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Internship
Newsletter: March 2009
From the Director
Welcome Sally Messner!
 We are delighted to welcome Sally Messner to the CLI staff as an
administrative assistant. Sally will be at the desk as you enter the
CLI office at Luther, where Kathryn Ostlie-Olson has been this year.
Kathryn is now serving as our Contextual Leadership Associate, and
is located in 320A in the CLI suite at Luther.
Sally comes to us with a variety of gifts and experiences. She
received the Master of Sacred Music degree from Luther Seminary in
2007. A Valparaiso graduate, she is the copy editor for the Cresset,
an academic journal. She worked for a time as executive administrative
assistant at Augsburg Fortress and is currently the children's
music coordinator at Central Lutheran in Minneapolis, Minn. She also is an
active vocal soloist and teaches piano and voice in her home.
Sally brings a wealth of administrative skills, a love of
ministry and a gracious personality. As we develop our working
team, she will also bring administrative support to the "Learning
Pastoral Imagination" five-year Lilly grant program directed by Dr.
Chris Scharen.
Sally lives with her husband Joshua (a Luther grad with an M.A.
in Islamic studies) and their dachshund Panz. Welcome, Sally!
Kathryn Ostlie-Olson Update
We are grateful to have Kathryn Ostlie-Olson as a key part of our
CLI staff.
 You may recall that she returned to the administrative
assistant position following a year's absence as she and
her family (husband Marc, sons Dane and Sigurd) spent time abroad
through the preaching fellowship Marc had received. You may also
remember that shortly after their return, she received the difficult
diagnosis of breast cancer, and that Marc was awaiting first call.
We are delighted to report that Marc has been ordained and
installed as associate pastor at St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church on
the edge of Luther's campus, so the family is staying here - and so
is Kathryn! At the same time, Kathryn has undergone surgery and
chemotherapy, and is now in the process of regaining health and
strength. She and her family continue to be in our prayers.
Kathryn has accepted the position of Contextual Leadership
Associate as we build our ministry team. As we continue to build the
team, we look forward to having Kathryn as a key member in the years
ahead.
Books, Books, Books
My reading is eclectic. I am intrigued by all sorts of books, and
love learning from folks who have perspectives that stretch my
assumptions. The nice thing about being in ministry is that no
matter what you learn, it usually is helpful with some pastoral
relationship or other. (Or perhaps that's my rationalization for
reading strange books?)
I recently read two books that seem relevant to internship and
the journey toward pastoral wisdom. The first is Outliers: The
Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink
and The Tipping Point, (Little, Brown and Co., Nov., 2008).
He explores how and why some people became exceptionally successful
("outliers" he calls them), and makes a compelling case that they
"didn't do it alone" and that circumstance and community play a huge
role. The chapter that struck me as particularly pertinent to
internship/pastoral formation is titled "The 10,000-hour rule." As
you might guess, he argues that there are simply no shortcuts to
excellence, no matter what the field. Worth reading!
The second book is How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009). Lehrer is a young neuroscientist
who seems to have two outstanding gifts: 1) he is a gifted
neuroscientist who has taken advantage of new brain imaging
techniques to have good insights into how our brains work; and 2) he
is a wonderfully engaging writer.
In this book, he uses examples ranging from pilots to
quarterbacks to poker player to serial killers to investors in
exploring: 1) how we make decisions using both the rational and the
emotional brain; and 2) how we might make better decisions. This
seems like a topic worth exploring for a pastor, both to reflect on
one's own decision making process and to reflect on how some
parishioners/colleagues might be making their decisions. It is an intriguing book, well worth pondering. Now I have to go
buy his first book, Proust Was a Neuroscientist, and read
it.
May you find joy in your internship journey, even in Lent!
-
Rick Foss
The Lay Committee at Mid-Year 
Having completed the Mid-Year Evaluation (it is completed and
submitted, isn't it?), March is a good time for the Lay Committee to
check back on some of the basics, the things we look at when the
internship year begins, but might forget about later. Such as:
- The Learning Service Agreement. While this is something
essentially worked out between the intern and the supervisor,
it's good for the Lay Committee to know what's in there, so you
might have seen it at the beginning of the year. Whether you did
or not, now would be a good time to review the LSA. What kind of
progress is the intern making toward her goals? What might the
committee do to support the process?
- The Project Proposal. The intern should have filed this with
the CLI office some months ago, and most did. What is your
intern's big project for the year? How is it going? What is it
teaching the intern about your congregation? About ministry? How
is the project changing the congregation? The intern?
- The Intern's Family. Many Lay Committees do a wonderful job
of greeting and welcoming the intern's spouse and family. Don't
just greet them and forget them! Now that they have been part of
your community for a while, how are things going? Are there
areas of difficulty for them? Do they have a network of support
in the community? The experience of being an intern's spouse and
family is a foretaste of the experience of being a pastor's
spouse and family. How are they feeling about that?
The Lay Committee is a crucial component in the learning process.
Even after the evaluations are completed, there is work to be done!
Don't Be Late for Church!
