Eric Reimer is a pastor who tweets.

He is the new pastor at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Altamont. “The word of God …,” said Reimer, “needs to be proclaimed wherever people are. The Lutheran movement itself exists largely because of changes in the way people communicate.”

Martin Luther’s ideas in the 1500s had been expressed before by other theologians, but Luther was able to print them and distribute them quickly before they could be repressed, said Reimer, leading to the Protestant Reformation.

“And then once his ideas were out there, he took advantage of things like using woodcuts to make interesting illustrations to accompany his catechism, so Christian teachings and instructions would hold people’s attention,” Reimer said.

Luther was also an advocate of translating the scriptures from Latin into languages people spoke and could easily understand.

Whether it’s on Twitter or Facebook, Reimer said, the church should be where “God’s people are.” He went on, “And so whenever there are ways to advocate for peace or to care for one another or to love our neighbor, the church should show up and proclaim that.”

Reimer has been a minister for 12 years and the church in Altamont is his third call. He came here, with his family, from a much larger church of the same name located in a Philadelphia suburb.

Reimer had thought bigger was better when he took that post in 2013 but came to realize he prefers a smaller community, similar to the Pennsylvania town where he was raised.

In his job as a pastor, Reimer says on this week’s Enterprise podcast, “A lot of what I do is creative.” This includes writing sermons and inventing fresh approaches to Bible study. 

His job also involves relationships, providing spiritual care in homes and hospitals. This has been complicated by COVID-19 restrictions, Reimer said, and some of his congregants he has met only through screens.

As a teenager, Reimer worked at a Lutheran summer camp — and continued to work there for seven summers. One of the things that attracted him to Altamont was its proximity to the Adirondacks. 

He floundered when he first went to college, Reimer said, but was grounded by his desire to return to work at the Lutheran summer camp. “Being there for others … was what I was called to do,” he said.

He discerned his call to the ministry at the camp, Reimer said, as he likened being a pastor to being a counselor for life. He described his work as a lifelong cycle of sharing joys and sorrows with a group of people.

The outdoor aspects of the camp, like hiking on the Appalachian Trail, he added, reinforced the importance of working together and caused intense bonding.

Being there for others, as Reimer put it, sometimes involves people you don’t even know. 

The churchwide assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, known as the ELCA, had in 2016 repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery.

Asked about this, Reimer explained that, in 1493, Pope Alexander VI gave license to Spain to claim the new lands — America — it had “discovered” the year before. “That became the foundation of every Roman Catholic or Protestant or Christian conquest of land in North or South America,” said Reimer.

Martin Luther taught that it is not the proper role of the church to help give authority to government nor is it the proper role of the church to oppose government.

“We shouldn’t use our religious authority given to us by God to justify the actions of the government and the Doctrine of Discovery did just that. It said: ‘Because these people are not Christian … their current occupation of the land doesn’t count as ownership. You can take it.’ It was giving civil authority with religious justification, and that is a misuse of our authority.”

Last month, the ELCA issued a declaration to the American Indian and Alaska Native People that, “while we did not issue the original idea, we benefited from it,” said Reimer.

“We are a denomination made up largely of European immigrants … Our churches are built on land that were seized from Native American peoples, and we established our communities and built our church structures there, and we benefited from it.”

The declaration says the Lutherans are committed to undoing the evils of hundreds of years, “building right relationships with Native nations and Native peoples, and remaining faithful to our shared journeys toward truth and healing.”

The declaration, Reimer said, “is also calling us as a denomination to not continue to participate and perpetuate these abuses of people.”

In the past, Reimer said, “Christian ministry to native peoples might have been to teach them to live our way and to attack and diminish their culture. And now Lutheran ministries to native folks would work to build up and preserve their language and culture and affirm the full humanity of all people.”

If acknowledging the problem is the first step, Reimer was asked, what is the next step.

“That is something I think we are all working out as a society and we’re still not even all in agreement on if it’s a problem,” he said, noting that some sports teams still use names that are racial slurs.

Some congregations are doing “land acknowledgements,” acknowledging that the land where a church stands belongs to an indigenous tribe that was there first. The Lutherans are following Native leaders in their church on taking the next steps, Reimer said.

Reimer’s church is, like other churches, now preparing for Advent. More than the color of the altar cloths are being changed.

During Pentecost, Reimer selects readings from where Jesus is teaching his parables, where he’s instructing his disciples. Now, in Advent and the season of Christmas, he selects stories of what happened in Jesus’s life.

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, Reimer closed with a challenge.

“It’s always appropriate to give thanks,” he said. “And whether you’re a Christian or not, I think we can all benefit from the act of actively giving thanks and looking for things to be thankful for.”

Reimer challenged podcast listeners “to spend the week looking for different reasons to be thankful … to have gratitude. And I will then challenge you to find new ways to express that gratitude to others. And to help build relationships and spread love.”

— Melissa Hale-Spencer