What makes a fire burn
by Rick Foss

The fall season is one of the busiest times of year for any congregation I've ever known. It is a wonderful time: the pews are fairly full, fall programming is in full force, stewardship emphases are in bloom, the Advent/Christmas season is on the horizon, and future dreams are emerging. It's a wonderful time, and it is a busy time.

It can be a little like looking at one's plate at the end of a spectacular buffet line. Everything on it looks good, but you suddenly realize there's too much. If that is happening for you, it's OK. There are worse things. Take the opportunity to reflect on the situation with colleagues, supervisors, mentors, friends or family.

I have been reading a wonderful book recently. (I put it that way because it is one of those "read a couple pages a day" books.) It is "Leading From Within: Poetry That Sustains the Courage to Lead" by Sam Intrator and Megan Scribner (Jossey-Bass, 2007). The book jacket describes the book this way: "In this beautiful collection of 93 poems, accompanied by a brief personal commentary, leaders reflect on how poetry helps them make sense of the challenges and possibilities in their work."

One of these leaders, a school administrator named Becky van der Bogert, cites Judy Brown's poem, "Fire," as she reflects on her own health and work, learning to "embrace my need to have too many logs burning." I want to share this with you. I don't know if Brown had the Holy Spirit in mind when she wrote it, but I surely have the Holy Spirit in mind when I read it.

May you find the wisdom to create the spaces as you fully engage this busy season.

Fire
by Judy Brown

What makes a fire burn
is space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can douse the flames
almost as surely
as a pail of water would.

So building fires
requires attention
to the spaces in between,
as much as to the wood.

When we are able to build
open spaces
in the same way
we have learned
to pile on the logs,
then we can come to see how
it is fuel, and absence of the fuel
together, that make fire possible.

We only need to lay a log
lightly from time to time.
A fire
Grows
simply because the space is there,
with openings
in which the flame
that knows just how it wants to burn
can find its way.

New Web site is ready

The new Contextual Learning Web site is ready for use, and we have closed down the old CLI site. You'll find the same menu structure on the new site: the same internship placement process information, forms, general internship guide and lay committee guide information as before, just transferred to the Contextual Learning site as part of our re-integration with the Luther Seminary Web site. Please begin using the new site now. For technology and web-related questions, please contact Kate Sterner, Web Administrator for Contextual Learning, at ksterner@luthersem.edu or 651-641-3474.

Luther Seminary is YOUR seminary ...
or "A cavalcade of resources for just about everybody!"
by Kate Sterner

For as long as I've worked at Luther Seminary, I've been impressed by its abundance of resources to help people grow in their faith. Many of them are offered absolutely free of charge and others are accessibly priced. They are designed and written for lay people, congregations, pastors and students. They come in the form or Bible study materials, conferences and workshops, classes, books, CDs and DVDs, Web sites, and public lectures. Topics range from stewardship to exploring your sense of call, to exegetical studies, to learning how to talk to others about your faith. By offering all these resources, Luther Seminary truly is a seminary for everyone. Let me highlight just three of these remarkable resources:

	God Pause daily devotions God Pause e-mail devotions are short, meaningful reflections on the following Sunday's lessons and gospel. You can subscribe to God Pause devotions online and they will show up each morning in your email inbox, so you can start your day with a meditation centered on the Scriptures.
	WorkingPreacher.org We're out to inspire better preaching. We offer timely, compelling and trustworthy content for today's working preachers. And we're doing all this for free, giving it away to inspire more faithful and creative proclamation of the Word!
	EnterTheBible.org Here you'll find a wealth of resources to help you grow in your faith, add depth to your Bible studies and rediscover the people, places and events of the Bible. Think of Enter the Bible as your guide, a helpful reference tool to accompany you in your reading of the Bible.

There are so many more resources that you have access to, right now, right at your fingertips. Visit our Contextual Learning Resources page to find just a portion of what Luther has to offer.

These resources are Luther Seminary's gifts to you and to the church. Take advantage of these gifts, and use them to enrich your faith and knowledge of the Scriptures. And if anybody ever asks you if you've gone to seminary, tell them, "Yes. Yes I have, and I still do. I go to Luther."

Lay Committee: Role call   

The lay internship committee should be meeting regularly by now. You may be wondering what role you play in the internship besides meeting once a month. The text below comes from the lay committee guide found on-line.

What roles do committee members play?

