Interim pastor prepares way for new pastor at Lutheran Church of The Redeemer

Dec. 2—PLATTSBURGH — The Rev. Eric W. Olsen is the second interim pastor at the Lutheran Church of The Redeemer in Plattsburgh.

The former pastor, the Rev. Gregory R. Huth retired and left in the beginning of 2022.

"I came here at the end of the summer," Olsen, a New York City native, said.

"They had a transition pastor, one Garth Olsen, who is my son, and he was ordained into the Army Chaplaincy. But he came here to work for about seven months, and now he's in Africa. He's in Djibouti."

TEMPORARY DUTY

Rev. Olsen was an Army Chaplain for 30 years until his retirement eight years ago.

"When I retired, my family had moved back to Saranac Lake because that's where my in-laws are," he said.

"That's where my wife is from. I had the church in Saranac Lake (The Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity). My Bishop asked me to come up here and cover here to see about getting this ready for another pastor to be called here."

So far, things are going real well in his estimation.

"Coming post-COVID, the church is still trying to bring people out of the habit of not coming and being involved and getting out of the malaise of being on these things (computers) because we got more attracted to these things as our interaction than this (in person)," he said.

The congregation is a mixture of young and old.

"And we're looking to grow as a congregation and offer Christ to more people to be sure," he said.

"I want to do some veteran outreach, and we're also looking to do what I would call a life transitions. People are going through transitions, and they don't really have direction of how to get through them. For example, grief or marriage enrichment.

"COVID left a lot of marriages strained. People dealing with aging parents. How do you begin to do that and who do you talk to about that? Grandparents raising grandchildren, how do you do that well because their son or daughter is no longer capable or willing. So, those are the transitions we want to focus on."

The census of the church is bigger on paper than it is on Sunday.

"We're getting about 30, 35 on a Sunday," Olsen said.

"I think they're more out there trying to figure out how to get back in."

A Study in Reformation and Lutheranism is being held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday nights.

"The idea of finding our voice in Christ," he said.

"Then, we have a service at 7 p.m. That's for the next three weeks."

There will be a Christmas Eve Service at 7 p.m.

"In the new year, we will be doing that Life Transitions series, suicide prevention," he said.

"I want to do one with parenting, and I want to do one for marriage enrichment because the COVID has just wrecked havoc on marriages. The divorce rate went up. They were getting divorced because they were spending too much time together. Isn't that something? The old song, Where's love? Where is the love in our culture as it's become polarized and Christianity has become nationalized?"

LUTHERANISM 101

Nationally, there are about 5 million Lutherans, mostly concentrated in the Mid-West with 8,900 congregations across the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to elca.org

Lutheranism was founded on the observations of Martin Luther (1483-1546), a German priest and University of Wittenberg professor, who wrote: "Faith is God's work in us. It changes us and makes us to be born anew of God. This faith is a living, busy, active, mighty thing. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly. Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that believers would stake their lives on it a thousand times."

"Because of that idea of personal autonomy before God and personal responsibility before God," Olsen said.

"There's no buffer between you. There's no priests. We consider ourselves a priesthood of all believers. If you were to come here on a Sunday morning, you might see somebody else serving communion other than me. Why? Because it's not my table. It's the Lord's table. Everybody has a voice here. People who want to give a word are encouraged to do so. Not all are as articulate or practiced, but every voice is important in who we are."

Martin Luther got into big trouble in 1517 in Wittenberg, Germany.

"To the point there were people out to kill him," Olsen said.

"It would have been heresy if it hadn't all been Bible based because his whole piece was if you're going to teach it to the people, show me where it is in the word. So for example, it doesn't say anywhere in Scripture that you shouldn't marry. Paul says, you might not want to because end times are near.

"(Luther) was coming against that and also the selling of forgivenesses, indulgences, where if you paid me, the Church, I'm going to give you a sin-for-free card. Luther was like you can't sell forgiveness, it's free. From Romans, grace through faith. That was his big thing, but he was attacking the money. And his famous line when he got up and everyone said, 'You're a heretic,' he said, 'Here's my argument, there's the word, show me where I'm wrong.' They (Roman Catholic Church) didn't do that. They said, you're a heretic and what we say goes and not that.'"

German Prince Phillip of Hesse and Frederick The Wise, founder of Wittenberg University, said, "We're men of faith, and if it's not in there, why are we doing it?'

"And they backed Luther, and what Luther did very smartly, he took the Bible, translated it to German and handed it to them, and said, 'This is my defense,' and they said, 'Good defense,'" Olsen said.

A SEAT AT THE TABLE

One of the reasons Lutheranism is important to Olsen is because he was raised in an environment with very strong female leads where there was parity.

"There's not one better than the other," he said.

"We are equals in all things. and in some ways, men need to subservient at times, and at times it's got to change because of the nature of birthing, mothering, and fathering. I see that. Just like across racial and ethnic lines, we're all equals. That's the Gospel to me. The Gospel is pan-America, pan-male, pan-female. Having been deployed and worked with Christians, around the world, I see that. Lutheranism has embraced that. That's one of the great draws for me."

At the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Olsen said one will find a group of people that are interested in praising the Lord.

"Getting to know one another, and helping each other through some of the burdens that we share and looking to spiritual outreach into the community," he said,

"I think if people come, they will be fed with the Spirit. I ask people to search in all different churches, but go and find a place where you can be fed with the confidence that Christ wants in your life, the peace that Christ offers. That's important to me whether it's a Baptist church or it's a Nazarene Church or it's the Community Church.

"People need to go where they can be fed into a positive sense of who they are and a positive sense of what the world can be. That's important to me because we are here to build the kingdom, not for one particular sect or one particular denomination, but for the love of God. If we can keep that on the forefront, we will be a better place."

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter@RobinCaudell