Sarah Ross, student pastor

Being involved in the community of Wicker Park Grace as a student pastor is changing the way I think about faith and ministry. One of my first weeks at Wicker Park was a week for spiritual practice, so we were breaking up into small groups to discuss some Biblical texts. This particular week we were beginning to consider the theme of salvation and what that means for us. We were asking questions like "What is salvation?" and "Is salvation only about 'spiritual' things and the afterlife, or can salvation apply to our lives here and now?" There were a lot of complex ideas in the topic, and many people had strong feelings about it based on their past experiences with churches or other religious groups.

I was facilitating one of the discussion groups, or at least I thought I was. In reality, the group jumped into a pretty fascinating discussion without much help from me. It was an interesting experience because it was so different from any Bible study or small group discussion which I had led or been involved with before. In those studies, there had always been some main point or "answer" that the leader is trying to convey. They might get to the "point" through discussion, but eventually the goal is to get people to see or agree on this lesson from a book or from the leader's own observations. At Wicker Park Grace, the goals are different. As a leader there, I have the opportunity to tackle questions for which I may not have a clear answer. Often people come there looking not for clear-cut certainty and textbook answers, but for a community where they are free to bring their questions and doubts and to wrestle with those questions honestly and openly. The questions are not just ways of arriving at a specified answer or destination, but a way of journeying together through both faith and uncertainty.

At the end of the night, we did not come to a clear and certain universal definition of salvation, but we had considered the idea in a light which was new to many people and which broadened our understanding of God as one who cares about the totality of our lives both here and in eternity. The idea that it was okay and even preferable to leave people with questions rather than answers was a major paradigm shift for me. In some ways, it made me uncomfortable. A part of me wanted to know what the right answer was, to have that sense of finality and certainty. However, as I spend time in this community, I am realizing that wrestling with good questions can sometimes touch our souls more deeply than learning right answers ever could.