the world. 

Another sobering scene was where Leslie "Dick" Groves, the character Matt Damon played, asked Oppenheimer if it was true that the chain reaction set off by the explosion of the bomb would go on indefinitely. The explosions would literally never stop. Oppenheimer said that the reality was quite unlikely—close to zero. Groves said that this wasn’t good enough. He wanted zero. 

We all want zero. And no one in their right mind wants to see an atomic bomb exploded. And fortunately no atomic bombs have exploded since those two brought such terrible destruction to the people of Japan.  The sobering reality is that approximately 12,500 of these bombs exist now in the world with nine countries having them.   

I remember the passionate debates in the 1980’s that the nuclear freeze movement brought up. And the logic of those who opposed the nuclear freeze movement that argued that a leader would  never explode one of these bombs because the retaliatory destruction is so high. The world depends on rational leaders who won’t unleash such destruction. 

Does that make you feel safe? It certainly makes me uneasy. The world would be a safer place without these bombs. Getting there might be impossible. 

The Barbie movie was much more fun to watch. And less expensive. I saw it twice—once at the East Bethel theatre and another time at the White Bear Lake theater. At those two theaters I paid $10. 

Barbie was a delightful movie that shared a vision of what would happen if Barbie and women like her was in charge. The first part is just fun and sugary. But then thoughts of death pop into Barbie’s mind and she has to go out of Barbie land and into the real world. 

The movie shares the idea of what would happen if women were in charge. And though some conservatives have sharply criticized the movie for being feminist, the question is worth asking. Do we think we would be in the place that Oppenheimer found himself if women were running the world. 

The movie has been very successful. Barbie has already had over a billion in ticket sales. 

Towards the end of the movie the character Gloria shared a spot-on speech on the double standards of being a woman that is worth reading and re-reading. I found the text of the speech on the town and country magazine web site.  It’s worth reading. The movie is worth seeing just for this speech. 

“It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don't think you're good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we're always doing it wrong. 

You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin. You have to have money, but you can't ask for money because that's crass. You have to be a boss, but you can't be mean. You have to lead, but you can't squash other people's ideas. You're supposed to love being a mother, but don't talk about your kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman but also always be looking out for other people. 

You have to answer for men's bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you're accused of complaining. You're supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you're supposed to be a part of the sisterhood. 

But always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged. So find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful. 

You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line. It's too hard! It's too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out in fact that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also everything is your fault. 

I'm just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don't even know.” 

Which vision of the world will eventually prevail? Oppenheimer’s? Where the possibility of incomprehensible destruction ironically saves us from that destruction. Or Barbie’s sweet, laugh-out-loud vision where people have fun? The colors of the movie reveal the choice. The colors of Oppenheimer were dark; Barbie’s were pink and very bright. 

I’m glad I had my Barbenheimer moment just to reflect on these choices.