Tag: ELCA
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 ...
ELCA is Seeking a Director for the Youth Gathering
Heidi Hagstrom has announced her intent to leave her position as the Director of the ELCA Youth Gathering following the 2015 event next summer. Heidi has been studying in the M.Div program at Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque and intends to pursue rostered ministry as an ordained pastor within the ELCA. The ELCA has posted the ...
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. ...
Appreciation
There aren’t enough ways that I can say “thank you.” I wish there were, but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet. I’m still in St. Louis, here for one of the post-E meetings that typically takes place at the end of the event. I have to admit that I’m having just a ...
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 ...
Why We Should Care About What’s Going On in Pittsburgh This Week
“Hi, my name is Todd, and I’m a church nerd.” “Hi Todd.” I admit it – full disclosure – I would be paying attention to what’s going on at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly anyway. I would be. These kinds of things fascinate me. How organizations function together and how decisions are made is at least ...
Detroit 2015: Everyone Please Take a Breath
It was with some dismay and a bit of disappointment that I’ve been reading the ongoing comments and conversation in blogs and on Facebook about the City of Detroit as the site of the 2015 ELCA Youth Gathering. I know that the news about the legal bankruptcy of the City of Detroit is very big ...
Trending
Over time, I’ve noticed that ministry with those in the first third of life seems to be kind of “trend driven.” There are new ministry concepts…thoughts and ideas that tend to bubble up. They become a big deal…they become mainstream…they fade…they are replaced… When I first started doing this work, congregational youth ministry was all ...
Leadership Matters
Nominations open today for the Board of Directors of the ELCA Youth Ministry Network. Two seats on the board will become available when the next term begins. Those terms don’t begin until February 3, 2014, a long time from now. So why are we already opening up the nomination process for terms that don’t begin ...
Network is a Verb 