May The Road Rise Up To Meet You

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face;

the rains fall soft upon your fields

and until we meet again,

may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

(Traditional Gaelic Blessing)

SYNOD NEWS AND EVENTS - MARCH 17, 2016

Stay Connected.

Holy Saturday
+A monthly message from the Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton of the ELCA

In her March column for The Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton reflects on that space between Good Friday and Easter. She says it can be seen as empty, something to be resisted, but it also beckons us from our life to a life in Christ.

Click here to read her column.

A call to repent....

+Bishop Jon V. Anderson

In the midst of our political process of preparing to elect new leadership for our country, I believe as a church body, a country, and a synod we are called to repent.

We live in a VUCA world. This is an acronym that fits our life. Maybe it marks the lives of people before us more than we understand as well.

V = volatile

U = uncertain

C = complex

A = ambiguous

I am writing this on Tuesday morning. Regardless of the outcomes of the political process today, these are some thoughts I want to share. First, we are not alone in this time. Our Equipping God is working in the midst of our broken-ness, fear and anxiety.

We often focus on sin as a personal matter. In this time, we would be wise to deepen our awareness of and fight against communal forms of sin. We are called to deeper understandings of what it means to practice our faith as sinners/saints.

Freezing in anxiety is not working in the midst of the deepening turmoil of our time. Fighting will not bring a better future. Fleeing from our challenges will not help either. Christians living out our many callings have to move from quietism to steady engagement, speaking out and the hard work of being faithful citizens as disciples living in a democracy. At the same time we need to remember even our best efforts are not as righteous as we might hope.

Like leaders in the past, we need to be willing to suffer to stop evil behavior. We recognize our own safe silence allows broken-ness to cascade and lead to a less safe world and future.

We need a robust conversation about our future as a society. It is clear that large numbers of people are afraid and angry. In this time, as people we can slide into the sin of turning in on ourselves and caring for our own narrow self-interest. Finding hope for a shared future is needed by all. Developing skills to help people talk together and arguments to persuade people to care for the common good will bear fruit and help us understand our neighbors better.

Rather than looking outside ourselves to place blame, or to seek some heroic leader who will restore what we perceive has been lost, we are called to engage in conversation with our neighbors, love our neighbors who share our values and those who don't, and work with our neighbors - new and old - to be faithful stewards of our earth, our country and our communities.

In each of our vocations as children, friends, neighbors, citizens and parents we are called to be better stewards. There is no quick fix. Beginning with our households, we are called to make fruitful choices to build up our society and communities. In the freedom we know in Christ we can engage the uncertainty of our age.

In Christ's death and resurrection, we get a deep glimpse into the heart and will of God. We believe that God's resurrecting grace did not just work back in time to raise Jesus from the dead. God's resurrecting gracious love calls us out of our graves, small and large,to live and love our neighbors and care for God's world.

PSST Retreat: Resiliency in Pastoral Ministry

Thursday, April 14-15, 2016

Green Lake Bible Camp, Chrysalis House

PRESENTER: Rev. Dr. Verlyn Hemmen, M.Div, D.Min

As a CPE Supervisor with 20 years of parish experience, Verlyn brings his pastoral heart into his work with individuals, groups and congregations. Always learning, Verlyn completed a D. Min. with an emphasis on marriage and family therapy.

He is trained in the use of therapeutic metaphors, Solution Focused Brief Therapy, Narrative Therapy and Family Systems thinking. Using his pastoral skills and resources from a variety of sources, Verlyn works with various groups around resiliency, coping with anxiety and stress, using effective communication, and managing grief. He has been married for 41 years and is a grandfather and a Harley rider.

REGISTRATION: Please register online by April 6, 2016.

$35 Commuting

$65 Individual (includes lodging)

$100 Pastoral Team Rate (includes lodging)

Click here to register!

Click here to download the retreat schedule.

Take advantage of the team discounted price when you register two or more pastoral staff serving in one congregation or parish. Each pastor will have to register themselves but click the team rate.

Team rate includes lodging however you will not be lodging as a team. Lodging will be same sex in double rooms. A single room is an additional $16. Please see online registration for roommate and single room requests.

This challenge is only for Portico/ELCA Health Insured persons

The annual Healthy Living Mayo Clinic Health Assessment (HA) has been available since January 1, 2016 for all Portico/ELCA Health Insured persons. In the latest progress report on March 10th Portico reported your SW MN Synod had reached 41.7% of its possible participants. That's a GOOD start! Now it is time for a CHALLENGE! We want to reach our needed 65%+ by the next progress report. In order to reach 65%+ we need an additional 62 persons to take the Health Assessment by March 31st.

Click here to take the HA!

Click here to fill out the HA SW MN Synod reporting form.

(REMEMBER! you must log-in to your MyPortico account to take the HA.)

Click here for Challenge Incentives!
- $400 in Wellness Dollars
- Chance to Win a FitBit HR

Switching to energy-efficient bulbs saves money

+ Administration Matters Blog, ELCA
Saving energy helps you save money on utility bills and protects the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. See what many congregations and ministries are doing through the Energy Stewards Initiative (ESI). If your congregation is in need of financing for an energy project, there are Mission Investment Fund opportunities for loans that could be obtained for energy reduction and also include the initiation of a plan for a rotating loan fund based on grant and gift funds that would be interest free to congregations and camps.

Synod Events

Below is a list of all the upcoming synod events. Visit the synod events webpage for more information.

MARCH

Sr. High Youth Gathering

March 4-5, 2016
Courtyard by Marriott, Mankato

Lutheran Men in Mission Retreat
March 11-12, 2016
Green Lake Bible Camp, Spicer

Click here

APRIL

First-Call Retreat

April 4-6, 2016

Grace-based Evangelizing: Living and Telling the Story of Jesus Today

April 14, 2016
Gustavus, St Peter
& Live-stream

PSST Retreat
April 14-15, 2016
Green Lake Bible Camp, Spicer