Category: Blog

“Tension is a sign of life, and the end of tension is a sign of death.” – Parker Palmer

by Amalia Vagts
Executive Director

It is hard to know what to say these days. This week, we had intended to share a guest post about the community gathered in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. That will come. In the meantime, you may want to read Bishop Eaton’s statement here, where she shares why “we are called as a church to support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.”

Instead of the guest post, I first decided to write about my visit to Pacific School of Religion last Friday with Greg Egertson, as we made the first donation of our organizational documents to the Center for LGBTQ & Gender Studies in Religion Archives Project. That is a story I will share with you soon.

But as I tried to write, two phrases kept coming back to me. First, from last week’s Gospel reading from Luke, “This will give you an opportunity to testify.”

Second, from political commentator/comedian John Oliver on a recent segment of his show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, “This is not normal.”

What to do?

While our country has long prided itself on the peaceful transfer of power, many are cautioning against normalizing the current state of affairs.

For example, the Southern Poverty Law Center is currently reporting 437 incidents of hateful speech and harassment since the election. The most common setting for these incidents was in our K-12 schools.

Some in our church are speaking out and acting up against hate and fear and racism, sexism, misogyny, classism, and homophobia in our communities and in our denomination. Some are inviting members of their congregations and community together for reflection and conversation. Some are laying out more specific plans. Some are amping up their engagement with social media. Some are taking a “Facebook break.”

Spirit of Wisdom, Spirit of Counsel

Last week’s reading from Thessalonians included these words: “Do not be weary in doing what is right.”

But which of these is right? It seems to me that all of them are.

Parker Palmer writes in his book, Healing the Heart of Democracy, that “tension is a sign of life, and the end of tension is a sign of death.”

We have much to learn and teach one another in the days ahead.

Because you believe in our ministry, we were here last week to host two video gatherings for members of Proclaim who as LGBTQ+ rostered leaders had to sort through their own reactions to the election while preparing sermons and services for their congregations. And in the days, weeks, and months ahead, you will help us continue supporting LGBTQ+ pastors, deacons, and seminarians. We will also be here to initiate healing conversation and to speak out against intolerance and hatred. Thanks to you, we will be here to bring good news to those who need to hear it.

At the end of the Proclaim calls last week, those on the call were offered this blessing adapted from the baptismal liturgy:

Loving God, stir up once again in your child the gift of your Holy Spirit: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the spirit of joy in your presence, both now and forevermore. Amen.

In a week that seems filled with many more uncertainties than certainties, I look to reminders like these words that we will share in worship this coming Sunday, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Or to summarize my neighbor Megan’s approach: resist normalcy while living fully.

May each of us be strengthened in doing what is right in troubling times.

Amalia Vagts is getting out of bed and getting a hammer and a nail. When she is not helping steer the ship of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries and needs a moment of grounding and refueling these days, you can find her writing, walking, reading, or hanging with Shannon, Feathers, Cadillac, and Tom Cruise on Planet Unicorn. She also suggests a daily dose of this. (the dance, not the green juice)

“I’m thinking about getting carried away.”

by Christephor Gilbert
Communications and Development Coordinator

A little over a year ago, on the drive home from work, I stopped a block from my house and, looking up and out the passenger window, noticed a little boy with what appeared to be his parents.  He was overjoyed and so surprised seeing a butterfly in some grass.  He stumbled while he dizzily watched the colorful fluttering, then looked back to the adults in amazement.  They encouraged him to move into the green, to see the diaphanous object.  There was no hesitation on their part—he was free to investigate.

The traffic light turned green and I was off and running again, caught up in the momentum of life on the brink of change.  That was just a few months before my partner and I sold our house, quit our jobs, and moved to Chicago so that I could pursue a calling toward ordained ministry with the ELCA.

It can be so easy to get caught up in the momentum—the surge and the rush!  We are surrounded by it, in the world and in our church, and it has real, embodied implications—like being picked up and carried along by the enormous crowds at Wrigley right after the Cubs won.

When the velocity of life takes ahold of me it is unbelievably exciting.  Hurtling forward—peripheral vision turning to so much blurry light.  In an instant, the future we see on the horizon becomes the now—and then it is gone before the next big thing sneaks up on us.

