Pizza on the deck!

grinerGUYS

along with Andrea and Heidi
so great to once again move outdoors!

Hennipin Ave. United Methodist Team

I spend a lot of my time convincing groups they need a relational team of caring adults who do not consider themselves “ just volunteers” or “chaperones” but instead are full relational partners in ministry that make a huge difference in the life of kids and their families. The team I got to work with yesterday are well on their way to being such a team. What a joy!

Okay, they still can’t lower that bar to the floor. Such a seemingly easy task that continues to end up going in the opposite direction.

Spring --- maybe it is finally here? Nice early morning run. --- Flocks of happy returning robins everywhere. (Not sure how I know they are happy --- maybe the smiles on their faces??? Maybe the geese told me?)

Richard Rohr

It was a week ago Andrea, Michelle, Peter and myself got to hear Father Richard Rohr a Franciscan Preist from New Mexico ... Part of my Easter day ended at a coffee shop stealing some of Richard's words and thinking about how they fit with my own thinking. What follows are some rather random thoughts...

It is when we are on the edge of life; in the midst of the great joys and great sorrows that I am most aware of God. Strange that it is in the deepest drama of life itself that I most sense a genuine prayer. It is less about the examples, the classes, the retreats, the books, the various practices, all of which must have helped shape me and given meaning to prayer, I am sure. All of which I have used thinking I will be more centered, which I have assumed meant being closer to God. Could it be that it is when I am furthest away from center in these great joys, great sorrows, most troubled, when I am most unbalanced, that I am also most awake, that I am most attentive to God’s being. Being is prayer.

God does not love us because we are good. God loves us because God is good. Thus it is not earned. It is only lived in. At it’s best religion is doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God. Even this is not a demand it is only a response out of unfathomable appreciation for something I cannot fully understand. In gratefulness I become more and more passionate in my wanting to share.

This goes so against most religion that worries more about who is in or who is out, who is right or left, who is up who is down, gay or straight, born again or born again and again and again, who can have communion or who can’t, if the music should be by Johann Sebastian Bach or Michael W. Smith, oh my, who should throw the first stone! Trying to keep religion pure, trying to do it right must be a very exhausting and defeating.

It is not about protection… it is about proclamation. I can only share what I have learned, experienced, wonder, and sense as I continue to discover this loving, graceful God, who I must admit, I only get glimpses of. I proclaim and share a faith that becomes more and more a mystery. As I continue to learn I know I know something, but that is only enough to know I know very, very little. Accepting mystery, accepting multiplicity, drops all need to defend or be defensive when I hear or see things not of my experience, understanding or even belief. --- Still, I confess a desire to prove you, whoever disagrees with me, wrong. I have to protect my belief that protection is not important. – Ouch! – So I continue to learn to listen, love, experience, value relationship, grow in my passions, be still, and learn to let God be God.

NW ELCA Synod Youth Gathering

Another fun youth gathering... sharing the mircrophone with Dayle and uplifting the definelty-abled. Music with David Schere and Rachel Kurtz (and one kicking back up band!)

Signature Coaching

Three days with some of the best of the best from around the country working and preparing for more Institute sponsored coaching.

Worm Moon

according to the Farmers' Almanac.

• Full Worm - March Moon As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.

Teaching Passion

Content
+Relationship
+Skill
+Method
+Passion
=Learning

I am a facilitator, trainer, coach, and teacher. Basically I teach people how to teach. My beginnings were in middle school education at the University of Northern Iowa, which is a foundation that has served me well. Through the years I have learned to sit down, talk less, and listen more. My formula for teaching began with the first two words, with skill, method and passion added later.

Passion is something often recognized by the sound of ones voice, the sparkle in a person’s eye an enthusiasm that oozes out of them, a fire in the belly (Nathan's line) or even a heated urgency. Passionate people are often associated with loud fast speaking, but not necessarily so. I also see passion in the quiet, heart felt wisdom, of the person who speaks only a few words, but behind those words you can sense a deep sincerity.

So as a teacher of teachers, I wonder, can passion be taught? For a while I saw passion as something that had to be caught, more than taught, the idea that if you expose learners to passionate people, it may rub off on them. In a discussion over email with one of my Augsburg students I discovered a line out of Dangerous Wonder by Mike Yaconelli. “Passion can’t be fabricated or manipulated. Passion springs from gratitude”

If this is true, then reaching passion can come from learning to be grateful. Maybe it is so. My passions are the things I love to do most, the beliefs I hold dear to my heart, experiences I would never give up, my fondest relationships, and the surprising moments of discovery. Most all of these can be summed up in recognizing that I am so grateful that I can do, believe, experience, relate and discover. What I am most grateful for becomes my passion.

