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Internship Newsletter: October 2008

A New England Internship
by Pastor Geoff Sinibaldo

St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Avon, Conn., is a teaching congregation. We have invited an intern to lead, learn and live among us every year since 1986. The congregation continues to be renewed each year by a new voice, a new style and new opportunities for ministry.

With each seminarian a new intern committee is assembled offering a cross-section of gender, age and involvement level. Most are thrilled to be asked to serve on the intern committee, expressing with gratitude how thankful they are to be connected to such a vital part of the ministry.

Many have expressed the value of having trained over twenty pastors for the church now serving across the country. I am one of them! I served my internship at St. Matthew in 2000-2001 and returned to serve as associate pastor after my first call in South Dakota.

Lutherans compose only about 2% of the population across New England. Therefore, our outreach has a wider scope than simply transferring people in from other ELCA congregations. In the past year we baptized two entire families and have others exploring that possibility as they experience church for the first time with us.

We encourage questions and allow plenty of time for relational evangelism to take place. We also welcome a large number of former Roman Catholics and other "church shoppers" who move in from around the country to the growing towns we serve. We have an incredible opportunity here to shape theological reflection and application in a rich field, ripe for harvest.

St. Matthew serves a suburban community of several towns to the west of Hartford called the Farmington Valley. Many of our members work in financial, insurance, medical, education and other professional fields in Hartford, and at ESPN in nearby Bristol.

Like many across the country, our families are overextended financially while living in the midst of perceived affluence. Amidst the economic uncertainties of the times, many grow worrisome. Many of our families endure incredibly busy schedules and view the ministry of the church as the stable place, if not an oasis, in their hectic lives. Our ministry speaks clearly into this context a Word that calls us out of relying on false securities, while proclaiming what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

Since our congregation is spread out across many towns, community building is a focus; whether it be for day long retreats, fellowship events, service opportunities, learning possibilities, or other small groups throughout the congregation, committees and church council. Our primary objective has been to keep Word and Sacrament as the centerpiece of our ministry while providing opportunities to get to know one another outside of worship.

Our current intern, Kate Schruba, comes to us eager to learn and participate. These are her insights only a few weeks into this intern year:

"The moment I arrived at St. Matthew I received a warm welcome from many people. I knew right away that it would not take long to find my place here. One of my greatest joys is greeting people after the Sunday services. The people are very friendly and are eager to get to know me, just as I am eager to get to know them. I also am enjoying leading devotions during meetings and creating my own Bible study. I'm looking forward to all the opportunities ahead of me, such as learning about stewardship and finances, planning the trip to the National Youth Gathering, visiting the homebound and improving my sermon-writing skills, to name a few. St. Matthew is definitely a great place to learn and grow. There are so many opportunities ahead of me, and it's comforting to know that the congregation and staff are supportive and gracious, walking with me on my internship journey."

As a teaching congregation for future pastors of the church we intentionally try to provide as wide an experience as possible for the intern to have many opportunities for learning, service and leadership. My colleague, Pastor Bill Carter, and I have taken more focused roles so that preaching, teaching, and visitation are central to the intern's ministry here. The congregation encourages involvement in areas where experience can be gained in this year of ongoing preparation for the ordained ministry. In the service of induction for a Vicar we say, "you are called to be a true partner in this ministry." Indeed!

 

From CLI Administrative Assistant Kathryn Ostlie-Olson   

I have cancer. Some of you know this news; others are hearing it for the first time. After a year of being out of the country with my family, I returned in June to my work with the CLI staff at Luther. About a month later, we found out that a small lump in my left breast was cancer. I underwent surgery in August for bilateral mastectomy, which was successful in getting the tumor and in confirming that the cancer had not spread. After some weeks of healing up, I began an eight-week chemotherapy series to "clean the pipes" and prevent recurrence. So far I've had one treatment; a second is scheduled for the upcoming week. God willing, I'll be done by early November. Throughout this wild and unexpected journey, I've been an on-and-off-again player on the CLI team. Thanks for your patience as my colleagues have so graciously stepped in to fill the gaps left by my absences.