It feels good—but sometimes I find it is important to acknowledge that I am caught. I try to turn my head or move my arms; I can’t shift my weight back.

In light of what has happened with the recent election in the United States, I’m thinking about that boy with the butterfly. I’m thinking about getting carried away.

And I’m also thinking about stillness.

And power.

And responsibility.

And I’m wondering what it means to be called and chosen by God.

This question makes me think of a well-known line from the movie Spider Man.  Upon the death of his beloved Uncle Ben, Peter Parker remembers something his uncle said to him earlier in the film:  “With great power comes great responsibility.”  In Luke 12:48 Jesus says almost the same thing:  “For everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required.”  I talk about being called by God to serve the church.  Our forebears in the nation of Israel were called and chosen by God.

What did that mean?  God is clear that the continuance of the covenant with Israel is based on a commitment to the ancestors, and more importantly because of God’s Love (Deut. 8).  Israel was not the biggest, nor the most powerful—in fact God is quick to point out that they “were the fewest of all peoples” (Deut. 7:7).  So why?  Being chosen has nothing to do with anything they have done—it has to do with what God has done.

God has decided to call us, to liberate us from the death-dealing ways of the law and the finality of death.  And we get this gift because we have faith.

Sometimes you have to let the momentum take you until you see the clearing up ahead—the end of the roller coaster, that small space between two people at the edge of the crowd where you can use a little muscle and make your move.

Released, you step back and watch the sheer force of it all move past.

Now I have the space to wander, child-like, into the arms of the other—into the arms of God—and see a different way that is off the beaten path, floating quietly in the wind.

I realize that I am that boy with the butterfly, mystified with hope, encouraged by the dangerous grace that is the church of today.  With new realizations about what a community of faith can embody, girded with truth and standing beside my siblings, I can imagine doing what is required.

No matter where you stand today or tomorrow you are called by God to be in and with the world.

You have great power.  And great responsibility.

Together, we can be the church for children who like to chase butterflies, and for kids, like all of us, whose hearts are stirred by wonder.

Christephor Gilbert is the 2016 Joel Workin Scholar, and when he isn’t in the library or in front of a computer, you might see him—a blur in your peripheral vision–somewhere on US HWY 30, between Chicago where he is in seminary at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he, his, partner, and three cats now call home.  Wave if you get a chance!

“The day was filled with new and renewed connections, learning, sharing, dreaming, disillusionment, honesty, and hope for what’s to come.”

by Amalia Vagts
Executive Director

In his essay, “Oh, you should have been there!” Joel Workin wrote about a question which had been haunting him, “What does it mean to proclaim that “death is swallowed up in victory” to a community that is swallowed up in death?”

Joel was writing in the middle of the AIDS crisis in the late 1980’s. He had just returned from the 1987 March on Washington. A friend wanted to hear the stories – not about the numbers of the crowd or the speeches or the liberation that comes with such an event. She wanted to hear about the  Names Project – AIDS Memorial Quilt.

Joel went on to write, “The God of the march is the God of the quilt. The God of the resurrection is the God of the cross.”

Questions Then, Questions Now

This essay came back to me as I have been reflecting on the inaugural #decolonizeLutheranism gathering just over a week ago in Chicago. I’ve been thinking about what it means to “be there.” Death, suffering, liberation, resurrection. How do we find liberation in the middle of all this pain? I heard stories of suffering and shared some of my own. I experienced the unsettling feelings that come with being in a boat in turbulent water – better to lay down in the boat? Better to take over the rudder? Better to stand up and dive in the water? Better to reposition myself and others for better balance?

Throughout the day, we dwelled in the uncertainty of these questions. The day was filled with new and renewed connections, learning, sharing, dreaming, disillusionment, honesty, and hope for what’s to come.

Together We are the Church

I was happy and not at all surprised that there was a strong showing of Proclaim folks present on the planning team and as participants. Fabulous! We managed to get most Proclaim folks together for the photo above.

