LifeTogether Spring 2020 - Contextual Education Issue

LifeTogether THE MAGAZINE OF WARTBURG THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Spring 2020

THE CONTEXTUAL EDUCATION EDITION

LifeTogether The official magazine of Wartburg Theological Seminary for our alumni and friends.

Permission is granted for additional use in congregations. Founded in 1854 and located in Dubuque, Iowa since 1889, Wartburg Theological Seminary is one of seven seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

EDITOR Lindsey Queener, Director for Marketing

ADMINISTRATIVE CABINET Dr. Kristine Stache, Interim President Rev. Amy Current, Vice President for Admissions and Student Services Paul K. Erbes, Vice President for Development Rev. Dr. Craig Nessan, Academic Dean Andy Willenborg, Vice President for Finance and Operations

SPRING 2020 EDITION Wartburg Theological Seminary Dubuque, Iowa 52003 Phone: 563-589-0200 Fax: 563-589-0333 www.wartburgseminary.edu

Mission Statement Wartburg Theological Seminary serves Christ’s church through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America by being a worship-centered community of critical theological reflection where learning leads to mission and mission informs learning.

The community embodies God’s mission by stewarding resources for engaging, equipping, and sending collaborative leaders who interpret, proclaim and live the gospel of Jesus Christ for a world created for communion with God and in need of personal and social healing.

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DR. KRISTINE STACHE, INTERIM PRESIDENT

From the Interim President I am delighted to bring greetings to you from Wartburg Theological Seminary in my role as Interim President of this institution. January 1, 2020 kicked off my 14th year at Wartburg and first day in this new role. I am grateful for a stellar Board of Directors, faculty, and staff who have made this transition seamless for me.

During these many years I have had opportunities to collaborate with gifted colleagues in the work of innovation, strategic planning, teaching, and administration. What I most value in my faculty and staff colleagues is how we are always learning—from each other, our students, the church, and the world. In fact, Wartburg Seminary was born out of a mission-centered need to innovate and change alongside a changing church.

This tradition undergirds our identity and mission – a nimble, creative existence runs deep in the lifeblood of who we are and will continue to be.

This living, breathing tradition of innovation does not happen in a vacuum. Each one of us on faculty and staff are committed daily to making this possible.

We invest deeply in the fullness of our students’ lives and calls as they prepare for ministry and leadership in our church. Even with a changing student body that is both gathered and scattered, the commitment to walking alongside each student

individually, to meet them where their story meets God’s story, remains our number one priority. At the same time, we are also committed to continuing the work of our strategic plan that leans into new ways of seminary education.

This issue of LifeTogether highlights the contextual education components of the WTS curriculum – the beautiful coming together between rich accompaniment and individual students provides opportunities for deep formation in ministry leadership.

In these pages you will see just how much staff, faculty, congregations, and synod partners are walking alongside our students. You’ll also see how each experience – as broad and varied as they are – prepares students to be sent forth from the castle prepared to serve the gospel through the church and world as capable and passionate leaders.

Enjoy the stories here and keep WTS in your prayers as we, guided by the Holy Spirit, move through a time of transition with confidence into the future.

In Christ,

Dr. Kristine Stache Interim President

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Contents 06 A Journey of Challenge and Nurture CONTEXTUAL EDUCATION AND CANDIDACY AT WARTBURG SEMINARY

08 Doing Ministry “Out There” in the World FIELDWORK: WHY WE DO IT AND STORIES FROM STUDENTS

11 Laughter, Silence, and Tears: Reflecting on CPE CLINICAL PASTORAL EDUCATION REFLECTIONS

16 Learn By Doing, Become By Being THE INTERNSHIP PLACEMENT PROCESS AND REFLECTION FROM A CURRENT INTERN

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18 Laud and Fare: Lenten Dinner Church A SHARED INTERNSHIP PROJECT BETWEEN KELLIE LISI AND JASON DAVIS

21 Getting To Know Our Interim President AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. KRISTINE STACHE

22 Faculty and Staff Updates FOLLOWED BY ALUMNI NOTES AND J-TERM FEATURE

25 Celebrating the Life and Witness of Rev. Dr. Gwen Sayler REMEMBERING OUR BELOVED PROFESSOR

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A Journey of Challenge and Nurture CONTEXTUAL EDUCATION AND CANDIDACY AT WARTBURG SEMINARY “Most of us think that God has a great sense of humor if we are being called to serve, but this is the good news: God calls us – sinners/saints – to be witnesses to Jesus in the world.”

– Rev. Amy Current, Vice President for Admissions & Student Services

CONTEXTUAL EDUCATION PROGRAM Rev. Dr. Charlene Rachuy Cox The contextual education program at WTS is a cumulative experience of integration that contributes to a student’s formation of a ministry (pastoral or diaconal) identity and the development of practical ministry skills. Through community-based Fieldwork, Clinical Pastoral Education, and Internship, it is a wholistic immersion in learning by doing and becoming by being. Students learn about and reflect upon the Gospel, the Church, the context, and themselves by actively doing ministry. Students become leaders in ministry by being an embodied presence of ministry through various contexts and experiences, and reflecting upon the same.

Each successive experience builds upon the previous.

Through an action-reflection style of learning, students live into the diversity of ways that the office of ministry is enacted contextually and locally. Students learn how to read the uniqueness of each context and thereby better understand their own interaction with and place in specific contexts. They explore what it means to consider contextual work as liturgy and contextual “withness” as an incarnational witness to the Gospel.

Through distinct, yet related experiences, WTS contextual education provides students the opportunity to: 1. Learn by Doing, Become by Being: formed in contexts, students apply classroom learning to real life experiences and integrate intellectual knowledge with practical knowledge and real-time experiences.

2. Curate a Pastoral Imagination: students live into four questions that curate their own unique pastoral or diaconal imagination. What am I called to do – here and now, in this time and place? What am I called to do as a pastor, or as a deacon? Who am I called to be – embodying this ministerial office in this moment, and in my life as a whole? Why am I here in this time and place – being formed in this specific context and through Page 6 | LifeTogether

these particular experiences? And what does this mean for who I am becoming?

3. Rooted and Reaching Experiences: every WTS contextual education experience is both rooted and reaching: rooted in the students’ existing experience and reaching beyond that experience to nurture growth and formation.

