wfn.org | Lutheran Pastors, Congregations Benefit From Renewal Program

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

September 28, 2005

Lutheran Pastors, Congregations Benefit From Renewal Program
05-182-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- She may look like just another tourist, or
it may seem like a family on vacation, but there's something more
meaningful and more spiritual going on here.  A congregation of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and its pastor
are participating in the National Clergy Renewal Program of the
Lilly Endowment, Inc.
     The Lilly Endowment announced Sept. 20 that this year 23
ELCA congregations were among 124 congregations that received
grants of up to $45,000 each for the support of renewal programs
for their pastors.  Up to $15,000 of each grant may be used for
congregational expenses associated with a sabbatical.
     Since 2000 the Endowment has invested more than $23 million
in the National Clergy Renewal Program for 755 congregations and
their pastors.	It awarded 20 of 132 grants to ELCA congregations
in 2004, 10 of 117 in 2003 and 26 of 135 grants in 2002.
     The Lilly Endowment is an Indianapolis-based, private
philanthropic foundation that "seeks to strengthen Christian
congregations by providing an opportunity for pastors to step
away briefly from the persistent obligations of daily parish life
and to engage in a period of renewal and reflection," the
program's promotional materials said.
     In August the Lilly Endowment announced that 2006 will be
the eighth year for a similar program just for congregations in
Indiana.  Two ELCA congregations -- Risen Lord Lutheran Church,
Bargersville, and Salem Lutheran Church, Indianapolis -- were
among 36 congregations that received grants in the 2005 Clergy
Renewal Program for Indiana Congregations.
     "I have the privilege of talking with many pastors who have
received grants from the Lilly Endowment for their sabbaticals
and with leaders in their congregations," said the Rev. Richard
J. Bruesehoff, director for leadership support, ELCA Division for
Ministry.
     "Almost without fail each expresses gratitude for the gift
of this time of personal and professional renewal," Bruesehoff
said.  "Pastors will go on to talk about their profound gratitude
both to the Lilly Endowment and their own congregation, and the
renewed vitality and commitment with which they return to
pastoral leadership," he said.
     "Congregational leaders will talk about the new clarity and
vision with which the congregation engages in its ministry after
the sabbatical," Bruesehoff said.
     That's not usually where they start out, Bruesehoff said.
Pastors don't see where they'll find the time; pastors and
congregational leaders worry about the finances and about the
congregation without a pastor.
     "The Lilly Endowment grants really have addressed these
concerns by making money available not only to cover the pastor's
sabbatical expenses, but also to cover the congregation's costs
of contracting with interim leadership.  The grant also can be
used by the congregation for its own long-range planning and
development work during a sabbatical," Bruesehoff said.
     "One of the surprises expressed by pastors who have received
Lilly grants is the effect of completing the grant application.
The process has helped them and the congregation's leadership
focus on the short-term and long-term goals of the congregation
and their plans for addressing them," Bruesehoff said.

Saint Peter Lutheran Church, Greenwood Village, Colo.
The Rev. David J. Risendal
http://renewal.home.att.net/