Last month, we invited the Rev. Tita Valeriano to share some thoughts in advance of the gathering. Tita was on the #decolonize Lutheranism organizing team and part of Proclaim. If you missed her post, you can read it here. I also invite you to read more about the movement here and check out reflections from two of the organizers of the event. Both are reposted below with permission from the authors – Francisco Herrera and Lenny Duncan (who, by the way, is the vicar at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church where Proclaim member Bryan Penman is pastor – and the featured congregation in our Enrich & Transform video!)

What It’s All About
by Franciso Herrera – Ph.D. student, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

Dear Church:  #DECOLONIZE16 Happened 
by Lenny Duncan – Vicar, St. Marks Lutheran Church

We’re all in this boat together. Or in the water. Or somewhere in between.

Amalia Vagts, executive director of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, is into protesting, reforming, and Mutual Invitation.

“ELM has always had very committed, active board members. We’re ready to ride the waves of change!”

by Rev. Michael Wilker
ELM Secretary and Senior Pastor, Lutheran Church of the Reformation, Washington, D.C.

What do we talk about at an ELM board meeting? Loops and waves. Hegelian sublation and de-colonizing Lutheranism. Healthy sexuality and church leadership.

 

Those things—and generous donors, dedicated staff, creative volunteers, and gospel-proclaiming ministers.

 

The Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries Board of Directors and staff met October 16-18 in downtown Chicago, a short walk from the waves of Lake Michigan. The waves, dazzling under the autumn sun, became a metaphor of sparkling ministries and leaders that bear God’s creative, dynamic grace.

 

Lisa Negstad, a long-time ELM friend and now a consultant, helped us see the waves of change in healthy, living systems—and the various roles leaders can play. We mapped ourselves on—or between—two looping waves that represented the current church and the future that is emerging. Negstad’s workshop was inspired by a TedX video from Deborah Frieze, Boston activist and entrepreneur. Where do you see yourself on the waves of change? Where do you see your ministry?

 

Some other highlights from the board meeting include:

 

•We thanked Rose Beeson for their six years of board service.

•We commissioned Asher O’Callaghan as program director, and Christephor Gilbert as communications and development coordinator

•Amalia Vagts, executive director, and Charlie Horn, treasurer, reported that ELM is financially healthy and continues to receive strong support from donors. Online and monthly giving to ELM are the two fastest growing segments of ELM’s income.

•We rejoiced that 10% of ELCA seminarians are members of ELM’s Proclaim community.

•We organized to address the “failure of imagination” as well as the lack of information in many parts of the church when it comes to raising up and calling LGBTQ ministers.

•Board members Barbara Lundblad and Jeff Johnson led us in courageous prayer and blessed us on our ways.

•We read aloud and prayed for the 239 people in the Proclaim community, giving thanks for these faithful and fabulous rostered leaders and candidates for ministry.

 

ELM has always had very committed, active board members—and we had 100% attendance at this in-person meeting. In prayer, we remembered our families, friends, and congregations that support our work on the board. I’m also grateful to each member of our board. Their compassion, wisdom, and courage is inspiring. Please take a look at the board photo and names. Join me in thanking them—and God—for their leadership and service. We’re ready to ride the waves of change!

 

 

 

Michael Wilker grew up on a hog farm in Southern Minnesota and was the 1982 MN State 4-H Reserve Champion Swine Showman. Now he lives in Washington, DC, with his spouse Judy, and children Maija and Karl—where they and 675,000 other DC resident have no voting representation in Congress. He wrangles worms in the backyard compost and shepherds the flock as senior pastor at Lutheran Church of the Reformation.

 

 

“Share the good news of the ground that ELM is breaking in congregations like yours!”

 

 

by Deacon Lauren Morse-Wendt
Proclaim Member and Mission and Ministry Developer, Edina Community Lutheran Church, MN

 

It’s no secret that Lutherans are passionate about caring for our neighbors, both local and global.  Whether your congregation is engaged in ending hunger, disaster response, sheltering families, or combatting malaria, the story is likely told, as it should be, from the pulpit, in the newsletter, and during coffee time banter.  At our congregation, Edina Community Lutheran Church, we’re sharing another powerful story: the life-giving ministry of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries.

