Thanksgiving

Earlier this week Concordia University, St. Paul hosted a book event to celebrate the publication of Journey to Jesus as a resource for the church. I had the “opportunity to thank publicly a host of people who helped bring this book to birth,” from my co-author, Kent Burreson—who had a vision for conducting research on the adult catechumenate and who invited me to join him in this project—to the student worker, Madi Patrow (now a DCE graduate serving in a congregation in the Twin Cities area) who “transformed my scribbled, chaotic [handwritten] interview notes into pages of order and beauty” (the quotations are from my comments at the event).

In addition to my public thanks to many, I also shared a bit about the book itself and our goals. Here’s what Kent and I submitted as our goal for the grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, which funded our initial research: “… to identify, implement and disseminate our findings about successful catechumenate practices in order to reshape and renew congregational life for American Lutherans” (emphasis added). We were a bit more modest in Journey to Jesus, closing chapter 1 with these words:

We make no claims of a magic bullet to save declining congregations,

nor do we offer a step-by-step “program” to implement

an adult catechumenate in congregations.

Instead, our research has led us to be descriptive, not prescriptive;

we narrate stories of individual lives changed

and of congregations with an ethos of outreach

in order to inspire pastors

and other church professionals committed to making disciples

to think in new ways (10).

It is our hope that people who read the book envision how they might structure an adult faith formation process that both “makes disciples” and imbues the entire congregation with a missional ethos, eager to be a winsome witness in the world.

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It was wonderful to have many friends and colleagues attend this event at CSP. And yes, I sold and signed more books!

Photos by Kristi Bauer, 2025