SYNOD NEWS AND EVENTS - JULY 13, 2016
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Our mission as a synod calls us to empower and equip leaders. Through this Funding Initiative we will gather resources to empower leaders in three main areas identified as priorities, which will be highlighted each week in your enews. 
Develop Servant Leaders 
is one of our priorities.

New financial resources will assist all our congregations to develop evangelists, lay preachers, worship leaders and faith formation coaches. We also want to provide scholarship support for upcoming new rostered leaders. Lay and clergy will be better prepared in matters of
financial literacy, stewardship, and wise budget decision-making.
Develop Servant Leaders Opportunities
- The Center for Worship and Music Studies - Scholarships available!
This would be a gift for your congregation's musicians and also a gift to your congregation as they grow deeper in capacity to lead worship well. 
Click here for class calendar. 

- Lifelong Learning
Luther Seminary classes and events help find the right opportunity for you, ministry professionals and lay leaders.
Click here for class and event calendar. 
Lifelong Learning - Rethinking Sunday Morning: Better Questions, Bolder Experiments - Scholarships available for July 27-29, 2016!

For scholarship information, please call the synod office at 507-637-3904. 

- Ministry and Money
Saturday, September 10, 2016, with special sessions for Pastors and Spouses on Friday, September 9, Calvary Lutheran Church, Willmar, MN.
Philip and Janet Jamieson, authors of the book, Ministry and Money: A Practical Guide for Pastors, will lead sessions on Saturday concerning the Biblical witness about money, the importance of financial transparency, expressing mission through budgeting, and improving generosity. Up to 20 Congregations will be able to send teams including pastors and lay people involved in finance, stewardship, endowments, and council leadership. On Friday pastors and spouses from throughout our Synod will be engaged by the Jamiesons in discussing pastoral leadership concerning money matters in the church as well as money issues in the personal lives of pastors and spouses. 

Like us on Facebook This book is also the featured book for the synod's "Book of the Month FB Group." Join the Facebook group and receive a FREE copy of Ministry and Money: A Practical Guide for Pastors. You must sign up online by clicking here. 

- Church Staff Workers' Retreat
September 13, 2016, Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Redwood Falls
More information and registration will be available early August.

- LMM Fall Retreat
September 24, 2016, Shetek Lutheran Ministries
More information and registration will be available early August.

- Fall Theological Conference: 
Equipping Disciples for God's Ongoing Reformation

September 25-27, 2016, Mount Carmel Ministries & Luther Bible Camp, Alexandria, MN
More information and registration will be available early August.

- Elderberry Retreat: The Reformation: Reflections on The Past And Implications For The Future
October 6-7, 2016, Green Lake Bible Camp, Spicer
Click here for more information and to register.

-Boundaries Workshop
November 1, 2016, Faith Lutheran, Spicer
More information and registration will be available early September.
Our Sin, Lament and Shared Work
A Couple of Thoughts on Last Week
+Bishop Jon V. Anderson 

I have been thinking a lot about sin (sin of commission).  I have been reflecting on the kind of sins we commit and the kind that happen when we fail to say or do things (sin of omission). I know as I try to speak into the current moment I can not and will not get it all right.  But to stay silent would also not be right.  

I know we often focus on the sins of individuals. We are less comfortable talking about the kinds of sin we participate in as part of a community. One way to look at the past week's news is through the lens of sin. 

In our Confession and Forgiveness liturgy we say,
"Most merciful God, we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.  We have sinned against you in thought, word and deed, by what we have done and left undone.   We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves..."
 


Sin is deep, pervasive, complicated and multi-faceted.  It is personal and communal.  It takes the form of action and inaction.  It has a voice and it also happens in silence.  When you seek to squeeze it out of one dimension of your life, it often squeezes out in new forms. It is insidious and systemic.   

I keep thinking part of what we will need in these days ahead to find our way forward is to be mindful of sin and turn around as God calls us to do.  It is not enough to be aware of someone else's sin. That is easy. We are more importantly called to focus on our own - personally and what we share communally. I will be asking God to forgive me and guide me/us through this tender and difficult time.

The current violence toward people of African American descent is not new. I lament the deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling and others who died in encounters with law enforcement officers.  Their deaths affect more than their families and communities.  They are all our brothers and sisters.

