6 minute read
NOW WE PRAY: JIM NESTINGEN AS ADVISOR AND PASTOR
Tony D. Ede
I suppose I was lucky to have met Jim when I was just in high school. My home congregation pastor and Jim graduated from Luther Seminary together, so there was a connection that was made very early in my life when the gifts for ministry were emerging for me. I clearly remember taking a morning trip as a high school junior to Luther Seminary to visit and meet whomever I could. This included my pastor’s good friend, “Jim.”
I didn’t know what to expect. My time on any campus was pretty limited and mostly included moving my sister into Wartburg College her freshman year a couple years prior. Outside of that, my perception of going to a “seminary” with my pastor was filled with visions of men walking around with tonsured haircuts and women wearing habits and long robes. As you probably guessed, I was wrong.
We entered the front doors of Gullixson Hall as classes were in session. As we walked up the first short set of stairs, we could hear Jim’s booming laughter. My pastor exclaimed without even seeing him, “there he is.” Sitting in the familiar chairs in front of the large woodcut on the first floor, we watched people come and go and listened as best as we could to Jim teaching. You could tell his lecture was engaging, participatory, and that the students were interested. As the classes ended and everyone escaped to their next scheduled event, Jim came out and greeted my pastor with that big voiced “How you doing!?” that so many of us would soon be on the receiving end of. He took time with me just a high school student to visit a bit, showing us the building and taking us up the stairs to his office for a moment before a group of students entered for what I now know as an advisee meeting.
I was impressed first off that he wasn’t wearing a monastic robe, but instead, had regular clothes on, including that all too familiar navy blue and white sweater he wore as his “outer layer.” Secondly, I was impressed that he spoke so casually. We could have been having the same conversation at a diner or co-op in our small town. He spoke to me like my uncle would have in that deep and joyful prairie brogue with genuine interest in who was in front of him. I knew then that this was someone that I wanted to have in my life, and more importantly, that he was someone that the Holy Spirit had put in my life.
Fast forward through college and several meetings with Jim as he spoke at events in my local area. Our paths crossed many times prior to me being accepted into seminary and being assigned as one of his advisees. He had a heart for me, not just because we had met before, but because I was one of those students who found himself in seminary just three weeks after graduating college. I was also newly wed just two weeks prior, so Jim had an instant interest in our marriage, and he connected us with those who could help us in that first year.
At Tony's Ordination
The pattern of study in my first term was predictable but guided. Jim taught us that we needed to be at chapel regardless of the preacher or teacher. We needed to be there, he explained, to hear God’s Word and to receive the sacrament. After chapel on Wednesdays, we would meet as an advisee group in the basement of the campus center to pray, study God’s word, and to lean on one another. This weekly meeting with all of his closest students played a vital role in my seminary career.
In more recent years, Jim and I would catch up with the occasional phone call, email or visit. I would see him at the gatherings of the North American Lutheran Church where we would have a few moments to steal away to catch up and reminisce on the times we had together at Luther Seminary. It was always my desire to continue my education and goals of lifelong learning with a D. Min. degree program which Jim was always encouraging me toward. I mourn this missing part of my story, but I know that when additional studies are possible, Jim’s care and encouragement will go with me. I am fortunate to have had the lessons both in and out of the classroom that Jim instilled in so many of his students. Many saw Jim as a professor and a teacher of the church. Some thought of Jim as a prophet (small “p”), historian, or theologian. Others thought he was a pain in the neck. What he was for me was a pastor and friend. He was able to provide the kind and gentle assurance of what Christ Jesus did on the cross for me. Jesus saved this poor and miserable sinner and shed light on the vocation that the Holy Spirit has called me to. Jim “handed over the goods” to the whole church, and then equipped his students to do likewise. The pastoral ministry of Jim’s students is more fruitful and organic because of this simple teaching of a practical faith and ministry. I’m hopeful that the grammar of the Gospel that he instilled in me will continue to be on the tips of the tongues of the generations of Lutheran faithful to come.
