Rev. Michael Frese serves as the wing chaplain for the 122nd fighter wing in Fort Wayne and worked as a part-time pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Courtesy | Redeemer Lutheran Church
Understanding how to converse with Christians of varying denominations is key to enjoying life to its fullest, Rev. Michael Frese said April 3 in a lecture titled “Unity in Diversity,” hosted by the Lutheran Society.
“I believe it to be an important topic on how we dialog with other Christians,” Frese said. “Understanding that is the key to living in harmony with those who are left and to our right — to our neighbors — and I think it is also the key to happiness, to enjoying who you are and then enjoying who the person is next to you.”
Frese serves as the wing chaplain for the 122nd fighter wing in Fort Wayne. Before this he worked as a part-time pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and served as an active duty U.S. Army chaplain from 2006-2012. Frese’s daughter is a freshman at the college.
Raised in the Lutheran tradition, Frese said his choice to transition to an Army Chaplain proved challenging at first and compared it to being thrown out of a comfortable home.
“Being tossed out of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, where I was a pastor in my incubated wonderful environment, into a pluralistic, ecumenical, but even anti-Christian world helped me to formulate the importance of what I believe and what I hold,” Frese said. “It caused me to see others in a more compassionate light, that it’s not just us Christians versus them, non-Christians. Jesus died on the cross for the whole world.”
Frese said Christ himself desired unity as he prayed in John 17:20-23: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
This passage served as the backbone of Frese’s lecture.
“The unity of the Christian church of the disciples of Christ is founded upon the unity that Jesus shares with the Father, and we can expand that using other Bible passages to the unity that is integral to who the Trinity is,” Frese said. “It is that unity which gives us the picture of Christian unity.”
Frese said Christians should want to dialogue with others out of love for other humans and should prioritize loving others over theological disputes.
“We want to share this joy that has been given to us, this hope that has been given to us in Jesus Christ in the dialogues. We don’t want to merely have an argument for argument’s sake,” Frese said. “It might make you feel good for a moment, but once you realize what you’ve done, it won’t make you feel good if you just picked a fight with a fellow Christian just to poke their differences instead of rejoicing in what you share, namely Jesus Christ and the atonement.”
Frese emphasized the importance of core doctrine over denominational differences, warning against talking just to prove a point.
“If someone says ‘I am a Christian,’ that should be the starting point,” Frese said. “But in a dialogue there are questions, and hopefully you are listening for answers instead of just thinking of your next little jab.”
When it comes to a game of jabs, Frese said it’s usually just about having read something that the other person hasn’t. He emphasized the importance of being an active listener and giving an honest confession of your faith.
“You don’t know what that good confession can do, and it might not do anything. It might not do anything next month, or next year,” Frese said. “But you don’t know how the Holy Spirit can use your own confession to that person to work on their heart, and something completely detached in their life could bring them back to words you used in that discussion.”
Senior Hannah Simpson said Frese’s message resonated with her.
“Some of my closest friends at college have not been Lutheran, and I know that definitely my freshman year, even into my sophomore year, the conversations could be kind of combative,” Simpson said. “I’m always interested to hear about ways to talk about differences while still loving people.”
City of Hillsdale resident Rob Olson, who has sent three kids to Hillsdale, said the answer simply lies in the Christian fundamentals we share rather than the doctrinal differences we have.
“We can agree on the most important things,” he said.
