Dan Carlson is currently serving as Police Chief for the City of Eden Prairie Minnesota. He has announced his retirement from police service, effective January 2007, to pursue a . . . → Read More: A New About…..Dan Carlson]]> Well, it’s been a year now since this website went live and getting close to a year since I posted my first “About Dan”:

Dan Carlson is currently serving as Police Chief for the City of Eden Prairie Minnesota. He has announced his retirement from police service, effective January 2007, to pursue a second career in the ministry. His 25 year career in law enforcement and his passion for the concept of spiritual fitness training have led him to found Public Safety Ministries Inc. PSMInc is a nonprofit corporation whose mission is “Promoting Spiritual Fitness in the Public Safety Professions”.

It’s probably time to update the information a bit, so here we go:

Dan Carlson retired as Police Chief of the City of Eden Prairie Minnesota in January of 2007. After serving 25 years in the law enforcement profession as a police officer, he has transitioned to a new role serving the profession as a police chaplain. He currently serves as the Chaplain for the Hennepin County and Minnesota Chiefs of Police Associations. Chaplain Carlson is also the founder and president of Public Safety Ministries Inc. a nonprofit ministry with the mission: “Serving Those Who Protect – Promoting Spiritual Fitness in the Public Safety Professions.”

Dan is also pursuing ordination as a Lutheran Pastor through The Minneapolis Synod of the ELCA and Luther Seminary in St. Paul Minnesota. He is “entered” as a candidate for ordination and participating Theological Education for Emerging Ministries (TEEM) program. TEEM is a program run cooperatively between Luther Seminary and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkley California.

So there you have it. I am starting to do quite a bit more speaking and training so it’s probably good to have an updated bio for my presentations. And besides, an old FBI National Academy friend from Maine just contacted me and I felt inspired to update the info.

“We need a word…”

Dan, you’re probably way ahead of me, but I look forward to hearing what words you have to say about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

Yes, I was ahead of the reader, . . . → Read More: “We need a word…”]]> A couple of days ago I received the following message through the Public Safety Ministries Inc. contact form….

“We need a word…”

Dan, you’re probably way ahead of me, but I look forward to hearing what words you have to say about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

Yes, I was ahead of the reader, the next morning I wrote of my thoughts and feelings on the bridge tragedy, but it was written for another venue, an article for the MN Chiefs of Police Magazine. Out of respect for that publication I won’t share that specific message here until the magazine is published this fall.

However, in response to the readers request here is a word, actually three, to reflect on :

Chaos…….Order…….Faith

The first two are a bit redundant to the message I have shared before. As Pastor Jac said, “There are two opposing forces in this world, order and chaos. I thank God that you people (Public Safety Professionals) are there when the two collide.” Once again, that is the message we all need to continue to hear, we need to continue to acknowledge, that the presence of our police, fire and emergency medical service personnel is a blessing we all share and the primary reason we all are blessed with a feeling of being safe.

Now faith, there is a word that hasn’t got a lot of play from me. At least not in print. But after a fair amount of reflection this past week, the 6 month anniversary of my retirement from the EPPD, faith is the word that says the most in this ministry. I’ve looked hard at words lately. I have always loved words, what they mean, how they inspire, how they influence and teach. Just yesterday I met with a friend of mine who works in advertising. He offered to help me with marketing the identify of this ministry. Along with spiritual fitness, public safety, order and chaos, service, protect, and many other great words, I kept coming back to faith. It is a strong word, but also a gentle word. It is the word that is at the foundation of this ministry.

I know that there are other definititons, but here is the one I give you today, the one that I revert to when I need to ask why? It is the one that, I think, will be seen here a lot more in the future.

Faith is a belief in something bigger than self.

So there is my word (plus a few) on the subject. Faith is what happened on the bridge, in the water, on the shore, in the living rooms, at the hospitals. It is why these heroic people, the professionals and the volunteering bystanders had last week. A belief in something bigger than self.

I’ve always worked on PC’s, for those of you who are IT (information technology I think it stands for) challenged there are two . . . → Read More: New Technology for PSMInc.]]> Today I write this post on new technology. Literally, ON new technology. I just purchased a new computer and decided to venture into a foreign land. I bought a Mac Powerbook.

I’ve always worked on PC’s, for those of you who are IT (information technology I think it stands for) challenged there are two basic formats for computers, PC and Mac (or is it Apple?). Now people asked me as I did my research on what to buy, “are you a PC or Mac guy?” Well I’ve used PC’s and played a bit with Mac’s at the Apple Store, but in reality I’m a “hit whatever keys they tell me to” guy. I didn’t think it would be a big adjustment to switch from one format to another when I didn’t even know what a format was.

So here I sit, watching CBS Sunday morning before heading off to church, writing a post to see if I can get it on the website with this new technology. Let’s see if I can make it work!

I’ll comment in comments and let you know how it went (testing my comments skills in the process)