In This Edition
Featured Blog Post
Coaching Opportunities for NT-NL Leaders
Recording of Synod Assembly
International Women Leaders Graduation Celebration
Remembering the Emanuel Nine
New this Fall: Certificate in Climate Justice and Faith at PLTS
Sparkhouse Digital: Summer Activity Kits
Upcoming Installation
Upcoming Events
Featured Blog Post
Dear NT-NL Leaders:
With five months of 2021 behind us I believe we can say without a doubt that this continues to a year of great challenge and also great opportunity. The acute challenge of the pandemic continues thus far to ease as cases of Covid-19 continue to decline across our territory. However, the challenges of living into a hybrid, changed, culture and reality continue. Yet with these challenges come opportunities, and you are living into those as well. So as we begin summer I wanted to ensure you were aware of some upcoming opportunities for you and your communities…
–2022 ELCA Youth Gathering Information Session June 3 at 10am: Youth leaders are invited to join online for information about the 2022 ELCA Youth Gathering.
–Synod Re-Gathering Celebration and Worship September 11: Come join us for a day at Briarwood for food, fun, and worship. The Rev. Christopher Otten, ELCA Director of Chaplaincy, will be present with us to preach. All ages are welcome.
-The NT-NL Parish Lay Ministry Academy offers online and in fall is considering the return to in-person as demand indicates. A great way to deepen your leaders skills and knowledge. English and Spanish tracks are available.
–Leadership Convocation October 18-20: The event will be held in person and will focus on leading into our new hybrid reality.
-Gatherings at Briarwood: Briarwood is open for gatherings of congregations and groups. Please contact avery@bwtx.org to check availability.
This has been a challenging season for us all. There is much we can learn and process from this time. Pastor Kris Totzke has been trained in the Leadership for Faithful Innovation (LFI) curriculum and is available to work with your conference or congregation. Your DEM Irma Banales and the NT-NL Stewardship team are also available to you. These are ways we continue to see opportunity and hope in the midst of the challenges we face. I am grateful for all that you as leaders have done faithfully so far in 2021 and look forward to the future.
In Christ,
Bishop Gronberg
Coaching Opportunities for NT-NL Leaders
Partners in Ministry:
For over a decade now I have had the privilege in being involved in coaching ministry in the ELCA and NT-NL. In that time I have witnessed how coaching can make leaders more effective, insightful, and self-aware. Coaching is an intentional relationship in which the goals and learning of the person being coached is the focus. A good coach asks insightful questions, reflects the responses, and helps the coachee set and be accountable for their goals. What I love about coaching is that a good coach doesn’t provide the solution to the challenge but instead helps the coachee find that solution for themselves.
At our assembly you heard from Jill Beverlin, coordinator of coaching for the ELCA and a good friend of NT-NL. That video is available here: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/539881511. She outlined the number of opportunities both for those interested in being trained as a coach as well as being coached. This is a way you can help us also. Ironically, one of the biggest challenges we face in coaching has been finding individuals willing to be coached. You can request a coach from NT-NL or beyond here.
We are continuing to lead in a challenging time. And coaching can assist you and your leaders. Another opportunity specifically for Pastors in this time is a cohort model we are developing with the help of the Rev. Dr. Wayne Menking. This cohort (information can be found here) will draw on his expertise as a pastor, chaplain, and CPE supervisor to provide a short term community of leaders who want to be intentional about their leadership in this time. To share the challenges they face but also move beyond that into learning new ways of leading.
Coaching. Participating in a leadership cohort. Working with the Rev. Kris Totzke and the Leadership for Faithful Innovation process. Being part of the LEAD Journey. These are all ways we as synod are working to partner with you, NT-NL leaders, to learn and grow together.
In Christ,
Bishop Gronberg
Recording of Synod Assembly
We have edited out the breakout room time and the breaks, and here is the recording from our Synod Assembly this year:
International Women Leaders Celebration
When: Wednesday, June 16, at 10 a.m. Central time
Where: Premiered on the ELCA Facebook Page
RSVP at our Facebook event; Facebook account not required to watch event. This event will be rebroadcast on the ELCA YouTube channel at 8 p.m. Central time.
