After 11 years, Pastor Greg Renstrom pulls up anchor from Hamline UMC

On June 22, after 11 years of service as the Pastor Greg Renstrom will step down as pastor of Hamline United Methodist Church on Englewood Ave. and step into retirement. (Photo by Terry Faust)

By TREVOR MAINE

On June 22, after 11 years of service, Pastor Greg Renstrom will step down as pastor of Hamline United Methodist Church on Englewood Ave. and step into retirement.

Hamline Church has been his home—an anchor. For Renstrom, there’s a calming quality to the sanctuary in that place—a place of worship he believes is one of the most beautiful in the Twin Cities.

A lesson that he has been slowly learning alongside the congregation, he says, is that, though beautiful, the actual building that is Hamline UMC is in need of some serious work. The task of keeping that space alive and healthy is one he believes is necessary for the church to remain vibrant and benefit the community most. And while the actual building is important, it’s evident that Renstrom believes that the community that has called it home with him these last 11 years (and for the 116 years before he came there) is really what makes Hamline Church unique.

“A lot of the things that we’ve done the last 11 years is kind of work on who we are as a congregation in terms of our infrastructure,” Renstrom said. “Hamline Church has a wonderful history of outreach to the community. During my 11 years here we’ve kind of begun to address those things which will let us serve even more.”

That service has already begun to sprout outside the floors, walls, and roof (which is in need of considerable repair) of Hamline Church and out into the community and the world. During Renstrom’s time as pastor, Hamline UMC has rekindled a nineteenth century tradition of taking interfaith offerings along with Twin Cities mosques, synagogues, and churches. Last year, this offering was given to help rebuild a water treatment plant in Iraq.

With the help of several members of the Hamline University community, Renstrom also organized a service to honor nuns, rabbis, imams, priests and pastors who have gone unrecognized.

This year the church will begin a new initiative with Hancock-Hamline University Collaborative Magnet School wherein the church will help facilitate and organize volunteerism for the school’s programs and projects.

“It’s just a great way for the church to become active in the schools—and St. Paul schools are outstanding,” Renstrom said. Renstrom was, himself, a graduate of Saint Paul Central High School.

In addition to these programs, the church will also partner with several students from Hamline University to host a new Campus Kitchen.

“They wanted to partner with us because of the kitchen facilities but also the people. There was a connection there,“ Renstrom said. “That’s the first time I can remember students actually coming from Hamline and saying ‘Let’s initiate a program together,’ which I find really encouraging.”

That sort progress in the church and in the community is what gives Renstrom his “all will be well” attitude. He admits that leaving will be difficult for him, as the church has been his home and his anchor for these past 11 years, but it’s time for him to move on and to let the church move forward, he says. The current of the community is changing rapidly, and as the church’s largest neighbor, Hamline University, plans its expansion, what lies ahead for Hamline UMC has yet to be seen.

“It’s been a huge priority for me to nurture [the] relationship (between Hamline UMC and Hamline University), so I see it as still having a tremendous promise and potential, and it’s being realized as we go. There are things that we’ve done the last 11 years that I find extremely fulfilling,” Renstrom said.

The university’s master plan, which was unveiled this March, made almost no mention of Hamline UMC—a peculiarity, because the plan revealed the school’s intention to expand south, directly where the church now sits. One iteration of the plan even proposed the removal of Englewood Avenue from Snelling to Pascal, which would effectively strand Hamline UMC within the campus.

Though he did admit that such a plan would have implications on the church, Renstrom was quick to point out that Hamline University’s master plan is far from set in stone. It’s already undergone considerable revision as community and faculty members alike raise concerns about the future of the university—one of which was the future of the school’s relationship to the church that has been its neighbor for 127 years.

Renstrom said that he and the congregation he leads trust that relationship. After all, it may well be the oldest and longest standing institutional coupling in the state of Minnesota.

“[The expansion of the university] has potential for drawing us closer, which is always helpful. It gives us the opportunity to look at how we responsibly use land and space in ways that are creative and mutually fulfilling,” Renstrom said. “I just find that a great opportunity for both the university and the church.”

He’ll leave the future of that relationship in the hands of his congregation and of Hamline UMC’s new pastor, Patricia HInker.

Renstrom’s real anchors have always truly been community and faith—his post at Hamline Church was just a way he lived them out.

Now, after 11 years in the Midway area, Renstrom will jump the river to the Seward neighborhood in Minneapolis.

“I’ll be leaving the promised land and moving to the wilderness,” he laughed.
In Minneapolis, Renstrom won’t be simply messing about during his retirement. He plans to work with a Mennonite church that is active in social justice in the Twin Cities and beyond, spend time at the Birchwood Cafe, where he currently writes his sermons, and start his own publishing company, the St. Ninian Press (SNP). St. Ninian (of course) is the second great saint of Scotland, behind St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, whose name is currently used by Renstrom’s alma matter, the University of St. Andrews and their publishing company.

“I’m excited about the new vocation, and I’m really excited for Hamline Church’s future. They’ve got a lot of wonderful things in store,” Renstrom said. “I’m just so grateful for having been here, and every church I’ve served has been just a wonderfully good place to be a pastor.”

“I will miss that.”

Renstrom will lead his final service with Hamline UMC on Sunday, June 22.
He’ll be succeeded by Rev. Patricia Hinker, currently of Owatonna, whose first service will be the week immediately following Renstrom’s departure—June 29.

"There are things that we’ve done the last 11 years that I find extremely fulfilling."

- Hamline Church Pastor Greg Renstrom

"I’m excited about the new vocation, and I’m really excited for Hamline Church’s future."

- Pastor Greg Renstrom