Connect 2014 04 story final

WINTER 2015 Winter 2014 • $8.95

Journal of Children, Youth & Family Ministry

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Master of Divinity

|

Master of arts

Taylor Wilson, M.Div. CYF student

Earn your degree in Children, Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary!

At Luther Seminary, we’re looking at children, youth and family ministry through a different lens. What does it mean to think theologically when considering how to minister to children, youth and their families?

Upcoming classes led by Andrew Root, Kenda Creasy Dean and Tim Coltvet address these new questions.

GC1040-14

“A ministry that turns to the theological seeks to share in the concrete and lived experience of young people as the very place to share in act and being of God. The goal of a ‘theology turn’ in children, youth and family ministry is not to get people to know information, but to seek to minister to the concrete humanity of young people, seeking for God’s action in and through their experience.” —Andrew Root, the Carrie Olson Baalson Chair of Youth and Family Ministry

luthersem.edu/admissions | 1-800-LUtHer3

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UpCoMing C L a sses

Think theologically family, Childhood and the Church: Exploration in Family Ministry | Tim Coltvet

A theological framework for home and congregation ministry will be developed in this course, followed by practical ministry to provide effective ministries across the generations.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Youth Worker | Andy Root

Through Bonhoeffer’s writing and history students are given an example of a theological thinker in children’s and youth ministry to emulate.

Collaboratory: turning Hair-Brained ideas into sustainable Ministries | andy root with Kenda Creasy Dean

This course addresses millenials’ concern for sustainability in ministry—social, spiritual and especially financial.

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PUBLICATION INFORMATION Published by:

ELCA Youth Ministry Network www.elcaymnet.org

Subscription Information:

call 866-ELCANET (352-2638)

or visit: www.elcaymnet.org connect@elcaymnet.org

CONTENTS Welcome!

Todd Buegler

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Curating Stories of Faith for 21st-Century People

John Roberto

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#TellTheStory

Angel Denker

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To Weave A World

Walt Wangerin, Jr.

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An Interview With Aaron Christopher, sparkhouse Video Storyteller

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Ten Great Ideas for Storytelling With Kids

Dawn Rundman

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The Story Must Go On

George Baum

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Calendar of Events 19 Design and Layout:

Michael Sladek

Impression Media Group www.impressionmediagroup.com

Managing Editor:

Erin Gibbons

Connect Editorial Board:

Todd Buegler, Tim Coltvet,

Nate Frambach, Sue Mendenhall,

Dawn Rundman, Clint Schnekloth,

Michael Sladek

Cover design & photo ©2015 Michael Sladek

UPCOMING CONNECT ISSUE THEMES:

The Funny Issue (Spring ‘15) The Link Between Youth Ministry and College (Fall ‘15) Human Sexuality (WInter ‘16)

ELCA YOUTH MINISTRY NETWORK BOARD Julie Miller: Board Member

Tom Schwolert: Board Member

Sue Megrund: Board Member

Valerie Taylor Samuel: Board Member

Rev. Ben Morris: Board Member

Erik Ullestad: Board Chairperson

Dr. Jeremy Myers, AIM: Board Member

Rev. Todd Buegler: Executive Director

The ELCA Youth Ministry Network exists to strengthen and empower adult youth ministry leaders in service to Christ as a part of God’s mission.

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WELCOME!

NEWS BITS

Dear friends,

THANK YOU TO THE 1,067 PEOPLE WHO PARTICIPATED IN EXTRAVAGANZA 2015 in Detroit!

I grew up in a home that never knew life apart from the church. Our house was a half-block from our congregation. My brothers and I were the ones that our Christian Education Director would call if they needed 150 of those big, heavy, old-school folding chairs moved from one section of the building to another. On summer days, you could find us playing in the marshy area behind the church, next to the lake.

In the summer, the church took us to Bible camp. I loved camp, and when I graduated, I spent five summers working at our outdoor ministry sites. During the school year, I was involved in campus ministry, because that’s where the camp people hung out when they were at school.

By the time I’d graduated college, going on to seminary and into ministry just seemed natural.

This is my story. What’s yours?

I can look at my story and can see how and where it intersected with God’s story. Sometimes it ran parallel…sometimes it overlapped…and yes, there were times where it diverged. We are people of a story…and not just any story…we are people of God’s story; the story. We listen to it, we tell it, we share it, we live it.

And a vital part of our work is to help young people and their families to tell their own stories, and we listen. And we point out where we see their story intersecting God’s, and occasionally where they diverge.

In this issue of Connect, we are going to take on the topic of “story.” How we listen, and how we tell. Because ultimately, when all is boiled down, our faith and our ministry comes down to the story of God’s people, living in the tension of grace and faith; and of a savior who comes to make this broken relationship whole.

It was the biggest E in history, and it was a fantastic event!

CONGRATULATIONS TO LOST AND FOUND, who were the 2015 recipients of the Tom Hunstad Award for Excellence in Children, Youth and Family Ministry! We are grateful for your music, your ministry and your commitment to the work of the church.

WE WELCOME MOLLY BECK DEAN INTO HER NEW ROLE AS THE DIRECTOR OF THE ELCA YOUTH GATHERING! She will work alongside Heidi Hagstrom and the rest of the Gathering team through the 2015 Gathering, when Heidi will be leaving to pursue congregational ministry.

WE ALSO WELCOME PASTOR JANELLE HOOPER INTO HER NEW ROLE AS PROGRAM DIRECTOR – MINISTRY WITH CHILDREN in

Thank you for being people of the story.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for telling.

the ELCA’s churchwide offices in Chicago!

We are excited to have someone in this new role, and are grateful for the gifts Janelle brings to the community!

Peace,

Todd Buegler Executive Director – ELCA Youth Ministry Network Pastor – Trinity Lutheran Church; Owatonna, Minnesota Todd@elcaymnet.org

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INTERESTED IN GOING TO GERMANY this fall on a leader’s trip in preparation for the 500th anniversary of the reformation? Join us on the Luther500 experience! You can get more information at www.elcaymnet.org/luther500.

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CURATING STORIES OF FAITH FOR 21ST-CENTURY PEOPLE

by John Roberto “The central challenge for pastoral ministry today concerns the most important mark of good ministry: the ability effectively to mediate faith as an integral way of life to persons, communities and cultures. This has been true throughout history, in every culture and for every community of faith. In our time, however, communities of faith seem to be falling short precisely at this point.” (Miroslav Volf, from Way of Life)

How shall we mediate faith as an integral way of life in the 21st century? How shall we tell the Christian story in compelling and engaging ways so that people will find in that story a way to live their lives with meaning, purpose and significance as followers of Jesus Christ?

In our 2,000-year history, we have communicated the Christian story with diverse methods and resources: words, images and art, architecture, music, drama, books, audio, video and more. All of these methods and resources are available to us today—in abundance! This is the gift of the digital era: It has never been easier to access great resources to share the story of the Christian faith. We need to become curators of the Christian story for 21st-century people.

Simply put, a faith formation curator is someone who finds, organizes and shares the best and most relevant content and resources in the community and on the web, then presents it in a meaningful and organized way around a specific theme. It isn’t unlike what museum curators do to produce an exhibit: They identify the theme, provide the context and decide which paintings to hang on the wall, how they should be annotated and how they should be displayed for the public.

