Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park

Dear good people of Augustana,

Thank You. Thank you for a year of growth, a year of love, a year of community, a year around Christ.

It certainly has been a year around Christ- We have walked together from one “ordinary time” to the next in the Church calendar, experiencing many holy moments along the way, and have hopefully all moved closer in our relationship with God through it; I know that I have through our partnership.

I am incredibly grateful to this community for being a space that welcomes and supports students in their growth and for particularly taking me on as a learner and leader as a developing pastor. I am concluding my time feeling prepared and even more excited to begin my call as a pastor after serving this year with you all. 

I want to especially thank you for accompanying my family in a major time of transition. My pastoral internship started two months after we welcomed Camden into the world. He was baptized here and had his first birthday celebration in the fellowship hall. Jeneal was welcomed as a member, and learned how to entertain an infant during a worship service in the pews and all around this sanctuary. We have been so blessed to have this community around our family as we learn and grew on top of all of the vocational preparation that I was receiving. For this, and much more, you will always hold a special place in our hearts and lives.  

I extend my gratitude to all those who welcomed me and us into their homes, those who opened your hearts to me and shared your stories and testimonies with me, and who inspired me with your diligent witness to the love of God in Jesus Christ. Though I certainly anticipated it, I say with Jacob in Genesis 28:16 “Surely the Lord is in this place,” as I have now experienced it firsthand. This community is full of authentic and committed saints and disciples after Christ. In The Gospel in a Pluralist Society by Lesslie Newbigin which I read with Pastor Matt this year while refining my own theology of Evangelism, Newbigin says: “The ways by which the truth of the Gospel comes home to the heart and conscience of this or that person are always mysterious….but where a community is living in alert faithfulness, they happen.” I believe that Augustana is a community living in alert faithfulness, which is proclaiming the Gospel in word and deed in ways you probably don’t even always acknowledge or understand, and I pray that you all live only ever more deeply into that call.

One of the most meaningful elements of this experience for me has been joining with you all to focus on the Christian practice of Hospitality through the “Entertaining Angels” initiatives this Spring and Summer. It was based around Hebrews 13: 1-2 which reads: “Let mutual affection continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

Seeking after the wisdom and practices commended in this text, over the last several months we have:

• Engaged study around the topic of Hospitality as a key Christian discipline
• Divided up and gathered in Bread Breakers small groups around meals in families’ homes
• Gave increased attention to and hosted Fellowship Hours after both of our weekly worship services
• Created a budget for reimbursement for those hosting fellowship hours
• Established an Evangelism through Hospitality (“Hospitality”) Committee
• Conducted a Hospitality Review with recommendations steps to take to continue to expand and improve our welcome
• Participated a Fellowship Hour survey in addition to “Cinnamon Roll Sunday”
• And many other tasks not expressly a part of this initiative but very much related such as but not limited to continuing to host Monthly Community Breakfasts and weekly Campus Ministry Meals during the academic year, welcoming KAM Isaiah Israel congregation to worship and lunch, and continuing to welcome and expand the number of people utilizing our building and grounds as a part of our facility stewardship.

Through this time we have welcomed and gotten more familiar with “the stranger,” acknowledged the divinely-given personhood of many, and perhaps entertained a few angels along the way, ourselves included. I am most grateful to the Augustana community for welcoming and trusting my vision and leadership on these initiatives over these months and for those who shaped, participated in,  and supported this work all along the way. It has been an incredibly enriching journey to be on with all of you, one that has both reaffirmed and enlivened my sense of call.

Though my time and the formal “Entertaining Angels” program concludes, an ongoing invitation and opportunity remains for everyone to continue to engage ministries of hospitality and evangelism. I want to especially thank and ask God’s blessing over those who have explicitly served on and/or continue on the Evangelism through Hospitality Committee including Will Host, Judy Merritt Morgan, Karin Moreno, Vashanti Rahaman, Jean Schwab, and Shirley Wilson Sigler. For anyone who feels so moved, the invitation always remains to join this committee. Please ask any member and especially Karin Moreno who has volunteered to serve as chair. Please see below for a few final updates from me regarding hospitality ministries.

            A final word of thanks to the Augustana Council and staff. These people helped to make this time possible for me to be here, logistically and financially, and has made it very enjoyable, serving as incredible colleagues and ministry partners to learn from and with. I am most very grateful to Pastor Nancy Goede and especially to Pastor Matt Stuhlmuller for helping to even devise the possibility of me serving at Augustana and investing an incredible amount of time and energy in serving as my supervisor and mentor throughout this journey. Augustana is blessed by incredible pastoral leadership and I give thanks to God for the ways that they have shaped me this last year.

Though we do not yet know exactly where my First Call will be and where our family will move to next around the Midwest, we go with good courage knowing that God’s hand is leading us, and that God’s love and the love and lessons from this community are supporting us. We welcome and covet your continued prayers.

In peace and great thanks,

Kyle Duff