Roots Moravian Church

Roots Moravian Church A Community of Misfits on a Mission, Finding Identity in Jesus. Sunday worship gatherings: 10AM

Our Monthly Worship Rhythm:

First Sunday: *Journey Groups Sunday* - No service at SPNN
Second Sunday: *Teaching Sunday* - Service at SPNN
Third Sunday: *Teaching Sunday* - Service at SPNN
Fourth Sunday: *Fellowship Sunday* - Service at SPNN
(Fifth Sunday: *Rest Sunday* - No service at SPNN)

SPNN - 550 Vandalia Street, Saint Paul

Something special happens when instead of meeting indoors, under the glow of artificial lighting, we gather for worship ...
05/25/2026

Something special happens when instead of meeting indoors, under the glow of artificial lighting, we gather for worship outdoors in the summer. Yes, it’s a little less formal and we can enjoy the sun shining on our faces. But, also, the ancient stories in the scriptures feel a little less distant as we, like our spiritual ancestors before us, seek the transcendent as we sit among the trees.

This summer, Roots will once again gather for worship outdoors for our Teaching Sundays and Lovefeast Sundays in June, July, and August. This time, we’ll be gathering at Payne-Phalen Park on the Eastside of St. Paul, and we’d love for you to join us.

As we situate ourselves physically among the trees, we will also turn our attention to the stories of six figures from the Bible whose stories prominently feature an encounter under a tree (or bush, or vine). These fellow “misfits” didn’t fit into predefined boxes—they were too much, not enough, or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But if we pay attention to their stories, we may discover how they encountered the divine while under the trees.

• Eve — under the tree at the center of everything God had made (Genesis 3)
• Elijah — exhausted and done, under a broom tree in the wilderness (1 Kings 19)
• Jonah — sulking under a vine, arguing with God about mercy (Jonah 4)
• Hagar — alone in the desert, seen by a God she didn’t expect (Genesis 16)
• Nathanael — sitting under a fig tree when everything changed (John 1:48)
• Zacchaeus — up in a sycamore tree, trying to see without being seen (Luke 19:1–10)

Rather than tidy morality tales, these stories are messy, honest, sometimes funny, and sometimes devastating. They have a lot to say to anyone who has ever felt out of place in their own life, their own faith, or in their own skin.

In addition to Pastors Osheta and T. C., the teaching team will also be joined by a very special guest preacher, Dr. Gary F. Green, author of Playing the Game: Embodied Brilliance Beyond the Moral Limits of Race in Sport and Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Social Transformation, and Director of Racial Intelligence Systems at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. He brings a wealth of wisdom not only from the classroom, but also from his experience as an elite athlete. We’re genuinely thrilled to have Dr. Green bring his voice and scholarship to our community under the trees.

As a community, we welcome our kids to worship with us. And to help our littlest misfits connect with the stories, Pastor Osheta has invited the trees themselves (played by Roots members) to join us for a “Between Two Ferns” style segment in which we’ll hear the insider details that didn’t make it into the official record.

So, join us this summer for worship. We will make space for a wide range of emotions, from curiosity to grief, lament to stubborn hope. You don’t have to have yourself all sorted out, you just have to be willing to show up.

As always, misfits welcome.

https://rootsmc.org/misfits-under-the-trees/

At Roots we often describe ourselves as “a community of misfits on a mission.” And sometimes that sounds playful, but in...
03/08/2026

At Roots we often describe ourselves as “a community of misfits on a mission.” And sometimes that sounds playful, but in moments like this, it’s actually very serious. Because being a misfit means we refuse to let our faith be shaped by fear, propaganda, or shallow thinking. Instead, we try to practice three things together: curiosity, critical thinking, and empathy.

Right now the world is watching another war unfold, this time between the United States and
Iran. Military strikes have already hit thousands of targets, and the conflict is spreading across
the region. Whenever war begins, governments immediately start telling stories about why the
violence is necessary. And sometimes those stories even come wrapped in religious language.

But here’s where our misfit identity matters. At Roots, we believe faith should make us more
thoughtful, not less. Curiosity asks better questions than propaganda. Critical thinking refuses to confuse political power with the kingdom of God. And empathy reminds us that the people who suffer in war are not symbols in a prophecy chart—they are human beings loved by God.

So when we hear theology that treats war as inevitable—or even desirable—because it might
accelerate the end of the world, we step back. Because the Jesus we follow didn’t teach his
disciples to hasten Armageddon. He taught his disciples to be peacemakers, to love our
neighbors as we love ourselves, and to even honor the image of God in people who align
themselves against us.

That doesn’t mean we ignore what’s happening in the world. It means we face it without panic,
without cynicism, and without surrendering our imagination to war and violence. Followers of
Jesus have always been a little odd in that way—misfits, if you will. While empires prepare for
war, we prepare ourselves for witness.

This February, Roots will honor Black History Month as a sacred act of remembrance and resistance shaped by our present ...
01/31/2026

This February, Roots will honor Black History Month as a sacred act of remembrance and resistance shaped by our present moment in Minnesota. As our communities grapple with state violence and the fear carried by our immigrant and refugee neighbors, we turn to the Black Church’s long witness as a theological guide. From Reconstruction through the Civil Rights Movement, Black Christian faith has modeled non-violent resistance, moral clarity, and courageous love when law and power distorted justice. In worship, we will listen to this inheritance—not as history alone, but as living wisdom—seeking a 21st-century faith that resists injustice, tells the truth, and remains rooted in hope.

https://rootsmc.org/black-history-month/

Melt the ICE - A LamentSince the beginning of December, Minnesota—and especially the Twin Cities—has been targeted by th...
01/13/2026

Melt the ICE - A Lament

Since the beginning of December, Minnesota—and especially the Twin Cities—has been targeted by the current administration for what they claim is a surge in immigration enforcement. However, the reality is people are being indiscriminately targeted and disappeared. Not just those called “violent criminals,” but non-violent undocumented immigrants, American citizens, and even members of sovereign tribal nations.