Curators believe that the resources already exist, and that their primary task is to connect these resources with the needs of a particular audience. As curators of the Christian story, we look for the resources and methods to communicate the story so that it connects with the lives of people in relevant and engaging ways. Here are several ideas for curating the Christian story utilizing our people resources, our faith community resources and our digital and online resources.

1. CURATING THE STORY OF FAITH THROUGH THE CHURCH YEAR AND THE LECTIONARY The lectionary and church year provide a natural, organic way to immerse people into the story of the Christian faith—from Jesus’ birth, baptism, life, ministry, death and resurrection to how we are to live as disciples of Jesus Christ. The lectionary and church year provide a curriculum that can structure faith formation programming for all ages, connect worship and faith formation and connect church to home celebrations of the seasons of the year. Many congregations conduct intergenerational learning programs in preparation for Advent, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost and other seasons that integrate experiential learning, prayer, ritual, service and relationship building.

There are countless church year and lectionary resources available online that you can use in gathered, small group and online programs. Many you can also publish on your faith formation website for use at home and in daily life. Here are a few excellent, free online resources: • The Text This Week—Lectionary, Scripture Study, Worship Links, Resources textweek.com • Working Preacher—Commentaries on the Sunday Scriptures workingpreacher.org • Lectio Divina—Weekly Reading of the Sunday Scriptures lectio.americanbible.org • Loyola Press—Sunday Connection loyolapress.com/sunday-connection.htm • Between Sundays—Video Program on the Sunday Scriptures thefiveloaves.com • Presbyterian Mission Agency— Church Year presbyterianmission.org/ministries/ worship/christianyear 5

• Lutheran Church Missouri Synod— Church Year lcms.org/resources/worship/churchyear • Loyola Press—Church Year loyolapress.com/liturgical-year.htm

2. CURATING THE STORY OF FAITH THROUGH INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS I believe deeply in the power of intergenerational relationships and community life for sharing the story of the Christian faith. Here are several examples of how you can tap into the power of intergenerational relationships for sharing the story.

• Intergenerational Dialogues and Interviews. Incorporate intergenerational dialogues and interviews into programming, providing opportunities for children and youth to experience the wisdom, faith and interests of older adults. Develop a list of questions for young people to ask adults about their lives, their experiences growing up and their faith life. For example, when was a time in your life that God started to make sense? How did you come to know Christ? And then you might reverse the process and provide opportunities for older adults to experience the wisdom, faith and interests of children or teens. Consider recording the interviews in audio or video format, then making them available online.

• Intergenerational Storybooks. Create an intergenerational storybook (print and digital) that tells the individual and family faith stories of people in the congregation, including children, youth, young adults, middle-age adults and older adults. Interview people around a central question, such as, “Where are the handprints of God in your life?” This book brings value to each generation, recognizing that everyone has a faith story that can be passed on to others.

• Intergenerational Storytelling.

StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, creating a growing portrait of who we really are as Americans. The heart of StoryCorps is the conversation between two people who are important to each other: a son asking his mother about her childhood, an immigrant telling his friend about coming to America or a couple reminiscing on their 50th wedding anniversary. A congregation could easily use this one-toone method with members of different generations in the congregation as well as with different generations in a family.

Set up a “Faith StoryCorps” booth for recording the interviews in audio format.

The collection of interviews can become part of a living treasury of the church, available on the church’s website and utilized at worship, in programming and at home. To listen to stories and learn more about StoryCorps, including resources on developing your own storytelling project, go to storycorps.net.

3. CURATING THE STORY OF FAITH THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHS Humans of New York (humansofnewyork.com) is a project to create an exhaustive catalogue of New York City’s inhabitants. Brandon Stanton set out to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers and plot those photos on a map. He started collecting quotes and short stories from the people he met and began including these snippets alongside the photographs.

Taken together, these portraits and captions became the subject of a vibrant blog. With over 8 million followers on social media, HONY now provides a worldwide audience with daily glimpses into the lives of strangers in New York City.

What if you used this idea to engage your faith community in photographing the Christian faith story as it is being lived by the members of your church and wider community? Capture their faith stories (quotes, short stories) along with the photos. Focus on where God is at work in your community and how people are living the Christian story at home, at work, at school and in the community. Combine photos and stories into a website where people can view and read the profiles. Use the website as an integral element in programming and worship. Continue to add new photos and stories to the website.

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4. CURATING THE STORY OF FAITH THROUGH DIGITAL STORYTELLING With the arrival of new digital audio and video tools, congregations can incorporate digital storytelling in a variety of ways from worship to learning to events. Digital storytelling combines the art of telling stories with a variety of multimedia, including graphics, audio, video and web publishing. Digital storytelling can be personal or communal (such as telling the story of a community or group).

The Center for Digital Storytelling developed “Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling” to provide a starting point for creating digital stories.

1. Point of view: What is the main point of the story, and what is the perspective of the author?

2. A dramatic question: a key question that keeps the viewer’s attention and will be answered by the end of the story.

3. Emotional content: serious issues that come alive in a personal and powerful way and connect the audience to the story.

4. The gift of your voice: a way to personalize the story to help the audience understand the context.

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5. The power of the soundtrack: music or other sounds that support and embellish the story.

6. Economy: using just enough content to tell the story without overloading the viewer.

7. Pacing: the rhythm of the story and how slowly or quickly it progresses.

Digital storytelling can begin with life (the experiences of people) and move toward faith.

For example, tell a story about feeling God’s presence, about connection to a community of faith, about a favorite scripture verse or hymn, about feeling disconnected from a faith community, about being angry with God and more.

Digital storytelling can begin with faith and move toward life. Imagine using the sevenstep process above to retell Bible stories that connect with questions and situations of people today. These stories can become an integral element of faith formation in a congregation, as well as a continuing project.

Here are some digital tools and resources to assist with digital storytelling: • Animoto—Video Creation animoto.com • We Video—Video Creation wevideo.com • iMovie—Video Creation apple.com • Go Animate—Animated Video Creation goanimate.com • PowToon—Animated Video Creation powtoon.com • Audacity—Audio Editing audacity.sourceforge.net • Center for Digital Storytelling storycenter.org/stories • Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu • Storying Faith: Digital Storytelling as Faith Formation storyingfaith.org

5. CURATING THE STORY OF FAITH THROUGH VIDEO Video has emerged as one of the primary and most flexible resources for learning and faith formation. We are blessed with high quality faith formation video resources (many of which are free) presenting the story of the Christian faith that we can utilize in dozens of settings and formats in the congregation, at home and in daily life. High quality videos have made it possible to “flip” the classroom in educational programs and to reach people wherever they are with mobile content accessible on any digital device.

The abundance of digital video content is a special challenge for curators because it is important to provide the best content (theologically, biblically, developmentally and educationally) targeted to a specific audience. Here are four examples of the excellent resources that we can utilize to share the story.

• G-dcast (g-dcast.com) has videos, apps and interactive experiences on the Hebrew Bible. G‑dcast is a new media production company that is creating videos of the stories in the Hebrew Bible.

They have completed 54 animated, short videos on the Torah. The Psalms Project (g-dcast.com/?s=psalms) asked Jewish musicians and poets from around the world to pick a psalm and reimagine it in their own voices.