CANDIDACY ACCOMPANIMENT Rev. Amy Current One of the great privileges of my work as pastor serving WTS is accompanying people through the beginning stages of discernment, throughout seminary, and toward ministry and mission in God’s church as a rostered leader. It is such a delight to learn the stories of the people God calls into leadership – because God uniquely calls a diverse array of folks into various ministries. Most of us think that God has a great sense of humor if we are being called to serve, but this is the good news: God calls us – sinners/saints – to be witnesses to Jesus in the world. It is such an incredible gift to accompany our students through the candidacy process!

Our goal at WTS is to accompany students through seminary – providing resources and opportunities for formation so that students will find this to be a journey of both nurture and challenge. It shouldn’t be a cake walk nor should it be an intense obstacle course, but something in between – a balance of rigor and deep formation for ministry. When WTS students are finished with this leg of the journey, they are ready to serve!

Throughout candidacy, our students receive a commitment from their synod, seminary, and the ELCA to both nurture and challenge their call and gifts for ministry while keeping in mind the missional needs of the ELCA. If a student is called to public leadership in another denomination, the staff and faculty do our best to accompany them through that process.

I, along with my colleagues, are eager to walk with you or a potential candidate you may know from pre-entrance through assignment toward first call!

Our Admissions Staff is ready to accompany you in discernment and navigate steps towards answering God’s call. Get in touch today to refer a student or begin your own seminary journey!

Email: admissions@wartburgseminary.edu.

WTS MDIV STUDENTS KATIE RODE AND JONATHAN LYS

Doing Ministry “Out There in the World” FIELDWORK: WHY WE DO IT AND STORIES FROM STUDENTS

WHY FIELDWORK? Rev. Dr. Charlene Rachuy Cox Through Fieldwork, students enhance their collaboration skills with community partners (not congregations), hone their ministry identity in the public square, and they learn from the rich variety of experiences of their peers doing the same.

Because students are encouraged to engage with fieldwork experiences that both connect with a passion and stretch them out of their comfort zones, the width and breadth of fieldwork contexts continues to grow.

From soup kitchens, to community theatre, to after school programs, to veterans organizations, to homeless shelters, to coordinating community service hours for the justice system, to children’s dance programs, to accompanying immigrants, to environmental advocacy – and so much more – students are integrating WTS’ pastoral practices into their work with community partners, all while learning from each other and serving the greater good.

First year students learn from continuing students how to think about being a pastor “out there in the world” who builds bridges and serves with community organizations. Continuing students explore embodied aspects of servant leadership

that proclaim the Gospel in the public square. All students live into their own imaginations about how, as a pastor, they will be a community partner.

The result? A whole lot of organizations see and experience WTS, WTS students, and the church as a partner in the work that they are called to do. AND, WTS students experience community engagement as vital to the ministry to which they are called.

HOGAR DE LA ESPERANZA (HOUSE OF HOPE), PASO ANCHO, COSTA RICA Hannah Purkey, MDiv Student I completed my fieldwork at an organization called Hogar de La Esperanza (House of Hope) in Paso Ancho, Costa Rica while also completing classes from a distance. Hogar de La Esperanza serves people who are affected by drug dependency and AIDS through wholistic support, including medical care, and a place to live.

I was originally very nervous to work in this setting.

I’d never done anything like it and did not know what to expect. I anticipated my challenges would be connecting culturally and situationally, but my joys would be getting to see how God is moving and breathing in their lives. Connecting was hard at first because of my own personal hang-ups, but I saw God moving my heart through that experience and

“WTS students experience community engagement as vital to the ministry to which they are called.”

REV. DR. CHARLENE RACHUY COX, DIRECTOR OF CONTEXTUAL EDUCATION

Page 8 COLLABORATIVE | LifeTogether FIRST YEAR STUDENT, MARIETTA - BITTLE SHARING A CHILDREN’S SERMON FIELDWORK ORIENTATION SESSION WITH REV. DR.NELSON CHARLENE RACHUY COX DURING FALL 2019 PROLOG WEEK WITH STUDENTS FROM HER CONGREGATION.

found again that spiritual growth happens when we get uncomfortable.

One Saturday I accompanied people from Hogar de la Esperanza to “La Carpa” (which translates to tent), where people experiencing homelessness can come, get breakfast, and have conversations with residents of Hogar de La Esperanza and other community members. I saw two middle-aged men in torn clothing eating together with no volunteers or residents. I went and sat with them. It was uncomfortable at first, but we soon were talking about our families, places of origin, and then faith.

This man had struggled so much with his faith, and asked me the question, “Where is it you can most see God?” I stumbled and I said, “everywhere” ...and some other words I don’t remember. He responded, “I think there is a little bit of God in everyone. I didn’t use to see it, but look, everyone has that spark, ya know?” This man experiencing homelessness in the middle of the city reminded me of the importance to open my eyes to see God in every space and time.

Fieldwork has shaped my pastoral identity in how I understand the gift of holding others’ stories: stories of pain, death, and anger that cannot be expressed by words. I used to think that these stories were too much to handle and had too much pain to bear. I’m learning how to hold those stories and give them to the Creator in prayer. What a gift that is – to hold stories with others. Stories that at the beginning of fieldwork I didn’t think I’d understand or connect with because of linguistic, cultural, and situational differences, I now recognize and hold with joy and care.

ALMOST HOME MEN’S SHELTER AND CLOTHING CLOSET, DUBUQUE, IOWA John Christian Evans, MDiv Student I completed my fieldwork at the Almost Home Men’s Shelter and Clothing Closet, housed at Saint John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in downtown Dubuque, IA. This work matters deeply to me, as Christ commanded the disciples to care for all people, especially the neediest in society. It also matters deeply to me that Wartburg encourages and requires fieldwork as part of our education.

It is a practical application of ministry that takes you into the world, with all of its rough edges, yet brims with opportunities for relationships and sharing the Gospel.

On one of my first nights serving at Almost Home, I had an encounter with a man named Jack (name changed for privacy). Jack is outgoing, agnostic, a lover of video games, and heavy metal music fan.

He struck up conversation with my fellow seminarians Tamara Siburg and Laura Waltermire and me about why we were serving there. We explained

HANNAH PURKEY

we were all studying to be Lutheran pastors. He shared his life story, and sadly, it involved a lot of hurt and heartbreak in his experiences with church. He also said that he had never met anybody like us who wanted to be a pastor, and he appreciated our kindness and interest in him.