 

In 2016, there are:

 

♦  239 Proclaim members

♦  139 Proclaim members serving congregations and faith settings across nearly every synod

♦  68 Proclaims being accompanied as they go through Candidacy and await first call

 

Expanding the Party

 

We have so much to celebrate as LGBTQ ministry continues to grow in our Church — it’s time to invite all members of all ELCA congregations to the party!  As friends and supporters of ELM, I’d like us to commit together to unleashing what I’m calling the ELCA’s Best Kept Secret . . . and share the good news of the ground that ELM is breaking in congregations just like yours.   How can we expand the party? Here’s a few ideas:

 

♦  Invite a Proclaim member or ELM staffer to share their story during a worship temple talk, adult forum, or with a high school youth group

♦  Meet with your Outreach Committee or Church Council to discuss annual congregational financial support for ELM

♦  Share why you are passionate about ELM & LGBTQ ministry during a worship temple talk or congregational meeting

♦  Write an article or share an ELM blog post in your congregation’s newsletter or community bulletin board

 

Celebrate the Blessing of LGBTQ Rostered Leadership

 

We in the ELCA have so much to celebrate as more and more congregations are blessed by the ministry of LGBTQ rostered leaders — and I’d love to see each one of our congregations touched by the ministry of ELM celebrating that ministry during worship or education time and making a financial gift.  Join me in 2016 and invite your entire congregation to join in the party.  Because, really, we all know ELM knows how to throw a good party . . . and, there’s always room for more!

 

 

Lauren Morse-Wendt is a Diaconal Minister who serves Edina Community Lutheran Church. She’s excited for Halloween, when her wife will take their 4 year old Spiderman trick-or-treating because Lauren feels too guilty to leave trick-or-treaters at their house empty handed!

“I heard God in the words of people who did not look like me and were not from my denomination and whose stories were very different from mine. I need their stories to understand my own.”

by Asher O’Callaghan
ELM Program Director

Asher is a Christian because of you all. Your faithful fabulousness inspires his. He was a speaker at Why Christian? and while in Chicago also got to do lots of other fun things like: Hang out with Proclaim member and Director for Worship Formation and Liturgical Resources at Churchwide, Rev. Kevin Strickland; Meet Christephor Gilbert (ELM’s Communications & Development Coordinator) in-person for the first time ever; And attend his first ever ELCA Conference of Bishops. Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton complimented his shoes! Twice!

by Amalia Vagts
ELM Executive Director

I saw a Facebook post last week related to what some are calling a “clergy gap.”

The post was in response to a recent article in the Living Lutheran magazine examining a growing number of open ELCA calls. 

I couldn’t help but comment, “What clergy gap? What decreasing seminary enrollment?”

It is true that overall, far fewer people are entering the ministry than in the past.

But from the viewpoint of the LGBTQ community, it’s a much different story.

There are currently 68 members of the Proclaim community who are enrolled in seminary, preparing to be Lutheran pastors and deacons.

Overall, there are about 735 people enrolled in ELCA seminarians, according to the most recent statistics.

That means at least 9% of all current ELCA seminarians publicly identify as LGBTQ.

There are 16 Proclaim members seeking a call. I couldn’t locate statistics about how many people overall are seeking calls right now – or how many calls are open. But I do know too many stories about congregations who have said no to talented candidates, simply because they are LGBTQ.

This isn’t just about diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. The report also shows that since 2012, enrollment of persons of color and those whose language is other than English is about 7%. These candidates and pastors face similar challenges (and even more so for those who are LGBTQ persons of color). 

We have an “imagination gap.”

Since 2009, Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries has been urging ELCA bishops, synod staff, candidacy committees, and congregations to open their imaginations to consider who God might be calling to serve as ministry leaders. After a few years of accepting that some “just aren’t ready” for LGBTQ leaders, we’ve realized it’s time to say, “Let us help you get ready.”

Amalia Vagts spent parts of the past five days with a former Lutheran who kinda wants to take his kids to church, an atheist who likes how Nadia Bolz-Weber thinks, a bunch of Evanston, IL Lutherans who performed cabaret songs for each other to raise money for homeless youth, the ELCA Conference of Bishops, and the fabulously queer and brilliant “full-time friends” (i.e. staff) of ELM. Incidentally, she has many scenes from the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory memorized, and had a pretty big crush on Gene Wilder during high school.

