October

Hi,

It has been a month since my last letter, and I am beginning to realise that it actually gets harder to choose what to write about when this only comes once a month. A lot has happened, but perhaps even more importantly, a lot has happened within me.

My theology studies are really beginning to leave a mark. Not only because I am learning more about the Bible, church history and different Christian traditions, but because the studies constantly make me ask myself what I believe, why I believe it, and how that should affect the way I meet other people.

I think that may be one of the things I enjoy most about studying theology. I am not only getting more answers. I am also getting better questions.

And some of them stay with me long after the class is over.

When the lesson becomes more than the syllabus

A little while ago, we had a class in denominational studies that turned out very differently from what I had expected. One student became loud and confrontational, and the atmosphere in the room gradually became quite uncomfortable. I do not want to write too much about the person or the actual situation, because that is not really the point. What interested me most was what happened afterwards.

I did not leave the class feeling more uncertain. I actually left feeling more certain.

More certain about the kind of church I want to be part of, and perhaps even more importantly, the kind of pastor and leader I want to become.

We are never going to agree on everything, and I do not think it is realistic to expect that either. People will disagree about theology, politics, family, sexuality, church traditions and how faith should be lived out. But I do not want the church to become a place where people first have to prove that they fit in before they are allowed to come close.

For me, Jesus and the Bible still need to be the foundation. I do not want a faith where everything gets blended together simply so that nobody feels challenged. At the same time, I believe the way we meet people says just as much about our faith as the words we preach.

It is quite easy to talk about love, grace and community when we are surrounded by people who think more or less like us. It is when we meet people who think completely differently that we discover whether those words actually mean anything.

Since that class, I have found myself thinking about a few simple questions. Do I see the person before I see the position? Can I listen before I make up my mind? Can I stand firmly in what I believe without making someone else smaller?

More and more, I think good leadership is about exactly that. Not about being the loudest person in the room or winning the argument, but about being able to create a space where people experience respect and dignity even when we disagree.

It is becoming clearer to me

That class also led me into some bigger reflections about church and what I am actually longing for. The more I study, the clearer it becomes that I want to be part of a church where Jesus is at the centre and the Bible is taken seriously, while the door is genuinely open to people who come with completely different stories, experiences and lives.

To me, those things are not opposites. I believe we can be clear about what we believe without meeting people harshly, and I believe we can be warm and inclusive without making our faith vague. Perhaps it is exactly in that tension that I am beginning to understand more of my own calling.

I do not know exactly what that will look like a few years from now, and I no longer feel the same need to have the whole plan figured out. That is actually quite new for me, because I have always liked knowing where I am going, what the next goal is and preferably when I am supposed to arrive.

But lately, I have felt a stronger and stronger need to turn down the noise around me. Because of that, I have stepped away from several social media platforms. Instagram and TikTok are deactivated, and Snapchat is now basically just for my closest family. In the past, I probably would have been a little afraid to do something like that. What if I become less visible? What if people forget about me? What if I miss something?

Now, more than anything, I feel peace.

Because I have started asking a different question: What do I actually want to be visible for?

I no longer want to spend a lot of time being present in places simply because I feel that I should. I would rather spend my time on people who genuinely want to be part of what I am building, on my family, my studies, writing, and going deeper into what I believe God is placing in front of me.

That does not mean I have stopped working or that my ambitions have disappeared. They are still there. Quite big too, if I am being honest. But I want to build differently than I did before.

MOMfidence is still developing, and I continue to meet new people from different countries and cultures. That is one of the things I love most about what I do. At the same time, I notice that I am no longer as focused on how quickly things grow. I care more about how we build, what kind of people we become along the way, and whether what we are creating is actually strong enough to last.

I think that is a fairly big change in me. I used to think a lot about how far I wanted to go. Now I find myself thinking more often about who I want to be while I am getting there.

Perhaps that is also why my theology studies are affecting me so deeply right now. I cannot simply put theology neatly away with the textbooks once the lesson is over. It follows me into the rest of life. It comes up around the dinner table, when I meet people who believe differently from me, when I make business decisions, when I think about leadership and, not least, when I am challenged on my own attitudes.

Because if faith actually matters, it cannot only be something I spend a few hours on each week. It has to affect the way I meet people, how I use my time, what I prioritise, how I lead and what I do when someone disagrees with me.

That may be one of the most exciting things about this season. I do not feel that I am becoming more certain about everything. Quite the opposite. The more I learn, the more I realise how much I do not know.

But that does not scare me.

I actually think it is making my faith deeper.

I do not want to reach a point where I believe I have fully understood God. I want to keep reading, asking questions, learning and staying willing to discover that something I once believed may not have been entirely right.

So right now, I find myself in a slightly strange combination of many questions and quite a lot of peace.

There is less noise around me.

There are more books on the table than ever before.

There is still a lot I do not know.

But the direction feels clearer.

And I think that is more than enough for now.

We will meet again on November 20th.

Thank you for being here 🤍

My name is Stine Marie Alme.

I am a trained nutrition advisor, entrepreneur, and passionate about how small choices over time can make a significant difference - both to our health and to life in general.

In this newsletter, I share personal reflections, experiences and knowledge about health, nutrition, everyday habits, leadership and faith. Some letters will be practical, others more personal, but all of them will be written with a desire to encourage, share and create value.

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See you in the next letter!

Warm regards,
Stine Marie Alme