Later that evening, Jack asked me why I was wearing a crucifix if I was Lutheran. I proceeded to explain to him about one of the stalwarts of Lutheran theology: the theology of the cross. A crucifix, I shared, is an embodiment of the reality of God’s love for the whole of humanity in the person of Jesus, especially the suffering, the marginalized, and oppressed, and that it represents the notion of “Emmanuel,” God with us. It points to the truth that every person, no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, religious/political beliefs, or socio-economic status, is someone whom Christ died for and loves dearly, and that we as Christians are called to share this love with all people as such. Jack looked at me intently for a moment, then came over and shook my hand, saying, “I don’t think I’ve ever met a Christian who believes in those things until I met you and your friends, or much less talked to me as if I was a human being. I want to know more about Jesus. The way you describe Him, he’s as bangin’ as an Ozzy Osbourne song.”

This experience reminded me deeply of my call to be a Pastor, and the need to share the good news with people who are hurting and seeking hope in LifeTogether I Page 9

a lost and dying world, and that the Holy Spirit moves and works in mysterious ways. It also cemented my desire to continue walking and living in the tender spaces of life with folks like Jack who want to know more about Jesus Christ.

PIT & BALCONY THEATRE, SAGINAW, MICHIGAN Tina Beauvais, MDiv Student I was stressed when I found out that I would have hours to add to my already very full plate through the fieldwork requirement, but Char did a great job of encouraging us during Prolog Week to think outside the box when choosing a site. After a brief conversation with her, I realized that community theater would fit the profile for a good fieldwork site. It felt like a gift, really, that I would still be able to participate in something that I loved – something I thought I would have to eliminate from my schedule due to time constraints – to complete my fieldwork. I am blessed that Wartburg sees such a value in these experiences because it really helped me see how I can be the church out in the community that I already was so entrenched in.

I have worked with many community theaters in the area and have been in various shows over the past 10 years. I knew, to a certain extent, what to expect at Pit & Balcony Theatre, but I started this particular show with a different mindset to focus more on the people I was working with than I had in the past. I wanted to make building relationships my priority.

Having people open up to me has been what I’ve enjoyed most about my experience. I have a way of joking around a lot when at rehearsals, which I found actually made me more approachable. I am starting to see value in what I bring to and the way that I do

“This experience reminded me deeply of my call to be a Pastor, and the need to share the good news with people who are hurting and seeking hope.”

JOHN CHRISTIAN EVANS, PICTURED RIGHT

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TINA BEAUVAIS

ministry, verses what I think I should be like doing ministry. It’s also interesting to see people’s pre-conceived notions crumble around me – notions about what pastors should act like. I find joy when I can see those expectations change and see their ideas about faith be challenged at the same time.

One day a castmate came up to me and just started to ask me about my faith. This person was starting to realize through our brief conversations, interactions, and through my social media feed that I was a different representation of the church than he had experienced up to this point. I painted a picture of a church that is inclusive and loves all people, regardless of sexual orientation. This was a new way of thinking for him and I hope that he knows he can always come to me as the planted seeds grow in his heart. This experience helped me see in different eyes and that God has planted me in these activities for a purpose. I am excited about what God could be calling me to do in the future as a bridge between the church and the theater.

Laughter, Silence, and Tears: Reflecting on Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) CPE is completed in many kinds of settings under the supervision of a chaplain supervisor accredited by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. Settings include, but are not limited to hospitals, hospice centers, rehabilitation centers, and parish-based settings. In consultation with their academic advisor, students may choose from intensive units (typically full-time for 10 weeks), extended units (part-time over several months), and virtual units (extended units that begin with an in-person retreat and continue with supervision and cohort work done virtually).

LAURA ANDERSON

SUMMER INTENSIVE CPE: QUAD CITIES, IL/IA Laura Anderson, MDiv Student I completed my 10-week summer intensive CPE unit at UnityPoint Health Trinity, spending half of my unit as the chaplain at their Bettendorf, IA campus and the other half working at the main campus in Rock Island, IL on the Neurology and Transitional Care Units.

CPE was the most concentrated, life-giving, and affirming experience in my pastoral formation thus far - partially because it was putting things we learned in class into practice, but also because I learned about who I am more fully and came to know and trust that God calls each of us in our uniqueness. Beginning to recognize and hone my own unique pastoral identity was the most fulfilling part of CPE. Between being the solo chaplain in Bettendorf and working through my own assignments and work, I had to trust that God had called me, Laura, to this particular work in that place and time. As I began to see myself as a chaplain, I was able to provide good care for my patients and

in a few cases, the staff at my site. I stopped trying to fit the mold of what a chaplain “should” look like and instead showed up as myself—which was far more effective.

I really valued the supervisor/student relationship, as I recognize the impact of having a trusted mentor to help offer perspective and insight when I get caught up in the muck of a particular situation. I appreciate the action—reflection model of learning, and have found myself returning to the skills I learned often in the sixth months since completing my unit. In addition to this relationship, I was a part of a carpool group with two other Wartburgers. We left campus each day at 6:15/6:30am for the hour and a half drive to the Quad Cities and returned to Dubuque at the end of the day. The intensive schedule and commute were incredibly draining, but my Wartburg colleagues were the greatest gift in processing joys and challenges of CPE. Our three hours of drive time gave us space to sit in silence, laugh uncontrollably, cry, vent, pray, or talk about random things that had nothing to do with our days. These relationships, along with those of the other two interns and our supervisor, were key in feeling supported and surrounded by care— none of us had to do the work alone.

CPE is not scary—it’s a time of growth, challenge, and deep learning. If you go in with an open mind and a curiosity about yourself, you will have the opportunity to understand the way you give and receive care in deeper ways. Even if you don’t love every moment, you can learn from every situation.

PART-TIME DISTANCE CPE: AUSTIN, TX Clayton Faulkner, MDiv Student I completed my CPE in Austin, TX in an extended, hybrid unit which went from January to May 2019.

This was really the ideal way for me to take CPE because I would not be able to take an intensive summer unit (with a full-time job and family). The

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extended, five month option was nice because the pace was slower and you could unpack the learning and experiences over time. The hybrid model was very similar to how Wartburg does distance learning.

The unit began and ended with in-person retreats in Austin over the course of a weekend. In between those retreats, I met with my CPE cohort of 12 students and one-on-one with our instructor via Zoom. The cohort was diverse. There were people from all over the U.S. and a mix of denominations represented (United Methodist, Baptist, Non-Denominational, Roman Catholic, and one Muslim). Our week usually consisted of a three hour Zoom session on Tuesday evening with our cohort and the instructor.