1. Supporter. You provide counsel and encouragement for the intern and his/her spouse. You provide support and honest feedback --  something that everyone needs.
2. Sponsor. You are able to acquaint the intern with the members of the congregation and the issues and concerns of the people.
3. Consultant. You can provide information about the congregation, teach, guide, and introduce the intern to your world. You help make sure the intern knows the audience on Sunday morning and something of the history of your church and community.
4. Evaluator. You are a mirror, reflecting your perception of ministry towards the intern. You will offer your impressions of sermons, personal appearance, teaching skills, etc. Don't gloss over things; be honest as you speak the truth in love.
5. Faith Sharer. You can share your own religious background, experiences and beliefs. Tell the intern how God has called you and what that has meant.
6. First Parishioner. You can assist the intern in developing a style of ministry that is in partnership with other Christians. We want a pastor who can work well in partnership with others, not be some sort of lone ranger. The intern must know how the roles of a pastor and a lay person complement each other and how he/she can effectively function in partnership with others.

What does the Chairperson do?

Each committee should have a chairperson whose responsibilities include the following:

1. Convene all committee meetings.
2. Notify everyone as to the time and place of meetings and chair them.
3. Discuss the agenda with the intern and/or pastor.
4. Consult with the pastor supervisor; keep him/her informed about the progress of the committee.
5. Fill out the final consensus evaluation.

Keep those cards and letters
... and LSAs and PPs and Evaluations coming in!

Most internships began in August or early September. That being the case:

• The intern's Learning Service Agreement and Project Proposal should be turned in to the Contextual Leadership office by now.
• The intern and supervisor should be in conversation about the Three Month Evaluation, which should be submitted in the next few weeks.

Scene from a cluster

A smiling group gathers during lunch at the recent Southwestern Minnesota-South Dakota Cluster Meeting held at Shalom Hill Farm outside Jeffers, Minn.

Front row, from left: Lindsay Stolen, intern at Grace, Dawson, Minn.; Intern Jackie Harvestine and Pastor Steve Rasmussen of Winds of the Prairie Parish, Ivanhoe, Minn. Back row: Pastor Todd Nelson and Intern Kathleen Ulland-Klinkner of Our Saviour's, New Ulm, Minn.

It's not an "If"
by Steve McKinley

I was the parent of young children at the time, concerned about their long-term welfare and the long-term welfare of my wife, so I sat down with a life insurance agent to look at my options.

"Let me show you what your family will receive when you die," he said. It is possible that I flinched a little bit at that, and he noticed my flinch. "Some people," he went on, "talk about what life insurance will do if you die. I'm a Christian and a realist. I talk about when you die. There's no 'if' about it. You are going to die."

Roughly 35 years have gone by since that conversation and I am still around, but his point was well made. Death is not an "if."

In seminary classes and pastoral conferences we talk about the function of the pastor "if" there is conflict in the congregation. It's another "if" we should replace with "when." Congregations as gatherings of sinful people (back in the older days of Lutheran theology we used to talk about humans as "totally depraved," but it feels to me like that is too blunt for the 21st century so we will quit at "sinful") are places where conflict naturally happens. Conflict is not even necessarily a sign of sinfulness. Faithful, spiritual, theologically astute, Bible-believing Christian people can still disagree with each other, and when they do, conflict happens.

When I was a young pastor I blamed myself for conflict in my congregations. I thought it was my fault, that if I was doing a better, more faithful job of leading the congregation, there would not be conflict. Conflict in the congregation seemed like a sign that I was failing. It took me a little while to realize that conflict is natural and only results in alienation from another if we allow it to result in such alienation. It took me a little while to learn that, while some conflict is destructive, much of the conflict we deal with in the church can be constructive if we are determined to make it that. Conflict in the church is more a sign of health than a sign of failure.

Many of our congregations are living in conflicted situations for a variety of reasons right now. Sometimes the conflict has to do with issues outside the congregation, such as the decisions regarding matters of sexuality made at the recent ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Sometimes the issues are more local, ranging from worship styles to the appropriate color of paint for the men's restroom. Unfortunately, sometimes the conflict is very personal.

If you are a supervising pastor, an intern, a member of the lay internship committee, or simply a concerned member of a congregation, don't panic! Conflict is not the end of the world or the end of the church or the end of your ministry. As has been said often lately, take a deep breath and remember that conflict in the congregation is a "when" thing and not an "if" thing.

One more cluster meeting

Alaska Cluster: Anchorage, November 8-9 (Julie Josund)