In This Issue The Journey and The Little Engine that Could Randy is Recovering Staff Profile: Rod Maeker Editor's Column: Keep Preaching It to Itchy Ears Notes from Randy It's Hard to Believe Lay Committee: About Evaluations Spring Cluster Meetings Limited CLI Office Access Links You'll Like Internship Handbook Lay Committee Handbook Internship Forms Contact Us The Contextual Leadership Initiative staff is here to support you! Contact us with your concerns or suggestions. Previous Newsletters Want to re-read an article from a previous issue? Review previous newsletters.

Internship Newsletter: April 2006

The Journey and The Little Engine that Could 
by Ruby Narucki, intern at Trinity Lutheran Church, North Bethesda, MD

Most of us remember the book, The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper. I was delighted to remember this book during a recent train ride up to Princeton, NJ. It had been 20 years since I had taken a train. I heard the loud speakers in the station announce, "All aboard, regional 176 to NY boarding on track 12!" I got excited, it sounded familiar and safe. I settled into my seat. The train left the station with the nostalgic toot, toot, chug, chug. We were on our way. Thoughts of The Little Engine that Could were dancing through my head. I wished I’d brought Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express instead of the mystery I had. After a while I got up and went five cars up to the café car. I had a big smile on my face as I entered the vestibule where the cars are connected. I held onto the rails and watched the swaying of the cars and listened to the rhythmic click, click, click. I remembered a more congenial time in America. "Chug, chug, chug. Puff, puff, puff. Ding-dong, ding-dong. The train rumbled over the tracks. She was a happy little train."

Boarding the train on the way home was much the same except it was evening, pouring rain and the train was full. Forty minutes into the trip the lights in the cabin started going on and off. Somewhere between Philadelphia and Wilmington the train came to a sudden stop. The lights in the cabin went out and it was pitch black. There was an eerie silence. All you could hear was the pouring rain on the roof. People were leaning into the aisles looking back and fourth. The generators kicked in. Some lights came on in the vestibules. That morning there had been reported delays on the trains out of NY. The cause, possible terrorist threats.

A few minutes went by with no news. People began making cell phone calls to their loved ones. Over the speakers we were told that we had engine trouble and were to disembark onto the tracks in the rain. The fear was palpable. Voices raised asking questions of the conductors and each other. "What is it? What’s going on? Is it terrorists? Are we in danger?" Eventually they decided to tow us back to Philadelphia. After much misdirection, someone remarked, "Where is the little engine that could when you need her?" Three hours later we were on our way again.

During the remainder of the trip I reflected on how hard I was praying and how frightened I had become. I was reminded of another journey. Jesus and his disciples were at sea and a great storm came up suddenly. Jesus was asleep. The disciples called for Jesus (much like I did and no doubt many others). The disciples were full of fear and anxiety. The Lord was with them in the boat, yet they were caught up in the event. The disciples actually thought they were dying. They yelled "Master, Master we are perishing!" (Lk 8:24)

The Bible is full of ordinary life events that become lessons for us because the stories involve wrestling with faith and trust in God. God is looking to meet us where we are. God is with us always. Life events toss us around and it becomes difficult to land on our feet. Faith is a great solace during these stressful times. However, in the throes of the circumstances that create fear and doubt many of us lose ourselves to the event. We can lose faith and courage and not experience the presence of God who comes to us within our midst through Jesus’ love and compassion which surpasses all understanding. Whatever the contours of our journey may be, we are safe in the knowledge that Jesus is with us always.

Randy is Recovering  

“Beware the Ides of March” and all that. On the Ides of March (March 15, for those of you who never studied Julius Caesar by Mr. Shakespeare) CLI Head Honcho Randy Nelson had hip replacement surgery. Within four days he was at home, within five days he was hosting a staff meeting at his home, and within six days he was back in the office. He is, however, slowed temporarily but healing well and looking forward to shoulder surgery in a few weeks.

"Where are you from?"
Rod Maeker, CLI and Cross-Cultural Education  

When I go into stores in Minnesota, I don’t have to say too many words in my Texas drawl before people look at me sort of funny and then slightly incline their head to listen with curiosity. The brave ones will ask, “Where are you from?” I tell them that I come from a part of Texas called West Texas where the wind and sand blow so hard that it will take the paint off a car. And, because of that West Texans don’t buy or sell real estate—we just swap!

Yes, I grew up on a cotton and dairy farm near Lubbock, Texas, where the wind and sand do blow so fiercely that farmers have to use a special implement called a “sand fighter” during the spring season so that their freshly planted cotton and other crops will not be destroyed by blowing sandy soil. I spent many hours on a tractor with a bad muffler pulling this implement --battling the wind and elements. That probably explains my hearing loss and why I now require hearing aids.

Rather than go to Texas Tech in the big city of Lubbock, I chose to go to Texas Lutheran College where I majored in sociology and minored in history. Two major things stand out in my memory from that educational experience. First, my Volkswagen kept ending up inside “Old Main” in front of the door of the president’s office or inside the kennel of the college’s Bulldog mascot. For some reason, my roommate thought it belonged there. Second, this was the place where I met my spouse, Nancy, whose maiden name was Egg. Needless to say, we decided not to hyphenate our last names (Egg-Maeker) when we got married.

Wartburg Theological Seminary is my seminary alma mater and I completed a wonderful internship at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Spokane, Washington. After graduating from seminary, my first call was to Trinity Lutheran Church, near Stonewall, Texas, where one of our nearest neighbors was former President, Lyndon B. Johnson. For a wet-behind-the-ears seminary graduate and new pastor, this was a bit stressful. Nancy and I never knew when LBJ and Lady Bird would show up or who he would bring with him–one Sunday he brought Laurence Rockefeller and three U.S. Congress members to church. To say the least, ministry contexts are a surprise, and I learned a great deal about politics and raw political power while there.

