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Southwestern Minnesota Synod
News & Events - March 25, 2014
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Every year, millions of people around the globe observe World Malaria Day on April 25. The ELCA Malaria Campaign is turning this day into a special week, observing World Malaria Sunday on April 27. World Malaria Day is an opportunity to remember those who have died from malaria, honor those who live with the daily realities of the disease and renew our commitment to join the global movement of people who are making malaria history.
Our goal is to raise $250,000 -- enough to start malaria programming in Namibia. And when you give a gift between April 25 and May 2, your gift will be matched. Save the date, join the movement and observe World Malaria Day on April 27.
Thank you for your faithful generosity!
Pastor Bryant Kaden
ELCA Malaria Campaign Synod Coordinator for the SWMN Synod
Greetings from the ELCA Malaria Campaign! As a church, we have been at work for over two years raising money to treat and eradicate malaria. As always, my first word is one of thanks to all of the individuals and congregations who have given of their time, energy, and money to support this work. The great news is that our SWMN Synod has raised $233,336.05 so far! That's 13th most of all the synods in the ELCA! Of course we can always do better, and we need to keep working and giving. Total giving to the ELCA Malaria Campaign so far is $11,028,251.47. Again, that's great news! However, we still have nearly $4,000,000 to raise in order to reach our $15,000,000 goal by 2015. We want you to know that your gifts are making a difference! Incidences of malaria worldwide have substantially decreased in the last several years. When the campaign began in 2011, statistics showed that a child died from malaria every 45 seconds. Today, that number is one child every 60 seconds. That's still too many, but we are making progress! Click here to read more.
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Meet ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton
Bishop Eaton will be in the SW MN Synod on Friday, April 25 at Calvary Lutheran Church, Willmar from 1:00-3:00 p.m.
We are excited to host our new Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton. She is completing a loop of gatherings in the Dakotas and Minnesota in our gathering. We hope you can come to learn more about God's mission that we participate in, our church body's life as we seek to grow more vital congregations full of gracious and fruitful disciples and get to know more about our presiding bishop as a Christ follower.
In honor of World Malaria Day being the same day as Bishop Eaton's visit we will be taking an ELCA Malaria Campaign offering at this event.
Our gift will be matched $1 for $1!
Let's give our new Presiding Bishop a warm Southwestern Minnesota welcome!
No registration is necessary.
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Share Your Hunches
Share your hunches about our future with the Southwestern Minnesota
Long Range Planning Team
+Bishop Jon V. Anderson
If you are a part of the Southwestern MN Synod, how would you answer this question? - "For Your Synod's Long Range Planning: What hunches do you have about our life together, 'Boldly Walking Together in Christ's Mission of + Engaging Leaders + Equipping Congregations and + Serving in God's World?'" The notes in the picture are from the Long Range Planning Committee's work as we went through the hunches about our future from the rostered leaders. We have heard from over 140 rostered leaders, but our committee also wants to hear from you. Click here to share your thoughts. |
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Healing
+Bishop Jon V. Anderson
It is amazing how the body is wired to heal significant injuries like mine. While my shoulder is still tender and sometimes hurts when I do something dumb the worst of the pain is over. Day by day my range of motion is improving. While I may still have my sling on it is to remind me that I am still not quite mended instead of holding me together. I am thankful.
At the same time injuries like this change you. I hope my shoulder will return to normal. I trust it will, but the experience has reminded me of the challenges of those who suffer injuries or strokes and lose the capacity to use a limb. Simple things like washing up, drying yourself and getting dressed turn into difficult projects when you are injured or impacted by an injury. It was a reminder of how much I need other people. I am thankful for the gift and support of those around me in recent days.
The most important lesson is the distracting impact of pain on your mind. And right behind it would be how chronic pain causes fatigue. My compassion has been deepened.
God longs to see our lives, hearts, minds, bodies experience healing. May God bring healing to your life and mine in all the ways we need it in this season of Lent.
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Pew Report on Institutional Detachment: Millennials in Adulthood
Article from the Minnesota Council of Churches,
The Millennial generation is forging a distinctive path into adulthood. Now ranging in age from 18 to 33, they are relatively unattached to organized politics and religion, linked by social media, burdened by debt, distrustful of people, in no rush to marry- and optimistic about the future. Read the Pew report about America's youngest generation here. |
MAP: Framing Our Unique Ministry
The Multiple Area Parishes (MAP) of SW MN Synod of the ELCA are gathering for a day of learning, sharing and growing.