• The Work of the People: Visual Literacy (theworkofthepeople.com) produces visual prayers, visual poems and visual benedictions, interpretive and contemplative pieces, as well as looped visual imagery for worship. Through language, and in ways beyond language, they declare the truth of what has been, the reality of what is and the hope of what is not yet.

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• Chuck Knows Church (chuckknowschurch.com) has two online video series that help interpret complex subjects and issues in a fun, informative way. The Original Series is all about the objects, symbols and terms we often hear in church. There are currently more than 90 episodes (2-5 minutes in length) available on a variety of topics.

• The Skit Guys (skitguys.com) teach God’s word using comedy, drama and whatever category talking action figures fit. Videos can be used as sermon illustrations or as discussion starters for small groups and Bible studies.

We are blessed today with an abundance of methods, approaches and resources. Let’s use them well to “mediate faith as an integral way of life to persons, communities and cultures.”

John Roberto of LifelongFaith Associates is editor of the journal “Lifelong Faith,” works as a consultant to churches and national organizations, teaches courses and conducts workshops in faith formation and has authored books and program manuals in faith formation. John also works on the staff of Vibrant Faith as Special Projects Coordinator and is the curator of FaithFormationLearningExchange.net. His latest publications include Reimagining Faith Formation for the 21st Century (2015), “Generations Together: Caring, Celebrating, Learning Praying and Serving Faithfully” (co-authored, 2014) and “Faith Formation 2020: Designing the Future of Faith” (2010).

#TELLTHESTORY The first time someone told me I needed to get a Twitter account was in 2008. I was a sportswriter, and starting then, each time I posted an article, I had to tweet it too.

It seemed #pointless.

So when I left sportswriting and went into the ministry, I figured my tweeting days were over. We were doing something much more meaningful here, right? Something that would never fit neatly into 140 characters.

I got Twitter again during my intern pastor year in Las Vegas, but it was perfunctory. I followed a few folks and then promptly closed out the window and never opened Twitter again.

I was being #unimaginative.

During my first year as pastor of St. Philip Lutheran Church in Glenview, Illinois, just outside Chicago, I didn’t think much about blogging or tweeting until my newly hired parish administrator urged me to get a blog.

“It’s really important,” she told me, and she sent me a list of people I should follow.

by Angela Denker engaging in new ways about the gospel. Amazingly, it went beyond expected age groups. My 85-year-old charter member who sits in the front row each week loves to read the blog.

He was one of the first to subscribe. My ladies’ Wednesday morning Bible study reads it too.

Sure, I was connecting with young people all over the country, but through my blog, I was also connecting with my own parishioners, even the 70- and 80-year-olds.

The Holy Spirit was bringing renewal to me and to my congregation through this new form of storytelling.

In 2014, due to my blogging and connections on social media, I was invited to attend the Red Letter Christians “Speakers Gathering.” I spent three days with about 25 Christian leaders and speakers from all over the country, who had varied backgrounds and experience.

Most of them had thousands more Twitter followers than me and much more experience and exposure as leaders in the Christian movement. In fact, many of them had never even met a Lutheran before me, except Nadia Bolz-Weber.

So I made a new site on Blogger. I called it Overwhelming Jesus because when Jesus is overwhelming, nothing else is. I launched it and started writing, getting my friends to follow it. I made a new Twitter handle too— @overwhelmjesus.

Like Jesus’ birth in the manger in Bethlehem at Christmas, igniting social media to tell the story of the gospel is a ministry of presence.

God became incarnate in Jesus so that we might experience God’s presence in a way that made powerful sense—in a way that changed our relationship with God forever. The incarnation was in a sense about God speaking a new language to bring all people into relationship with God through Jesus.

Today, social media can serve a similar purpose. It begins merely with presence— ­with churches and pastors and leaders and parishioners and youth and youth leaders being present on social media to connect with people in their communities and people around the world. These connections will likely lead the church into places it never expected, and these connections will ensure the story of Jesus is preserved for generations to come. #miraculousgrace Of course, telling the story for new generations doesn’t end with Twitter. I’d like to introduce a couple of friends who are using their own God-given talents to share the Gospel in innovative new ways in their own communities.

As I wrote more about different takes on Jesus’ place in the internal workings of our church, in parenting, in sports and social issues, in current events, I noticed something.

People outside my network were starting to read the blog. They were following my Twitter page, and they were doing something crazy— retweeting.

Inspired by my husband’s urging, I pursued more connections in the Christian publishing world. I started emailing my blogs to editors at Christian websites. I became a contributor at Red Letter Christians, a site for evangelical and mainline Christian leaders who are looking to return to the words of Jesus in the Gospels and to write about where Jesus’ witness impacts stories in the world today.

People I never expected were starting to comment and share about Jesus. We were

I learned that the world is ready and open to hear the message of Jesus today. I realized that while I may still have a lot to learn about Twitter, I have begun to see the power that it and other new media might have to spread the gospel and revitalize the church—to connect Christians in new ways.

JENNIFER ALLEN: THE ARTIST Director of Media and Publications for Community Lutheran Church, Las Vegas

I realized, though, that we all shared something in common. We’d decided to utilize new media and new methods of storytelling to spread the gospel. Even though most of these leaders had written multiple books and were asked to speak around the country, they were all still deeply invested in building and maintaining their social networks. We talked together about tweeting at specific times to build support and awareness around particular issues of justice.

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Since 2003, when she was a freshman in college looking for work to do on the side, Jennifer Allen has been artist-in-residence for Community Lutheran Church in Las Vegas.

It started small. Community needed someone to make its weekly worship and sermon slides, and Allen needed some extra cash while finishing up her art degree at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

WINTER 2015 Once Rev. Dr. Mark Wickstrom, lead pastor at Community, saw Allen’s talents with Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator, he added more projects—a poster here, a flyer there, a new parish magazine, a new website and social media presence. Soon, nearly every sign around the church and online had a piece of Allen’s art, and she was hired full-time.

She exercises a similar impulse as a singer in the church’s praise team with her two sisters, a commitment she’s made for more than a decade.

In 2012, Allen began creating weekly videos called Ministry Minutes to play at the beginning of worship. Originally designed by former Minister of Praise Mike Watkins, these videos are one of the most popular elements of worship at Community. They replace the need for announcements and almost always include lots of humor.

“It’s important to sort of put a different spin on (church),” she says. “It doesn’t have to be like how it’s been the last bajillion years. It’s not all religious icons and hymns; it can be modern.”

While she didn’t begin college expecting to work for a church, Allen has been pleased with the way her art has grown through her work at Community.

REV. BRIAN WISE: THE TABLE TALKER

“From the beginning, I’ve always been given the freedom to just sort of do things in whatever way and however I want,” Allen says. “The artist in me is very appreciative of that.”

Rev. Brian Wise doesn’t find his passion in art or writing but rather in creating spaces for conversation about God and Jesus and training new people to tell the story of Jesus.

Her ability to shape the style and form of the gospel story at Community has been honed by a sense of freedom from her supervising pastor and from the congregation. When people ask for flyers, posters or videos, they rarely give Allen particular parameters. Even Wickstrom gives very loose instructions for his sermons and trusts Allen to find or make the proper illustrations.

So Wise created his own special space and place to tell Jesus’ story to a new generation. It just so happened to take place in a bar.

This leads to lots of time searching images on Google, especially for images of Jesus.

