My last three weekends have been spent at ELCA Synod Assemblies.  It has been my pleasure to offer plenary presentations and workshops on a number of different topics for the Southeastern Synod meeting in Chattanooga, TN, the Northeastern Iowa Synod meeting in Decorah, IA, and the Grand Canyon Synod meeting in Mesa, AZ.

Former ELCA Secretary the Rev. Lowell Almen was also a speaker at the last two.  It has been fun to catch up with he and his delightful wife, Sally, since I hadn’t seen them for awhile.  Lowell’s stories of the history of the first 25 years of the ELCA and funny anecdotes have been inspirational and entertaining.

On Friday night, I was so touched by Lowell’s passionate speech during the 25^th anniversary celebration dinner at the Grand Canyon Synod where he spoke at some length about the importance of our recently published resource, Prayer Book for the Armed Services.  Here is a photo I snapped during his eloquent speech.

I wished that I had been wise enough to video his remarks.  But, I was too focused on listening to think that fast!  But, a few weeks ago, Lowell was kind enough to share these words with me via email.  While not as detailed as last night’s remarks, they will give you a sense of his enthusiasm for this fine resource.

“I did research in the Archives and discovered copies of Lutheran prayer books for soldiers and sailors that had been issued by Lutheran churches during World War I and basically reprinted in preparation for World War II.  I found some prayers in them to be carried forward and also ideas for others that I thought might be helpful for the new edition.  Paul Schreck spent many hours, days, and weeks in actually putting together the content for the new book.

 I hope that pastors of congregations will be encouraged to have their congregations purchase copies for those already serving in the military and then also be prepared to give a copy to any member who enlists or is commissioned for service in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, or similar service.

 And, in a second email, he noted “I was so grateful when the Prayer Book for the Armed Services was published and saw that the prayers for the Army and Navy, which I adapted from the World War I and II prayer books, were included, along with various prayers that I had identified from various saints throughout history as well as the litany.

 I also was deeply moved by the prayers for change of command, dignified transfer, and other prayers that were offered by practicing, active duty chaplains.

 The volume should be on every pastor’s desk and in every chaplain’s hands.” (emphasis mine)

 Since the Prayer Book for the Armed Services is priced at only $8.00 per copy, this gift for those serving in the armed forces is an affordable token of appreciation and support by congregations for their members.

When Lowell spoke on Friday evening, he added that many pastors serving in ELCA congregations will find this resource helpful for their own use with their prayers as members of their congregations are commissioned into the armed services, are deployed to active duty overseas, return from deployments and in many other circumstances.

Thank you for your encouragement and work to assist in bringing the Prayer Book for the Armed Services to the Church, Lowell!

 

Blessings,
Beth

ceo@augsburgfortress.org

@bethalewis

Beth A. Lewis, President & CEO Augsburg Fortress

On Sunday evening, Toolbox Studios Creative Director, Paul Soupiset, accepted one of the American Advertising Federation’s highest accolades when they earned a Silver National ADDY® for the design of our sparkhouse-published animate.faith journal.   Since there were over 40,000 entries submitted for the local, regional and national awards, we are delighted with this recognition!

The animate.faith journal was one of only two collateral book designs recognized nationally at the annual AAF Conference!  This beautiful sketchbook/journal was created to inspire and encourage adults using the animate.faith video and print ecumenical faith formation resource.  The journal’s seven chapters correspond to a series of brief but engaging videos featuring talks by well known Christian authors, theologians and thought leaders; Nadia Bolz-Weber, Lillian Daniel, Shane Hipps, Brian McLaren, Bruce Reyes-Chow, Mark Scandrette and Lauren Winner.

This unique (and now award-winning!) faith formation resource has been so well received across a wide spectrum of Christian communities that within a few weeks of publication in 2012, sparkhouse started receiving multiple “what is next?” queries.  As we celebrate this recognition for design excellence for the animate.faith journal, we are also pleased to note that animate.bible will be published in late July using the same format and featuring Jay Bakker, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Eric Elnes, Rachel Held Evans, Jose Morales, Phyllis Tickle and Will Willimon.

After the award ceremony, Paul Soupiset noted, “It’s an incredible honor being here among some of the top creative minds in the business and knowing the intensity of the competition that brought us here,” He continued, “Getting a nod like this from top caliber judges we admire, for doing the kind of work we love to do, is really icing on the cake. Animate continues to be a brand our whole team is really proud of.”

Congratulations to our design partners at Paul Soupiset and his colleagues at Toolbox Studios!  We are thrilled that your fine work has been recognized by your creative peers across the USA!  We’re basking in that glow right along with you!

Blessings,
Beth

ceo@augsburgfortress.org

@bethalewis

 

 

 

 

 

Beth A. Lewis, President & CEO Augsburg Fortress

I love to listen to our customers.  I do a fair amount of that through traveling and engaging with CE directors, pastors, seminary professors and others all across the Church.  We also do a great deal of formal market research, gathering data about what is working & what isn’t, trends in faith formation, worship, and higher education in religion and theology courses.  And, as you might imagine, I receive a fair number of emails, Facebook, and Twitter messages that help inform our work.  But, one of my favorite ways to engage with congregational customers is to listen in on calls being made by my colleagues who serve as our Comgregational esource Representatives.  While I don’t have the opportunity for this type of listening as often as I would like, Recently, I spent 30 to 60 minutes listening in on calls with each of our dozen representatives.  I learned a lot, as I always do!

One of those calls was between my colleague, Elizabeth Schoenknecht and Donna Haberland, CE Director at First English Lutheran Church in Appleton, WI.  After listening to what Donna shared about their children’s Sunday School program, Elizabeth recommended that they test our new faith formation resource for tweens (approximately grades 5 & 6) with our free samples.  Donna agreed that this would be a great way to see if it would be a good fit for their context.

After trying Connect, Donna sent this note back to Elizabeth:

“We just finished test the Connect lesson with the 5/6^th graders on Sunday; we opted to divide the lesson into two weeks, which worked very well. The responses from the teachers at both sites were varied, to say the least. The teachers and students at our Downtown Site (which is the more traditional site) really enjoyed the curriculum and would like to do it in the fall. I actually had a 5^thgrade boy tell me he hopes we do the Connect curriculum in the fall because he thought it was “Awesome”!!

• They liked the fact that it was big on Bible use, and learning how the New Testament and Old Testament connect
• The kids thought the video clip was pretty funny and of course loved playing the warm up game making field goals with paper footballs and cereal!
• Teacher thought the video gave them a great starting point for more discussion.
• Another thing the kids really enjoyed was the closing ritual of putting a blue plus sign on their hands.
• Both teachers and kids were thankful they didn’t have to do leaflets/teachers thought the material was very age-appropriate.”

It is so gratifying to my colleagues and I to hear that faith formation resources we create are helpful…especially with tweens!

Thanks for sharing the feedback from the teachers & students at First English Lutheran Church, Donna!

For those of you reading this blog post, if you (or someone in your congregation) would like to learn more about Connect! or any of our terrific sparkhouse-produced faith formation resources, our Congregational Resource Representatives would be very pleased to assist you in learning more, obtaining samples to test in your context, etc.

Blessings,
Beth

 @bethalewis

ceo@augsburgfortress.org

 

Beth A. Lewis, President & CEO Augsburg Fortress