God didn’t so much call Jeremy into the ministry, as he called him to be His servant in his hometown community of Mound, MN. This has taken many forms over the past 20 years such as coaching basketball, sub teaching, driver’s education, youth ministry, ministry to seniors at nursing homes, and, of course, planting and pastoring MainStreet Covenant Church for the past 13 years. Jeremy served as a youth pastor at two churches prior to planting MainStreet Covenant. He is ordained to Word and Sacrament in the Evangelical Covenant Church.
A hallmark of Jeremy’s pastoral leadership is a commitment to authenticity — being real with God, ourselves and others. We try to cultivate spaces saturated with Amazing Grace, and MainStreet has long been characterized as a place where people can stop pretending they have it all together and find a fresh beginning. We courageously take off our masks and are learning to embrace our true identity as the beloved of Christ.
“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything.”
Tim Keller
MainStreet Covenant Church has shifted and morphed many times over the years, but its core vision and values have remained constant. MainStreet has always prioritized small intimate community over big flashy programs, embracing messy people over attracting put-together people, and growing deeper disciples over growing a larger congregation. “If Jesus was happy with a congregation of 70, a small group of 12, and leadership team of 3,” says Jeremy, “why shouldn’t we?” While we have done our share of conventional worship services and programming, the soul of MainStreet is the Acts 2 fellowship we experience when we gather in homes around a meal and on living room couches.
Above all, Jeremy desires to cultivate a Jesus-looking church committed to making Jesus-shaped disciples who are learning to live a Jesus-styled life centered on the “Jesus Creed”: love God and love others. “The calling of the church is to put on display the radical upside-down Ways of the Kingdom,” says Jeremy. “When so many are focused on making American great again, God is calling pastors to the higher task of making the church Christlike again.”
Jeremy is a blend of a contemplative pastor along the lines of a Eugene Peterson or Henri Nouwen, and a scholarly pastor along the lines of a Tim Keller or Greg Boyd. He has thought deeply and written extensively about what it means to be a pastor in these days. Get to know Jeremy’s pastor-heart more deeply by checking out some of the following writings.
Jeremy Berg 