You are cordially invited to celebrate the 2021 graduating class of International Women Leaders scholars. The International Women Leaders scholarship program was established in 2014. This will be the third full graduating class to complete their undergraduate degrees at ELCA colleges and universities.
Class of 2021
- Rebeca Amaro Treviño, Wartburg College
Mexican Lutheran Church - Marina Fomgbami, St. Olaf College
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cameroon - Tamar Haddad, California Lutheran University
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land - Salinla Manowong, Luther College
Church of Christ in Thailand - Dinah Murekatete, Lenoir-Rhyne University
Lutheran Church of Rwanda - Dora Pomdooh Houma, Concordia College
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cameroon
Keynote Speaker
- Christine Mangale, program director for the Lutheran Office for World Community; former International Leaders Program scholarship recipient
Through the International Women Leaders program, we are boldly investing in established and emerging women leaders from our global companion churches. Gifts to this program help support the education of 200 additional international women through educational seminars, south-to-south exchanges, in-country study programs, and degree programs at ELCA colleges and universities.
Remembering the Emanuel Nine
As part of the 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, voting members adopted a resolution designating June 17 as a commemoration of the martyrdom of the Emanuel Nine — the nine people shot and killed on June 17, 2015, during a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. A collection of resources is available to help synods and congregations mark this commemoration. These resources can be adapted for virtual worship, online conversation, or individual reflection and devotion. Synods and congregations are encouraged to mark this commemoration locally. Please email worship@elca.org if your synod or congregation is planning a dedicated, online commemoration service that you wish to share with others. May God continue to guide us as we seek repentance, renewal, and racial justice and reconciliation among God’s precious children. Learn more.
New this Fall: Certificate in Climate Justice and Faith at PLTS
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary’s certificate in climate justice and faith offers a cohort-based, online curriculum that empowers participants to cultivate moral, spiritual and practical leadership in the work of climate justice, both in communities of faith and in collaboration with others. Topics covered include theology, ethics and spirituality related to climate justice; climate change knowledge; and social change practices that connect ecological well-being with racial, economic and gender justice. Lay and rostered leaders throughout the Lutheran World Federation and from other faith traditions are invited to apply. The program is scheduled for September 2021–May 2022. Applications being accepted now through June 15, 2021. Learn more.
Sparkhouse Digital: Summer Activity Kits
In addition to the usual benefits of using Sparkhouse Digital, such as ease of planning Sunday school and confirmation, Sparkhouse has been increasing the number of exclusive extras available on its platform. Following the popularity of the Lent digital activity kits, which included over a dozen downloadable activities for each age group, Sparkhouse released summer digital activity kits on May 6. Subscribe to Sparkhouse Digital to access leader guides for all its curricula, all its videos for children and youth, and exclusive extras such as the digital activity kits!
Upcoming Installation
The Rev. Will Foster, called to serve Trinity, Fort Worth, will be installed on June 6.
Upcoming Events
With the ever-changing guidelines and recommendations in our world right now, as we maintain physical distance in social solidarity, please keep in mind these events may be moved online, postponed, or cancelled:
- Jun. 3: Transitional (Interim) Pastors monthly meeting, Zoom
- Jun. 8: White Supremacy & Racism: Facing Reality, Taking Responsibility – Derrick Bell, “Chronicle of the Constitutional Contradiction,” Zoom
- Jun. 12: Public Witness Team meeting, Online
- Jun. 22: White Supremacy & Racism: Facing Reality, Taking Responsibility – Selections from Bernestine Singley, ed., When Race Becomes Real: Black and White Writers Confront Their Personal Histories, Zoom
- Jul. 1: Transitional (Interim) Pastors monthly meeting, Zoom
- Jul. 6: White Supremacy & Racism: Facing Reality, Taking Responsibility – Derrick Bell, “The Space Traders,” Zoom
For a complete list of upcoming events, you can access our Calendar of Events online.