Heather in NOLA for Extravaganza
Heather departed early on Thursday morning for New Orleans to attend Extravaganza 2024, the annual gathering of The ELCA Network, a consortium of children, youth and family ministry volunteers and professionals. The Extravaganza website describes this event well:
Extravaganza is the Network's annual conference, drawing together over 1,000 leaders in children, youth and family ministry, along with teachers, resource providers and leaders from the ELCA, all for four days of renewal, education and networking.
This year's theme is "Dream," and theme verse is Acts 2:17 -- “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your
We wish Heather and all our fellow ELCA participants an inspiring time together, and a safe return home for all. Heather flies back to Ohio on Monday, January 22.
First Communion Mini-Retreat Scheduled
Heather and I have scheduled the next mini-retreat for our 2nd graders and others who may join for this learning. The date and time is Saturday, March 16, from 9:00 - 11:00 am. Heather indicated that our group will be a bit smaller this year - we're expecting at least two, possibly three, hopefully even more.
Spirit Canceled on Wednesday
The Grace Inclement Weather Policy kicked in on Wednesday - with Fremont Schools being closed, we also canceled Spirit - the supper and all scheduled groups.
Saturday Organist Interviewed
On Tuesday, I interviewed a candidate for the Saturday organist position at Grace. She is the spouse of a Toledo area pastor, and plays organ at her husband's church on Sundays, so is not available then. She has a long impressive resume of accompanist on piano and organ for both congregational worship as well as for choirs and praise teams. I was impressed with her abilities - she first played the organ, then the piano. It wasn't until she got to the piano that I thought to record a few measures of her playing. You can hear about 30 seconds of her playing the Josh Groban favorite "You Raise Me Up" HERE. I am working with with the Executive Committee on the processing of this prospective hire.
Healthy Congregations Workshop Facilitator Training
On Thursday I participated in the first of seven sessions of training to become a Facilitator for Healthy Congregations Workshops. "What is that?" you may ask. Let me begin with an explanation of what Healthy Congregations is. Here is a description from the Healthy Congregations website:
Healthy Congregations is an ecumenical and interfaith organization that takes seriously the times that we live in and the challenges of thinking more clearly about families, congregations, and leadership. Healthy Congregations, Inc. offers resources and training that are based on a view of life that looks at communities as living systems that incorporate thinking, feeling, responsibility, and purpose.
Making use of the contributions of leaders in the field of Bowen Family Systems Theory and congregational life, Healthy Congregations, Inc. has created educational resources and leadership development material designed with the purpose of encouraging healthier, clearer and deeper individual and community life.
Over the years, Healthy Congregations has developed a series of six workshops that help promote the health and well-being of congregations. The first workshop introduces the basics of systems thinking; the second addresses healthy ways of addressing anxiety, change and conflict. Other workshops address growing strong leaders, healthy relationships, developing generosity in stewardship and strong spirituality. You can read more about these six workshops HERE.
The training that I began this week will teach me how to lead these six workshops as part of our Northwestern Ohio Synod Congregational Resources Team which I joined last year. There is much here that could benefit our synod congregations, including Grace. The team already has experienced facilitators that could help with any or all of the areas addressed by these workshops.
The cost for this training is $800, of which the synod is paying half. Participation on this team will be one way that I can continue to serve the synod and its congregations in retirement.
Round-Robin Planned for Lent Midweek
LIFT Leaders met last week, and one of the items on our meeting agenda was a plan for midweek Lent services. We settled on a plan for a "Round-Robin" approach in which a group of pastors prepares a message on the chosen theme, and then takes it on the "road" to each of the congregations represented by the leaders. An ideal situation is 5 leaders going to 5 different churches each week. Since we have four leaders and three locations, the schedule looks like THIS. You'll see that our theme is "Making Change" and our topics are:
- Change of Season
- Change of Circumstances
- Change of Heart
- Change of Plans
- Change of Habit
Since there are four of us and five weeks of midweek services (not counting Ash Wednesday), we'll each be at our own church for the first week, then we'll cycle through the other locations during the following weeks. Many thanks to Paul who figured it all out and put it all together!
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