It started in May 2024 with an email from Pastor Adam Gless, a former student of Kent’s, inviting us “to come and visit Salem,” in order to provide “material for your research and presentation.” Pastors Gless and Martin, who serve at a bilingual congregation, had heard that Kent and I were giving a plenary address […]
Following Rhoda’s post two weeks ago on joint rituals and last week’s aside celebrating Rhoda’s book signing event at St. John, Wheaton, IL, this week we turn to the most mundane, and potentially disruptive of topics: Money or Financing a Joint Catechumenate. I believe it helpful to preface this topic with Jesus’ words from Luke […]
St. John Lutheran Church is one of the four congregations that we researched for our book Journey to Jesus; chapter 2 features the story of the adult catechumenate at St. John. One couple I interviewed described the weekly catechumenal sessions as “Ted Talks for Lutherans,” their way of emphasizing the vast knowledge and polished delivery […]
Many congregations with an adult catechumenate include rituals that mark the transitions from one stage of the catechumenate to the next. Our regular readers know that Kent and I are strong proponents of ritual for a variety of reasons. These are suggestions for how and where the traditional rituals might be celebrated throughout a catechumenal […]
As I wrote in the blog post several weeks ago regarding congregations working together in a catechumenate, a joint catechumenate expands the pastoral and ministerial resources with two or more pastors and ministerial associates leading the catechumenate together. This mitigates against the demands of time and energy for the pastors and coalesces the imaginative, planning, […]
In Acts 13 as Paul and Barnabas are proclaiming the Word of the Lord to the synagogue in Antioch, some of the Jews willingly hear what they have to say while others contradict and contend with them. Which leads Paul to say, “For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have made you a […]
This week’s blog expands on two points Kent made last week: I make one assumption, namely, that most “compact congregations” have one pastor and no “second chair” paid staff (in LCMS jargon, no commissioned minister on staff). As I mulled over this topic, the words of the hymn, Hark, the Voice of Jesus Calling (Lutheran […]
The challenges for compact congregations in developing robust catechumenates are apparent, as we have expressed in this series’ first two posts. We turn to addressing collaborative opportunities that would allow compact congregations to address those challenges. The first opportunity is for congregations to collaborate in developing an adult catechumenate. These could be congregations in the […]
This week we are taking a break from our series on “Compact Congregations,” as both of us have been traveling. I’m recently returned from Pewaukee, Wisconsin where I attended the annual gathering of the Lutheran Deaconess Conference, whose membership is deaconesses trained by the Lutheran Diaconal Association, founded in 1919. One of the highlights of […]
Last week Kent outlined some of the challenges that face “compact” (aka, small) congregations: lethargy that impedes change; the small number of adult catechumens; congregational isolation and American individualism; and conflict within a congregation. Today’s post considers a compact congregation’s challenges with regard to the staffing, time, and energy required to introduce a robust catechumenal […]