A number of members of the Proclaim community are getting involved with a movement called #decolonizeLutheranism. Today we invited the Rev. Tita Valeriano, Proclaim member and one of the organizers of the inaugural gathering, #decolonize16, to share part of her story and connection to the movement. 

It was a bittersweet journey for me when I arrived here in the United States in 1994 from the Philippines. I was reunited with my parents and some of my siblings, but as I arrived I imagined a life with my loved ones in a country that has colonized us. I had just finished my church music school studies in an ecumenical school that had been established to reclaim our identity as Filipino Christians through decolonization and contextualization of worship, liturgy and music in the church and society.

Can you imagine what I experienced learning that I had moved to another colonized world here in the United States? I escaped the freed Philippines which continually suffers from various new forms of colonization to a country built through the power of colonization, hiding its cruel effects and flourishing in power and wealth at the expense of those oppressed, most especially the indigenous people of this country. And the church is not innocent in this. I breathe being a queer immigrant woman of color everyday of my life here and most of the time it is painful. I would like to live as a liberated child of God, not only for myself but for all. This is what I signed up for when I was baptized and followed Jesus Christ. This is Christ’s gift I received, and this is what I was called to be and do.

There are many more stories of colonization, individually and collectively, that all of us have heard and witnessed both in the church and society. They are painful, but also could be liberating and empowering – only if we can transform the oppressive system we live in. You can imagine it perhaps – but can we do it together? I believe that to transform our colonized world is both a gift and a task. We should do it together. We should do it now.

So, I invite you to a grassroots initiative that started in sharing stories and critiquing and exposing the colonization we still experience and live within our society and particularly in our church. A group of seminarians and clergy have started to network, share their stories and challenge themselves in the process of decolonizing themselves. Now we would like to be in solidarity with others in order to widen our reach and impact, for the sake of the gospel of Christ and the church we love. The Decolonizing Lutheranism Gathering, we hope, is to be a platform to challenge and transform the system that continues to be an oppressive power.

As a church, we cannot hide behind our programs and social statements when we continue to experience and live in this system we “inherited,” where some benefit and others suffer, where some are free and some are not. We cannot raise this issue in isolated times, whenever there is a crisis or a big conference, but we want to be responsible to this process and journey of decolonization.  This journey penetrates and permeates the core of our identity, both being and living, as Lutheran Christians in the United States. The #decolonizeLutheranism page will give you more information about who we are and our hopes about who to become. It is not complete; it is evolving.  We hope to do it with you!

#decolonize16, the first conference of the #decolonizeLutheranism movement, will be held Saturday, October 22, 2016 at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (1100 E 55th ST, Chicago, 60615).  Click here for more information about the conference and to register.

Rev. Tita Valeriano was born and raised in the Philippines, a third-generation Lutheran. The youngest of twelve children and a graduate from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, she has served in various ministries of the church, as parish pastor, campus ministry pastor, mission development explorer, and the Lutheran World Federation’s Youth/Young Adult Executive Secretary and Regional Officer for North America. Her ministry has focused on nurturing multicultural, missional church that invites and includes youth and young adults, people of color, and those at the margins of the society. Aside from music, liturgy and advocacy, her other passions that inspire and gives her joy her are traveling and meeting people from various cultures, photography, and practicing her international cooking with gathered friends in her home with her spouse, Jennifer and Taal, their toddler son.

by Asher O’Callaghan
ELM Program Director

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Isa 55:10-11

As the seasons are changing from summer to fall, so the schedules for many Proclaim seminarians are changing. They’re back on campus (or on-line in their virtual campus!) from their Clinical Pastoral Education settings, from summer jobs, and from internship placements. And many have come from wherever they called home to their seminary campuses and are beginning to settle into their first year of courses. At most campuses, orientation is over and the fall semester is officially underway.

Recently I had the joy of meeting with the ELM Seminarian Outreach Team for this school year. The team is convened by Ben Hogue, a 3^rd year student at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, and is made up of one or two seminarian representatives from each of the schools where Proclaimers are attending. We meet once a month to compare notes about what’s happening on each campus and share ideas and brainstorm on work to do within their campus communities.

