What does Christian community look like when a city is in crisis? In this first episode of Season 6 of the Pivot Podcast, Faith+Lead scholars Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm go inside the last eight months in the Twin Cities, a period marked by targeted violence, a school shooting, and a large-scale federal immigration enforcement operation that left communities shaken and afraid. The church showed up quietly and persistently across every theological tradition, delivering food, organizing legal assistance, moving worship into living rooms, and rallying around members who were detained and flown out of state without warning.

This episode explores what crisis reveals about the difference between Christian community and mere membership, and why genuine belonging looks nothing like a program. It also launches a season-long conversation about why cultivating Christian community is so hard right now and what a faithful response might look like. If you've ever wondered whether the church still has something irreplaceable to offer a fractured world, this episode is your answer.

So when people are treated more like problems to get rid of rather than like people or when dignity feels neglected, when family and friends are fearful for their loved ones, there's just something deep inside us that cries out, this isn't right. And that reaction isn't just personal, it's spiritual. So simultaneously, as all of this has been happening around us, we've also seen some beautiful things happening.

Hello everyone and welcome to the Pivot Podcast, where we explore how the Church can faithfully navigate a changing world. I'm Dwight Zscheile

I'm Alicia Granholm. This episode kicks off a new season of the Pivot Podcast focused on our particular challenge—cultivating Christian community. What does it mean to be the body of Christ in a society that is characterized by loneliness, division, isolation, polarization, and fragmentation, where the Church also too often reflects those realities? Everyone seems to be looking for belonging.

but it's elusive. Over the next dozen episodes or so, we will be unpacking that challenge from multiple angles. We'll be talking with colleagues from Luther Seminary and other thought leaders, authors, and practitioners about the deeper cultural and theological currents shaping this challenge, as well as how we might respond faithfully.

So as we explore the challenge of Christian community, let's unpack for a minute that word community itself. When we say community, what do we actually mean? How is that different from voluntary association membership or getting people to show up to events, you know, as we think about it within the life of the church? You know, it's important, I think, to recognize that for most cultures throughout history and across the globe, community

in the sense of having an inherited situation of belonging among a particular people in a particular place is a given, right? And that's supported by institutions of family, neighborhood, tribe, clan, et cetera, right? But in the modern West, a very different story emerged a few centuries ago.

where we see ourselves as autonomous individuals and community insofar as we have it is a kind of aggregation of those individuals. And for that reason, it can always be fragile, contested and fluid. So we're gonna delve into that a little bit more over the course of this season. Particularly as we think about Christian community, how does God create a new kind of

belonging a community in Christ in the power of the Spirit that transcends lines of family, tribe, nation, class, etc. For ultimately Christian community is a belonging in the life of the divine community, the Trinity.

So Dwight, sounds very much like this goes deeper into questions of what it means to be a person and to belong at the deepest level.

And that's why I'm really excited about this season because I think those questions are really urgent today. And, you know, my thesis kind of coming into this season, which we'll test and explore together is ⁓ that the unraveling of community and institutions that we are seeing in the modern West today is a feature, not a bug, if you will, of the deep mess that the Western culture embraced.

a few centuries back in the Enlightenment. And this touches on the deep questions about what it means to be, to be human, and where the world is headed in the future. But so we wanted to begin this season with our own context here in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, where the challenges and opportunities of being the church have been acutely present over the past few months. So as you know, Minnesota has been the focus of a targeted

immigration enforcement and deportation campaign that's led to thousands of arrests, abductions, protests, clashes, and the deaths of two American citizens. Amidst all of this has been the church, being the body of Christ in myriad faithful ways, visibly and quietly. Its story hasn't appeared much in the national or international news, but anyone who lives here can tell you

the church has made a consequential difference.

So we're recording this episode in late February after Operation Metro Surge has ended on paper, as they say, and federal agents have begun to depart. We intentionally waited to share some of the stories we'll be sharing today because we didn't want to put at risk any vulnerable congregation members, neighbors, or the ministries themselves. We don't really think the pivot podcast is at the top of the Immigration Authorities podcast queue.

But in this conversation, we are not going to identify the churches and leaders whose stories we tell by name. We do look forward to a time though when we can safely bring some of these incredibly brave Christian leaders onto the podcast to speak firsthand.

So Alicia, let's just begin by sharing a bit with our listeners what it's been like here in the Twin Cities the past few months.