Saturday, April 12, 2014, 9:00amSt Matthew Lutheran Church, Wabasso, MN.
Frames for Admiring and Structuring the Art of Ministry: Dr. Scott Frederickson will teach us the different ways in which we frame or define our ministry helps us to utilize the strengths of each individual to work together in ministry. Learn about your style and the other styles to aid in ministry development.
Scott Frederickson was an integral piece of the Western North Dakota Synod's "Dry Bones" project that seeks to revitalize rural congregations. Working on attending, assessing, and asserting their unique positions within rural communities in Western North Dakota, this project was a three-year accompaniment of theological assessing, using our resources to make a difference in the communities we live in, and finding ways to bring the joy and love of the gospel to our "ground." In the three years we had 9 congregations seek ways to make a visible impact in their community through following God's mission. Scott Frederickson has also worked with Luther Seminary over the years in providing quality theological education to congregations in rural North and South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. He has supervised interns in congregations whose towns have less than 100 people; he provides theological resources for reading the Bible in faithful ways that work from our Lutheran tradition. God has a plan for every congregation, even the ones everyone else seems to have forgotten. Click here to read Dr. Scott's Blog: Thoughts from the Prairie Table |
Annual Report Discoveries
+Bishop Jon V. Anderson
We see a shift towards Facebook that is striking from a few years ago. Social media is changing how congregations are communicating with their community of faith and potential participants.
We not only have a physical front door to our communities of faith's building(s). We also have a front door in our web pages, blogs, Facebook pages and other forms of communication. Many congregations are using multiple paths to communicate. We are in an in-between time where some have become "digital natives" and others still prefer paper. In visits with pastors we are noticing a movement toward teaching and passing on the faith through online strategies.
In 1988, when the synod began its life, it had $35,000 in its budget for the monthly newspaper. That would be more like $70,000 in today's dollars after inflation. The internet is accelerating communication and changing the ways we communicate. We made the decision as a synod to move to primarily digital forms of communication six or seven years ago. Each congregation and its leaders know their local community of faith and their mission field's needs.
This graphic is from Annual Roster Reports to the Bishop
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Regional Gift Planner
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) seeks a Regional Gift Planner for Western Minnesota / Eastern North Dakota.
Territory: Northwest MN synod, Southwest MN synod, and Eastern ND synod.
The Regional Gift Planner is responsible for identifying, cultivating, soliciting and securing new and ongoing gifts from individuals in support of churchwide ministries, congregations, synods and related ELCA ministries. Each Gift Planner lives and works within their assigned territory (home office).Click here to download the full position description.
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Music that Makes Community
Music that Makes Community is a three-day workshop that will equip music directors, organists, clergy, and lay leaders to lead their communities to grow and connect through singing. This event will be held on May 14-16, 2014 at Christ Church Lutheran in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Drawing on oral forms of song leadership, leaders introduce ways of singing together that make transformative experiences of wholehearted engagement possible for people from across the spectrum of musical experience--from professional, trained musicians to folks who confess to mouthing the words to hymns for fear of being heard singing. Leaders and participants learn together by doing as they sing, share stories and join in conversation about the power of music to bind us to one another and to God. Tuition is $300 before March 31, $350 after March 31 and includes lunch daily, with discounted rates of 15% off for groups of three or more or 25% off for groups of four or more. To register visit the MMC Events calendar at musicthatmakescommunity.org!
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Family Systems and Leading from the Second Chair
Associate pastors have been invited to participate in this retreat at Joy Ranch in Watertown, South Dakota on May 11-14, 2014
Presenter will be Rev. Ruth Ann Loughry from Bethany Lutheran Church in Denver Click here for more information and registration.
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March
March 28-29 - Sr. High Youth Gathering
April
April 12 - Multiple Area Parishes (MAP): Framing Our Unique Ministry
April 25 - P.I.E. (PROSPER INVEST ENDOW): A Recipe for Generosity (morning)
April 25 - ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton (afternoon)
April 25 - Pastoral Staff Support Time (PSST) Healthy Staff Relationships Retreat (evening)
April 26 - P.I.E. (PROSPER INVEST ENDOW): A Recipe for Generosity
May
May 3 - Synod Women's Organization Convention
June
June 13-15 - Synod Assembly
June 14 - Glocal Mission Day
July
July 24 - August 1 - First Call Family Camp
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175 East Bridge St. PO Box 499
507-637-3904
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