We were responsible for finding and scheduling our own sites for clinical hours. Some in the cohort used a local hospital. Others used a rehab facility, nursing home, or their church. I was able to use my church for clinical hours because we have a ministry on our campus called Faith House that provides long term housing for people that come to the Texas Medical Center for cancer treatment and other care.

I expected to be challenged. I assumed there would be some uncomfortable moments, especially for someone that is reserved and introverted like myself. One of the more challenging things was being vulnerable with a group, noticing something about myself with them, and asking for their feedback on how it affected them. One of the most fulfilling things about CPE was that I was able to take CPE with two other Lutheran seminarians from my synod. It was great to get to know them better through this shared experience.

The most meaningful part of CPE for me ended up being quite personal. As I was preparing to complete CPE and travel from Houston to Austin for the closing weekend retreat, my son became ill. This created a tension between priorities for me. I knew I had to attend the retreat in order to complete CPE and move forward in the candidacy process. In my heart I knew that I couldn’t do both and that my son needed my attention.

Thankfully the instructor was gracious and allowed me to attend part of the retreat via Zoom and still complete the unit. My son ended up being hospitalized for six days. It was surreal to learn how to offer pastoral care and then need to receive it myself.

CPE partly prepares you for ministry by exposing some of your flaws and weaknesses. I learned was that providing pastoral care does not mean trying to fix someone’s problems. Instead pastoral care is about providing space for people to wrestle with what God is doing in the midst of their pain or trouble. As a pastor, I want to be helpful. The most helpful thing I can do is holding space for them to consider what God is doing in their life.

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“I stopped trying to fit the mold of what a chaplain ‘should’ look like and instead showed up as myself—which was far more effective.”

LAURA ANDERSON REFLECTING ON HER CPE EXPERIENCE

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION AMONG WTS STUDENTS DURING PROLOG WEEK

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Have you heard of Wartburg Seminary’s innovative Collaborative Learning program?

Synod, congregation, and seminary partnerships immerse students in ministry settings for a contextual experience from day one, while eliminating the need to take on additional debt.

WTS is committed to providing 50% scholarships to students enrolled in this program and invites synods and congregations to join WTS in supporting these students.

Give today to the WTS Annual Scholarship Fund which makes this learning path possible for students!

SERGIO RODRIGUEZ, MDIV COLLABORATIVE LEARNER SERVING CHRIST THE KING LUTHERAN CHURCH IN HOUSTON, TEXAS.

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Learn By Doing, Become By Being THE INTERNSHIP PLACEMENT PROCESS AND REFLECTION FROM A CURRENT INTERN “At first I wondered what on earth I was doing there—keeping a seat warm and wearing a clerical collar?”

– Cassie Borges reflecting on her early days interning in Bay City, Texas

On internship, ministry candidates both learn by doing and become by being. They learn how to do the tasks of ministry by actively doing those tasks. They also learn how to embody of the office of ministry to which they are called by being in that role in a supervised capacity. Interns, ministry sites, and supervisors walk together in the experience of formation through both action and reflection.

Master of Divinity (MDiv) and (MADM) in Diaconal Ministry students complete an internship under the guidance of an experienced minister-supervisor. MDiv students are assigned to an internship site through a prayerful process of discernment by the Internship Task Force. MADM students work collaboratively with WTS Contextual Education, their Academic Advisor, and their Synod Candidacy Committee to determine and secure an appropriate internship experience.

Supervisors, congregations, and agencies are viewed as an extension of the faculty in this important dimension of theological education.

also learning the rich variety of ways to do that. They are learning about multiple, different ways to read a context, and thereby serve faithfully in the specific places that they find themselves. For example, a student serving on a college campus may integrate learning differently than a student serving in a rural, multi-point parish – and then they learn from each other how and why they are integrating the way that they are. Additionally, because we have CL students who are nearing the end of their academic and candidacy formation, they are serving as mentoring voices for those who are just beginning.

INTERNSHIP PLACEMENT PROCESS Rev. Dr. Craig Nessan, Academic Dean The internship placement at Wartburg Theological Seminary is a careful and prayerful process of discernment on the part of an Internship Task Force and the faculty, seeking the best match both for a student’s formation and ministry site’s mission. It is a distinctive process for assigning interns to their sites that honors the needs of all partners.

In our Collaborative Learning (CL) program, students serve in what will become their internship site from day one. The width and breadth of CL sites continues to expand, and with that expansion the inter-student cross-sharing of experiences is multiplying.

We have students, under supervision, “serving solo” as Synodically Authorized Ministers, students on large staff teams, students serving multi-point parishes, campus ministries, and in team ministries.

Students applying for internship have the opportunity to explain all the factors that will contribute to their having an excellent internship experience. The Director of Contextual Education takes this information to the work of an Internship Task Force that carefully considers the opportunities for learning in those sites that have applied to receive an intern and those we have recruited to meet special circumstances, such as geographical restrictions.

Through this growing diversity of experiences, students are learning not only how to integrate their intellectual knowledge with their practical experiences, but they are

The Internship Task Force then brings the proposed list of internship placements to the faculty, who make the final assignments.

This method has proven its effectiveness

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CASSIE BORGES, PICTURED SECOND FROM LEFT ON THE FRONT ROW, WITH FELLOW INTERNS AND SUPERVISORS IN TEXAS AT CLUSTER GATHERING

for decades in providing the best possible internship placements for all students and sites, taking into consideration all the detailed information into the match making process.

REFLECTION FROM A CURRENT INTERN Cassie Borges, MDiv Student As I went into the internship placement process, the world felt wide open. The fact that I did my placement interview via Zoom from Guyana just highlighted that sense of openness—I mean, I had never imagined being in that place, so who knew what else the Holy Spirit had in store for me? I was expecting that I was going to be somewhere cold in the upper Midwest. After all, that’s where the Lutherans are, right? Wisconsin/ North Dakota/Michigan, here we come!

I opened the email with my placement (Bay City, Texas), and I honestly laughed. It was so completely out of left field. I understood in that moment why Sarah laughed when she heard that she’d be having Abraham’s baby; how else do you react to news that you know will be good, but right now it’s fantastically hard to process? What else do you do when all your expectations get thrown out the window like that?

Answer: ROAD TRIP! We ended up driving,

over the course of a few hot July days, from my home congregation in northern Minnesota down to the Texas Gulf Coast. We had no idea what to expect. It was a masterclass in trusting God—and trusting the congregation to help us feel at home.

I love my congregation. They have welcomed me warmly and opened up about a lot of the difficulties they’ve been facing individually and as a community. They have not held back. They are tremendously brave to volunteer for being served by a different vicar every year.