“Throughout my time here, I’ve sort of been on a giant journey, trying to find a decent picture of Jesus,” Allen says, suggesting that it might serve as a metaphor for her task as a church artist. “People can have some very particular ideas of the church and how it’s supposed to be. If they see it spun in a different way, it can make them think of church or Jesus in a different way.”

Whether it’s by searching for sermon slide images on Google or making posters and banners for special services, Allen is crafting a unique image of Jesus to show the people of Las Vegas and the world. She envisions her artwork for the church as encouraging people to stop and wonder about church in a new way and inviting a new generation to explore who Jesus is.

Whether through contemporary worship or art, Allen is helping Vegas Christians explore new ways to tell an old, old story.

To see Allen’s artwork and videos in action, check out communitylv.org or follow Facebook.com/CLCVegas

Associate Pastor, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Aurora, Illinois

Wise began his ministry with a small group of young adults in Aurora, Illinois. He noticed that most of the 20- and 30-somethings who attended St. Mark’s Lutheran Church were attending alone, if at all. They were left out of the traditional small groups and programs at the church, most of which were geared toward families or retirees.

Inspired by the Catholics’ Theology on Tap ministry, a group that meets at a local bar or pub to discuss hot topics in Christianity, Wise called his new group Brewing Questions, figuring it could meet at a pub or a coffee shop.

As their conversations deepened, Wise found himself witnessing a brand new group of disciples. Young adults from Brewing Questions started sitting together each week at worship.

They invited their friends. A group of about nine members doubled, then tripled. Wise launched a website (brewingquestions.com), and donors put up funds through GoFundMe to purchase a computer and new video equipment to strengthen the online Brewing Questions community.

Skilled in facilitating and training, Wise says that he often finds himself doing more listen9

ing than speaking at Brewing Questions gatherings.

“It’s not stump the pastor; it’s not ‘let’s see what he knows,’” Wise says. “It’s a time to truly hear what people are thinking about.”

Wise says he’s struck by the deep need of 20and 30-somethings in his community to have tools to say something about God and Jesus.

“They’re coming to a place where they’re feeling when they want to have kids and they’re asked about their faith life, they want to be able to say something about it,” Wise says. “(At Brewing Questions,) for the first time, they’re using that language of faith.”

As the local group grows, Wise is encouraging other groups in Chicago and across the country to tap into the community on the website and share prayer requests or topics/questions for the “Brewing Pot.” He sees groups like his as a way not only to develop future parishioners, but also future leaders of the church. Groups like Brewing Questions can empower young people to share the story of the gospel in a whole new way that feels comfortable to them.

It’s revitalized not only his work with St. Mark’s, but also Wise’s own faith life.

“Brewing Questions has cost our church zero dollars,” he says. “What we’ve gotten out of it are brand new relationships for a new generation. The goal was relationships—sitting together, giving together and praying together.

Now we’ve got people who are passionate about their faith life and willing to take big risks for and with the church, maybe for the first time in their lives.”

To learn more about Brewing Questions, visit brewingquestions.com or Follow Rev. Brian Wise on Twitter @pastorbwise

Angela Denker is a former sportswriter turned Lutheran pastor. She currently serves as lead pastor of St. Philip Lutheran Church in Glenview, Ill. Denker is passionate about telling stories: not only the gospel story of Jesus, but the way that story lives on in the lives of people and churches. She blogs about faith, social issues, and the future of the ELCA from a millennial’s perspective at overwhelmingjesus. blogspot.com and is a contributing blogger to Red Letter Christians.

TO WEAVE A WORD Let me begin by explaining the effect that a story has on your youth (whether on an individual or on the whole group). It invites them to live in a world which is like the real world but which, at the same time, prepares them to experience that real world when they return to it.

With our crafty attentions, we writers and tale-tellers come upon the “mess,” the confusion of the world as an adolescent with wild hormones encounters it. It is a meaningless chaos. Our job is to organize that chaos, to give it order and meaning, to make of chaos as cosmos, which we accomplish by translating chaos into language, language into characters and episodes and episodes into whole stories.

For every “tick” we offer a concluding “tock.”

For every “Once upon a time,” we provide an “and they lived happily ever after.” For every beginning, we craft a satisfying end, and every end grants purpose to the youth’s experience.

Stories do more than merely persuade the youth that order exists; they build a house in which youth may abide a while. They weave a world. They companion our listeners into the experience of such ordered cosmos.

The Old English word, “scop” (pronounced “shop”), meant “poet.” Today, “scop” is translated as “shape.” The storyteller is a shaper who sings amorphous, overwhelming events into a recognizable shape.

In “The Uses of Enchantment”, Bruno Bettelheim writes, “The child [youth] is subject to desperate feelings of loneliness and isolation, often experiencing moral anxiety. More often than not, [the youth] is unable to express those feeling in words or can do so only by indirection.”

Propositional language—which speaks in abstractions, such as “God is love”—doesn’t cut it. That’s brain stuff, not experience.

On the other hand, the story below, which I entitled “The Ragman,” shapes God’s love into the listener’s experience. First comes the imagined experience, and then, after the

by Walter Wangerin, Jr.

youth has re-entered the real experience, he or she sees how God’s love abides in the sky and the stars, in nature and in the faces of those who love the youth and those whom the youth loves.

In telling the story of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection in this way, the youth will be able to claim that these events are “for me.”

THE RAGMAN I SAW A STRANGE SIGHT. I stumbled upon a story most strange, like nothing my life, my street sense, my sly tongue had ever prepared me for.

Hush, child. Hush, now, and I will tell it to you. *****

There is a remarkable passage in Deuteronomy 5:2-5, where Moses speaks an impossible chronology. To the children of Israel who have not yet come to Mt. Horeb (Sinai), Moses tells of that event as if it had already happened. He puts the event in the present tense: “The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our [parents] did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive this day. The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain.”

The language here is meant to be uttered aloud in the rhythms of Hebrew poetry.

Therefore, the passage is shown to have been repeated all down the ages exactly as it is written here, in the present tense, especially at the Passover. By telling the sacred story, time collapses into each time it is told again. What was, is. This is the charm and the power of story.

By telling the sacred story, time collapses into each time it is told again. What was, is.

This is the charm and the power of story.

In order to give you an example of the personal experience of God’s love, here is “The Ragman” in full.

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Even before the dawn one Friday morning I noticed a young man, handsome and strong, walking the alleys of our City. He was pulling an old cart filled with clothes both bright and new, and he was calling in a clear, tenor voice: “Rags!” Ah, the air was foul and the first light filthy to be crossed by such sweet music.

“Rags! New rags for old! I take your tired rags!

Rags!”

“Now, this is a wonder,” I thought to myself, for the man stood six-feet-four and his arms were like tree limbs, hard and muscular, and his eyes flashed intelligence. Could he find no better job than this, to be a ragman in the inner city?

I followed him. My curiosity drove me. And I wasn’t disappointed.

Soon the Ragman saw a woman sitting on her back porch. She was sobbing into a handkerchief, sighing and shedding a thousand tears.

Her knees and elbows made a sad X. Her shoulders shook. Her heart was breaking.

The Ragman stopped his cart. Quietly, he walked to the woman, stepping round tin cans, dead toys and Pampers.

“Give me your rag,” he said so gently, “and I’ll give you another.”

He slipped the handkerchief from her eyes.