After serving parishes in Victoria and Austin, Texas, one of the most challenging opportunities of my ministry was the development of a new congregation in Dallas, Texas. The site was a community in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas where white flight had resulted in a 95% African American community. As pastors, Nancy and I were challenged to rethink all that we had previously learned in light of the realities of this context and the needs of the community. It was a crash course in “Reading the Audience.” This ministry, more than anything else, prepared me for my responsibilities at Luther Seminary.

Spouse Nancy is now Bishop’s Associate in the St. Paul Area Synod. We have three children and four grandchildren, all of whom are a real joy! Beth and her husband, Mark, are pastors at churches in the Minneapolis Area Synod. Paul and wife, Akiko, live in Japan where he teaches English at Kobe College. Jeremy is Assistant Manager at T-Mobile cell phones.

It is a real joy to plan and manage Cross-Cultural Experiences at Luther Seminary. The payoff is listening to students and hearing how their world view and vision for mission and ministry have developed and been transformed through their Cross-Cultural Experiences!

Editor's Column: Keep Preaching It to Itchy Ears  
by Steve McKinley

Several years ago I had a book published by a major church publisher, initials AF. I was certain that this was the express route to great fame and fortune, the best seller lists and a movie deal, but somehow it didn’t work out that way. Over the years I’ve made enough on that book to make a down payment on a Yugo. Not buy it outright, mind you, but make a down payment on it. The good folks at that publishing house send me royalties twice a year. So much for domestic sales, so much for foreign sales, so much for discount sales, minus books returned. You better believe minus. In one of the statements a while back, they calculated that I owed them money.

So maybe it was just the bile of sour grapes bubbling up in my throat that made me feel ill when I read of another pastor who just got a book deal with an advance of $13 million. (His initials are not RW.) Apparently the publisher looked at the success of this author’s last book, which has been on the best-seller lists for over 18 months, and concluded that the next one would be a winner, too. But I would like to think that a modicum of theology contributed to my illness.

You see, when that current best-seller came out, the publisher sent me a free copy, suggesting that I could market it in the congregation I was then serving and in the process both extend the kingdom and make a pretty penny. For the congregation, of course. Finding the proposition interesting, I read some of the book. Some of it.

Far be it from me to be harshly critical, but it was the worst pile of saccharine spiritual goo I have ever read in my life. Made the greeting cards of Helen Steiner Rice sound like Karl Barth. The whole idea was that God is just waiting to pile blessing after blessing on you and that you need to be aggressive in claiming your blessings and going out after what you want, since God wants to give it to you. The best parking place. The most perfect spouse. The car/house/vacation of your dreams. God is just waiting to give you those things. The cynic in me says that it is not surprising that such garbage becomes a best-seller, since this is just the kind of thing people love to hear.

I’ll tell you how much I disliked that book. I’m one of those old duffers who consider books holy objects, worthy of honor and reverence. But I threw this one away. Didn’t even recycle it. Put it in the garbage.

Here’s one thing I missed in that best-seller: the cross. Here’s another: law and gospel. And another: any call to discipleship. Granted that these ideas do not have the immediate glitz of barrels full of blessings, but they still seem to have a prominent place in the New Testament.

So I think of those millions out there reading through this garbage and mistaking it for Christianity. And those millions who are just waiting for the author’s next book, the $13 million book. There is no reason to believe it will be different from the first.

And I think of you out there, interns and supervisors. I think of you, with your people reading this junk. I think of you, with your people sending it to the best seller lists. I do not absolve myself. Those folks I taught and counseled and worked with and preached to for all those years….they are buying this junk, too. I think of that famous passage from 2 Timothy: For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires. There seems to be an epidemic of itchy ears around.

So I ask one thing of you as we enter into Holy Week and Easter, though I would ask this of you all year: Preach Christ and Christ crucified. Feed your people the real stuff. The world will give them plenty of spiritual junk food, and pay the junk food purveyors well for their trouble. Whether they know it or not, your people are relying on you for the true nourishment that sustains. We all are. There might not be $13 million in it for you, but do it any way.

Notes from Randy  
Randy A. Nelson

Another Staff Transition: Dan Dornfeld has served as office assistant in the CLI office at Luther for over a year. Dan concluded his work with the CLI on Wednesday, March 29. As of April 1st Dan is ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and has accepted a call to serve as the Youth Ministries Pastor for Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Bismarck, North Dakota. Dan has been a valued and valuable asset to the CLI team and his colleagues wish him well as he begins his service in the ELCA as a pastor. Godspeed, Dan!

Internship Placements: Those of you currently on internship can probably still remember what it was like for you at this time last year as the internship placement process was coming to its conclusion. The CLI staff met on March 20 and 21 to begin to put internship recommendations together. That work continues through the end of March. When all is said and done almost 120 interns will receive internship placement recommendations. Students will be informed on Monday, April 3 and pastors and congregations on Friday, April 7. In the midst of busy Lenten activities, I invite you to offer a prayer on behalf of your colleagues, interns and supervisors, who will constitute the next group of internship teams in the Western Mission Cluster.

Honorable mention: One of our interns, Sarah Scherschligt, was quoted in a recent ELCA news release covering a March 27 interfaith service and rally for just immigration reform in Washington DC. Sarah, intern at Luther Place Memorial Church, spoke at the rally. You may remember her also as the author of this article in last month's Ministry in Context newsletter. Well done, Sarah!

It's Hard to Believe  

…that there are a few interns and supervisors and lay teams who have not -- yes, they have not -- submitted the mid-year (six month) evaluation forms everyone should have completed some time ago. Hard to believe, but true. If by chance you happen to be one of those, please, please, please, we beg of you…turn it in!