April 2021
Our Mission: Supporting lifelong faith formation in the home and congregation
Prayer Pause

Dear God,

We praise you in this Easter season. Change our lives, change our hearts to be messengers of Easter joy and hope. We make our prayer through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord forever.

Amen.
President's Message

Dear friends,

We can finally proclaim, “Christ is risen!”

We have journeyed through another Lent. We have unburied the Alleluias. We (maybe) have packed up the eggs and baskets. And, if we are really good, we have had a few days of vacation AND cleaned our offices; ready to move into the next season.

When I served as an Associate Pastor, one of the areas I focused on was Faith Formation. Another colleague made the comment that it must be nice to have the summers off from Sunday School. The reality is that, when we serve in faith formation and family ministry, there is no down time. We move from one season to the next. We go from Easter to Pentecost Confirmation services, graduation celebrations to Vacation Bible School and back to fall planning. It is a rhythm that we grow into. Season after season.

Learning Strategies for the Life of Faith Initiative

Featured Church:
Peace Lutheran Church
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Associate Pastor Renae Boehmer and Director of Faith Formation (Teen and Adults) Holly Marty share how Peace Lutheran Church is engaging the Life of Faith Initiative with board member Diane McGeoch.

Describe Peace Lutheran Church

Peace Lutheran is on the west side of Sioux Falls and has 4,000 members. There are 6 worship services, including one on Wednesday and Saturday. The average worship attendance is 1,100 during non- pandemic times with a mix of ages. We are busy all the time, with a preschool and daycare on site. We are surrounded by low-income apartments and have a history of reaching out to our neighbors. We shifted to online worship and zoom meetings during the pandemic but are now doing in-person and parking lot worship with safety guidelines in place. However, our online presence continues.

What was the spark the caused you to connect to the Life of Faith?

Peace has an annual council/staff retreat. We ask at this retreat: What do we do well? What do we do not so well? How can we engage our faith wherever we are? Our confirmation kids invite their friends to church. We wanted to further dig into invite and welcome. What does this mean? We were asking questions about faith in daily life before we attended the immersion experience at Westwood Lutheran Church in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

Book Review
Title: Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks

Author: Diana Butler Bass

Reviewed by: Teresa Kaldor, CENetwork of the ELCA

In one of her most recent books, Grateful, Diana Butler Bass challenges us to look at gratitude from a new perspective. An accomplished writer, religious scholar, and respected commentator on contemporary spirituality, Bass uses historical research, deeply personal anecdotes, and recent events in American politics to explore the complex nature of gratitude for both individuals and communities.

Bass starts with a personal confession of how she has struggled throughout her life with expressing gratitude. She is not alone. Surveys of Americans find that a majority of people feel gratitude on a regular basis and yet there seems to be little evidence of it in our current culture. The author continues by exploring the concept of gratitude, finding that it includes a wide range of emotions as well as actions taken in response to gifts received (what she calls the ethics of gratitude). In addition, gratitude is both personal and communal. For Bass, it is essential to have all these aspects of gratitude for the health of the individual and for the well-being of our society. 

Available on Amazon.com.
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Vision Statement
Building a community which equips, encourages and empowers those engaged in lifelong faith formation in a changing world, the CENetwork will:

  • Identify and evaluate resources and educational opportunities
  • Facilitate communication and conversations
  • Offer guidance, networking and mutual support
  • Nurture spiritual growth online and face-to-face



How You Can Support the Christian Education Network

You can become a member or make a one-time donation via PayPal on our website; or, you can purchase from AmazonSmile and diesignate The Christian Education Network as your charity. We receive a percentage of the proceeds!



Contact Us

CENetwork of the ELCA
P.O. Box 9304
Rochester, MN 55903


Phone messages may be left aft (507) 721-0057