Mr. & Mrs. Rev & Rev Bruner

It's official! Dave and I are now BOTH ordained pastors! We can marry! We can bury! We can baptize, serve the sacraments AND when buying plane tickets, we can BOTH choose Rev. as our title! I don't know if life could get any better than that.

After all the preparations, stresses, worries, planning, and prayers, we pulled it off: THE Ordination Weekend. Dad flew into Chicago on Friday afternoon where he was picked up by
Mom and Dad Bruner. They drove down together to spend a FRIGID weekend with us in Blo-No. Seriously... the WARMEST temperature all weekend was something like 8 degrees. Not okay. We did our best to entertain the parents warmly, which is difficult to do even in the hippest-happeningest town. Basically, we spent a lot of time sitting and chatting in our living room with the heat cranked way up. And eating. And drinking wine. And eating some more. It was tough, but someone had to do it.











Sunday was the big "O-Day," as one friend coined it. After morning church and a quick lunch from Subway, we sprang into action, getting last minute details ready for the service and party afterward. And at 3:00pm, Dave and I stood in the narthex of St. John's Lutheran Church, ready to process... before us were a whole crew of alb-clad Lutheran pastors there to lend their support, behind us stood the bishop there to make the ordination official... We grabbed hands as we walked into the church together, singing God's praises for all that had been and all that is to come.
The bishop posed a whole bunch of questions to Dave, led him in making promises of faith and fidelity to Jesus Christ and his work in the world. "I will, by the grace of God," were Dave's answers (emphasis on that grace... boy, do we need it!)

The whole service was beautiful... the prayers, the Scriptures, the songs... very Lutheran-liturgical, but all done with so much heartfelt devotion. There were MANY wonderful elements, but I'll just give you the Becca-Highlight-Reel...




Dad preached a kick-ass sermon, challenging and encouraging Dave (and ALL of us) to BE the pastors God has called us to be.




All us pastor-types present at the service got to come forward and lay hands on Dave as the bishop prayed. Even though I am a pastor, sometimes I get skeptical of these rituals and don't really expect anything to actually happen. It's just something we church-folk do. But MAN, I gotta say, there was some SERIOUS power there. I felt it. God was doing something and it was awesome. I was so glad to be able to be one of the people to come lay hands on Dave and ask the Holy Spirit to empower him for ministry.


I got to present a few surprise gifts to Dave, encouraging him to remember God's good work in his life from beginning to end.






Because it is what we DO to mark special occasions, Dave and I sang together- both during Communion and as the final benediction. Just like when we sang at our wedding, a lot of people commented, wondering "How did you DO that? I would have been CRYING the whole time!" And I realized that I think that, at least for me, singing is what I do instead of crying. That's how I express those deep emotions. And I love it.




AND... the applause. When the time came in the service when the bishop oh-so-formally invited the congregation to show their appreciation by offering a round of applause, they responded by nearly blowing off the roof! These normally somewhat staid midwestern Lutherans started hooping and hollering, and that went on for a good 3 minutes before they finally calmed down. What an amazing show of unabashed love for Dave and gratitude to God for bringing him to St. John's! I was so proud of my rockstar-pastor husband.

After shaking a lot of hands and receiving a lot of hugs, we finally went back home to a houseful of friends, family, and DELICIOUS Mexican food. We raised a toast, IPAs in hand, and said THANK YOU GOD for all you've brought us through. 5 years. 3 states. 2 seminaries. And 2 ordained "Pastor Bruners." Amen to that.

Also... it's a good thing that being a "Reverend" does not require one to be mature. Cause I'd definitely be out then.