Each of the representatives on the call was going to be involved in their seminary’s orientation for new students. We discussed ways that people were getting the word out about the Proclaim community and the work of ELM. It was great to hear about the work being done on campuses across the country. And it was a great reminder of importance of the whole scope of ELM’s work:

The Proclaim community gives seminarians who might be figuring out what it means to be out as an LGBTQ person and a public leader in the church a whole network of colleagues to walk on the journey with. The Accompaniment program provides resources and support as people move through the candidacy process and into first call. And Ministry Engagement works with synods and congregations to help create healthy call opportunities for these future leaders.

Even so, going through seminary is not without its challenges. The future feels like it’s up in the air. Finances are tight. It’s stressful figuring out how to be out on campus and as a public leader. And of course there’s all the reading assignments, deadlines, and papers to attend to.

So to all of you who are supporting our Proclaim seminarians: THANK YOU!

To our seminarians themselves: THANK YOU! For saying “yes” to God’s call. For taking on the expenses and sacrifices that have followed. For offering up your gifts to God, the church, and the world. For being out and letting your light shine brightly so that others know that they are not alone, that God’s outrageous love is for them. Thank you for what you’re doing and who you are.

If you’re not a seminarian, let’s take a moment and hold our Proclaim seminarians in prayer:

Loving God,

Accomplish in us all the work you have called us to. We pray especially for LGBTQ seminarians as they begin another school year. We give thanks to you for their gifts, for their identities, for their willingness to heed your call and the sacrifices they’ve made to do so. Raise them up as bold, faithful, and fabulous leaders in the church for the sake of your world. Kindle in them the flame. Surround them with colleagues through Proclaim and use this community to support them during times of hardship. Strengthen them in your Spirit – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of God, a Spirit of joy in your presence both now and forever more. In the name of Christ, our head. Amen.

Asher O’Callaghan is very happy to know such fabulous leaders are in seminary and preparing for rostered ministry in our church. He remembers being grateful for the Proclaim community during seminary and prays that it continues to be a source of support and inspiration for others. Asher is celebrating the changing seasons with pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin beer, pumpkin pie, and an abundance of other pumpkin-flavored baked goods.

by Amalia Vagts
ELM Executive Director

On Tuesday of this week, I was in Tacoma, Washington as Proclaim member (and former ELM program director) Rev. Jen Rude was installed as University Pastor at Pacific Lutheran University. 

As we waited for the installation service to start, Rev. Jeff Johnson, also in town for the service, handed me a copy of PLU’s Mast Magazine. There was Jen on the cover with the headline “PLU’s first openly queer Campus Pastor preaches a message of diversity, intersectionality and activism.”

It is fantastic to see your support in action as Jen and other LGBTQ people in ministry lead many different parts of church and society.

It wasn’t long ago (on June 30) that ELM and Grace friends gathered at Grace Lutheran Evanston to say goodbye to Jen and Deb Derylak, Jen’s spouse.

Rev. Daniel Ruen (pastor at Grace) and I co-emceed the evening, which included a blessing from Rev. Gordon Straw (member of Grace and the ELM board), friends from Grace, a group prayer led by Rev. Erik Christensen, a rewrite of the song “Jackson” (“Tacoma,” of course), a few other good-natured jokes at Jen and Deb’s expense, and many heartfelt tributes. The ELM Board sent Jen and Deb off with a care package of future experiences in their new hometown and a great deal of gratitude. ELM Co-Chairs Rev. Elise Brown and Rev. Brad Froslee both attended as a surprise to Jen and Deb. ELM friend Jim Kowalski organized the event, with the help of many volunteers from Grace and ELM.

This is an important message for Jen and Deb as they soar into their new lives, firmly grounded in the love that embraced them in Chicago and at ELM. It is also a message for all of us called into new ways of being church – together – new ways of loving our history and our future.  You can “know where you’re from,” and “still want to fly.”

As I gathered with members of Jen’s new community at Pacific Lutheran University, I couldn’t help but think about all the ways Jen has left her lasting impact on ELM – and of the incredible ways she will affect the Tacoma community and beyond in her new call.

Amalia Vagts is grateful for a community that is filled with people who are remarkable – and who induce much needed belly laughs. She also thinks her bitmoji (cartoon) may come to life at any moment and take over.