Service to others has always been integral to Sam Swenson-Reinhold’s worldview. “I’m a double pastor’s kid, so I’m a unique breed in that way,” he said.
With two ELCA pastors as parents, he’s “been an ELCA member since the time I came out of the womb.” His father is an ELCA coach, and his mother is a licensed clinical social worker and therapist. “That approach to self-growth and the pursuing of it has always been in my DNA,” he said.
Today Swenson-Reinhold serves as an ELCA coach himself, as well as project coordinator for Operation Backyard with the nonprofit Knoxville (Tenn.) Leadership Foundation (KLF). He’s a member of St. John Lutheran Church in Knoxville.
For Swenson-Reinhold those roles embody two different ways to serve. He was drawn to the ministry of ELCA coaching from an early age: “I saw my dad doing it, and I said, ‘This looks really interesting. I think I would love to be involved in this.’”
After Swenson-Reinhold’s first training, he knew he wanted to continue on the path to coaching. “I thought, this is so valuable,” he said. “What a unique way to engage individuals and groups.”
He now serves with the ELCA Innovation team as a Congregations Lead Initiative coach and provides one-on-one coaching to rostered ministers and other individuals.
In his work with Operation Backyard, “I just get to love on people all day and lead construction projects and make sure that they run smoothly,” he said. The year-round program provides free home repair services for those with limited income, those who are elderly and those with disabilities.
“It’s a really fun job,” he said, “and one that I’m super-blessed to be able to do.”
Through the Amachi program at KLF, Swenson-Reinhold mentors a 10-year-old boy, a deeply meaningful relationship for him. “That, for me, has been a huge spiritual thing, my getting to pour into him,” he said. “And he pours just as much, if not more, back into me.”
An extrovert, Swenson-Reinhold is charged up by the many ways he interacts with people every day, yet he tries to prioritize spiritual self-care. “I’m still working, though, on finding that separation and figuring out what it looks like to really take care of myself in that way,” he said. “But I live in beautiful East Tennessee, so a lot of that is just getting outside, trying to find some quiet time to myself.
“For me it looks like finding that quiet and getting away from the hustle and bustle of my 9-to-5, which really leans into serving people and being with people all the time.”
Swenson-Reinhold finds that attending church stabilizes and nourishes him. “We Lutherans, we like our liturgy,” he said. “We like the structure that often comes with our church. And for me, it’s a safe place. The ELCA has always been a safe place. And the congregations accordingly. St. John’s has been no exception to that.”
He finds he returns to worship on Sundays “because I walk out of there feeling nourished and more full than when I walked in,” he said. “It’s a nice, healthy reminder that we all belong and that it’s important. It’s a refresh in that way.”