Thanks Dwight. And Dwight, I want to put the timing of Operation Metro Surge kind of in perspective of life in the Twin Cities lately, because actually the last eight months here in the Twin Cities have felt incredibly heavy. ⁓ So in June 25, we experienced targeted violence against local elected officials. So two people were killed, others critically injured. Then two months later in August, we had a school shooting that killed

and left two children dead and wounded 30 more children and teachers. So those events alone left our communities shaken. So four months later, in December 25, Operation Metro Surge began in the Twin Cities. And if you don't live here, you may have only seen highlight reels on the news, but on the ground, it has been incredibly visible. So we had 3,000 federal agents.

began a large immigration enforcement actions across not only our metro area, but throughout the state. People were detained while working, cars were boxed in, windows broken, people pulled out of their vehicles. People have been detained even though they've had proof of citizenship or legal status with them at the time. At my local store, just down the street, we had two young employees roughly detained while working.

and then later released when it became clear they were American citizens. People have been moved to detention centers outside of Minnesota within hours, often without family or friends knowing where they were taken. Schools have felt intense during drop-off and pick-up times as agents have sat nearby. So over the last eight months, with this level of volatility, violence and uncertainty, people collectively have felt

exhausted. And exhausted doesn't even describe it, but I'm not sure what another word would be at this point. People have felt really on edge, worried, angry. Fear has started to feel like a normal way of being for many here in the Twin Cities. And here's where I think some of the anger that people are feeling right now comes from, even if they haven't been able to put it into words. You know, as Christians, we believe that every person is made in the image of God.

So when people are treated more like problems to get rid of rather than like people or when dignity feels neglected, when family and friends are fearful for their loved ones, there's just something deep inside us that cries out, this isn't right. And that reaction isn't just personal, it's spiritual. So simultaneously, as all of this has been happening around us, we've also seen some beautiful things happening.

neighbors raising money for rent and groceries, people taking out trash for families who are afraid to leave their homes, volunteers waiting outside detention centers to offer rides home to people who have been released, neighbors standing outside of schools to help people feel safer, peaceful protests with hymnsings, drumming, prayer, even knitting. In the same city where fear has grown, love has grown as well. And that's where we're starting this season.

because Christian community is easy to romanticize when life feels stable. It becomes real when instability exposes how much we actually need to depend on one another. Dwight, what are some ways you've seen the church respond?

Well, Alicia, there's been so many ways. And one of the things I want to just stress to our listeners is that churches across the ecumenical spectrum have been involved. Everything from Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, ⁓ theologically conservative churches, evangelical churches, progressive churches, mainline churches, in each in their own way. This has really kind of hit home for so many people. And again, a lot of the work that's been done

has been quiet and under the radar screen. ⁓ So, you know, one of the major ways in which churches have helped out is been food deliveries. So my wife and I have been involved in volunteering and staffing and supporting ⁓ food ministry in a first ring suburb of Minneapolis that is run out of a church. And of course, you know, the community that's being served by that mostly immigrant community

No one was willing to, of course, show up because ICE was targeting those kinds of places, right? Anywhere immigrants might show up to get food. So, very quickly, this ministry, which is a small church, small ministry, figured out how to deliver food to all these homes. And so, we were all out driving around, ⁓ taking boxes of food to people's homes. So churches became a place of

meeting the most basic needs of just provision and sustenance. So, one church in the Northern St. Paul suburbs that I'm close to, they had started a bilingual ministry, a Spanish-English service and ministry just over really the last year and a half, because they had sensed that God was calling them to start this. Of course, little did they know it was for such a time as this.

The community had dozens of new immigrants, many of whom were being baptized with their families. There were new Christians. And so when this started to happen, six of the members of that church were detained, all of whom had paperwork and none of them were criminals. And several flown out of state. They just kind of disappeared. ⁓

break the windows of your car and leave your car on the street and just kind of disappear. including one family with, you know, a guy with a single dad, right? And so, so what I observed with this church was just the whole community rallying around and ⁓ providing, you know, support with ⁓ legal assistance, with food, I mean, doing simple things like putting trackers in everyone's vehicles so that if this happened to them, people from the church could come

retrieve the vehicle, repair the window, all of those things. And ⁓ then, you know, what had been in this church, a Friday night gathering in a church building, people didn't feel safe coming to that. And so like so many ministries serving immigrants or just, would say generally people of color, right? Because anyone with brown skin in Minnesota and the like.

Absolutely,

just people of color, yes. ⁓

Yeah,

you you're a target. Yes. That was no longer safe. So so what happened was this all got dispersed into homes and, you know, people visiting homes to pray, read scripture together. And and I attended a service in this congregation a few weeks ago where one of the first member actually who had been detained was released and gave a testimony.

