An Extravaganza Update: Moving to Online Only

Dear friends,

I want to give you a quick update on Extravaganza 2021.  We find ourselves having to “live into” our theme of “Holding Loosely” as we do our planning.  We have made the difficult decision to cancel the “in person” portion of the event at the Hilton in Minneapolis and instead focus all of our attention on putting together the very best possible online event we can. 

It had been our hope to have up to 100 people gathered in Minneapolis as the “live audience” for the event that would be livestreamed throughout the church.  But the COVID numbers in Minnesota and throughout the rest of the country, are all headed in the wrong direction.  And we just could not in good conscience ask people to travel and gather in this way.  We’re sorry that we have to make this change.   We are grateful to the good folks at the Hilton in Minneapolis for being so good to work with.  Please, by the way, keep people in the hospitality industry in your prayers.  The pandemic has been really hard on all of them and they are struggling. 

If you registered for the “in person” extravaganza, your registration will automatically be converted to an online registration and the difference in cost will be refunded to you.  If you made a hotel reservation, you will need to cancel that yourself.  Unfortunately, we are unable to do that for you.

The other change is that we are extending the “early bird” registration period for the Extravaganza from December first, to January 1^st.  Our goal is to make this event as accessible as we can.  So, the early bird registration price is still just $25 per person and we have a congregational registration for $60 that allows you to bring as many people from your congregation as you’d like.  Really.  Just from your congregation…but bring your whole youth committee…all your volunteers…colleagues… invite your church council.  We just ask you to register them all so they can each get their log in information.

We are able to do this event for only $25 because of a wonderful grant that we received from “Always Being Made new: The Campaign for the ELCA.”  We are so thankful for their support. 

This is going to be a great event.  Our keynote speakers include:

• Rev. Kelly Chatman
• Kelly Sherman-Conroy
• Rev. Angela T. Khabeb and
• Dr. Scott Comrode

We will be releasing more information on workshops in upcoming days.  Be sure to check ext21.org for more information as we release it. 

Making this change was a difficult decision, but it is the right thing to do.  It is the decision that we believe shows the greatest love to God, and to each other.  Please know that as we step in to Advent, we are together.  Let us continue to hold each other up in prayer.  And let us be reminded that God walks with us.

Take good care friends. 

Todd

Rev. Todd Buegler
Executive Director