Thirty years ago, I remember walking over to talk to my next door African American neighbors in Houston after a particularly terrible event where a policeman shot a young man nine times- first in his car and then as he crawled out of the passenger side of the vehicle and up the hillside under a bridge.  I was so disturbed I had to talk to Peggie and Ronnie about this.  Reggie was their youngest son.  He helped me in the garden. I kept an eye on him when his parents were busy.   As we talked the incident over, I finally said, "I feel a need to apologize for this violence and behavior that impacts you so deeply.  It is wrong."

I think of Reggie my neighbor every time a young black man is shot and killed. I often think of that day.  I have been more disturbed and troubled all week. I am guessing most of you have been as well.

But I have not engaged in the work of resisting racism the way I might have since that visit, I confess. After the shooting of nine black people in Charleston, I have begun to read and deepen my understanding of what is happening in our church, in our society and in the relationship between police officers and black people.  As I plow through books on this subject and about being a black person in our society, I am starting to better understand. As I am reading The New Jim Crow - Mass Incarceration in a Time of Colorblindness, I have found myself face to face with things I have not understood or wanted to see in the past 30 years.  You might also find it helpful. For church leaders, the most helpful book I have read is Bridging the Diversity Gap: Leading Toward God's Multi-Ethnic Kingdom by Alvin Saunders. 

Racism looks different in different parts of our country.  In my internship town in Texas thirty years ago you could easily see some of what it is.  Almost everyone living north of the main drag was black and their homes were smaller and in poorer shape.  Everyone south of the main drag was mostly white and middle class to upper middle class. You could see the intersection of race and class every day.  The KKK library trucks were in town a couple times a week selling their ideas.

In our synod, depending on where we live, communities are doing better or worse with the issue of racism.   It is harder to see below the level of personal forms of racism like racist language or overt behavior to see the structures of racism.  We believe racism is a sin. Most of our people work hard not to behave in racist ways, but we all live in a system where race is part of history and its remains impact lives today when we don't see the subtle work of this sin.

I want to affirm all of you who have and will work on your own journey of understanding the issues of racism in our time, our culture, our congregations, community and our country. I want to give thanks to God for the persistent love and hard work of so many in business, law enforcement, social work, education, health care, agriculture and every sector of life who have been doing important work to love neighbors and people of all colors and work to bring the consequences of racialization toward an end.

In a funeral home 25 years ago, I also stood with law enforcement people and a family after the death of a policeman at a traffic stop. Click here to read more.
A Service of Prayer and Lament
+Churchwide office of the ELCA
Click here to view the live recording of the service from Friday, July 8.
Praying and lamenting the ongoing violence in our world and across our country. 
Praying and lamenting the loss of lives due to gun violence and racism. 
Praying and lamenting for the needs of the whole human family.  
What it means to be Lutheran
In the spotlight. In her July column for Living Lutheran, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton notes that the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 may have the media knocking on our doors, asking us to explain ourselves. What will we say? She reminds us that our understanding of the gospel is what makes us distinctive. Read her column by clicking here. 
Synod Events
Below is a list of all the upcoming synod events. Visit the synod events webpage for more information.
JULY
July 22, 2016
Redwood Falls Golf Club, Redwood Falls

Better Together Hunger Event
July 28, 2016
Apollo High School, St Cloud

AUGUST
August 10-13, 216
New Orleans
 
ELCA Churchwide Assembly
August 8-13, 2016
New Orleans  
SEPTEMBER
Ministry and Money
September 10, 2016
Calvary Lutheran, Willmar 
Church Staff Workers' Retreat
September 13, 2016
Gloria Dei Lutheran, Redwood Falls 

LMM Fall Retreat
September 24, 2016
Shetek Lutheran Ministries

Fall Theological Conference
September 25-27, 2016
Mount Carmel Ministries & Luther Bible Camp, Alexandria, MN
Other great resources and events! 
  • PLAN-IT Workshop, August 13
    Hosting: Prairie & Shetek Conferences at Shetek Lutheran Ministries.
    This is a guided day of planning resulting in a one year outline for your youth ministry. Click here for more information. 

Southwestern Minnesota Synod, ELCA 
PO Box 499, Redwood Falls, MN 56283
Phone: 507-637-3904