PastorDaninSouthDakota

Welcome to the memories of Pastor Dan Johnson’s journey in South Dakota.

The Center During a Blizzard.

Pastor Dan. I am writing this site as a memory of my time in South Dakota. I am the director of the Lutheran Lakota Shared Ministries at the Pine Ridge Reconciliation Center in Pine Ridge SD on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. For more on the center go to pineridgereconciliationcenter.org the website for the center.

I am a third career pastor having chosen to go to seminary in my late 40’s. I graduated from Wartburg Theological Seminary in May of 2018. I was called as the associate pastor at The Lutheran Church of the Atonement in Florissant MO that same day. I served in that capacity for 2 years prior to answering God’s call to come serve the Oglala Lakota people here in Pine Ridge.

Prior to entering ministry, I was in technical sales. In 2007 I felt the call to youth ministry and served for 9 years at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Creve Coeur, MO. It was at Holy Cross that my life changed, and I met my beautiful wife Jackie and our incredible kids Emily, Nick, and Sam.

Chaos

Years ago, I read a book in which the author said that he knew his life was out of control when his car was a mess. I was thinking about this today. Both my desks were messes. Actually, both my home office and center office were chaotic and out of control. Earlier this week the…
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2 for 15

I went 2 for 15 today. In baseball I would not be around long. As a baseball player I would need to work on my average. But it still was a good day. A busy day. I did not get as much paperwork done as I had hoped. I started the day with 15 things…
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I don’t want to…..but, I do it anyways.

I was feeding Jackie some oatmeal at the hospital today. In the recovery room. And I thought about whether I wanted to be doing this. And the short answer is no. I do not want to be doing anything like this. Not because I don’t love her but because I do. You see, I will…
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