A pivotal moment in my ministry here happened early on when a parishioner and I drove up to the big cancer center in Houston to visit another parishioner whom everyone loved. He was facing the end stages of cancer and we spent most of the day with the family as they waited for results. It was a lot of time hanging around in hospital waiting rooms and at first I wondered what on earth I was doing there—keeping a seat warm and wearing a clerical collar?

Afterwards, I realized that just staying with them through all the ups and downs, praying and hugging and being willing to wait it out, had been the most powerful witness to the presence of God.

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Laud and Fare: Lenten Dinner Church A SHARED PASTORAL AND DIACONAL INTERNSHIP PROJECT BETWEEN KELLIE LISI (MADM) AND JASON DAVIS (MDIV) Married students Kellie Lisi and Jason Davis completed their respective diaconal and pastoral internships in Lincoln, NE. Kellie served Our Savior’s Lutheran Church and Jason served at The Lutheran Center at the University of Nebraska (UNL). They merged their resources for a shared initiative they named Laud and Fare, a Lenten Dinner Church. Jason and Kellie wrote for The Lutheran Center Blog to introduce the project and concept to the student community. Those reflections are republished here with permission.

THE LUTHERAN CENTER BLOG: LAUD AND FARE, Jason Davis, MDiv Intern As a seminarian, I do a lot of reflection. So much so that I tend to generate gobs and gobs of paperwork full of said thoughts, feelings, and analysis. These writings are sent off to my seminary and my home synod where leadership can see my thoughts, track my development in various areas of ministry, and my overall progression as a human being. And while it is sometimes a challenge or just plain tedious, this exercise of constant and continuous reflection has been quite formative for the preparation of the Word and Sacrament gig.

Last week, I completed my Mid-Year Evaluation.

This is a significant milestone in the life of all interns as it is the largest reflection on internship to-date. Within said document, I had the opportunity to name my passions and gifts for ministry in an effort to continually discern who I am and how I am being called to ministry. There I reflected the following: “I think I have a strong ability/passion to come into a ministry setting and creatively add programming that is unique to the specific context.” While this might not seem groundbreaking to you, when I read this line, I remember a part of me that has laid dormant since I left professional youth ministry. It’s one of the reasons I said yes to this call in the first place and it’s one of the reasons that I am so excited for this Spring.

Beginning in March [2019], The Lutheran Center in collaboration with Southwood Lutheran Church will begin a new Lenten worship series hosted at the LC entitled Laud and Fare. At its heart, Laud and Fare is a collaborative worship service in the “dinner church” style.

If you’ve never participated in dinner church, it is a fully integrated meal and worship. In fact, it is communion in the purest sense. Together we will serve, sing, pray, and share, using liturgy that is deeply rooted in the Lutheran tradition and at the same time, familiar and welcoming (think Taize, Page 18 | LifeTogether

meets Holden, meets Agape Feast, meets something new). Through this integrated meal and worship we will be sustained in food, in conversation, and in community by bringing Lutheran Center and Southwood students together.

At Laud and Fare, all students will participate through its entirety – cooking the meals, setting up the worship space, serving in worship, and leading music. At dinner church, you are not a spectator… you are a participant. This is true even for the clean-up! As the worship comes to a close, students will be sent to serve as each Laud and Fare will include a community service project that engages Lincoln-based local food pantries, nonprofits, and other local social efforts. Through these projects, students will learn about local service organizations in their community thus orienting all who participate as young-adult servant leaders. All of this will be guided by our Lenten theme, “Everything is Sacred: Reflections upon Faith in Daily Life.” It’s going to be new, yet familiar; exciting, yet grounded; ancient, yet filled with life.

Behind the scenes, I have been on an excellent leadership team bringing Laud and Fare to life.

Included is my wife, Kellie Lisi, Diaconal Intern at Our Savior’s Lutheran here in town as well as Drew Jagadich and Morgan Tranmer from Southwood Lutheran Church. This crew is creative, passionate about students, and so excited to see what God is doing through our partnership.

And so, as I reflect…this is good. Real good. It makes me excited to get out of bed in the morning and feels like I am living into a significant part of my call. I hope you all are afforded the same type of space to reflect and to consider what God is doing through you. So, whether it’s a conversation with a friend or mentor, a lengthy journal entry, or through personal prayer, I encourage you to keep seeking, discovering, and remembering who God is and what God is doing within you. You never know, all that self-reflection might be worth it after all.

LAUD AND FARE DINNER CHURCH GATHERING AT THE LUTHERAN CENTER

THE LUTHERAN CENTER BLOG: AROUND THE TABLE, Kellie Lisi, MADM Intern Food is an intimate topic. Our experience with food is tied to our earliest memories, our most precious memories, or perhaps our hardest memories. We watch the food shows on Netflix (Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat being my personal latest favorite) and drool over cooking blogs. We save recipes and print them out and forward them to our moms. We post photos of our meals on Instagram and ask our Facebook friends for tips on cooking in our new Instant Pot we scored in a post-Christmas sale. And yet food can also be hard to talk about meaningfully. It can feel too emotional because of all the memories that are bound up in it for us, or it can feel too mundane because my goodness gracious, everybody eats. Some of us even eat 3 times a day or more!

But for me, food is the crux of my experience as a mother, a teacher, a daughter, a wife. My love of food and, more importantly, my love of what experiencing food together does to a community, is what led me away from the high schools where I happily worked for 13 years as an English teacher and administrator and led me into seminary.

KELLIE LISI (RIGHT) AND UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA STUDENTS PREPARING DINNER FOR LAUD AND FARE

It was the experience of being a co-chaperone with Jason (who was then a youth director) on a trip to Galveston where I worked with a small group of high school students each afternoon to plan what they wanted to cook for the large group each night.

It was grocery shopping with them, reinforcing their understanding of how to compare prices, how to check sodium content, how to look for the most unprocessed version of what we needed, how to budget our money wisely. It was teaching them to chop an onion quickly and with all their fingers intact. It was their absolute joy in serving their friends a meal they had concocted and executed. It was their parents telling me weeks later that the cooking had been their kids’ favorite part of the trip.

It was sitting with my group of advisees, who were high school students and mothers, down to a potluck feast in our classroom; a lunch they had collaborated to plan so that we had all the tamales and carnitas and horchata and pastries we could manage to eat. It was all our babies gathered together around the desks we had pushed together to make one large table. It was our reluctance to leave one another to return to the regular afternoon schedule.

