Faith+Values: Dancing with the clergy

Is the Rev. Jeff Nehrbass a minister who dances or a dancer who ministers? For the bulk of his career, he was the first: a Lutheran pastor who also owned a dance studio. But since winning a national ballroom dancing title and then parlaying that into a victory at the world championships, he has started to become known as the latter.

He doesn't see it as an either/or situation.

"I've always been a person who believes that you do what you love, and I love to dance and be a pastor," he said.

There are a lot more parallels between his dual careers than you might think. Both ministering and dancing require him to focus intently on another person, react to what they are experiencing and, occasionally, nudge them to go where he thinks they should go.

"To me, the [holy] spirit is living, moving and breathing, and that's what dance is," he said. "It's a way of integrating the spirit into the living, moving and breathing thing that each of us is."

Most of the students at On Your Toes dance studio in St. Louis Park, which he owns with his wife, Cindy, didn't even know he was a pastor until he turned up as the dancing minister on the popular PBS series "America's Ballroom Challenge."

"I certainly don't hide it from them, but I don't make a big deal of it, either," he said after teaching a ballroom class. "They don't come in here to be converted to Lutheranism."

"We used dances as fundraisers," said the Rev. Kelly Chatman. "We have a space called the Redeemer Center where young people can come, and he built a dance studio there -- entirely through donations -- and started giving lessons. Our congregation was very excited when he won."

Nehrbass, 42 -- "a little long in the tooth by dance standards, but still young by minister standards" -- knew that he wanted to be a pastor since he was 7.

The dancing came later when he met Cindy at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She was a dance major, and he figured out pretty quickly that the best way to get her undivided attention was to get her on a dance floor.

"I took a lot of lessons," he admitted.

They moved to the Twin Cities so he could attend Luther Seminary, but even then he was serving two masters. The couple danced competitively until he graduated in 1994, which is when they opened their studio and the first of their two children was born.

"From the very beginning, I wanted a bi-vocational ministry," he said. "St. Paul was a tentmaker; that's how he earned his money. It's a very old rabbinical tradition by which you get to combine two areas of your life that you are gifted in and excited about."

The only drawback is that when he's between church calls -- as he is right now -- he has to limit his job search to churches within driving range of his home near the dance studio.

"We'll find a good fit; that's the way God works," he said. "In the meantime, I can help out at other churches."

Back in the game

He got back into competitive dance because of Adrienne Brown, a student from Hopkins. Now attending DePaul University in Chicago, she was 15 when she started taking lessons.

It takes two to tango -- or do any other ballroom dance -- and when Brown expressed an interest in competing, she asked Nehrbass to be her partner. He choreographed all their dances and pulled out his tux.

"The instant I put on that tux, I become Fred Astaire," he said with a laugh.

When he puts on his minister's collar, he does some pretty impressive stepping, too, said the Rev. Mark Hellmann of Grace Lutheran Church in Andover, where Nehrbass has served.

"The people really liked his sermons," Hellmann said. "He has a lot of energy. And he really connected well with people. He loved to talk with people. He'd just go sit down with the Grace Quilters and have coffee with them."

Nehrbass said he learned the importance of bonding with people during his internship.

The same applies to teaching people to dance.

"I've been very fortunate that I have been able to stay close to what God has gifted me to do," he said. "That's where the enthusiasm comes from."

Nehrbass doesn't know if he and Brown will try to defend their championships. It depends in part on whether she can get enough time away from college to practice. And it depends on where Nehrbass' other career takes him.

"Right now, I'm at the top of my game in terms of my dance," he said. "I have to be, to keep up with Adrienne. But I haven't reached the top of my game yet in terms of my ministry. I'm hopeful that my best ministry is still ahead of me."