Pastor To Promote ‘Global Spirituality’ Covenant Christian Church Welcomes New Minister

Covenant Christian Church, 5616 S. Palouse Highway, is making a gigantic move toward the future with its new pastor, the Rev. Michael John Rice-Sauer.

Rice-Sauer, who moved his family here from Nashville, Tenn., will be officially welcomed at Sunday’s 11 a.m. worship service.

So what made him want to leave the South?

“My wife (Edith Ann) and I had been talking about the Northwest for 12 years,” he said in a telephone interview from his former Nashville office. “And when I put in my relocation papers, they (Covenant Christian members) contacted me, and all kinds of positive flags went up.

“I’m pretty much on the liberal end of things,” said Rice-Sauer. “Being in the South, which is on the conservative side of things, I did not really fit. And the Northwest has always been a place I’ve wanted to be.”

In Nashville, he was deeply involved with Nashville Spiritual Community, a multidenominational group of Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Hindus and adherents of other religions.

The Nashville Spiritual Community was formed as an experiment to unite people of different traditions to practice global spirituality - a progressive concept for a conservative area of the nation.

Global spirituality “has always been an issue to me,” Rice-Sauer said. “The planet now is the smallest complete thing, and that thing must be reconciled within. So how do people of different traditions come together and share their spirituality without washing out their religion?”

The experiment was a success, the minister said.

His understanding of Christ was expanded by understanding Taoism, he said.

But a couple of drawbacks led Rice-Sauer back to pastoral life.

“I missed the Bible, and I missed Communion,” he said.

At Covenant Christian, the new pastor will introduce global spirituality in his ministry.

“At this church, I said that I’m a Christian by religion, but my spirituality is global, and they were very accepting of that.”

Change is one of the main goals Rice-Sauer and his new congregation will strive to accomplish.

“Many liberal churches have not changed with the times,” he said, and that has resulted in a drop of church attendance across the nation.

Covenant, with a membership of 175, however, “is really willing to take a risk for the future,” Rice-Sauer said.

“The whole meaning of religion is re-linking to the past. So it’s important to honor our roots, but where the church is going is not where its roots were.

“This church has said that they are very open to change to a new understanding and a new way of being in the world.

“Of course, none of us know what God has in store for us, but we have to take the next step to see if it works,” he said.

“I call it best-guess theology.”