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It was hearing about a church in Brooklyn that was doing weekly dinner church that first made me feel like seminary could be an acceptable path for Jason to pursue. It was hearing about food ministry that opened my heart to my own call to become a deacon, and it was the reason I went to New York for J-term last year to study food ministry in the city. It was standing in a circle in the foyer of a beautiful small space, lit candle in hand, feeling the song rise through my body to join with all those in the room. It was a moment in which I felt all things were exactly as they should be, that I was exactly where I was supposed to be, and that I was listening and moving in the ways in which God needed me to be.

Food is holy. We become who we are through food.

We become God’s through the sacrifice of body, which is bread. We become each other’s by preparing, serving, and eating. And so, for me, this has become the truest call of all: to teach and feed, so that all may eat to live.

Too often our theology seems to deal only with distant abstractions and so things like food and eating seem too basic, too every day for theological treatment. But I think it’s in the mundane that faith and God become most alive. From Food for Life by L. Shannon Jung, “When we begin with personal

AND JASON DAVIS DURING WORSHIP AT WTS PageKELLIE 20 | LISI LifeTogether FIRST DINNER CHURCH GATHERING AT THE LUTHERAN CENTER

experience, theology loses its aura of dealing only with remote, profound, and infrequent events or doctrines. Indeed, our own experience counts, and counts a great deal, in the theology of eating.” For me, it’s become an essential element of my own theology as I’ve found that food and eating can reveal the presence and intention of God, while also expressing the deepest values of a community.

This is what we will live into as we worship in the dinner church context here at The Lutheran Center during the season of Lent. We will work together to create an environment of true hospitality and stewardship as we prepare a worship service that is an extended experience of communion, a true meal focused on connecting ancient liturgy with sustaining food and community.

ABOUT THE LUTHERAN CENTER The Lutheran Center is a campus ministry serving the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Our mission is to invite students more deeply into Jesus Christ and the community that bears His name so they can discover and fulfill their vocation as disciples. We are a campus site of Nebraska Lutheran Campus Ministries, an agency of the Nebraska Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Getting To Know Our Interim President AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. KRISTINE STACHE “As a leader I need to be the ultimate learner—listening, reflecting, and anticipating so I can paint a picture of where we are headed.”

- Dr. Kristine Stache

HOW HAS YOUR SENSE OF CALL AT WTS CHANGED OVER THE LAST 14 YEARS? I have to chuckle as I think about this question. When I started at Wartburg way back, I believed Wartburg was calling me to a job with a particular title that I would have as long as I was at Wartburg. In reality I have had multiple titles doing a vast number of things. I used to think of myself as the organizations’ chameleon, changing to do whatever needed to be done. In hindsight, I am so grateful for that. It gave me the opportunity to learn about different aspects of the organization and the partners we work with. What a blessing it has been.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP? For someone who teaches leadership at Wartburg, I should have a pat answer to this question, but I don’t. I don’t have an approach to leadership as much as I have learned through the years to bring myself to my leadership and not try to be some idealized kind of a leader dictated by someone else. As a leader I need to be the ultimate learner—listening, reflecting, and anticipating so I can paint a picture of where we are headed. Having said that, none of those things happen in isolation. It happens when we work together and learn through our own decisions and actions—the successes and the failures.

WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT? WHAT MAKES YOU EXCITED TO GET UP AND GO TO WORK IN THE MORNING? My mind has a hard time shutting down, so it takes me a while to fall asleep at night. My brain reviews every minute of the whole day and processes it at full speed. Once I do fall asleep I sleep well and wake up ready for the day. I love coming to the castle each day. It is a place that challenges me. It slows me down and keeps me moving. This community has shaped me in ways that I can’t begin to describe. The best part though is that I feel it has shaped me for the world, not for the castle. What we do here is not for us. That brings me energy and

gives me hope.

MOST RECENTLY YOU WERE THE ARCHITECT IN DEVELOPING OUR CURRENT STRATEGIC PLAN. HOW IS WTS UNIQUELY POSITIONED TO SERVE THE ELCA AND THE WIDER CHURCH TODAY? The strategic plan emerged out of hundreds of hours of listening, experimenting, learning, and discerning. It isn’t some pie in the sky dream. It’s connected deeply to both the DNA of Wartburg and what we are learning from our many partners in the world. Deep listening isn’t an event, it’s an ongoing practice, which means our plan needs to be able to adjust course as we learn.

YOU, YOUR HUSBAND ALAN, AND FAMILY ARE LONGTIME “DUBUQUERS.” WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT LIVING HERE? The Dubuque community is never satisfied with the status quo. It would be so easy for this community nestled in the bluffs on the Mississippi River to be who it always has been, but it doesn’t. Through the years I have seen priorities lifted up in this city around sustainability, inclusivity, and revitalization. Sometimes I think Dubuque’s slogan should read, “we still have more to learn”—how fitting for an organization like Wartburg to be located in a city like this.

HOW CAN SEMINARIES RESPOND TO THE CHANGING NEEDS OF THE CHURCH? To be honest, I think it’s time for seminaries to stop responding to the needs of the church. I know that sounds harsh, but stay with me for a minute. God is already at work in the world, bringing about change. That’s what it means to believe in God as creator-God is still creating! It’s time for seminaries to partner with the church, and discern—dare I say—anticipate those needs together, to catch up to what the Spirit is already doing. Instead of responding to the change, maybe we focus on leading the change.

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Faculty and Staff Updates REV. DR. THOMAS SCHATTAUER, Professor of Liturgics and Dean of the Chapel, announces that he will retire from WTS at the end of the 2019-20 school year. Having taught in the ministry and served as Dean of the Chapel since division since 1996, Dr. Schattauer treasures the relationships with students, alumni, faculty and staff that have developed through the years. As he concludes this chapter in his life, he anticipates enjoying a new chapter of life in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.

A book of letters is being gathered in honor of Thomas’ retirement. If you wish to contribute, letters should be mailed or emailed to the WTS Office of the President (officeofthepresident@wartburgseminary.edu).

Lorice Amlin, Former Faculty Administrative Assistant, has been appointed to a new role as Events Coordinator, providing support for onsite events, scheduling, and guest housing.

Marta ErlingSpangler, Assistant Vice President for Development, comes to WTS as a committed lay person, with over 10 years of development background.

Her prior experience includes serving on the staff of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, the Lutheran World Federation, and Gettysburg Seminary. Her faith was deeply formed by her time serving with the ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission Program in the Jerusalem/West Bank program and in outdoor ministry.

