Ministry in Context

Happy wedding!

Best wishes to Jill Rode and Gretchen Colby on their August wedding! Jill is a senior here at Luther Seminary and a recent intern at St. John's United Lutheran Church and Faith Action Network in Seattle, Washington. Gretchen is a Luther Seminary/PLTS student and a recent intern at Trinity Lutheran Church in Manhattan, New York. Best of luck to the happy newlyweds as they embark on their next chapter together.

Congratulations on your new baby!

Warm wishes to Bitta Fynskov Clark and …

I've been praying for and thinking about the many new students headed out into various ministry contexts. Of course, I'm thinking of interns, supervisors, lay committees, and congregations getting started together just now. Also, I think of Teaching Congregation students, new to Luther and to theological education, trying to find a learning context to accompany them during years of classwork. 

Many of you, dear readers, are NOT connected to a new internship. You might be tempted to skip this …

April Winebrenner-Palo is the new Program Administrative Assistant and Teaching Congregations Coordinator in the Contextual Learning Department.   She will support all facets of the Contextual Learning curriculum, assist in the leadership of the Teaching Congregations program and serve as the primary contact person for Contextual Learning’s congregational partners.  

This is what April has to say about herself:

My name is April Winebrenner-Palo. My academic background lies …

Another internship year is about to start. Is your Lay Internship Committee ready? 

1. Prepare to welcome your new intern and their family, if they have one. Someone from your committee or staff should be appointed to coordinate this welcoming time. The intern will need a contact person who can field questions dealing with basic "getting settled" issues, such as housing and transportation. Don't just assume it's the pastor or other staff member. Make sure you KNOW who's handling this. Be organized. …

Twin Cities West Metro: October 10, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., at Oak Grove Lutheran Church, Richfield. (Steve McKinley) 

Washington-Alaska-Montana Cluster: October 15-16 at Rainbow Lodge, North Bend, WA. (Julie Josund)

Southeastern Minnesota: October 15, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Rochester. (Steve McKinley) 

Northern Minnesota-North Dakota: October 22 at Peace Lutheran Church in Fargo. (Chris Scharen) 

Southwestern Minnesota: October 22, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., at the …

My lovely wife gave me a gift for my birthday that is absolutely driving me nuts.

She knows very well that I love blank journals. Give me a Moleskine and I go to my happy place. And if a pen comes with it, all the better.  It is an article of faith for me that a person can never have too many journals or too many pens. 

So here’s this gift called “Wreck This Journal.” Every page has an instruction on it.  For example:

• Figure Out A Way To Freeze This Page
• Write …

This month I have a specific invitation to interns who will be returning to campus at Luther Seminary. Over the past few years we've developed a pattern of welcoming returning interns by listening to your stories (and inviting you to listen to each other's stories) about internship. This year we'll do this on Wednesday, September 4, from 1:30-5:00 p.m .

As we said in an email to you earlier this summer, we know the return to campus can be rough. We know you've grown in your leadership, and have lived …

During a long car ride last week we popped in an old CD, and I heard a song from deep in my past that always makes me laugh.

When I was in high school the singer Bobby Darin had a short-term hit with a song called “ Artificial Flowers .” What amuses me about the song is this: while the narrative is “tragic”/maudlin (a nine year old orphan girl freezes to death), the music that goes with it is relentlessly cheerful and upbeat. If you just heard the music, you’d want to …

This is the last in a series of posts drawing from a little book by George Mason titled Preparing the Pastors We Need: Reclaiming the Congregation’s Role in Training Clergy (Alban, 2012). The book could be described as practical guidance for congregations and clergy interested in supporting excellent "in context" learning for clergy in training. This applies to many contexts, not just the particular sort of pastoral residency Mason has led at Wilshire Baptist, the church he leads in Dallas.  …

You in the back row…when is internship over?

When you give your last sermon in the internship congregation.

Wrong. Over by the windows, what do you think?

When the congregation has its farewell party.

Sorry. You in the front, sticking your hand up and jumping up and down.

When you move back to campus.

Wrong. Anybody else want to try?

I didn’t think so. Here is the correct answer. Internship is over when all of your evaluation forms have been returned to the Contextual Leadership …