I'm quite blessed. An early diagnosis and a positive prognosis are factors of luck and timing. The skilled hands of the surgeon, the capable and compassionate care of medical staff, and the overwhelming support of family, friends, and colleagues are incursions of God's grace and God's presence. Through our travels in Africa and the Middle East last year, Marc, Sigurd, Dane, and I came into contact with Christians whose deep and concrete understanding of God's blessings and whose trust and confidence in the power and efficacy of prayer gave new depth to our own faith. It's this faith and this trust that continue to sustain us through these months of healing and hoping. Thank you for your prayers.

 

Glad to Be Here   
by Rick Foss

I'm glad to be here.

It has been two months now since I began serving with the Contextual Leadership Initiative. It is a delight to begin to know staff and colleagues at both Luther and PLTS. It is a wonderful time of beginnings for students in a new year, and interns in a new community.

It is interesting to be new. One doesn't necessarily know the history, the patterns, the details, or the expectations. On the other hand, it is a great time to listen, learn, reflect, explore and discover how to merge one's gifts with the ongoing community. For the time being, I live in this newness. I do look forward to the time when I'll know more of the patterns and people. However, there is something life-giving about this new situation and I intend to enjoy it.

You may be in a new situation, too. New classes, new site, new life situations. If so, you probably feel the pressures of not knowing the system, or the sense that you aren't in control or even in your comfort zone. That's okay. Comfort and control are over-rated, anyway, and the most important things in life are always a bit beyond our knowing.

I invite you to join me in embracing the newness in our lives.

Take care,
Rick Foss
 

 

Training DVD for Lay Committees   

Lay Internship Committees are a vital part of the internship program. CLI leadership regularly wrestles with how we can best provide training for those who serve on Lay Internship Committees. Now one of our outstanding sites, Community Lutheran in Las Vegas, NV, has stepped forward to help fund a DVD to help train new Lay Committees at new internship sites. The CLI has combined their generous contribution with other funding sources and is now preparing a DVD project with Seraphim Production company in St. Paul, Minn.

The objective is to provide some basic training on how Lay Committees need to function in support of a pastoral intern that will be usable by any ELCA internship site in the country. Still in the pre-production stage, the finished product should be ready by Spring of 2009.

The CLI has been fortunate to have many outstanding internship sites, and in those sites, some great Lay Internship Committees. We feel blessed to have an abundance of dedicated people serving in our parishes who care deeply about how we train future pastors for the church. We owe all our Lay Committees out there a huge and vocal "Thank you!"

 

Evaluations   

Good news - at least, we think it is good news - for interns, supervisors, and lay committees: the Evaluation Process has been amended! Changes are as follows:

  • Three month evaluation: Unchanged ... done by supervisor and intern.
  • Mid-year evaluation: Done by supervisor, intern and lay committee, but only in a descriptive way. The old ranking of not yet competent/competent/exceptional is no longer part of this evaluation.
  • Nine month evaluation: No longer required, but is considered optional for supervisor and intern, if either feels it is necessary.
  • Final evaluation: Done by supervisor, intern and lay committee. Only two rankings: not yet competent and competent.

We hope and trust that this will make the process easier for all concerned.

 

CSL - Stewardship Sermon Prize   

The Center for Stewardship Leaders' Stewardship Sermon Prize for Luther Seminary is designed to enrich and strengthen the practice of stewardship in the church by advocating preaching and teaching that promotes the stewardship of financial resources.

The prize is made possible by the gift of a generous donor through the Center for Stewardship Leaders.

  1. All students who submit a sermon on financial stewardship, prepared and presented during the year of internship, will be given $50 Luther Seminary Bookstore Voucher.
     
