"Encounter the Neighbor in the Stranger," says Lutheran Outreach - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

"What happens around those who are coming here because of the oil industry can be something that models how to welcome people who move, for other reasons, and from other parts of the world to other regions. . . .  Unlike many other areas in the country, in most of the Midwest, if we don't have immigrants, we don't have hospitals and we don't have schools, because our population is diminishing," says David Vasquez, Campus Pastor of Luther College in Iowa.

With this in mind, Faith Lutheran Church in Bismarck is hosting a "Glocal" event where the idea is to combine global and local outreach.  "Glocal" encourages people of faith to rethink change and acceptance, especially when it comes to new people -- of all backgrounds and origins -- moving here.

"There are growing pains. There's no question about it.  It will put pressure on our infrastructure to do this, and so part of it is, 'how do we maintain conversation?'  And I think churches have a huge role to play in creating those places where we get to know each other and talk through both our differences and our anxieties and our hopes, so that we find a way to move forward together," says Vasquez.

"We're an immigrant church. . . .  The encouragement is not how to figure out how to bring people into the pew, but how the congregation goes out into the community to serve," says Sunitha Mortha, Director for Global Formation for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

The takeaway message is to "encounter the neighbor in the stranger."  For more information on Glocal, you can visit their website at www.elca.org/glocal.