{"id":5536,"date":"2019-06-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/story\/2019\/06\/24\/why-jesus\/"},"modified":"2023-01-04T15:53:41","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T15:53:41","slug":"why-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/story\/2019\/06\/24\/why-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a few years now, Luther Seminary professors Lois Malcolm \u201989 M.A.<\/strong> and Kathryn Schifferdecker<\/strong> have felt a sense of urgency around a troubling trend: many mainline Christians, including seminarians, don\u2019t know how to talk about their faith with people beyond the walls of the church.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that mainline Christians\u2019 faith isn\u2019t deeply felt; over the past 18 months, Luther Seminary has conducted surveys with 3,900 church members through a new tool called the Spiritual Life Inventory, and 96% say that God is present in their lives.<\/p>\n

However, when it comes to talking about their experiences of faith, only 10% say they\u2019ve taught another person how to follow Jesus in the past year, and 76% haven\u2019t shared stories of where God is showing up for them each day.<\/p>\n

So Schifferdecker convened a group of faculty to explore what could be done to help seminary students become more comfortable sharing personal stories of Christian faith \u2014 and, through the students, influence the larger church.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went to dinner and brainstormed,\u201d Malcolm said. \u201cEventually, we landed on an idea for a semester-long series called \u2018Why Jesus.\u2019 We\u2019d invite members of the community to speak about their experiences with Jesus, and open up space for those listening to share their stories as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, three leadership groups on campus independently expressed interest in experimenting with spiritual storytelling, including the enterprise leadership team, the innovation team, and Spirit Lab, a student-led organization that works to deepen spiritual formation at Luther. The faculty group, Spirit Lab, and the innovation team decided to work together on making Why Jesus a reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Holy Spirit was bubbling up in multiple places at the same time,\u201d said Bethany Ringdal \u201919 M.Div.<\/strong>, a member of the Spirit Lab leadership team. \u201cI\u2019ve learned not to ask twice when things come together so beautifully!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Why are you a Christian? What difference does Jesus make in your life?\u2019<\/h2>\n

The experiment was simple. For 10 weeks, a faculty member, student, or staff member took a half-hour over lunch each Wednesday to respond to two questions: Why are you a Christian? What difference does Jesus make in your life?<\/p>\n

After the storyteller spoke, those in attendance broke into small groups to reflect on what they\u2019d heard. A handout helped guide the discussion with several prompts:<\/p>\n