FACULTY AND STAFF NOTES

Jessicah  L. K. Duckworth , assistant professor of congregational and community care leadershipserved as keynote speaker at the Northeastern Minnesota Synod Assembly and at the North American Association of the Catechumenate Training Institute in Minneapolis. She delivered the keynote address at the North American Association of the Catechumenate pre-meeting workshop, "The Cross at the Center of Catechumal Formation," in San Francisco. She served as a preacher/presider and a workshop presenter of "Practicing Faith Formation in a World in Flux" at the Mid-Winter Convocation held at Luther Seminary. She gave two keynote addresses, titled "A Catechetical Shape for a Missional Church" and "Catechetical Practices for a Missional Church," and presented a workshop for the Southwestern Minnesota Synod Equipping Leaders Day. She co-led the ELCA Congregational and Synodical Mission Retreat in Chicago.

Rolf  A. Jacobson , 91, associate professor of Old Testamentserved as the keynote speaker for the St. Paul Area Synod Assembly and for the South Central Wisconsin Synod Assembly. He delivered a lecture in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Book of Psalms section, titled "Imaging the Future of Psalms Studies." He lectured to first-call pastors of the Eastern North Dakota and Northwest Minnesota Synods of the ELCA at the Fabric of Mutual Ministry conference in Moorhead, Minn. He contributed "Learning Hebrew by Writing in English" to "Teaching Theology & Religion." He served as theologian-in-residence at Reformation Lutheran Church in Media, Pa.

Dwight  Zscheile , 8, assistant professor of congregational mission and leadershippublished "People of the Way: Renewing Episcopal Identity" (Morehouse Publishing) and served as editor for "Cultivating Sent Communities: Missional Spiritual Formation" (Eerdmans).

Mark  A. Granquist , associate professor of church historycontributed a chapter to "Norwegians and Swedes in the United States: Friends and Neighbors" (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2011). He also presented "From Scripture to Icon: The King James Bible in America" at Manifest Greatness Colloquium: The Four Hundredth Anniversary of the King James Bible at the Wilson Library on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

David  J Lose , Marbury E. Anderson Chair of Biblical Preachingprovided the keynote address at the New Jersey Synod's Conference on Congregational Ministries. He served as the
keynote speaker at Concordia Seminary's Day of Homiletical Reflection in St. Louis, Mo., and at the Festival of Homiletics in Atlanta. He presented at Colgate-Rochester Seminary's Preaching Days. He was the keynote speaker at the Bible Summit, sponsored by Christ Lutheran Church in Visalia, Calif., and at the Lower Susquehanna (Pa.) Synod's Congregations Together in Mission event. He launched a new resource website at DavidLose.net called "... In the Meantime," with articles relating faith to everyday life, and including daily devotions.

Kathryn  M. Schifferdecker , associate professor of Old Testament is the visiting preaching scholar at Como Park Lutheran Church in St. Paul for this academic year. She spoke at Nokomis Heights Lutheran Church in Minneapolis and at Colonial Church in Edina, Minn. She presented a paper titled "Preaching the Book of Job" at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in San Francisco. She was one of the keynote speakers at the Western Mission Network gathering at Spirit of the Desert Retreat Center in Arizona. She authored a piece titled "Faith and Football" for the religion page of the Huffington Post during the week of the Super Bowl. She is a contributing writer for a new preaching resource from Abingdon Press. She and Eric Barreto, assistant professor of New Testament, host a monthly podcast called "Bible Q&A" at EntertheBible.org.

Gary  M. Simpson , professor of systematic theology delivered the keynote address, "Occupy LSA: Called to Shape the Future" at the Lutheran Services in America Annual Conference in Pittsburgh, Pa. He contributed "Fruit of the Spirit," "Just-War Theory," "Law and Gospel" and "Lutheran Ethics" to the "Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics" (Baker); "Martin Luther," "Eleanor Roosevelt" and "Francisco de Vitoria" to the "Encyclopedia of Global Justice" (Springer); "For Their Own Good--Moral Slavery 101: The Aristotelian Cantus Firmus" to the Spring 2011 issue of Word & World; and "'Putting on the Neighbor:' The Ciceronian Impulse in Luther's Christian Approach to Practical Reason" to "The Devil's Whore: Reason and Philosophy in the Lutheran Tradition" (Fortress).

Sarah  S Henrich , professor of New Testament taught a class called "Not Just Desperate Housewives: Women of the Covenant in the Old Testament" at the Presbyterian Synod of Lakes and Prairies Synod School in July. She taught on Paul and his pastoral letters at the Ecumenical Summer Institute in West Virginia in June.

Mary  E. Hess , associate professor of educational leadership presented the paper "Digital Storytelling as a Form of Faith Formation" at the National Association for Media Literacy Education in July. She presented the paper "Who Are We? The State of the Situation" at the annual meeting of the National Association of Catechetical Media Professionals in May. The same month, she presented "Our Covenant Story: How to and How Not to Form Digital Disciples" at the National Conference of Catechetical Leadership. She presented the paper, "What Difference Does My Neighbor's Faith Make for Mine?: How the AAR/Luce Summer Seminars on Theologies of Religious Pluralism and Comparative Theology are Expanding the Scope of Theological Teaching and Scholarship" and participated in a panel presentation and discussion at the Upper Midwest AAR Regional Meeting in St. Paul, Minn., in April.

, president was a speaker at Generous Hearts: Encouraging Planned Giving Ministry in the Congregation at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis in June. He presented a paper on the history of missiology at the annual meeting of the American Society for Missiologists in Chicago in June.