Tag: Children
As We Watch War Unfold
Like many of you, I’ve been watching the updates coming in from Ukraine. And like many of you, my heart has broken, seeing the conflict develop, people fleeing, the sights of bombs going off and images of families being separated. This is horrible. It’s terrible. On so many different levels, it’s just so very wrong. ...
Disrupted Through Education
The vision of the Network is to see a future where children, youth and family ministry in the ELCA flourishes and becomes ever stronger through Renewal, Education, and Connection. Education happens as each of us are pushed to think beyond the way we currently do things to see how we might do things. The kinds ...
Children’s Ministry: A Note from Rev. Stephen Bouman
Special Guest Blog: We invited Rev. Stephen Bouman, the Executive Director of Evangelical Outreach and Congregational and Synodical Mission in the ELCA offices in Chicago to address the needs of children within the church, and to talk about a new position being created at the churchwide offices. Thank you Stephen for sharing with the Network! When ...
An Invitation to Sign an Open Letter to the ELCA…
Dear Network friends, The Network’s Board of Directors has drafted the following letter, to be sent to Rev. Stephen Bouman, Executive Director of Congregational and Synodical Mission at the ELCA. It requests that staffing in the area of children’s ministry at the churchwide offices be considered. The Network Board invites you to co-sign the letter. ...
No One Will Pick Up the Phone
If you were to pick up the phone and call the ELCA churchwide offices in Chicago, and said that you had questions about children’s ministry, or Sunday School, or something similar, there would be no one to take your call. It’s true. Say it’s a question about a resource…or perhaps about background checks for volunteer ...
Why is No One Talking About This?
A few months ago, I came across a powerpoint slide that Beth Lewis, CEO of Augsburg Fortress Publishers had used as a presentation to a group of pastors at a conference in Florida. (Thanks to Beth Lewis for the slide!) When I saw the numbers, in all honesty, it took my breath away. The slide ...
Practice Discipleship Launches!
The second phase of the Practice Discipleship Initiative will launch in January of 2013. This project is the result of a dynamic partnership between the ELCA Youth Ministry Network, the ELCA and its Youth Gathering, ELCA Lutheran seminaries and colleges and their faculty who teach children, youth and family ministry, and resource providers of the ...
Institutional Control
I have been wanting to write something about the crisis/fiasco at Penn State University for a few weeks. However, to be honest, I needed to give myself some time to get my mind wrapped around the strong emotional reaction I had when the details about the allegations began to surface. I react very very strongly ...
Meet Laurie Hoium
There are people within the Network that you will interact with from time-to-time. These folks have different roles that hopefully provide support and assistance to you, certainly in your relationship with the Network; hopefully also in your ministry. I thought it might be helpful for you to (at least virtually) “meet” these folks so you ...
Offering
I had a “proud parent” moment this morning. Please indulge me while I share: Today, my wife Lori and our two boys, Nathan and Samuel, ages 8 and 10 were on a worship team, which meant that they were ushering and Lori was also reading the scriptures. Our boys had ushered before. They enjoy handing ...
Network is a Verb 