     "The health of a congregation is fundamentally intertwined
with the health of its pastoral leadership," said Lee Dehmlow,
president of Saint Peter Lutheran Church in suburban Denver.  "I
have learned that there can be no wiser congregational investment
than a regular, fully supported pastoral sabbatical program to
maintain the energy, focus and faith of its pastor."
     It was tough for the Rev. David J. Risendal to follow in the
footsteps of a charismatic pastor who had served the congregation
for 13 years, Dehmlow said.  The former pastor had taken two
sabbaticals during her tenure with the congregation.
"Congregational leaders speak of the benefits both the pastor and
the congregation received from these experiences," the president
said.
     Worship, music and Sabbath rest were priorities for both the
congregation and its pastor in sabbatical planning.  Three
notable conflicts in the congregation during Risendal's seven
years there were demanding on the pastor, staff and members of
Saint Peter, Dehmlow said.
     "Pastor Risendal has challenged Saint Peter to reshape its
leadership development, worship and music styles, and adult and
youth education while retaining our theological and liturgical
integrity," Dehmlow said.  "I believe that the next phase of
congregational development will be well served by Pastor
Risendal's proposed sabbatical," he said.
     The three-month sabbatical will begin with piano lessons, a
music theory course at the University of Colorado School of Music
in Boulder and visits to four churches known for their creative
worship life.  The visits take Risendal to Arizona, Minnesota and
Washington.
     Risendal and his family will spend the last month of the
sabbatical in Europe.
"This will be a time of rest and renewal for their family, as
well as a time to visit and worship in a number of historic
houses of worship," including "some of the sites where the
Lutheran Reformation had its beginning," the grant application
said.  The month comes to a close with a week of spiritual
renewal at the Iona Abby in Scotland.
     During the renewal program Saint Peter will host a weekend
workshop on worship and music, open to other area worship
planners and leaders.  Workshop leaders will demonstrate Lutheran
worship traditions and how to create worship experiences that
could transform the worshipper.
     "A post-sabbatical time of reflection and re-evaluation" is
planned for Risendal and Saint Peter for 13 weeks after his
return.  The pastor will prepare a written report to the
congregation, a newsletter article series, a Web site and a study
for worship leaders.  Risendal will also attend the Alban
Institute's "Clergy Development Institute" in Allenspark, Colo.
     "My love for music goes back to the purchase of my first
guitar when I was 10-years-old," Risendal said.  "During my 20
years of ministry I have found my role as a worship planner and
leader to be among the richest experiences in my ministry.  I
love exploring how the ancient traditions of our church can be
given new life, and working to see that newcomers and youth are
honored and included in worship."
     "As one who has never traveled to Europe, I am thrilled at
the prospect of visiting the great cathedrals of Europe.  I
expect it to stretch my vision of what we can become at Saint
Peter," Risendal said.
     "I have never taken a sabbatical leave," Risendal said.  "I
am especially excited about the aspect of rest and renewal that
it promises."
     "I am hopeful that Saint Peter is a congregation in which I
can experience a long-term ministry," the pastor said.	"I trust
that periodic sabbaticals will help me stay enthused, vibrant and
committed to this ministry over the long term."

Pilgrim Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minn.
The Rev. Carol J. Tomer
http://www.pilgrimstpaul.org

     "Although it was many years ago that we initially committed
to the idea of a seventh year sabbatical, the time is ripe now
for so many reasons, said Kris Hogquist, the president of Pilgrim
Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minn.
     After a strong round of chemotherapy and radiation for six
months, the Rev. Carol J. Tomer wanted to be more than a breast
cancer survivor but a breast cancer initiate into a new way of
life.
     Kenda Creasy Dean advanced the idea of "pilgrimage as
spiritual dehabituation" in her book "Practicing Passion: Youth
and the Quest for a Passionate Church."  Breaking routines and
opening oneself to guidance of the Holy Spirit became the theme
for sabbatical planning at Pilgrim.
     "Pilgrim experienced tremendous growth in the past five
years.	This has been stressful and challenging, and I cannot
imagine Pastor Carol taking a leave during those times," Hogquist
said.  "We now have an additional full-time pastor and many
administrative features in place; a leave feels exciting now and
does not provoke anxiety," she said.
     The congregation has been "progressively transitioning from
a pastor-centered to program-centered church.  We are now hungry
for the means to extend our outreach as 'ministers of the people'
and to deepen our inner journeys with centering prayer and
biblical study," Hogquist said.
     Tomer is "an extremely gifted and motivated pastor.  We all
feed on her energy and passion, but frankly all that giving is
exhausting for her.  She is ready to receive and be nourished.
We are ready to support her in this, and we know that her
nourishment will ultimately strengthen all of our ministries at
Pilgrim," Hogquist said.
     "Pilgrim Lutheran Church is a well-named congregation.  We
are a congregation on the move, growing markedly in numbers and
faith.	In recent years, many of those who have joined Pilgrim
have been people who are reclaiming or deepening their faith and
involvement after a long absence from any church," the pastor and
congregation wrote in their application for a sabbatical grant
from the Lilly Endowment.
     "This congregation is filled with very educated, creative
and busy people who are longing for Sabbath and renewal of the
inward journey.  We are looking for patterns that are sustainable
for the long haul," they wrote.
     Tomer led the congregation through five years of study and
renewal, and Pilgrim was adapting to its mission "to be a home
for hungry minds and souls."  Developing a Celtic communion
service and a Nordic evening prayer service provided
contemplative worship.
     "I will go on three pilgrimages: in the desert of New
Mexico, to my ancestral roots in northern Norway, and along the
medieval 'Pilgrim Way' route to the Nidaros Cathedral in
Trondheim, Norway," Tomer said.  "These pilgrimages will be
anchored by times of reflection and reading about pilgrimage,
learning and practicing centering prayer, sharing with other
breast cancer initiates, walking, studying Nordic liturgy and
music, beginning a relationship with a ministry coach, and
deepening several special personal relationships."
     "The cultures I have chosen operate with a sense of pace and
balance that sometimes seems more humane than the pace I follow
in my very typical North American city.  I hope to rest and
dehabituate while I am on sabbatical, but even more importantly,
I am eager to bring back ideas and to have begun new habits that
will make my service as a parish pastor sustainable in terms of
pace, health and energy," Tomer said.
     The sabbatical grant provides financial support for the
congregation's renewal as well as the pastor's.  The congregation
planned a number of activities to build community among old and
new members, "engage in biblical enrichment and learn to tell the
story of Christ for a new day," and strengthen its outreach to
neighborhood academic communities.

