Throughout the summer, I intend to share some of my reflections on my trip to Germany and reformation sites. However, I promise I won’t write about Luther and Germany every week. 

Rather, this week I have some thoughts about the clergy study conference that I attended in Gimli, Manitoba this week. For folks of a certain age, there is one thing above all else that Gimli is well known for. No, it is not the Crown Royal Distillery, not the big Viking statue. No, Gimli is known for the Gimli Glider. 

Our keynote presenter, Rev. Dr. Kyle Schiefelbein-Guerrero, Professor at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon (AND my Doctor of Ministry thesis advisor!) began his keynote by talking about his love of plane crash documentaries. What a happy accident that our conference was in Gimli and our hotel even contained the official Gimli Glider museum!

But it wasn’t just for the sake of coincidence that Dr. KSG (as his students often call him) shared with us the fact that he has seen several documentaries about the Gimli Glider, it was to note that there is something important to learn from plane crashes. Something important for leaders in the church. 

Now that isn’t to say that the church, in its current state, is akin to a plane about to crash. But in these days of struggle and challenge, the church isn’t totally unlike a plane headed for disaster. 

Rather, two factors contribute the most to how serious plane crashes end up being. The first is “crew resource management” which is how well the crew can organize in a crisis. The second is “plan continuation bias.” This is the ability of leadership to adapt in the face of changing circumstances around them.

And certainly, there is something in those two factors that feels true about those things for the church in this moment. We can easily think of moments when churches have failed to organize and tend to the community they serve. And we can easily think of churches that have stuck to the plan at all costs, even when they were headed for doom. 

But in the converse, we see what things help us navigate the crisis moment – tending and caring for community while adapting to changing circumstances and innovating new pathways into the future. 

In the case of the Gimli Glider, the crew assured the passengers while preparing them for what was about to happen, while the pilot and co-pilot prepared to fly a plane like a glider while landing on a long-forgotten RCAF runway. 

In the case of the church, we have yet to fully prepare ourselves for what is happening. New pathways or alternate plans are still being worked out. Yet, even in free fall, God’s call to us is to continue sharing the gospel in word, sacrament and in our care for one another. Maybe we will be surprised with a landing as surprising and miraculous as the Gimli Glider’s.