Joining God in the Neighborhood
Reflections on Awaken Dane - By Stephen Redmann
Awaken Dane is a two-year, Lilly Endowment funded, journey of intentional engagement in Christian practices that awakens participants to God’s activity in the community, sends them out into new spaces and relationships, and facilitates the sharing of these experiences with one another—all as means to discern God’s future calling. This program is a collaboration between Wisconsin Council of Churches, Collaboration Project, Dubuque Theological Seminary and Upper House.
I am going to have to start with a confession. When my Pastor asked me to join the Awaken Dane team for our church, St. Stephens Lutheran, I said “yes'' with a considerable amount of reluctance. Pastor Elisa talked it up and eventually, because I try to serve the congregation where I can, I said yes.
I had some preconceived notions about what this experience was going to be. I thought that this was going to be a way to practice getting out there in our neighborhoods and conversing with people to get them to join the congregation, thereby increasing our membership. It’s plain to see that we, along with many congregations, Lutheran and otherwise, are experiencing declining membership and that some congregations are experiencing a desperate need to explore options to stay viable.
But I was very wrong about Awaken Dane because it is actually much, much cooler than that. Instead, it’s a program to teach us how to look into our neighborhoods around us (both the congregation’s and our own) and spot how God is at work here now: in plain sight and in the ways hidden by your neighbor’s oversized zinnia bush. Then, we join in and participate with God and others. (“With” and not “for,” which is an important distinction.)
One of the seminars that was a part of this experience was at the Upper House, which is downtown, across the street from the Chazen Art Museum. Peter Tan, one of Madison’s premier architects, was the keynote speaker. He is a practicing Christian, and he related how he believed that the contemporary mission of the church is, in many ways, very similar to contemporary prevailing theories of architectural design. This states that we take the lay of the land around us and design a building that will be harmonious with nature in its space. (In other words, don’t change what is in nature to fit around your building, but rather fit your building to be around and within nature).
Similarly, we must discover where God is at work in the world and mold and shape the Church (which is us, as the body of Christ) to fit the environment in which God is at work.
His presentation was incredible and very powerful. I was sold and have been all in on this adventure ever since then.
It isn’t always easy to see, and the discerning of what God’s intent is can be difficult. However, each time we meet, we spend time “dwelling in the Word,” which helps provide us with a sense of both clarity and purpose.
On a personal level, the ecumenical fellowship and seeing how other denominations and congregations with different cultural backgrounds worship and pray has been very inspiring to me. Other than the occasional wedding or funeral, I have not had many cross-denominational opportunities for worship in my life.
Here is one thing I have to say that fills me with a certain sense of pride, and I hope it isn’t to the point of sinfulness. St. Stephen’s is already good at this. When the Monona Hills Apartment fire happened earlier this year, the people of this congregation jumped into action, some even before the fire was completely out. This is exactly in line with seeing where God is at work and moving and working with God and the people who need God most in that moment and space.
In conclusion, I hope that together we can better learn to spot how God is at work around us. If we can, as a congregation, help facilitate this, I believe God will surely continue to use us and our hands in facilitating God’s work in the neighborhood .
If you are interested in finding out more about Awaken Dane and how your congregation can participate go to awakendane.org. Applications are now open for the '24-25 cohort.