Greetings from the Pacifica Synod Assembly in Irvine, CA. I am privileged to be the ELCA’s churchwide representative for this assembly. What a joy it has been to be with these good people, led by Bishop Murray Finck, over these past couple of days.

Yesterday, they voted almost unanimously, to be a Book of Faith Synod. Very exciting. This afternoon, I led a standing room only workshop on this initiative. I didn’t count, but there must have been over 100 people in the room. They were engaged and excited to hear about the initiative and the resources we are publishing through the ELCA’s ministry of publishing to support their local efforts.

There are estimated to be about 600 voting members and visitors attending this assembly. We have offered to give each of them a free copy of our first Book of Faith resource, Opening the Book of Faith: Lutheran Insights for Bible Study, in exchange for their contact information. We are making this investment in this initiative at this and all of the 64 other ELCA synod assemblies because we are so committed to the success of this effort for all of us in this church to become more fluent in the first language of our faith, the language of scripture.

These folks have been so warm, welcoming and gracious to my colleagues, Will Bergkamp and Joann Kildow, and me.

There are many things that I have enjoyed about being here, but one that I think might be unique to this synod is that we started this morning (and will tomorrow, as well) with a 30 minute Stretch and Pray session led by the Bishop. I was especially pleased to experience this since we publish his book and video of the same name!

Tomorrow, the assembly will end, but we are all invited to go over to their new Lutheran Center for Mission and Learning. They just moved into this new space about a month ago, so it will be dedicated tomorrow afternoon. The theme for this assembly is “Bridging the Gaps: God’s Work, Our Hands.” It is clear to me that there will be many gaps bridged in the coming years by the good people of this synod who have launched seven new ethnic-specific ministries in their synod just since January 2007. Their new office will be a great launching pad for many more exciting new ministries serving southern California and Hawaii, the territory of this synod. And, they have partnered with us by dedicating a room for the display of Augsburg Fortress resources. We are honored to be their partners in ministry.

Blessings to all of the people here who have been so warm and welcoming to us. We value our partnership with you!
Beth

Beth A. Lewis, President & CEO
Augsburg Fortress

I enjoyed sitting with a colleague last evening talking about the exciting new resources that we’ve been developing and that are in the pipeline at Augsburg Fortress. Some of the most exciting and energizing are in support of the Book of Faith initiative. We also talked about how technology is changing the lives of our children and grandchildren and the fact that we, in the church and in academic circles, need to catch up fast!

An example, my brother, Jim, will turn 50 on June 4. So, being a slightly annoying “big sister” I decided to send him an “email-a-day” for the 50 days before his birthday, just to remind him of that pending milestone. They are silly, fun, and sent with love. But, as I copied his teenage sons on the first of the series, I realized that they might not see them for weeks, if at all. Their preferred communication mode is text messaging! So, I sent them each a text message saying “check your email.” One of them has now joined in the game and is adding replies and his own notes from time to time. His younger brother hasn’t yet responded. For all I know, he may not have even read one of those emails yet. He has a busy high school, activity and study-filled life! Besides, he doesn’t like email. Of course, he uses computers…for the occasional research paper for school, for FaceBook and for gaming! (At least his Aunt Beth hopes that he uses it for the occasional research paper!)

So, what’s my point? My point is that we in the church and in higher education circles need to communicate in ways that are heard! Because we serve a wide range of people with a wide range of preferences in media who are bombarded each and every day with information overload, we need to be aware of the ways that we proclaim the Gospel so that it can be heard. For children, youth and young adults, this often means using digitized means of communicating.

At Augsburg Fortress, we have been using the Internet for several years to deliver high quality, theologically sound, engaging content for faith formation and worship planning. But, it can’t be static. It must be vibrant and continue to change or it won’t communicate. We are doing that continually.

For example, our Herewestandconfirmation curriculum has been available since July 2005. Recently, a pastor sent me a note asking us to update the movie references so that they would be more current and compelling for his young teenage confirmation students. I sent the request on to my editorial and marketing colleagues. They were (as usual) way ahead of me! Here is the reply I received from Congregational Marketing Manager, Chad King:

“As a former youth director, I definitely understand the need to have current, contemporary recommendations to which the youth can relate. We have been working to compile a number of additional more current movie and song suggestions for the site. We are currently finalizing that new list.

After that list is completed, we will tag and load the new recommendations in time for the July site update. That will add one additional new movie suggestion and two additional new song suggestions to each and every lesson in the Small Catechism, Old Testament, New Testament, and Bonus Lesson units. (We won’t be adding any to the Lutheran Theology units because those just launched last year.) This will update a total of 120 lessons within the site, each of them featuring 3 movie suggestions and 3 song suggestions. “

In the ELCA, ELCIC and other mainline denominations, we often moan about the declining number of children, youth and young adults in our congregations. But, I think that we leaders need to look in the mirror and own some of that decline. It is imperative that we communicate in the language of the people we want to reach! And, using their preferred communications technology. At AF, we haven’t quite gotten to mobile device content delivery yet, but we do help you as congregational leaders update your delivery through the use of dynamic web-based resources. If you haven’t yet checked out the Free Trial Offers for Herewestandconfirmation, Akaloo, and Sundaysandseasons.com, I urge you to do so! And, you can take an online tour of our already incredibly successful 2008 vacation Bible school program, Rainforest Adventure.

Martin Luther used German to reach the people 500 years ago. We need to “translate” our content to digital formats to reach people today!

Blessings and good luck with updating your messages so they can be “heard,”

Beth

Beth A. Lewis, President & CEO
Augsburg Fortress

Have you seen our beautiful new book, Opening the Book of Faith: Lutheran Insights for Bible Study? It is the first of a number of resources that we are publishing in support of the ELCA’s Book of Faith initiative.

Beginning on page 106, there is an assessment to help individuals, small group leaders and congregational book club/Bible study leaders to use to look at the baseline of Biblical literacy. The book notes that it is free to download from the ELCA website. At the time that Opening the Book of Faith went to press, that’s what we thought was the plan. But, the ELCA website is undergoing a major revision, so no new material is being added to it at this time. So, instead, we have posted this free, downloadable assessment to the Augsburg Fortress website. Just go to the intro to Book of Faith on our website. Scroll down and there is a link in the bottom right hand corner of the page.

We hope that this free assessment will help you and the other members of your community of faith launch your local Book of Faith initiatives with success!

There is also a salable leaders’ guide link right next to the assessment link. You may purchase it. Or, if you purchase 10 or more copies of the book, Opening the Book of Faith you will receive the downloadable leaders guide for free.

Watch for more Book of Faith resources coming soon!

Blessings,
Beth

Beth A. Lewis, President & CEO
Augsburg Fortress