She holds a BA in English Literature and Religious Studies Page 22 | LifeTogether

from the U. of Pittsburgh and an MA in Ethics, Peace, and Global Affairs from American U. Rev. Dr. Martin Lohrmann, Associate Professor of Lutheran Confessions and Heritage, attended a gathering in November 2019 and workshop for Lutheran historians and archivists in St. Louis to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Lutherans first arriving in North America. He also attended the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego. In January 2020, Dr. Lohrmann led a crosscultural immersion to Japan with seven WTS students, as they met local Lutherans, learned about Christianity in Japan, and got to know Japanese culture.

Rev. Dr. Craig L. Nessan, Professor of Contextual Theology and Ethics, The William D. Streng Professor for the Education and

Renewal of the Church, and Academic Dean, co-authored new book with Carsten Linden on Paul Leo: Lutherischer Pastor mit jűdischen Wurzeln (1893-1958).

His article, “Calling a Thing What It Is: Confronting the American Genocide of Indigenous Peoples,” (Dedicated to the Life and Legacy of the Rev. Dr. Gordon J. Straw) was published in Currents in Theology and Mission 47 (Jan. 2020). Additionally, he authored the chapter: “The Relation of Justification and Sanctification in the Lutheran Tradition” in the new book edited by Al Truesdale, All Things Needed for Godliness: Holiness Among the Traditions.

His article, “Learning from the Barmen Declaration of 1934: Theological-Ethical-Political Commentary,” was published in Journal of Lutheran Ethics (Dec. 2019/Jan. 2020). Craig was also Keynote Speaker on the theme “Shalom Camp” for the East Midwest Lutheran Outdoor

Meet a Member of the WTS Board of Directors!

Ministry Camps Gathering.

Rev. Dr. Charlene Rachuy Cox, Director of Contextual Education, was the guest presenter for the Sunday Forum, November 17 and 24, 2019, at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, in Apple Valley, MN. The theme of her presentations was “Women of the Word: Listening to Biblical Women in the #MeToo Era.” Lily Reed, Former Administrative Assistant for Admissions, Student Services, and Contextual Education, has been appointed to a new role as Academic Programs Coordinator.

She will continue her work with contextual education, provide support to academic programs, the Academic Dean, and serve as systems administrator for our Learning Management Systems.

Rev. M. DeWayne Teig, Instructor in the Pastoral Arts & Advisor for TEEM, offered an asynchronous January-Term course, “Resiliency for Pastoral Leadership: Developing Positive

Practices for Holistic Ministry.”

Students explored ways in which they can develop healthy practices to help them thrive in ministry. They explored ways of cultivating resiliencies sustainable through demanding times, including: deepening their awareness and understanding of emotional intelligence (EQ) principles, developing practices that improve trauma stewardship, and applying selfcompassion – all intentional ways of encouraging healthy and sustainable ministry.

Rev. Dr. Troy Troftgruben, Associate Professor of New Testament, published Rooted and Renewing: Imagining the Church’s Future in Light of its New Testament Origins (Fortress) in November 2019.

He is teaching from it at Lord of Life Lutheran (Dubuque) in February and at the Lay School of Theology event in Silverdale, WA, in March. Troy is also leading Bible study at the Rural Ministry Conference in March (Dubuque) and teaching continuing education at two pastors’ camps this summer: Green Lake Lutheran Ministries (Spicer, MN) in June, and Lutheran Lakeside Camp (Okoboji, IA) in July. Finally, Troy is offering a breakout session at the ELCA Rostered Leaders’ Gathering this summer (Phoenix, AZ).

STACY MARTIN WTS welcomed Stacy Martin to its Board of Directors in January 2020.

Martin is President & Chief Executive Officer of Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska (LFS), a regional health and human services organization. With state-wide offices throughout Nebraska and locations in Iowa and Kansas, LFS serves over 20,000 people a year.

Martin came to LFS in April 2018 after serving as Executive Vice President of Programs at Lutheran Services Florida, one of the largest social service organizations in the U.S. with a budget of $220 million and over 1,500 employees. Before joining Lutheran Services Florida, Martin served in Washington, D.C. as the Director for Policy and Advocacy for the ELCA. She also served in D.C. as a vice president for Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service, an international relief and development organization. Martin has lived and worked in South Korea, South Africa, and Turkey.

Martin is a published author and serves on several national boards including Jubilee USA and One America. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Sterling College, and holds an MBA from Eastern University as well as an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, where she was a Presidential Fellow.

Martin lives in Omaha with her husband and two daughters.

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Alumni Notes WARTBURG THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY ‘34 Mrs. Frances Hartmann, widow of Rev. Kurt Hartmann, died on November 15, 2019.

‘52 Alice Schattauer, widow of Rev. Carl Schattauer and mother of Rev. Dr. Thomas Schattauer, died on January 1, 2019.

‘55 Rev. Otto Zwanziger died July 2, 2019. He served congregations in Iowa and Michigan.

‘57 Rev. Conrad Guetzlaff died on January 19, 2020.

He served St. Peter, New Lebanon, OH; and St. John, Preston Twp., Strawberry Point, Lytton, Clarksville, and Callender, all in IA. ‘59 Rev. William “Bill” Rosenow died on November 2, 2019. In his sixty years of ministry he served parishes in South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Virginia, Florida and West Virginia. ’61 Mrs. Kathryn Staude, wife of Rev. Donald Staude, died on June 11, 2019. ’63 Rev. Don Wilken died on Christmas Day, 2019. He served Upper Wolf Lutheran Church near Robinson, KS; Fredricksburg Lutheran in rural Minden, NE; Faith Lutheran in Eaton, CO; St. John Lutheran in Sterling, NE; Zion Lutheran in Albion, NE; and St. Luke Lutheran in Emerson, NE.

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After his retirement in 1999 he served as interim pastor for Friedham at Funk, Zion at Gothenburg, American at Cozad, Trinity at Axtell, and First at North Platte, all in NE. ’67 Rev. John Thorson died on September 21, 2019.

He served congregations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana.

‘70 Karen Hermann, wife of Rev. Lewin Clefisch, died on May 19, 2019.

June Hansen, wife of Rev. Gary Hansen, died on August 24, 2019.

‘71 Rev. Leland Uden died on December 11, 2019.

He served parishes in Grygla, MN; Washington, IN; Normal and Sterling, IL; Fremont and Quincy, NE; and as Assistant to the Bishop of the Northern Illinois Synod.

‘73 Rev. John Steinbrecher died on October 18, 2019.