She looked up, and he laid across her palm a linen cloth so clean and new that it shined. She blinked from the gift to the giver.

Then, as he began to pull his cart again, the Ragman did a strange thing: He put her

WINTER 2015 stained handkerchief to his own face, and then he began to weep, to sob as grievously as she had done, his shoulders shaking. Yet she was left without a tear.

“This is a wonder,” I breathed to myself, and I followed the sobbing Ragman like a child who cannot turn away from mystery.

“Rags! Rags! New rags for old!”

In a little while, when the sky showed grey behind the rooftops and I could see the shredded curtains hanging out black windows, the Ragman came upon a girl whose head was wrapped in a bandage, whose eyes were empty. Blood soaked her bandage. A single line of blood ran down her cheek.

Now the tall Ragman looked upon this child with pity, and he drew a lovely yellow bonnet from his cart.

“Give me your rag,” he said, tracing his own line on her cheek, “and I’ll give you mine.”

The child could only gaze at him while he loosened the bandage, removed it and tied it to his own head. The bonnet he set on hers. And I gasped at what I saw: for with the bandage went the wound! Against his brow it ran a darker, more substantial blood—his own!

“Rags! Rags! I take old rags!” cried the sobbing, bleeding, strong, intelligent Ragman.

The sun hurt both the sky, now, and my eyes; the Ragman seemed more and more to hurry.

“Are you going to work?” he asked a man who leaned against a telephone pole. The man shook his head.

The Ragman pressed him: “Do you have a job?”

“Are you crazy?” sneered the other. He pulled away from the pole, revealing the right sleeve of his jacket—flat, the cuff stuffed into the pocket. He had no arm.

So,” said the Ragman. “Give me your jacket, and I’ll give you mine.”

Such quiet authority in his voice!

The one-armed man took off his jacket. So did the Ragman—and I trembled at what I saw: for the Ragman’s arm stayed in its sleeve, and when the other put it on he had two good arms, thick as tree limbs. But the Ragman had only one.

“Go to work,” he said.

After that he found a drunk lying unconscious beneath an army blanket, an old man, hunched, wizened and sick. He took that blanket and wrapped it round himself, but for the drunk, he left new clothes. ***** And now I had to run to keep up with the Ragman. He was weeping uncontrollably and bleeding freely at the forehead, pulling his cart with one arm, stumbling for drunkenness, falling again and again, exhausted, old, old and sick, yet he went with terrible speed. On spider’s legs he skittered through the alleys of the City, this mile and the next, until he came to its limits, and then he rushed beyond.

I wept to see the change in this man. I hurt to see his sorrow. And yet I needed to see where he was going in such haste, perhaps to know what drove him so.

The little old Ragman—he came to a landfill.

He came to the garbage pits. And then I wanted to help him in what he did, but I hung back, hiding. He climbed a hill. With tormented labor he cleared a little space on that hill. Then he sighed. He lay down. He pillowed his head on a handkerchief and a jacket. He covered his bones with an army blanket. And he died.

Oh, how I cried to witness that death! I slumped in a junked car and wailed and mourned as one who has no hope because I

11

had come to love the Ragman. Every other face had faded in the wonder of this man, and I cherished him—but he died. I sobbed myself to sleep.

I did not know—how could I know?—that I slept through Friday night and Saturday and its night too.

But then, on Sunday morning, I was wakened by a violence.

Light—pure, hard, demanding light—slammed against my sour face, and I blinked, and I looked, and I saw the last and the first wonder of all. There was the Ragman, folding the blanket most carefully, a scar on his forehead, but alive! And besides that, healthy! There was no sign of sorrow nor of age, and all the rags that he had gathered shined for cleanliness.

Well, then I lowered my head, and trembling for all that I had seen, I myself walked up to the Ragman. I told him my name with shame, for I was a sorry figure next to him. Then I took off all my clothes in that place, and I said to him with dear yearning in my voice, “Dress me.”

He dressed me. My Lord, he put new rags on me, and I am a wonder beside him. The Ragman, the Ragman, the Christ!

Walter Wangerin, Jr. has worked as a university professor, a radio announcer, and a book reviewer; he has traveled with migrant farm workers, participated in a Lakota Indian sun dance, and has been pastor of an inner-city church.

Finally, he has written more than thirty books including the well known Ragman and Other Cries of Faith.

His first novel, The Book of the Dun Cow, won both the National Book Award and The New York Times Best Children’s Book of the Year.

Wangerin holds the Jochum Chair at Valparaiso University where he teaches literature and creative writing, and is writer-in-residence.

AN INTERVIEW WITH AARON CHRISTOPHER, SPARKHOUSE VIDEO STORYTELLER How do you find new, creative ways to tell and retell Bible stories? Sparkhouse, a division of Augsburg Fortress Publishers, responds to this question through creating innovative resources for faith formation. We talked with Aaron Christopher of the sparkhouse video team to find out more about how stories are told at sparkhouse.

Aaron Christopher began working as a customer service representative at Augsburg Fortress in 2006. (If you ordered “Here We Stand” binders or “Lutheran Handbooks”, he may have been on the other end of the phone.)

Through a series of fortuitous events, Aaron found himself scripting, directing and acting in videos to usher in the company’s move to a new Enterprise Resource Planning platform.

(Aaron fared better than those who had to use the ERP platform.) He eventually joined the video team and began scripting, directing and producing videos for sparkhouse. Aaron has worked on many of sparkhouse’s faith formation resources, including re:form confirmation, re:form Traditions, re:form Ancestors, Holy Moly, Connect and Whirl. Aaron now leads a team of 15 animators, editors and producers who have created close to 300 episodes for Sunday school and confirmation curriculum.

Q: Let’s start with your origin story. How did your interest in storytelling begin?

A: I’m told that as a child, I would tell endless stories at the dinner table. I would make them up on the fly and would always buy time to think up the next part of the story by saying, “And then…” I hadn’t learned how to edit yet.

Q: What people and experiences helped you form the theological viewpoint you bring to your storytelling?

A: I grew up in a conservative Christian family, which gave me a solid foundation of basic knowledge on the Bible and Christian beliefs (albeit all fairly dogmatic and literal). I went through a healthy disillusionment with the church and Christianity in my 20s, when I

really started to think for myself and broaden my perspective about the nature of God. Some key influences in my exploration of God’s nature have come from Taoism, Hinduism and Zen Buddhism. My Christian theology chops have been continually honed the longer I’ve worked at Augsburg Fortress, as there is a wealth of great theologians we collaborate with on every project. The works of John A. Sanford, Edward F. Edinger, Marie Louise-Von Franz, Joseph Campbell and Eckhart Tolle, amongst many others, have also been immensely helpful in my journey.

Q: The sparkhouse video team is made up of expert storytellers, but they also have major technical skills. How does an animator/editor/ engineer who spends so much time immersed in animation software and gear manage to also be great at storytelling?

A: It’s a very unique skillset that we’ve found essential to creating quality videos. All the technical knowledge and expertise in the world won’t tell a good story if there isn’t authentic emotion and tension. One of our biggest challenges has been to build a production staff that “gets it,” both technically and from a narrative standpoint, because there are a lot of people who can do one or the other but very few who can do both. We’re very fortunate to be surrounded by such an incredibly talented team of storytellers. The key to storytelling is really empathy—empathy for the audience, empathy for the characters being portrayed on screen and empathy for everyone helping you tell the story. If you tell a story without empathy, it might as well be a grocery list.

