Resurrection Life

Just an Update

It's been a not-so-quiet few weeks in Lake Wobegone. As I noted back on October 9th I was a guest preacher and teacher at the first Dream, Discover, and Discern event held at Mountain View Lutheran Church in Edgewood, WA. Our team consisted of Rollie Martinson, Terri Elton, Tim Coltvet, me and the pastors of Mountain View: John Vaswig, and Jen and Ben Quanbeck. The team at Mt. View was phenomenal with the entire church transformed into a homebase for a three-year journey that the congregation is embarking upon while inviting other congregations in the synod to journey with them. I was thoroughly impressed with not only the excitement for a ministry that truly encompasses all generations but with the reaction of the participants to the thesis, theories and practical ideas that we brought out there to playfully and artfully "mess-up" what has up until now been a traditional view of youth ministry i.e. bring in a Pied Piper youth director, wring every bit of energy and ideas out of them, burn them out, then go find another one. The idea of bringing youth out of the youth room and into the entire life of the congregation is not a new one but it is encouraging to see that there are institutions who have committed to intentionally working a new model that can only bring rewards even in failure when everyone is pulling at the oars. Good stuff.

And today I had the privilege of being a part of Convergence at Luther Seminary. This was a gathering of clergy from Region 3 of the ELCA (50 of the 130 clergy who are 35 years old or younger [I just made the cut]) in a fishbowl model of listening and talking together about the joys, sorrows, frustrations and hopes for the future of the church and those called to ordained ministry. Bishops, Augsburg Fortress reps, the Young Adult director of the ELCA, the Fund for Theological Education and seminary reps were present to listen and reflect what was heard. We ended our day making commitments personally and as a group on how to proceed from here. It was a refreshing conversation in that the usual gripes were left on the wayside as we found common ideas to come together around regardless of context or experience. I look forward to what might happen next.

Technorati Tags: conference, discernment, dream, discover, discern, ELCA, FTE, Convergence, Rollie Martinson, seminary

Niebuhr

If man does not acknowledge his status as creator, his freedom over the historical flux, his right and duty to challenge the inherited traditions of the community, his obligation to exercise discriminate judgment in rearranging or reconstructing any scheme of togetherness which has been faulty in providing justice, he will merely become the victim of the past which accentuates its vices when it is studiedly preserved into the present.

–Reinhold Niebuhr, The Self and the Dramas of History (1955)

Dream, Discover, Discern

I will be out at Mountain View Lutheran Church in Edgewood, Washington this weekend, October 10-12, along with Dr's Rollie Martinson and Terri Elton, to lead a fantastic retreat on reinvigorating youth ministry. If any of my dozen readers are in the area please drop by! Information can be found here.

Technorati Tags: dream, discover, discern, ELCA, Lutheran, preaching, religion, Rollie Martinson, Terri Elton, youth ministry