The presence of these heavily-armed, masked, and aggressive federal agents feels less like the enforcement of immigration laws and much more like a military occupation.

Meanwhile, the President of the United States has been making blatantly racist and xenophobic comments about our Somali neighbors here in Minnesota, even calling them “garbage.” This inflames prejudice, fuels fear, resentment, and division.

Then, last week, into that powder keg, it was announced that two thousands federal agents are being deployed here (which is nearly four times the number of police officers there are in Minneapolis). This has ignited the already heightened fear in our communities and driven many of our neighbors into hiding. All week, the presence of these so-called “ICE agents” in our streets has had devastating consequences for community well-being. It has resulted in arbitrary arrests, unlawful detainment, and violent clashes. It’s so unsafe that even Minneapolis schools had to be closed!

And, as we’re all well aware, last week these threats turned deadly when Renee Nicole Macklin Good's life was stolen from her and her loved ones in an instant by one of those “ICE agents”.
She was not a “domestic terrorist,” as she was called by members of this administration. She was not even a threat. She was a concerned neighbor who showed up.

In times like these, the people of God are given language in the scriptures to address our confusion, our fears, and our anger to God. It’s called lament.

The great expositor of the Hebrew Bible, Dr. Walter Brueggemann, has helpfully mapped the movement of lament in the Psalms. He describes a three-part movement: Orientation, Disorientation, and Reorientation.

Join us in a movement of lament, where we turn our hearts toward God and call out for justice, mercy, and peace.

Beloved community,We are living through a moment that demands both clear-eyed prayer and courageous love. The presence o...
01/07/2026

Beloved community,

We are living through a moment that demands both clear-eyed prayer and courageous love. The presence of thousands of ICE agents in our state—and the loss of life that has already occurred—reminds us that fear is being weaponized and that vulnerable neighbors are being placed in harm’s way.

As followers of Jesus, we refuse the lie that safety is secured through violence or that some lives are expendable for the comfort of others. We pray today for the one who was killed, for their family and community, and for all who are now living in heightened fear. We pray for courage to remain non-anxious misfits—rooted in love, truth, and solidarity.

But prayer must not end in silence. We are called to protect the stranger, to accompany the threatened, to speak truth to power, and to practice active compassion. Let us open our eyes, our hearts, our schedules, and our resources. May God disturb our complacency, strengthen our resolve, and lead us into faithful, embodied love.

Come, Lord Jesus. Make us instruments of your peace.

On Celebrating Christmas in 2025:As Advent gives way to Christmastide this week, we are met in Scripture and tradition b...
12/24/2025

On Celebrating Christmas in 2025:

As Advent gives way to Christmastide this week, we are met in Scripture and tradition by the story of God’s promise of presence and liberation being fulfilled in the birth of Jesus, to an u***d teenaged mother in a space meant for barnyard animals. Jesus’s young mother, Mary, had insight into this event well beyond her years. She saw it as the upending of a social order that had long oppressed her people. Nevertheless the scene that’s set remains rather pathetic. The royal court of this child we’re to believe is born a king are lowly shepherds and their smelly sheep.

What strikes hearers immediately is the puzzling juxtaposition of salvation and vulnerability.

How can this baby be our Savior?

This seeming contradiction exposes our conditioning to trust displays of power for our protection. Time and again, our social order has taught us that ‘might makes right,’ that tanks and bombs are our salvation. But the story of Jesus’s humble birth defuses our violent programming, challenging us to see power differently, to imagine a new kind of world—a world where vulnerability is safe and love is more powerful than weapons.

This story reveals that the divine is not an insecure despot, slapping his name on buildings in gold or lights. Neither is the divine a ruthless military force, targeting civilians, inciting terror. These and all other anxious attempts to appear powerful are thinly-veiled admissions of impotence. They are the last gasps and grasps of a frail and faltering order, an order built on a lie.

The truth of the Gospel of Christmas is that the divine is revealed in the unlikely, seemingly ordinary, and altogether surprising, person of Jesus—a person who was human like us, but embodied the eternal love of God.

• The birth of Jesus as Savior signals the beginning of the end for the reign of terrifying powers and insecure despots.
• The birth of Jesus as Savior inaugurates a new epoch in which people inspired by Jesus’s spirit can move mountains, overturn oppression, and forged a community that extends God’s family to all people.
• The birth of Jesus is beginning of a new way of being human.

In this new era,

• Acts of resistance for the sake of our neighbors are a celebration of Christmas!
• Fact-checking assaults on truth and debunking disinformation is a celebration of Christmas!
• Joining together in mutual aid networks to provide for one another is a celebration of Christmas!
• Ensuring diversity, equity, and inclusion in our schools and workplaces is a celebration of Christmas!
• Remembering and proclaiming history that is being erased is a celebration of Christmas!
• Accountability for corruption and exploitation is a celebration of Christmas!

So, in honor of our Savior, Jesus—the humble king—let us boldly celebrate Christmas this year!

Address

550 Vandalia Street
Saint Paul, MN
55114

Telephone

+16124540512

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