He served parishes in New Douglas, Joliet, and Chicago, all in IL; Holden and West Holden parishes in WI; and as chaplain at the Fond du Lac Lutheran Home, also in WI. ‘80 Rev. Thomas Schwartz retired in September 2019.

‘82 Rev. Trudy Peterson died on June 6, 2019.She served West Clermont Lutheran, Clermont, IA;

Immanuel Lutheran, Titonka, IA; Cambridge Lutheran, Cambridge, IL; Grace Lutheran, Opheim, IL; St. Matthews Lutheran, Princeton, IL; St. John Lutheran, Boyden, IA; Grace Lutheran, Primghar, IA; Parish Three Lutheran, Woden, IA, and Good Hope Lutheran, Titonka, IA. ‘90 Marsha Batt, wife of Rev. Howard J. Batt, Jr., died on July 13, 2019. ’97 Rev. Dwight Albers died on January 25, 2020. He served rural congregations in North Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa. ’98 Rev. Ronnie Hildahl began a new call as spiritual care coordinatior at the Anne Carlsen Center in Jamestown, ND on July 15, 2019. ’99 Rev. Chris Kinney died on December 28, 2019.

He served Trinity LC, Frankfurt, Germany and First LC, Winthrop, MN. ’12 Rev. Katherine Chullino began a new call as Senior Pastor at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Longmont, CO on November 1, 2019.

‘18 Rev. Halcyon Bjornstad was ordained on October 5, 2019, at Atonement Lutheran Church, Missoula, MT. She has been called to serve New Life Lutheran Church,

Helena, MT. ‘19 Deacon Nicole Garcia was ordained on October 5, 2019, at Grace Lutheran Church in New Orleans, LA. She has been called to serve at Mesa Abierta, New Orleans, LA. Rev. Jeff Geiger was ordained on February 1, 2020, at Faith Lutheran Church in Marion, IA. He has been called to serve Bethany Lutheran Church in Spencer, IA. Rev. Mikayla Kopp was ordained on October 5, 2019, at St John’s Lutheran Church in Spencer, WI. She has been called to serve Bone Lake Lutheran Church in Luck, WI. Rev. Derek Rosenstiel was ordained on October 19, 2019, at Holy Trinity, Dubuque, IA. He has been called to serve as the associate pastor of Holy Trinity, Dubuque, IA. Deacon Donna Van Ramshorst was ordained on January 12, 2020, at Bay View Lutheran Church, Whitefish Bay, WI. She has been called to serve Bay View Lutheran Church.

Deacon Courtney Webb was ordained on November 23, 2019, at Triumphant Lutheran Church, San Antionio, TX. She has been called to serve the TX-LA Gulf Coast Synod as a Chaplain at Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital.

Celebrating the Life and Witness of Rev. Dr. Gwen Sayler REMEMBERING OUR BELOVED PROFESSOR

Gwen was an avid bicyclist and Green Bay Packers fan. In her transition to retirement, she volunteered as a tutor for 1st and 2nd graders at the Dream Center in Dubuque and helped two women with their conversational English at the Presentation Lantern Center, a local nonprofit that serves and welcomes immigrants. She was an active member of St. Peter Lutheran Church in Dubuque where she served as chair of the Evangelical Outreach Committee, the Parish Planning Council, and helped the congregation engage the local Marshallese community around issues of justice and learning.

The Rev. Dr. Gwendolyn Beth Sayler, William A. & John E. Wagner Professor of Biblical Theology and Distinguished Professor of Bible at Wartburg Theological Seminary passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on Monday, November 11, 2019. She was 71. Gwen served WTS faithfully as professor for twenty-nine years where generations of church leaders learned Hebrew Bible, ministry, and advocacy in her classes.

Gwen served as the Director for Lifelong Learning for several years and also on the Internship Committee at WTS. She authored numerous articles, book chapters, and one book. In 2016, she celebrated the 45th anniversary of her consecration as deaconess in the Valparaiso Lutheran Diaconal Association (LDA) community. Gwen both generously supported and drew great strength from the deaconess community. In addition to her commitment to the LDA, she was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament in the ELCA and celebrated the 35th anniversary of her ordination in 2017.

She also served on the Candidacy Committee for the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin for more than twenty years. Gwen planned to retire at the conclusion of the 2019-2020 academic year, when she was anticipating a vibrant, active life of serving.

Rev. Dr. Craig Nessan shared, “Professor Gwen Sayler served with distinction as a theological educator centered on teaching God’s Word for generations of Wartburg Theological Seminary graduates and in the larger church. She especially rejoiced in her community among the Lutheran Deaconess Association. Dr. Sayler was a strong advocate for social justice and deeply committed to the vocations of her students. She was a cherished colleague to all who knew her.”

Gwen was a fierce advocate for inclusion, with particular concern for women and those marginalized because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression. She lived her courage and her witness to the wideness of God’s mercy in everyday life and as a support to so many students.

Gwen is survived by her younger brother Tom and his wife Valerie who live in Stanton, North Dakota, as well as her nephews, great nephews, and great niece. Gwen loved her visits to North Dakota to relax, enjoy time with family, friends, and WTS alumni.

In this time of grief, we draw near to God who is the source of all life and hope. We draw near to one another as we grieve, remember, celebrate, and hold fast to the resurrection promise. Please hold Gwen’s family and all who grieve her loss in your prayers.

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Janua SHALOM HILL FARM & WESTERN NORTH DAKOTA

PINE RIDGE RESERVATION

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RURAL IMMERSION: SHALOM HILL FARM JAPAN & WESTERN NORTH DAKOTA

HOLY LAND

ICELAND & NORWAY

ry Term 2020 TEXAS-MEXICO BORDERLANDS

HOLDEN VILLAGE

LifeTogether I Page 27 GUYANA

Non-Profit US Postage PAID Permit #477 Dubuque, IA

333 WARTBURG PLACE DUBUQUE, IA 52003

Upcoming Events: March 20-22, 2020 Considering Your Call Weekend April 14-16, 2020 Reformation & Reunion April 15-16, 2020 Creation in Crisis: Science and Theology Respond May 12, 2020 Admissions Online Open House May 17, 2020 Baccalaureate Worship Commencement - Class of 2020

For more information and to register, visit wartburgseminary.edu/events or use the QR code above.

CONSIDERING YOUR CALL WEEKEND: MARCH 20-22

I will be with you...

DISCERN + DISCOVER + LEARN + FELLOWSHIP + WORSHIP