Okay a confession… I like listening to talk radio. Not a lot, but enough to catch the entertainment value of loud angry white men getting paid to riel people enough to tune in and call in. (Just for fun I sometimes count accusatory pronouns such as, they, them, and those people. Seem to average about 5 per minute.) I admit they sound passionate, but an aggressive, angry kind of passion. Are they grateful? Assuming behind their rants they actually believe what they profess must come from a belief, experience, relationship, or discovery that feels threatening by all the theys, thems and those peoples. When something grateful is challenged, or attacked, people may respond with passionate angry.

So, grateful! Teach people to name what they are most grateful for and they will discover their passions. True, passion cannot be fabricated or manipulated. But I can invite people to become conscious of and name what they are grateful for.

Slip Sliding Away

Wow! 41º

It's a February heat wave.

After some very cold weeks I was able to get back out running along the creek.
Got as far as an ice flow coming down the side of the hill.
Tried to stand still but...

Tapestry

a bit of my world with the Institute...
more fun than is leagaly Lutheran to have! (as Marilyn would say)

The Youth and Family Tapestry of Leadership

As an Institute we are proud and honored to have become one of the major weavers in the fabric of leadership training for the Youth and Family movement. Direct leadership opportunities on all levels and stages are part of this of influence that includes youth, family members, congregational leaders, professional staff and clergy, undergraduate degrees and advanced degrees.

Examples include these vital threads.

…Youth learning about Peer Ministry, the core training for frontline caring ministry.

… Large numbers of congregational members learn in quickly at Passing on the Faith Conferences a new paradigm for partnering homes and congregations.

…Staff and volunteers getting a huge jump start at the 3-week Certification School, which is a partnership with our Institute and The Center for Youth Ministry at Wartburg Theological Seminary, offers professionals, volunteers and clergy an emersion experience into the latest studies, skills and practices in Youth and Family ministry.

… Congregations and staff who we walk with over longer periods of time with our Signature Coaching.

… Staler undergrad programs at Augsburg College’s Youth and Family Ministry major, now 55 students strong, and Concordia St. Paul’s D.C.E. major, where our staff teaches.

…Graduate influence as we are invited in to teach at Wartburg Theological Seminary, and Luther Seminary.

Countless others invite us to participate and teach in the midst of places like the ELCA Youth Ministry Extravaganza, Princeton Forums on Youth Ministry and youth gatherings such as the National Episcopal Youth Event, The Disciple Projects in Texas and South Dakota.

These are just a few of the threads of an amazing tapestry created by leaders of all ages and influences. We at the The Youth & Family Institute want to say thank you to the thousands that we get to connect with through out a year. Lyle Griner, the Institute’s Peer Ministry Director, says, “We are about nothing less then changing the world, be it one person at a time.”

No matter who you are, or what level of ministry you serve at, we look hope you join in soon creating a relational web encircling the children of all ages in our hands.

Augustana College

Got to share the microphone with Jonathan Rundman this weekend in Sioux Falls as High School kids and leaders gathered for their "FaithFest" annual youth gathering.

I often say there is a huge difference between “youth group” and “youth ministry.” Youth group focuses inward. It has a club mentality. Youth ministry focuses outward... Caring about one’s neighbor, feeding sheep, doing onto the least, doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with our God. Youth ministry kids are kids who are honest about the world not always coating it in “happy slappy” Jesus songs, bowling nights, or strangely painted youth rooms hidden away from the rest of the congregation. Okay, I like a little “happy slappy” myself.

Maybe it is time for a new scorecard. Instead of evaluating youth group success by how many kids showed up maybe we should count…
➢ The number of kids trained to care for other kids
➢ Parents equipped with specific ways (“four keys”) of faith practices in their homes.
➢ God parents, grandparents, anuts and uncles who are intentionally given ways to nurture faith
➢ Intergenerational experiences where young kids to old, old adults hear each others stories
➢ Numbers of adult mentors who surround each child
➢ The times that kids are intentionally exposed to community situations where people live their faith outside the “god boxes” we create.
➢ Times kids get to learn from other’s stories who are “different” because of race, economics, cultural differences, and
➢ Kids who have found ways to be a part of a congregation community by leading with their own skills and interest. (Kids are either leading or they are leaving.)

