Spring/Summer 2025

Volume XL, Number 1

In This Issue

Words (for a hundred issues) by Ann Boaden

Welcome to this 100th issue of Pietisten! On a milestone like this, we pause to celebrate the community of readers that this journal has made possible. As with each issue since 1986, our faithful staff of volunteers has sought to gather thought-provoking and uplifting articles, sermons, poetry, and artwork that emanate from our heritage in Pietism. More on that heritage and content below.

Failure to imagine 100 by Phil Johnson

In the Summer 1992 issue, the editors of Pietisten admitted their failure to take Skogsbergh’s Point on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. We also failed to create a Pietisten flag to plant. The “Point” property on Lake Minnetonka was once owned by Rev. E. A. Skogsbergh and was a gathering place for Swedish Pietists in the early part of the 20th century. We planned to sail to the point in the dead of night and plant a Pietisten flag firmly in the soil.>

Hesed: God works through the particular to bring good to the whole by Lauren St. Martin

Ruth is a short little book, just four chapters long. It is not about kings or great battles or miracles or national strife. It is about family and about caring for one another. Ruth is an example of how God works through the particular—the faithful actions of specific people—to bring about good for whole communities and societies.

The parable of the redwoods by Mark Safstrom

I am fascinated by trees. When I was in elementary school, I was a member of the National Arbor Day Foundation. You would get a certain number of tree seedlings with your membership, but you could order anything else that you wanted out of a catalog. The trees came in the mail, amazingly enough, with little gel capsules around the roots to keep them hydrated and alive.

Midwest Afternoon on the Porch by Ann Boaden

Sports Prophecy by Eric

More than 25 years ago this Sports Prophecy column said the Minnesota Vikings would win the 1989 Super Bowl. That didn’t happen, nor have they won since.

Very Slowly, My Friends by Bonnie Sparrman

Time! It nips at our heels every moment of every day. Even this sentence is laden with references to time. Chronos, which runs our human experience, makes me burst with speedy actions and hurried steps. If I don’t take on some tasks at full throttle I won’t make my deadline, whether it’s preparing a complicated dinner for a group, or putting together a simple supper at home. But right now, (another reference to time), let’s consider a slower cooked meal that allows for greater savoring of what we’ve prepared.

Wilderness and faith by Donna Ahlberg

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

Book Review: Circles in the Stream by Ryan Eikenbary-Barber

Paul Koptak served for many years as a professor of homiletics and Old Testament at North Park Theological Seminary, and he brings his passion for the scriptures and good preaching together in his excellent book, “Circles in the Stream.” Koptak coaches his readers to follow the pattern of literary critic Kenneth Burke. First, serious Bible readers should start by indexing the text, circling and connecting similar words and writing themes in the margins. Second, they should look for points of identification, finding ways to communicate the story with the felt needs of a congregation or class. Third, they should find points of intertext: similar stories from the scriptures that shed light on the text.

Hometown hero by Ryan Eikenbary-Barber

Today is the second Sunday of Epiphany. It’s the time of the church year when we’re encouraged to think of Jesus in a new light. The lightbulb flickers on above our heads and we realize, for the first time or the umpteenth time, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the World.

Sallman’s head of Abe by Greg Asimakoupoulos

As a Covenant pastor for the past 45 years, I have enjoyed creatively introducing newcomers to our relatively small denomination. In my inquirers’ classes, I would take pride in sharing that one of the most well-known hymns (“How Great Thou Art”) was written by a Covenant pastor in Sweden. I would also describe well-known personalities who have Covenant church connections, including Dr. G. Timothy Johnson (the longtime medical editor for ABC News), Mike Holmgren (the beloved former coach of the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks) and even Tom Hanks (who attended First Covenant Church in Oakland, California during high school). I would also introduce those checking out our church to a famous image of Jesus painted by a lifelong Covenanter.

A traumatic uprooting by Karen Tamte

This June marked six years since First Covenant Church of Minneapolis was expelled from the Evangelical Covenant Church for their welcoming position on gay marriage in 2019. It is also two years since another Twin Cities church, Awaken Community, was expelled for the same reason. Those events were also the beginning of my exit from my own church of over 40 years, Excelsior Covenant. For myself and many Covenanters, the change of character in our denomination revealed by these events was a traumatic uprooting.

Is God in control? by G. Timothy Johnson

Recently a good friend called me to tell me that for the first time she was reading my book “Finding God in the Questions,” which was published 20 years ago (InterVarsity Press, 2004). She then issued this challenge: I should re-read the book now to see if my thinking has changed in the last 20 years. I have now done so and I am quite surprised to conclude that there is very little I would change.

Practical, therapeutic, theological talk by Penrod

I do not recall expressing appreciation to this journal for publishing my talk. I do so now. The website has 48 contributions by me, the first of which is found in the Fall 1987 issue. Although I have not kowtowed to the editors, after 100 issues I admit it is an honor to have a place in this conversation and because of that, I have a thankful heart. I honor the persistence and accomplishments of Pietisten, and I appreciate its willingness to publish my column “Practical, therapeutic, theological talk” and some stories by me.