  2. Sermons will be presented to a committee who will award prizes for:
    a. 1st Place - $500
    b. 2nd Place - $250
    c. Honorable Mention to 3rd, 4th & 5th Place - $150 Each
     
  3. Sermons will be evaluated by the following criteria:
    a. Relevance to today's Christians
    b. Biblical, theological and homiletical standards
    c. Focus on gratitude, responsibility, generosity and willingness to give back with increase
    d. Calls for people to change the way they live in the world of everyday life.
     
  4. In the confidence that almost every text provides an opportunity to be a "stewardship sermon," consider giving your financial stewardship sermon during a time of year that has no connection with the annual effort to gather money for the congregation.
     
  5. Please include a paragraph about the context in which the sermon was preached.
    a. Briefly describe the congregation
    b. Were you in a congregation that utilizes "media" to communicate the message?
    c. What do you perceive to be the culture of the congregation regarding money?
    d. How did you anticipate the congregation would receive the message?
    e. What feedback did you actually receive? (You may decide to ask a few people to give you feedback after the sermon.)
     
  6. You may submit your sermons on a CD or a written text. If you used PowerPoint, you may include this as well.
     
  7. Please footnote and properly document all your sources.
     
  8. Your entire sermon or parts of it may be chosen to be posted on the Luther Seminary Web site, Stewardship for the 21st Century http://www.luthersem.edu/stewardship.
     
  9. The deadline for the submission of a sermon is June 1, 2009.
     
  10. Mail or bring you sermon to:
    Jerry Hoffman, Director
    The Center For Stewardship Leaders
    2481 Como Ave
    St. Paul, MN 55108
    or
    Email: jhoffman@lutherem.edu.

In November, a chapel service will emphasize the stewardship of financial resources. Students who participated in the sermon competition will be invited to the annual Stewardship Breakfast in November, where the cash awards and bookstore vouchers will be awarded.

The Stewardship Sermon Prize project is administered by the Center for Stewardship Leaders.

 

WorkingPreacher.org a Great Resource for Sermon Preparation   

The Web hits just keep on coming for WorkingPreacher.org. The free site, launched in November 2007 by Luther Seminary's Center for Biblical Preaching, is racking up around 80,000 hits a month.

Designed for today's "working preacher," the site's design and content is clean and easy to navigate. Writings are organized into four categories: preaching this week, the craft of preaching, culture & context and lifelong learning.

"There are high-caliber reflections on the task of biblical preaching and what's going on in the world. The Biblical study work is great. The writers take it as a foundation and tie in how God is speaking through them," says David Lose, Luther Seminary's Marbury E. Anderson Chair in Biblical Preaching.

A popular recent addition has been weekly podcasts on the lectionary assigned texts with Professors David Lose, Matt Skinner, Karoline Lewis and Rolf Jacobson. These fun, frank and informative conversations are quickly becoming a weekly ritual for many preachers all over the country.

Says Pastor Mary Brown, associate director for the Center for Biblical Preaching, "Biblical preaching and growing congregations go hand in hand," says Brown. "It is our hope that this site will enhance preaching and contribute to spiritual growth across the entire church."

 

January Term 2009 Cross-Cultural Experiences   
by Rod Maeker

While many of you receiving this CLI Newsletter are on Internship and probably cannot do a Cross-Cultural Experience during JT2009, there are many other students who still need to complete this curriculum requirement. Please know that there are 11 site offerings (both international and domestic experiences) which are listed on the CLI Web site. Click on the following site to examine the alternatives which are open to you:

http://www.luthersem.edu/contextual_learning/crosscultural/CCMissionexp/default.asp

We still need student applications for Mexico City and China experiences.

As a friendly reminder, please know that the deadline for applying for the JT2009 experiences is October 17, 2008.

After completing your application online and submitting your signed "Release Form" (also found online) to the CLI Office, the required deposit will be charged to your student account and the CLI Office will automatically register you in the Registrar's Office.

If you have questions, please contact Rod Maeker at: rmaeker@luthersem.edu.