I am not against kids gathering, it is just that teaching kids that a youth group is a way to get away from, even hide from everything else that is going on around them, may not be the best method. No more “holy huddles.” At least not without going into the world that surrounds us.

I am of course a bit bias, but Peer Ministry is the way for kids to deal with the realities of life that in their young ages they already have to deal with. It is the way to have support from adults equipped to walk with. One of the beautiful things about the Good Samaritan story is that the Samaritan takes the wounded person to the Inn Keeper. Kids need to know who the Inn Keepers are and how to guide their friends to them as they walk along side.
(Kathi, you got me going this morning!)

Tampa 3rd night

Out with a few of the best training crew in the world!

Two days with the Intensive Care course for a delightful crew of beginning youth ministers.

Two good runs along the bay. Missed the tornados last night!

Tampa 1st night

Arrived in Tampa --- Downtown Hyatt, getting ready to start teaching for a prevent at the Youth Ministry Extravaganza, a yearly gathering of ELCA Youth Ministers from around the country.

Walking through the area I came across the Tampa theater and found a lone ticket in the 3rd row for the Los Lonely Boys (How Far Is Heaven?) Darn fun bluesy foot stomping, body swaying rock and roll show. The three brothers, Henry, Jo Jo and Ringo, deserve their Grammies. "It's just a mixture of everything we've learned: conjunto music from our father, Richie Valens, Stevie Ray, Willie. All the music that we've gathered… Fats Domino, Santana, Skynyrd." This is a variation on what Henry likes to call "the musical burrito theory,"

...and the night ends with the moon peaking through the clouds behind the Cathedral.

My story – Your story – God’s story – Our story

Some great winter runs this week.
And the Ballet!
Thanks Sara for inviting us and for the great dance performance!

There is an old Hassidic parable ending with “God made humankind because God loves stories.”

Maybe much of ministry, if not all, can be summed up in the exchange of story.

My story – Your story – God’s story – Our story

Some say the greatest human need is to be understood.

Understanding takes the willingness to want to hear another’s story. Not one sided, understanding requires the vulnerability of trusting another, allowing my story to be heard. In the midst of such give and take, such openness mixed with exposure, is cradled the story of God. God’s story coming to us in word, history, written, spoken, experienced, lived, felt… all mixed with the understanding of the intellects, the mystics and the poets. God’s stories, your stories and my story all become our story. How sad to try and separate one from another. The Body of Christ equaling our story. I best understand ministry as the bringing together of stories.

Candle Time

Sniffles are gone, a light snow coming down, a pleasant 20° so it is time to get back out there and run.

Morning Candle Time…

• Marie “How Can I Keep From Singing”
• Renee and the 3 mad dogs
• Rob --- peace, in my thoughts a lot
• Dr. V. --- peace, strength
• Dave D. --- strength, my empowering gift namer
• Marilyn all the family surrounding Larry
• Nathan, new walks
• Nick, dreams
• Me… words and wisdom
• Institute friends… for guidance

Back to work...

...and back to class. Augsburg--- a new semester. I arrived at the room greeted by three students from last year’s class. Honoring. Privileged to be part of these students dreams.

Sabbatical Almost Over

Sam a nephew to be. (darn cute) --- Nathan a year older. (also darn cute)

(Camara finally repaired!)

Only three more sabbatical days.
Where did it go?
Why is the long list still long?

The Bad Plus

Boys night out on the town... Nathan's treat (thanks bud!)
The Dakota on Nicollet down town Minneapolis to see the The Bad Plus. Top notch jazz trio that sales out two shows in a row all three nights.

Andrea

Pictures from 0utside the Signature Cafe in St. Paul.
December 22nd.
Yes, that is a ring.
A surprise relationship, many commonalities, dreams, a world worth pursuing and sharing together.

Christmas 2006

Merry Christmas

from
Nick & Tanya
Nate & Nancy
Lyle & Murphy

Christmas comes

I can do this... a clean house, a dinner, presents, getting dad here. Not bad for a guy.

In the midst of a war, disease, of homeless, illegal immigrants trying to provide for families, of changing relationships, and lose of people loved, Christmas still comes.