If you tell a story without empathy, it might as well be a grocery list.

12

Q: What has been a challenging Bible story to produce, and how did you and your team face the challenge?

A: Lydia is by far one of the most challenging stories to tell, as it isn’t really a story. There’s no tension or even details in the account of Lydia. She is simply described as a seller of purple cloth who becomes a Christian—the end. The way we handled Lydia in re:form Ancestors was to build up fake conflict, since there was none to begin with, which leads to a series of humorous anti-climaxes as Lydia proves wholly unfazed by all the potential tension we’d generated around her. The treatment we did in Holy Moly was by far my favorite because we took creative license with the interpretation of how Lydia was prior to her conversion. We portrayed her as a very wealthy, shrewd and hardnosed businesswoman who was lacking a lot of warmth so that we could see a real transformation post-conversion.

Q: What is something that most people would never guess about what your team does?

A: We all use A LOT of Excel spreadsheets to track and manage a given episode through the entire production process. From review feedback and to-do lists to schedules, the sheer amount of detail and level of organization required to pull off these episodes is staggering. The fact that we, in all seriousness, use the Military Phonetic Alphabet to convey episode and segment codes just floors me.

Then again, it also floors me that I know what it means when I see 03_COL_01OT_04EXO_ Animatic_vs_05.

Q: The mission of sparkhouse is to spark new life in Christian communities. How do animated videos support this mission?

A: I look at video as a spark for the spark. It’s a highly approachable medium for kids and adults that can heighten interest in matters of faith that may have not even been on their radar. If someone watches a video that is entertaining and concisely conveys a challeng-

WINTER 2015 ing theological issue in a way that is personally meaningful and relevant, it will get them asking questions and wanting to know more.

I’m passionate about creating videos that creatively explore issues of faith and ask the hard questions because it’s something I wish I’d had growing up, instead of just being spoonfed doctrine. In fact that’s really my gauge for anything we make here. If we’re saying, “I wish we’d had this video as kid,” then we’re probably on the right track.

Q: The Network’s vision supports three big concepts in children, youth, and family ministry: renewal, education and connection. How can animated videos support this mission?

A: Videos can definitely bring a fresh perspective to topics that have been around for thousands of years. Video is one of most efficient education tools we have today, as it not only delivers information quickly, but also connects with people through their emotions.

Q: How do you think storytellers can contribute to today’s religious and theological landscape?

A: I see a need for them at the forefront of things. Stories have been told in order to connect, teach and convey meaning throughout the existence of humanity. They are one of the best tools we have to help us understand our world in both the physical and the metaphysical sense. I always noted as a kid, and still as an

adult, that the only thing that holds my interest and really sticks with me in a pastor’s sermon is when they tell a story. Everything else is just talking. When we stop relating to things through stories and symbols, we tend to shut ourselves off emotionally and approach things in a strictly rational fashion. While I would deem rational thinking as important, even vital, we can’t solely rely on it. Without emotion, there is no way to truly connect to each other and God. Q: Finish this sentence: A great storyteller is someone who…

A: A great storyteller is someone who has empathy—that and a really good sense of timing.

Aaron Christopher is currently the executive producer and acting head writer of sparkhouse video.

He lives in Minneapolis with his wife and daughter.

They enjoy discovering new restaurants, sledding and biking to the Mississippi river so they can throw rocks in it.

13

TEN GREAT IDEAS FOR STORYTELLING WITH KIDS

by Dawn Rundman

Need a new twist on storytelling with the children in your ministry? Expand your storytelling repertoire with some of these techniques.

1

PUPPET POWER: Don’t under-

estimate the connection that kids can make with puppets! Many kids feel more comfortable listening to a puppet tell a story rather than an adult. Kids will often respond to questions asked by a puppet differently—and more deeply—than when adults ask. Puppets can be powerful storytelling tools, whether they’re simple creations made of on-hand craft supplies or plush hand puppets capable of facial expressions and limb movements.

2

MANIPULATIVES: Use fabrics,

blocks and other simple items to enhance (not distract from) storytelling with kids, especially young ones. Concrete objects that kids can see, touch and hold can add color, shape and movement to the story you tell.

Blue fabric can become a river. Glow-in-thedark stars can show the sky full of promises God made to Abraham. Plastic animals can board the ark or gather around baby Jesus in the stable. You may plan to give away some items and collect others to keep in a prop box of storytelling tools.

3

LOOK TO GREAT AUTHORS:

Bible stories are important to tell, but many others stories can also speak to themes of love, family, friendship and action. Build up your library of children’s pictures books that tell a story through well-crafted words and illustrations so you’ll have plenty of choices for storytelling. The site storypath.upsem.edu posts weekly links to children’s books that connect to readings from the Revised Common Lectionary.

4

TELL YOUR STORY: Kids love

hearing stories about the adults in their lives. What story could you tell about yourself, your childhood, your faith and your adventures that could connect to kids? Opening up about your own experiences helps them see you were a kid once and gives you an opportunity to show humor, vulnerability or other relatable qualities.

5

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE: No matter what story-

telling technique you try, practicing before the time with kids is important so that you know your story and how you’ll deliver it. Speak the story out loud, watch yourself in the mirror, and record your presentation and review it to see how you can improve.

Try a few straight-from-the-field ideas from children’s ministry practitioners who shared on the Child Loving Church Facebook group.

6

COUCH POTATOES!

(Submitted by Fred Rengstorf) For our midweek Advent services, during the sermon time, I read a children’s Christmas story to children sitting on a big couch while the people watch the pictures on the screen.

The stories have to be really good on more than one level.

7

GIVING KIDS A VOICE:

8

AUDIENCE INVOLVEMENT:

(Submitted by Maryland Mayer) I always give kids a say in the characters’ voices. For example, when we were talking about Moses and Pharaoh, I originally gave Pharaoh a very high pitched voice. It engaged the kids so much that a few of them said, “Pharaoh sounds too nice—make him sound meaner!” So I did. And they LOVED IT.

(Submitted by Lynne Ogren) I love audience participation storytelling, in which the audience has noises to make, words to say or actions to do when the reader speaks particular words. The creation story (Genesis 1) and the fiery furnace (Daniel 3) are easy because of their repetition. For the flood, the audience can make the rainstorm with actions like snapping, clapping, leg slapping and foot stomping. Kids are pretty creative and can make up their own sounds and movements.

Adults also love to participate in this story format which makes it a great inter-generational experience.

14

9

SIGN AND STRETCH:

(Submitted by Melanie Heuiser Hill) Telling the creation story in ASL or with yoga is always a hit.

DRAMATIC: 10 GET (Submitted by Patty J Kernstock) One popular story that I tell with my students is the good shepherd as a melodrama. Kids make sounds for the sheep (baa baa), the good shepherd (yeah), and the bad wolf (boo).

Remember—Bible stories were shared orally before they were ever written down and published. When you tell stories to kids, you are joining a tradition of storytellers that spans thousands of years!

Dawn Rundman is a nationally recognized teacher, presenter, author, and resource provider specializing in the faith development of children.

She received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Oregon. Since 2002, Dawn has developed children’s resources at Augsburg Fortress Publishers, the publishing ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Dawn writes, speaks and leads workshops across the country at conventions, seminaries, and congregations.