 Daylight Savings Time begins the second Sunday in March, March 8,
the second Sunday in Lent. If you are one of our perfectionist interns,
you will set your alarm clock for 2:00 a.m. when you go to bed on
Saturday night, then wake up and push the proper buttons to set the
clock ahead one hour. If you are a normal productive intern, you
will set the clock ahead before you go to bed on Saturday night. If
you are one of those I-do-my-best-work-at-the-last-minute (meaning
I-only-work-at-the-last-minute) types, you might still be working on
Sunday's sermon and can simply take a break from your Greek New
Testament and set the clock ahead. But do make sure to do it or the
saints arriving for the 8:30 a.m. service will be wondering where
you are, and that never looks good on an evaluation.
On Barking at Airplanes
by Steve McKinley
The junior member of the canine team at Chez McKinley is Abby Gail,
a cairn terrier who will turn six in May. A few years ago our
veterinarian told us that she would start to settle down when she
turned four. Unfortunately Abby wasn't listening. Terrier owners
often notice the similarity of the word "terrier" to the word
"terror." Abby is a "daddy's girl." We take walks together, she
summons me when she wants to go outside, and when I sit down for the
evening, she will sit beside me or even on my lap.
 Abby
loves people, but she is a barker. She barks at people walking past,
at trucks, at buses, at all the normal things dogs bark at, forming
a chorus with the senior member of the team, Emily Clara, a twelve-year-old cocker spaniel. Abby, however, is unique in this: she also
barks at airplanes.
This is no small thing. We live close to the Minneapolis-St. Paul
Airport. If you have ever flown into MSP, chances are good that you
flew over our house in the last two or three minutes you were in the
air. Planes fly over our house all the time. (You get used to it.)
If Abby is outside, she will bark at any plane that flies over,
jumping up in the air and spinning in circles. It is an impressive
sight with additional drama on days when it is snowing or raining.
At the same time, it is absurd. Abby's barking has no impact on the
airplane. The airplane is not aware it is being barked at. Abby has
no chance of doing whatever it is she would like to do to the
airplane. She would probably just like to be able to kiss all the
people on it. All of that makes no difference to Abby. She barks at
airplanes.
This has sometimes frustrated me, but lately I have started to
identify with it, and as I identify with it, Abby's barking at
airplanes begins to seem noble.
As a preacher I barked at a lot of airplanes. Whenever the scripture
texts gave me the opportunity, I barked at the sin of greed. (I'm
feeling somewhat vindicated in these days when the state of our
economy makes it clear that greed is not, in fact, good; that greed
is at the root of today's economic disasters. That feeling of
vindication does not quite make up for the disappearance of a good
chunk of my life's savings.) I barked at racism. I barked at sexism.
I barked at militarism. I barked at violence. I barked and I barked
and I barked. I never enjoyed barking all that much, but it seemed
like that was what we were called to do. I am from the generation
that identified with the Old Testament prophets, who were notorious
barkers.
My barking had about as much impact on those issues as Abby's
barking has on the airplanes overhead, which is to say none.
(Maybe.) But I do not regret having barked. It was what I was called
to do, and whenever I hear a preacher start barking, rather than
passing out soothing salve, I am cheered. When the preachers stop
barking, the church stops being the church in the best sense of the
word.
So I no longer excoriate Abby for barking at airplanes. Abby seems
to believe that she has been called to protect the world and her
loved ones by barking at those strange things in the air over our
house, and who am I to argue with her? You go, girl! Some day,
perhaps, one of those great silver monsters in the sky will detour
to the north or the south to avoid the great watchdog down below.
Some day, perhaps, human beings will go a little easier on the
greed, the militarism, the racism, the sexism. Abby and I have
decided to keep on barking.
Spring Cluster Meetings
- Arizona-Nevada: April 13-14, Spirit in the Desert
Retreat Center, Carefree, Ariz. (Sherwood Glover).
- Northern California: April 20-21, San Damiano Retreat
Center, Danville, Calif. (Sherwood Glover)
- Twin Cities North & East: April 28, Our Saviour's
Lutheran Church,
Stillwater, Minn., 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Steve McKinley)
- Southern California: May 4-5, Mary and Joseph Retreat
Center, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. (Sherwood Glover)
- Southern Minnesota-South Dakota: May 5, Gustavus
Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minn., 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. (Steve McKinley)
- Oregon/Vancouver, WA: May 7, Holy Cross Lutheran Church,
Salem, Ore., 9:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Julie Josund)
- Twin Cities Central: May 7, Trinity Lutheran Congregation,
Minneapolis, Minn., 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Steve McKinley)
- Colorado: May 12, Rocky Mountain Synod Office, Denver,
Colo., 9:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Julie Josund)
- Twin Cities South & West: May 12, Woodlake Lutheran
Church, Richfield,
Minn., 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Steve McKinley)
- Northern Minnesota/North Dakota: May 14, Concordia
Lutheran Church, Fertile, Minn., 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Rick Foss)
- Washington: June 2, Trinity Lutheran Church, Lynnwood, Wash.,
9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Julie Josund)
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