When professionals in children, youth, and family ministry from around the country get together to network, learn, and seek out new resources to support their ministry, Luther Seminary wants to be there.
Each year the ELCA’s Youth Ministry Network runs the Extravaganza, an annual conference drawing together over 1,000 participants—teachers, resource providers, ministry professionals, and other leaders in children, youth and family ministry.
This January, the Luther Seminary contingent included Monica Burt, Tim Coltvet, Bobbi Cyr, Terri Elton, Arlene Flancher, Kari Gostelli, Jen Gruendler, Elizabeth Hood, Kristy Hu, Jessi LeClear Vachta, Nathan Lyke, Megan Moroff, Sharon Schwartz, Jake Summerville, Will Weikle, and Natalie Wussler.
“We showed up in New Orleans in a big way because it’s an important community for us to connect with,” said Arlene Flancher, CYF program coordinator and student advisor at Luther Seminary. “It was a high-energy event—four days of fellowship, education, and renewal. We talked about resources and ministry and in many cases were sought out for opportunities to talk about enrolling at seminary.”
Terri Elton, dean of academic affairs and professor of Leadership at Luther Seminary, taught an intensive care course called Listening, Experimenting, Discerning: Leading Strategically in Unpredictable Times. “Christian ministry continues to become a more complex job and demands more creativity and flexibility from leaders,” said Elton. “In this course, I wanted us to think deeply about how we are planning for the future and how we can do it in new ways.” Participants explored strategic planning practices designed for unpredictable environments.
Flancher partnered with Jen Gruendler, associate director for enrollment services, to present a workshop titled A Handful of Practices to Cultivate Friendworks. (“Friendworks are like networks but a billion times better”, the workshop description says.)
“In our work with students and in our extensive work in congregations, Jen and I have learned how life-sustaining friendships are,” said Flancher.
Gruendler and Flancher were colleagues in congregational ministry over a decade ago and have remaind friends and ministry colleagues ever since. They’ve supported each other through various transitions and through this workshop wanted to share some of their experience and wisdom with others in ministry.
“Ministry can be lonely,” said Gruendler. Our goal was to provide a safe space for honest conversations and to have participants leave the workshop with one concrete thing they can do going forward to support themselves in this often challenging work. Participants were energized and grateful and were willing to be vulnerable with us and with each other.”
Each year at the Extravaganza, Luther Seminary sends staff and hosts an alum and student event of some kind where prospective students and friends are also welcome. Luther also brings recent faculty publications to share with attendees.