WINTER 2015

YOU WANT TO BE HERE

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www.elcaymnet.org 15

THE STORY MUST GO ON In many expressions of the church, a seminarian is required to participate in a hazing process called Clinical Pastoral Education, or CPE. A big part of that CPE program is writing verbatim accounts of certain visits, with letters assigned for those speaking (such as “C” for chaplain, “P” for patient, “S” for spouse, “N” for nurse, and so on). With that background, I want to share the following story, because, well, I promised I would. Sometimes, the story is all that is left, and it’s important to keep that story alive.

C: Well, what a surprise to see you up here!

My name is George; I’m the chaplain who spoke with you the other day?

S: Yes, of course. We remember you.

C: How is your husband doing now? Did the surgery work out okay?

S: He is doing better. He is strong. He worked his whole life very hard, so he is strong.

C: Is he having much pain?

S: Not too much. They took out the epidural, and he seems pretty good so far.

C: And how are you holding up? [I see the bed.]

You’ve been sleeping here, right?

S: Yes. I am doing fine.

C: It’s nice to have the bed here.

S: And nice to have this room! My son, he is a surgeon; he got us this.

C: Oh? Where is your son a surgeon?

S: He works here, in the hospital.

C: Oh, at Roosevelt? I see. Well that’s fantastic.

And your husband is not having pain?

S: So far, he is good. But, I think women can—how can I say it?—women can take more pain and tolerate more than men. [She looks toward her husband.] But, he is doing well.

C: That’s good. And you say you’re okay. It must be exhausting to be living in the hospital like this.

S: Yes. But, you know, men and women see things, are built differently. I am comfortable wherever I am. He, you know, he wants his ethnic food. Cabbage, and herring.

C: Ah, probably none of that for a while, huh?

S: No, and that will make him grumpy. He wants what he is used to.

C: And now it’s, [looking at the tray] Jell-O instead, right?

S: Yes. I can eat whatever. Women...well, I just say, “Fine, have it your way.” Most things, they are little, and I don’t want to bother, since I can take more without getting upset than he can.

C: But then do you feel like you don’t get what you need?

S: No, if I need something I make sure I get it.

[She smiles.] I just mean that women can take more pain and suffering. It is the way it has been since creation.

C: Well, I saw my wife give birth to two children, and I know I couldn’t tolerate that much pain!

S: Yes. That is what I mean. Men are stronger, physically, but women are stronger in other ways.

C: Do you have more than the one son?

S: We also have a daughter, who lives in Staten Island. That will be our next stop. To see if he can tolerate living there before we go home.

C: So you’ll live with her for a while.

S: Yes, and the doctor appointments will be easier to make it to from there. He said he was tired all the time and felt sick. I said he should go to a doctor to see. But he waved me off and said no, it is nothing. Well, in October, we had a wedding in New York to go to, and I said, “While we’re there, maybe you could see a doctor.” So I set up the appointment. [I was reminded how Garrison Keilor says Lutherans would only visit Hawaii if they could justify it as a business trip that they were going on anyway.] Then they found that he was anemic and must be losing blood. So they ordered more tests and they found he had a mass in his intestines that was bleeding all over the place.

C: Oh my.

S: So they decided to operate, and then they did. [She shrugs.] But I am an optimist; he is a pessimist. I can take a lot and still see the bright side. Not so much with him. Do you know of Auschwitz?

C: [Feeling shocked,] yes, of course.

S: When I was 17, they took me there. I have a number. [She pulls up her sleeve and shows me.] This is a tattoo. [This is the first time I

16

By George Baum have seen one of these; it says A-52.] They just carve it right into your flesh like this. [She pulls her sleeve back down.]

[I say nothing.]

S: I lost my family. Well, everyone but my father. They didn’t kill him right away. But my mother and brothers and sister were all killed very early.

[I find this so deeply horrific that I start to cry but continue looking directly at her, hoping she’ll go on.]

S: Then they put me to work. Are you familiar with [some company she names], the motorcycles?

[I pretend I am.]

S: Well that’s where I worked. I made motorcycles. [She smiles, kind of ironically, I think.]

C: You never would have expected that, huh?

S: No. To be taken out of your life and treated like dirt, lower than dirt…unless you have been through that, you cannot possibly know. But I worked right next to the crematorium, where they burned the bodies. The smell of it, all day long. The ovens. And I was 17.

C: [I am overwhelmed by this all.] That is horrible!

S: Yes. But you do what you have to do. I was able to just keep going because I didn’t know anything else to do.

[I have nothing to say, still quietly crying.]

S: But there was always resistance. The people who worked in the dynamite factory, they would take gunpowder and sew it into the hems of their clothes. And then when they were killed, well there were people who had to sort the clothes into piles from the bodies. You know, shoes over here, and shirts over there.

And the ones sorting the clothes would cut open the hems and get the gunpowder.

C: Uh huh.

S: And they were saving it for the crematorium. Do you know what that is?

C: Yes. Yes, I do.

S: Well they were planning to blow that up as an act of, you know, rebellion or whatever.

C: With the gunpowder?

S: Yes. So one night, I worked the night shift.

There was day and night, so we worked all the

WINTER 2015 time, and I worked at night. Well, one night they did it and blew the building up. I heard the explosion because my factory was right next door.

C: Oh my…

S: Well, then we were all very afraid. And we didn’t go to work. And the guards, they decided to show us a message, and they took dozens of people, Jews, and lined them up to kill them. And I heard the gunshots. And, do you know the Hatikvah?

C: No, I’m sorry.

S: Well, that’s the Jewish National Anthem.

And I could hear them singing it while they were being shot.

[I start crying again.]

S: And they kept singing as the others were being shot. [Now she is crying too.] And the singing, it went until the very end, getting quieter and quieter, until the last one was dead.

And then…silence.

[I am so stunned I cannot speak. We both have tears on our faces, saying nothing.]

S: [She wipes her eyes.] So, it was just a small thing. That day. Some people say insignificant.

C: No, that is one of the most important stories I have ever heard. I am so thankful that you told me.

S: I went to Washington and told my story.

Recorded it there at the…

C: Holocaust Memorial?

S: Yes. C: Do you tell your stories to others?

S: Well, my grandchildren, they are too young.

I don’t want to scare them. But the one, she just turned 18.

C: About how old you were when you were in Auschwitz.

S: Yes. C: So maybe you can tell her when the time seems right? It’s important that people can hear what it was like from someone they know and who was there.

S: There are so few of us left. And someday when we are gone…

C: The stories can go on because you told them to your grandchildren and people like me. I will tell your story, believe me. I mean, if that’s all right with you.

S: Of course. But it is just one little story. One person.

C: And that’s why it’s important. Because you are a person.

S: [She smiles.] People in Auschwitz, when we see each other, it is like an instant family.

C: Of course it is!

S: And we share something that other people cannot understand.

C: No, I can never really know what you all went through.

S: We grew up fast. Very fast. You had to, to survive.

[A doctor comes in, and they talk about the epidural and how the patient will need to get up in a chair today. I wonder at the irony of two women talking about a man’s epidural.

The doctor leaves.]

S: So, we thought when the war was over, that we had seen the worst. But it’s not true. It is as bad now as it ever was then. People killing in the name of religion.