 

It's All About the Pronouns   
by Steve McKinley

English grammar has always fascinated me. Some of the most common errors still annoy me. One of the major political candidates got my dander up the other day when he started a sentence "The reason is because...." Wrong! "The reason is that...." The express line sign in the grocery store "10 items or less." Wrong! "10 items or fewer." "A group of cows were walking across the road." Wrong! "A group of cows was walking across the road."

It's a lonely life, being a grammar grouch. But what I really want to write about this month is not grammar as such, but that noble part of speech the pronoun. (The pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun: I, you, we, they, he, she, it, etc.) The pronouns you choose to use send a message about you and your internship/ministry and your relationship to the people who are your partners in ministry.

When a person first arrives in a congregation as an intern or a pastor, the pronouns tend to be second and third person pronouns:

  • How do you serve communion here?
  • They are very liturgical at my internship church.
  • I'm happy to be here at your church.

Over time a transition takes place, and the pronouns become first person pronouns:

  • At our church we celebrate Holy Communion weekly.
  • We are revising the confirmation program.

This is more than just a grammatical question. It is a question of how we enter into and become part of a congregation. It isn't easy to enter a congregation knowing that you will be there for just one year and give yourself to it fully. You know that the people you say "hello" to now will be people you say "good-bye" to in eleven months. That will hurt. There is a temptation to hold back, to refuse to give yourself wholeheartedly to the congregation to avoid the pain of saying good-bye.

But if you never give yourself fully to the congregation, if it is forever a "you" and "they" place, you are depriving yourself of a significant part of your education by holding the congregation at arm's length. You risk the pain, even accept the pain, for the sake of the learning. By now virtually all of our interns have been in place for at least a month. I hope that congregation has become an "us" place for you.

 

Welcoming a Newcomer   

Jalete Homa, intern at Minnehaha Communion Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, spiced up her internship when she welcomed a baby girl on Sept. 20. Ogetti (wisdom) Solomon came into the world at 9 pounds, 3 ounces. Congratulations to Jalete and her husband!

Little Ogetti is starting out life a bit on the tough side, and she's still in the neonatal unit getting some help with oxygen intake and swallowing. Please remember Ogetti and her parents in your prayers for her growth and healing.
 

 

Fall Cluster Meetings   

Fall Cluster Meetings have been scheduled as follows. If you have questions about your cluster meeting, contact the staff person responsible for the cluster.

Oct. 7: Twin Cities South & West Cluster at St. Andrew's, Eden Prairie, Minn. (Steve McKinley)
Oct. 9: Twin Cities North & East Cluster at St. Mark's, North St. Paul, Minn. (Steve McKinley)
Oct. 13-14: Arizona/Nevada Cluster at Spirit in the Desert Conference Center, Carefree, Ariz. (Sherwood Glover)
Oct. 14: Alaska Cluster at Gloria Dei Lutheran in Anchorage, Alaska (Julie Josund)
Oct. 21-22: Oregon Cluster at Menucha Conference Center, Corbett, Ore. (Julie Josund)
Oct. 22-23: Northern California Cluster at San Damiano Retreat Center, Danville, Calif. (Sherwood Glover)
Oct. 23: Twin Cities Central Cluster at Bethlehem, Minneapolis, Minn. (Steve McKinley)
Oct. 23: Northern Minnesota-North Dakota Cluster at Hope Lutheran (North), Fargo, No.Dak. (Rick Foss)
Oct. 28: Washington Cluster at Central, Everett, Wash. (Julie Josund)
Oct. 28: Southern Minnesota-South Dakota Cluster at Shalom Hill Farm, Windom, Minn. (Steve McKinley)
Oct. 30: Colorado Cluster at Evergreen Lutheran Church, Evergreen, Colo. (Julie Josund)
Nov. 3-4: Southern California Cluster at Mary and Joseph Retreat Center, Palos Verdes, Calif. (Sherwood Glover)