Christ the King Lutheran Church, Houston
The Rev. Robert G. Moore
http://www.ctkelc.org

     Members of Christ the King Lutheran Church, Houston,
remembered the previous pastor's sabbatical as a time of "freedom
and permission to see what we as a congregation could do for
ourselves without a pastor to guide us at every turn.  The people
learned that we could indeed minister to each other in many
important ways," said David Hollrah, the congregation's
president.  An added bonus was that the pastor "was strengthened
to faithfully serve out his career with us."
     Christ the King is located adjacent to Rice University and
in the vicinity of the Texas Medical Center.  "This location has
influenced the formation of the congregation's identity and
informed its commitment to theological education, music, liturgy,
caring ministries, hospitality and international involvement,"
Hollrah said.
     Houston established a sister city relationship with Leipzig,
Germany, in 1993 to foster friendships and business exchanges
between the citizens of the two cities.  Christ the King struck
up a sister congregation relationship with St. Thomas Church,
Leipzig.
     The Houston congregation has a German heritage, offers a
German-Language service the first Sunday of each month and
established the Melanchthon Institute as a center for theological
education.  In its relationship with the Leipzig congregation it
has hosted visits by the St. Thomas Boys Choir and various
officials, musicians and theologians, including two visits by
Pastor Christian Wolff of St. Thomas.
     During his 10 years with Christ the King, the Rev. Robert G.
Moore developed a complex network of contacts and friends in
Leipzig.  He organized two tours of Houston Lutherans to St.
Thomas Church.
     "The accents particular to Pastor Moore's leadership have
included theological education, congregational care, stewardship
development, German-language ministry and alternative worship
respectful of the Lutheran tradition," Hollrah said.  "Both the
congregation and Pastor Moore are at a point that could provide
'breathing space' to focus on new opportunities, let go of
unnecessary activities, and prepare and dream for the future," he
said.
     Moore came across an ad for the Lilly Endowment's National
Clergy Renewal Program and began discussing the idea of a
sabbatical with the executive committee of the congregation's
council.  Council members told him to apply.
     "Structuring the Lilly Endowment application was the
framework that put meat on the bones of Pastor Moore's idea.  The
application is complicated and requires a fair amount of detail,"
Hollrah said.  Filling out the forms involved discussion across
the congregation, he said.  "By the time we had fleshed out the
application, we were ready to go to the congregation for its
approval."
     "A good Lutheran congregation functions as a team, with
everybody contributing to the good of the whole," Hollrah said.
That teamwork was evident in the application process, and it is
an expectation that the sabbatical will result in "a sense of
renewed commitment to the idea that our congregation is a team in
ministry of the gospel, to ourselves and to others," he said.
     Moore will live in Leipzig with his wife and dogs for four-
and-a-half months.  The sabbatical will begin with a three-week
German-language course at the University of Leipzig-Herder
Institute.  Moore will serve as guest pastor at St. Thomas
Church, while tackling a reading list of German theology.  He
will spend one week with the faculty of the Institute for
Ecumenical Research at the University of Tuebingen and another
week on a spiritual retreat in the community of Taize, France.
     St. Thomas Church is one of the world's centers for Bach and
other baroque studies.	Christ the King hosts a Bach Society that
performs masterpieces of the Lutheran musical tradition in a
liturgical setting offered to the Houston community free of
charge.
     "It can be difficult to get above the frenzy and find the
horizon to which we aspire.  That is also the case with personal
goals.	Time away to develop my language ability will help to
fulfill a life-long aspiration," Moore said.
     "The greatest benefit the congregation will receive from a
sabbatical leave will be a renewed affirmation of their call to
serve in this community with a new sense of energy and direction
for the years to come," the pastor said.
     "Pastors are not unlike other leaders who get so wrapped up
in their work that they cannot imagine things working without
them.  The time away will demonstrate that Christ the King Church
was running before I got here.	It will be running while I am
gone, and it will run when I return," Moore said.