C: Yes. The Sudan today, but we have plenty before that too.

S: People say Stalin killed, what, 20 million of his people. And then Cambodia.

C: Yes. It seems it will never end.

S: No. I wonder if, after the Messiah comes, there will be peace.

C: Well, my religion says the Messiah already came, but still there is no peace.

S: Oh, I don’t want to talk about religion. That will just be trouble.

[This strikes me as a very odd thing to say, given the conversation she has been having with the chaplain.]

S: But the evil that people do. There is no limit, it seems.

C: No, there is not. I wish that Hitler had been the worst possible. But I’m afraid not.

S: I cannot understand it.

[A physical therapist enters the room and is putting on gloves. We both stand up.]

PT: Hello, how’s he doing?

S: Good. They already took the epidural out.

PT: No, I am here to get him up.

S4: Oh, to put him in a chair?

PT: No, we’re going to take a little walk.

C: Okay, I will leave you be now. Thank you so much for talking to me. [I put my hand on her shoulder.]

S: Thank you for your visit. It was kind of you to listen to me.

C: Really, it was an honor. I don’t come back to the hospital until next week. You said he should get discharged on Sunday?

S: Yes.

17

C: Well, okay. Then, hopefully I will not be seeing you anymore.

[We both smile.]

C: Thank you, Mrs. G. S: Thank you George.

In order to avoid the assignment of excessively high numbers from the general series to the large number of Hungarian Jews arriving in 1944, the SS authorities introduced new sequences of numbers in mid-May 1944. This series, prefaced by the letter A, began with “1” and ended at “20,000.” Once the number 20,000 was reached, a new series beginning with “B” series was introduced. Some 15,000 men received “B” series tattoos. For an unknown reason, the “A” series for women did not stop at 20,000 and continued to 30,000.

George Baum is one half of the band Lost And Found (speedwood.com), and is also a supply priest in the Episcopal Church, the father of two, and the husband of one.

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WINTER 2015

CALENDAR OF EVENTS: www.elcaymnet.org/calendar Start Date

End Date

Name

Location

Contact Person

Email

3/3/15 1:00 PM

3/3/15 2:00 PM

Story of Scripture

Webinar

Catherine Anderson

catherine.anderson@nemnsynod. org

Adult Volunteers, Adult Professionals, Parents

3/17/15 1:00 PM

3/17/15 1:30 PM

3rdTuesday Conversation

Online

Dannica Olsen

3tc@elcaymnet.org

Adult Volunteers, A dult Professionals

4/10/15 1:00 PM

4/10/15 2:00 PM

Story of Place and Displacement

Webinar

Catherine Anderson

catherine.anderson@nemnsynod.org

Adult Volunteers, Adult Professionals, Parents

4/21/15 1:00 PM

4/21/15 1:30 PM

3rdTuesday Conversation

Online

Dannica Olsen

3tc@elcaymnet.org

Adult Volunteers, Adult Professionals

5/5/15 1:00 PM

5/5/15 2:00 PM

Story of Adolesence

Webinar

Catherine Anderson

catherine.anderson@nemnsynod.org

Adult Volunteers, Adult Professionals, Parents

5/19/15 1:00 PM

5/19/15 13:30 PM 3rdTuesday Conversation

Online

Dannica Olsen

3tc@elcaymnet.org

Adult Volunteers, Adult Professionals

7/15/15 6:00 PM

7/19/15 11:00 AM ELCA Youth Gathering

Detroit, Michigan

ELCA Gathering Office

gathering@elca.org

Sr High Youth, Adult Volunteers, Adult Professionals

9/1/15 1:00 PM

9/1/15 2:00 PM

Story of Self and Other

Webinar

Catherine Anderson

catherine.anderson@nemnsynod.org

Adult Volunteers, Adult Professionals, Parents

10/6/15 1:00 PM

10/6/15 2:00 PM

Story of Service

Webinar

Catherine Anderson

catherine.anderson@nemnsynod.org

Adult Volunteers, Adult Professionals, Parents

11/3/15 1:00 PM

1/3/15 2:00 PM

Story of Faith Community

Webinar

Catherine Anderson

catherine.anderson@nemnsynod.org

Adult Volunteers, Adult Professionals, Parents

2/4/16 3:00 PM

2/5/15 6:00 PM

Intensive Care Courses 2016

Hyatt Regency - Orange County, CA

Todd Buegler

todd@elcaymnet.org

Adult Volunteers, A dult Professionals

2/5/16 9:00 PM

2/8/16 2:00 PM

Extravaganza 2016

Hyatt Regency - Orange County, CA

Todd Buegler

todd@elcaymnet.org

Adult Volunteers, Adult Professionals

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Visit our e h t n i h t o bo l l a H t i b i h Ex today!

, 2015 9 1 – 5 1 Y JUL

ent adership Ev e L th u o Y l nt Multicultura dership Eve a e L th u o Y led ifferently Ab

D

#RiseUp

SAVE

$50

HAVEN’T REGISTERED?

ALREADY REGISTERED?

Find your housing assignment at our booth.

HAVE QUESTIONS?

We have answers! Learn about transportation, parking and more.

Visit our booth to find out how your group can save!

888.411.3522

ELCA

There’s still time! We extended Early Bird registration until February 28 for leaders attending the Extravaganza.

PER PERSON

gathering@elca.org

July 12-15

facebook.com/gathering @ELCAGathering

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ELCA.ORG/GATHERING

WINTER 2015

Here’s our belief: There is an amazing amount of talent, expertise and skill within our community.

open source youth ministry

And we have all developed resources for use in our congregations.

Many of us are willing to share those resources that we have created. MartinsList is a place to do that. Here, we can share our work with each other...and can create a community of mutual support in our ministry.

It’s open source ministry.

www.MartinsList.org

It’s MartinsList.

3rd Tuesday Conversations are monthly gatherings of friends. They are great continuing education events. They are opportunities to hear from, and interact with experts in the field. 3TC conversations are free for Network members.

Our schedule: March 17 - Social Media Stuff: Keith Anderson

Our conversations: We use online webinars. You can log in to a special webinar site and listen to the conversation while watching images on your screen. Or, you can watch on the computer while calling in and listening on your phone.

You will have opportunities to ask questions as well.

All 3TC conversations begin at: 2:00 p.m. Eastern, 1:00 p.m. Central 12:00 p.m. Mountain, 11:00 a.m. Pacific

Join the conversation! www.elcaymnet.org/3tc 21

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WINTER 2015

CALLING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS

AUGGIES

Angela Bonfiglio ’13 serves as the director of youth programs for Redeemer Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, and it’s ministry, Venture North Bike Walk and Coffee, where she organizes youth development, community engagement, and job training opportunities.

WE ARE CALLED

Youth and Family Ministry Set in the heart of Minneapolis, Augsburg College is a liberal arts institution guided by the faith and values of the Lutheran church.

•

Our interdisciplinary program weaves together bible, theology, sociology, psychology and ministry classes.

•

Our hands-on internship and practicum opportunities are offered in a variety of settings.

•

Our intentional diversity and urban location allows leaders to develop in a real-world setting.

If you know a student who should be exploring a call to ministry, introduce them to us at augsburg.edu/yfm.

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1-800-788-5678 admissions@augsburg.edu

ELCA Youth Ministry Network 150 Oakwood Lane Owatonna, Mn 55060

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