What’s In Your Bowl?

by Diaconal Minister Rebecca Kolowé

Southeastern Synod Director for Evangelical Mission and Assistant to the Bishop

“For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.”–Romans 12:4-5

This week I’ve been in Chicago for an all staff meeting with my colleagues from the Congregational and Synodical Mission Unit of the ELCA. One of the questions we were asked during our opening plenary session on Monday night was “What’s in your bowl?” The motivation behind the question was to get us to think critically about who we are and where we come from, and how those factors affect our mission and ministry as we live out the call to be church in the world. Three questions shaped this conversation:

1. Describe your culture as it shaped your life and world view in your early years. What values guided your life?
2. Who were “your people” when you were growing up? How did being a part of your family/group/community shape and form you?
3.  Who were the people on the outside of your group? How did you become aware of them; how did you feel toward them; and what experiences influenced your feelings?

The answers to questions #1 and #2 make up the things that are “in my bowl;” they are key pieces of my identity and helped form my worldview. The answer to question #3 makes up the things that are “outside of my bowl,” or at least were at one time, even if I have now learned to incorporate them into my life and be intentional in my awareness of them.

Many people in Southeastern Synod have asked similar questions of me since I started my position as the new Director for Evangelical Mission almost four weeks ago. “Who are you?” “Where did you come from?” and “What is important to you?” are questions I answer frequently. It is essential for us to know who we are partnering with in ministry. The whole idea behind “one body, many members,” which summarizes the verse above, is that we each have different gifts and experiences that contribute to the proper working of the whole. It is important that we share our stories with one another so that we can better understand each others’ gifts and how we fit into the greater whole of ministry.

I grew up at Messiah Lutheran Church in Madison, Alabama. I am a charter member of that congregation. I was one of the three students in the very first confirmation class that was confirmed at Messiah in 1992. I am proud to say that I was confirmed in a Rubber Workers’ Union Hall, which was where the congregation met before we had a church building. I have very fond memories of those days—worship was held in the big meeting hall, where we sat on metal folding chairs, the makeshift altar was actually a folding table on risers, and the neon union signs on the wall behind us glared at us all through worship. Sunday school happened in that room, too—groups circled their chairs and we did the best we could with the limited space we had because we believed in the mission of Christ in that place.

My answers to all three of the above questions come out of that experience. Messiah helped cultivate a missionary spirit in me and gave me a sense that God was calling me to service. Messiah sent me to National Youth Gathering in Atlanta in 1994, where I served on the Youth Servant Corps and got my first real taste of what it meant to serve. That week collecting in-kind offerings for the poor and serving the other participants who gathered to worship, learn, and have fun gave me my first taste of what it could be like to be in ministry. I have been hooked ever since.

Since those days, Messiah has prayed me through college and supported me on a missionary adventure in Africa. This is the place where I was married, and these are the people who sent us assistance when my husband had an accident and was in the hospital. Messiah is where I learned what it means to be church—who I am, who my people are, and how to be in relationship and ministry with all people, even those who were once outside of my bowl. One body, many members.

I am sharing this story because it has profoundly shaped who I am, and also because I hope that as I get to know your ministry, and as we meet and talk together, that you will also share your stories with me. The goal behind asking and answering questions like these is to move toward becoming “one in Christ”—where we all know and appreciate each others’ stories, similarities and differences, and see them as part of the greater whole of the Body of Christ. Only then can we be in ministry together as Christ intended.