Trinity's First Finkenwalde Fellow

Announcing Trinity's first fully funded Finkenwalde Fellow: Mike Holland!

Andrew Bayless (Concordia St Louis, ordained LCMS, serving near Spokane, WA)
Donald Davis (Master’s Institute, classes over the years)
Matt Kolden (Concordia/ILT, ordained LCMC/NALC, serving in Valencia, CA)
Gage Thalmann (Western, working in youth ministry at Atonement LCMC in Fargo, ND)
Ben Sides (Iliff, ELCA, open to his next assignment)
Per Anderson (Master’s Institute, ordained LCMC, serving in Montebello, CA)
Emma Wollan (ILT, working in youth ministry at Living Word LCMC in Marshall, MN)
Scott Sevy (Fuller, Master’s Institute, ordained LCMC, serving at Trinity San Pedro, CA)
Kierra Blackstad (Master’s, Western, Trauma-Informed Care in Ministry and Christian Interior Life, serving at Trinity San Pedro, CA)

God is using Trinity to play a part in identifying and equipping leaders for Christ’s Church. For some time, I have had a dream to fund a Finkenwalde Fellow.

What is a Finkenwalde Fellow?

Finkenwalde was the ‘life together’ seminary that Dietrich Bonhoeffer began during the darkest and seismically unstable times in Germany. Out of that community experience came Bonhoeffer’s book Life Together, which has been one of the main inspirations in founding Trinity Greenhouse—a community-based discipleship house where leaders are grounded in the grace of God and sent into Christ’s Church. We have had a part in 9 folks exploring, beginning, or continuing seminary studies in the last few years. Trinity has been a fruitful community for identifying future church leaders, but we have had to be scrappy when trying to financially assist them.

A Finkenwalde Fellow would be remunerated for their PT church internship that corresponds with their seminary years. This would help the seminarian finish school with little or no debt, support their ministry hours here at Trinity, and allow them to follow God’s call into ministry when their seminary years are completed.

I am pleased to announce our first fully funded Finkenwalde Fellow: Mike Holland! A partner church in the greater Minneapolis area, Calvary Lutheran (LCMC) in Golden Valley has a clear mission: leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. They have been doing this very thing effectively for decades! Their pastor, Zach Thompson, is a friend of mine and reached out to me after attending a retreat I led this year. He said their church was very interested in partnering with the purposes of Trinity Greenhouse, and could I make a few proposals for how financial partnership could helpful. He recently shared that their church would like to fully fund one year of our first Finkenwalde Fellow. Thank God for friends like Zach and partners like Calvary!

What about Mike Holland? Mike has been discerning a call to vocational ministry for some time. He has been in prayer and conversation with me, other mentors, and the Trinity Elders. Mike is married to Stephanie and have four children, so the financial question was on the forefront of all of our minds. Would the Lord provide? How would the Lord provide? Mike was accepted into Seminary this Spring, and will begin in the Fall. Some other individuals have said they will help support him, a few other congregations have seminary scholarship tuition assistance and Mike is pursuing those, and now this Finkenwalde Fellowship allows Mike to study, work part-time at Trinity and another part-time role, and be present to his vocation as husband and father during these important days in his family’s life. Pray for him and Stephanie as they present themselves to the Lord during this next season!