And this guy is a new Christian. Of course, this is being interpreted in Spanish about the power of his Christian faith and the presence of God in that detention center. And we started to get these stories of a couple of these guys who got sent to this place in Texas. And they were witnessing to their faith with their fellow detainees and how meaningful it was to them and getting them through it. so sitting in that service with that ⁓

newly detained brother in Christ, kneeling down and praying in gratitude to God for releasing him. And the pastor talking about as for himself being again, documented immigrant from Ecuador, like walking through the sort of line of ICE officers into the Whipple Detention Center to bring out one of the people from his church ⁓ and describing it as,

just all those biblical passages like from Isaiah of, know, when you pass through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you and, you know, the fire shall not consume you. just in the kind of prayer and the sense of what's at stake and what does it mean to follow Jesus in, you know, when you're in prison or when they're hunting after you. And I think in the case of that particular Christian community, ⁓

they've been talking about discipleship, we're doing a discipleship teaching series. And suddenly now, you know, here was very concretely how we live this out because it's, it's stake in Christian community and in the gospel is the knitting of people together across nation, color, class, et cetera, into one community. And that was, ⁓ that was very real. So, you know, a lot of churches have had to post

you know, kind of people at the door and with a back up plan if case, a case ice shows up, how do we get people out safely? ⁓ you, you may have seen in the news, of course, ⁓ our listeners and viewers, there was a protest among with about a hundred clergy, ⁓ actually at the airport because the airport is where people were being, you know, put shackled and put onto flights and flown out of state and, ⁓ it extremely cold day.

Dwight, it was so cold. It was like negative 20 or 30. I mean, was.

It was bad. It was bad. It's good Minnesota winter weather, right? And, the, you know, the, peaceful protests of, ⁓ you know, clergy, you know, even some really elderly ones kneeling down and in the cold. so I mean, we've seen an amazing response. mean, Alicia, what have, what have you seen in your neighborhood and other places?

Yeah, yeah, we have a there's a church just at the street from us ⁓ that ⁓ I kept seeing. So kind of in, you know, private communities is where a lot of ⁓ communication was happening, right? Like instantaneously between just across the metro. And, ⁓ you know, I'm great. I'm so grateful to hear that they were starting to put tags on cars because, ⁓ you know, there was probably a week or two where

you know, in your private community, it would be like, here's a license plate. Like, can please share this license plate? ⁓ Whose car is this? Like, it's just sitting there, right? Because family don't realize that their family members have been detained. And so now there's just a vehicle sitting on the side of the road. I mean, the cities were littered with these vacant cars for a couple of weeks. And there is just that sense of, you know, how can we...

just that urgent sense of like, can we help our neighbors and how can we make sure people find out that, you know, their family members were just detained because here's their car, but all we have is the license plate to go by. ⁓ And ⁓ there was this church name that kept popping up in a number of different private groups when people would ask for assistance, you know, where should I go? And I kept seeing this church popping up and this name of one particular church that's just nearby us.

pop up and shortly thereafter I heard the story of this church and I just think it's amazing because is a an immigrant pastor leading a predominantly immigrant church and he also thought okay well let's just put a form on our on our website so people can families can sign up if they have need because

The first immediate need ⁓ was food, right? As people began to shelter in place, it was, OK, how do we get food and just basic supplies to people? That became kind of the first level of need. so ⁓ somebody in his office set up a form on his website. And a couple hours later, came back and said, people have been signing up. And he was like, well, how many do we have? 20? And they were like, 2,000.

He was like, ⁓ okay, like I didn't see that coming. And we're talking within days, maybe a week or two, 25,000 people ⁓ signed up through that one form ⁓ to share their need, right? And so here's one church ⁓ of countless around the cities ⁓ that were responding to very tangible, immediate, real felt needs of their neighbors and what began as need for food, then

within weeks turned into need for rent coverage because as people are sheltered in place, then they're not being able to work. And so now they are unable to pay rent. And just this cascading ⁓ needs that were ballooning ⁓ very quickly ⁓ throughout the Twin Cities. ⁓ You know, as you mentioned, we've seen churches across the denominational spectrum ⁓ really showing up in different ways as God has been leading them.

And so we've seen churches gathering for prayer and open for prayer ⁓ for community members to join in, right? We've seen church leaders gathering for prayer and conversation, discernment, and figuring out what is, like, what is God, how is God inviting us to respond right now as church leaders, as congregations, ⁓ churches hosting open prayer gatherings.

in their buildings, but also in public spaces and giving people the opportunity to grieve and mourn and continue to put our hope and our trust in Jesus in the midst of just so much, I mean, uncertainty, right? It was like a daily sense of uncertainty and ⁓ just a level of crises that ⁓ we hadn't, I would say, I can say that we haven't experienced.

in the Twin Cities. I want to say ever, but that's maybe not true. At least in our lived lifetime, that has not been our experience here. And yet ⁓ the church has been very much, and I say the church as the church collective, the body of Christ here has very much been a part of the response to our neighbors in need.

So Dwight, from your research and experience, what light does this shed on the challenge of cultivating Christian community today?

Well, I think what we're seeing in this moment is a symptom of a larger breakdown of solidarity in American society. You the political tribalism that's been fueling this reflects some much deeper currents in Western culture that we're going to unpack later in this season. ⁓ And know, immigration is itself a really complicated issue in American life and politics and history. The US elected a president who promised he would do mass deportations, right?