Messiah Lutheran Church, Vancouver, Wash.
The Rev. Kathleen J. Braafladt and the Rev. Peter C. Braafladt
http://www.messiahvancouver.org/

     After a decade the wounds of its last pastoral sabbatical
were beginning to heal at Messiah Lutheran Church, Vancouver,
Wash.  That sabbatical served as the climax of a dispute that
split the congregation in two.
     The congregation called a clergy couple -- the Rev. Kathleen
J. Braafladt and the Rev. Peter C. Braafladt -- from a rural
congregation in central Oregon.  The call committee scratched
references to a sabbatical from their letter of call.
     Messiah Lutheran experienced growth, increasing worship
attendance from 140 to 370.  The congregation hired a consultant
to maximize the use of its facility and came up with a long-range
plan that included possibly starting a satellite ministry in a
fast-growing part of town.
     "Peter and I knew that we would need to be rejuvenated and
re-tooled for the journey ahead.  We also knew that we needed to
know and manage our limits as leaders so that the work ahead did
not consume us," Kathleen Braafladt said.
     "In our 18 years of ministry we had never taken serious time
away from the daily demands of ministry to identify our ever-
changing pastoral roles as the size of our congregations grew,
our head-of-staff roles evolved, and the cultural dynamics of our
congregations changed," she said.
     "Leaders in the congregation knew that if they were going to
present a proposal for a sabbatical to the congregation they
would have to introduce the idea carefully.  They would need to
provide for congregation-wide involvement and would have to offer
forums through which members could process their feelings and
fears in healthy ways," Kathleen Braafladt said.
     Messiah's Leadership Team dealt with its own anxieties about
sabbaticals through study and discussion before developing a
similar process for the rest of the congregation.  Team members
led four adult forums on Sunday mornings, and the president of
the congregation met with each of the congregation's groups --
from the choirs to the seniors group.
     A congregational meeting approved unanimously a sabbatical
for the Braafladts.  The Leadership Team wrote a three-month
sabbatical every 5 years back into its policies for the
congregation's full-time staff.
     The Braafladts planned their sabbatical with help from the
Leadership Team and other congregation committees, as well as
from a pastor with some grant-writing skills and the Alban
Institute.  The Alban Institute is an independent nonprofit
organization based in Herndon, Va., that provides congregations
with research-based information to enhance the effectiveness of
their ministry.
     The sabbatical involved a cruise through the inside passage
of Alaska, meetings with their "coach" from the Alban Institute,
a guided-reading course on the use of media in the church and
visits with four congregations that started satellite ministries.
The Lilly Foundation grant covered every aspect of the
sabbatical, plus the three-month stipend of a part-time supply
pastor and the grant's tax liability.
     During the sabbatical the congregation developed several
programs that strengthened Messiah's continuing lay-led ministry.
     Since their sabbatical, the Braafladts reported back to
Messiah's Leadership Team and to the congregation through several
small group presentations.  The congregation has taken the first
steps in starting a satellite ministry and made a major
investment in using a variety of media in the sanctuary.
     "The greatest personal benefit to us has been our improved
sense of well-being and a feeling that we are equal to the tasks
ahead," Kathleen Braafladt said.

Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Evanston, Ill.
The Rev. Frank C. Senn
http://www.ilcevanston.org/

     The council at Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in
suburban Chicago approved the idea of a pastoral sabbatical.  The
Rev. Frank C. Senn had never taken a sabbatical in his 30 years
of ordained ministry -- more than 12 years at Immanuel -- and
considered this an opportunity to finish the book he was writing.
He had already written several books and articles on Christian
worship and liturgy.
     The Lutheran Church of Australia invited Senn to give
keynote addresses on "Worship and Culture" at its Worship
Conference in Brisbane and offered to pay his travel expenses.
Similar speaking requests arrived from Melbourne and from Luther
Seminary in Adelaide, and several congregations in Australia
asked him to preach.
     "If I could get a sabbatical grant, it would be possible for
my wife and daughter to travel with me, and I would have time
away from parish responsibilities to prepare the presentations to
be given in Australia," Senn said.
     Senn and Immanuel's council assembled a six-member
sabbatical task force to consider all the implications of the
pastor being away for three months.  Two of the members had taken
academic sabbaticals; one was familiar with applying for a Lilly
Endowment grant.
     Senn completed the grant application, including a study
program that would allow him time to prepare his Australia
lectures.  He worked at home the first two months of the
sabbatical and took the opportunity to visit neighboring churches
for Sunday worship.
     "My family and I spent three weeks in Australia and one week
in New Zealand.  We had an opportunity to do tourist things in
between my speaking engagements," Senn said.
     Grant money covered the expenses of Immanuel's supply pastor
-- a professor of homiletics from the Lutheran School of Theology
at Chicago -- and the congregation's own lecture series on
"Worship and Culture" with five notable liturgists and
musicologists from the Chicago area.
     The congregation also engaged itself in self-study.  "As a
result, we are far more intentional in addressing the extent to
which our congregational life opens doors and the extent to which
it inadvertently erects barriers to those of differing cultural
backgrounds," said Dr. Gregory H. Singleton, a member of the
sabbatical task force.
     Back at Immanuel, Senn found the congregation still buzzing
about the study and lectures, "which, as I understand it, have
really honed in on the culture of the congregation -- how we
communicate within the congregation, how committees work, how
community is built up," Senn said.  "We will develop a process by
which to consider how best to implement the ideas generated in
these discussions."
     "Pastor Senn is in a position to apply insights he has
gained to a wide variety of 'worlds' in which the liturgy is set.
Thus he is able to go beyond the usual pious incantations about
diversity and actually address the issues directly and in an
informed way," Singleton said.
     "I have returned refreshed and ready to give new leadership
to the congregation," Senn reported.  "The congregation is
developing some energy to be renewed.  These seem to be the chief
benefits of a well-considered sabbatical program," he said.
     "We are not done yet," Senn added.  Remaining grant money
helped make follow-up activities possible for both the
congregation and the pastor, sharing what was learned from the
sabbatical activities.
-- -- --
     The Lilly Endowment, Inc., is different from the Eli Lilly
and Company Foundation.  The Lilly Endowment was established in
1937 by members of the Lilly family as a vehicle by which to
pursue their personal philanthropic interests.
     The home page for the National Clergy Renewal Program of the
Lilly Endowment is at http://www.clergyrenewal.org/ on the Web.
The Lilly Endowment news release listing 2005 grant recipients is
at http://www.lillyendowment.org/pdf/NCRP2005Winners.pdf on the
Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news