So ⁓ it's complicated in that sense, right? ⁓ Even as I think the behavior that we've seen has sometimes been unambiguously wrong. ⁓ So, you know, a world in which borders don't matter is not one that actually most Americans embrace. It tends to be, if we're honest, that kind of view tends to be propounded by elites who can cross borders easily or live anywhere, right?

⁓ And so, so I think there's layers to this that we often ⁓ as a society aren't naming or reflecting upon or we're talking past each other. ⁓ But I would say that the experience on the ground to me felt like spiritual warfare. There were spirits of vengeance and hatred and racism and discrimination that were animating a lot of the ICE activity and the kind of whole posture of racially profiling people and

You know, so, I mean, lying and, one of the men detained from the church I described, he was lured out of his home on false pretenses so they could get him, nab him outside of his home. And so just a lot of, you know, really vicious ⁓ spirits, right? ⁓ And then I would say sometimes, you know, the protesters and activists haven't always been peaceful either. And

Mostly they have been, they were, and ⁓ sometimes the signs, if you drive around Minneapolis, against ICE are not the most pleasant. So it's easy to kind of fall into reflecting the hate back, right? And ⁓ this is, think, where the church is so important and the message of Jesus is so important and the power of the Spirit is so important.

because being a disciple is actually about loving enemies. It is about claiming the Beatitudes as a normative script for reality here and now and for ultimate truth. It is about confronting unjust powers in society. And as Jesus was doing in his ministry and the church has, you know, when it's been a faithful has done throughout its history and doing so from a place of nonviolence and powerlessness, right? And so

So the church had to go underground in the Twin Cities in the last few months in some ways that Christians around the world in many societies would see that's just normal, right? Because the larger society is not actually hospitable to Christian witness in life. And you have to be quiet about your faith or you'll be persecuted. And there is an element of that that actually has been playing out here. And in some ways, that's

Yeah. So Alicia, what are your reflections as we begin to wrap up this episode?

Yeah, you know, I think there, when it became ⁓ evident, I think more to the masses, right, initially of what was happening, because ⁓ Operation Metro Surge, it began December 1st. But I would say collectively, it wasn't the majority of, you know, people here. It really wasn't until early January that it was

that we became aware of what that meant really for us and how that was going to unfold. I think even for Christians that invitation initially to just act out of the flesh, Like the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak and is very easy to be.

⁓ incredibly angry about injustices that were unfolding before our eyes. ⁓ And there is a righteous anger. I mean, that's a reality. And, you know, as you said, there is that, as people who are trying to follow in the way of Jesus, there is that invitation to love our enemies and to be the hands and feet of Jesus here. And so I think that that element of

discernment, right? And that invitation to be spiritually wise and discerning. ⁓ Yes to meet neighbors immediate needs, right? That felt like a simple yes. ⁓ And it became so clear that, as you said, like it's more than that we need to make sure our neighbors immediate needs are being met. There's a lot more going on here.

Spiritually, there's a lot more going on here. And so I do think a lot of Christians right now in Minneapolis, I can say, I don't want to speak for the rest of the country, ⁓ but I think a lot of Christians right now are grappling with what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus in the midst of this crisis? How do we respond? How do we respond faithfully to God? How do we respond faithfully to our neighbors? How do we as

injustice unfolds literally right before our eyes. What is our invitation? for, you know, depending on your context, depending on your calling, depending on your vocation, ⁓ people have responded in different ways. And I think that, you know, we're living in the midst of that tension of

being the body of Christ here and now and being part of the kingdom of heaven, coming to earth as it is in heaven and that invitation of Jesus to love your enemies. And so how do you do that? And I think a lot of Christians, at least ⁓ that I know, ⁓ have really been grappling with that. I'm grateful because I think it's, ⁓

it speaks to, right, the discipleship and really there are no easy answers. There's no easy solutions to this. ⁓ There's no clear way forward. ⁓ For many of us, this is really the first time that we've had to grapple with something like this on this scale ⁓ for us locally, but also nationally. so, ⁓

Yeah, I have seen that wrestling. I've experienced that wrestling and a lot of Christian leaders I know here in the Twin Cities have been experiencing that wrestling too.

So we are looking forward to exploring these questions with you all over the coming weeks. As it appears, we are simply living in unprecedented times. And we believe that Christian community is vital to the flourishing of our neighbors. So next time, we'll begin diving into some of the historical roots of how we got here with our church historian colleague, Dr. Jenny Wojtahowski.

So I'm very much looking forward to the conversation with Jenny and to sharing these episodes with you all in the coming weeks. To help spread the word about Pivot, please like and subscribe. If you're catching us on YouTube, leave a review on your podcast platform or share Pivot with a friend. See you next week.