The Lutheran

The Lutheran magazine belongs to the people of the ELCA in all our diversity. The magazine nurtures awareness of Christ's presence in our lives and the world, shares stories of God's people living their faith, connects us with the global Christian community, provides an open forum for discussion and challenges us to bring God's grace and care to all.

• Hymns, travel, Trinity & more

  Observations and thoughts on the May issue: • Few things move the heart more than music. Witness tale after tale in our cover article “Favorite hymns” (page 20). Our “reader call” for stories involving favorite hymns met with such a deluge that section editor Elizabeth Hunter swore she’d never do that again: she nearly worked herself sick sifting through all the responses. • Sage advice from Paul Westermeyer, professor of sacred music at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., on diversity and two missteps to avoid: “The idolatry of only singing things from your congregation or only singing hymns from outside your community — destroying your communal identity …. We need both.” So, thanks to my worshiping congregation in Chicago for including the dynamic, delightful Tanzanian hymn “Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia” (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, 364) amid its classical fare on Easter Sunday. Sing it and see if it doesn’t soar in your top hymn pick list. • Settle in with Peter W. Marty’s new series, “Challenging conversations” (page 3). It follows his well-received “Elements of the Lord’s day” column. • Explore the grounds of our Christian faith found in Turkey (page 16). The travel piece introduces those unaware of its history, and underscores the current-day support of the indigenous Christian presence in the Mideast lest our faith be relegated to museums there. • Let’s talk about love, but not the Celine Dion kind. Author/pastor Frank Honeycutt explains that love isn’t a feeling but a way of life learned from others (page 14). And what school offers such an education? The church, of course. • Journey with two ELCA theologians into a discussion about the Trinity and gender (page 18). Like the prayer says of the Bible, I ask that you hear, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest what the authors have to say — and don’t say — on this topic. • It’s hard not to be proud of the students at St. Paul Lutheran School, Waverly, Iowa (page 27). They thought of others, not just themselves, despite the notoriety gained about their canceled tour of the White House. • What a difference 40 years makes. The cost of attending seminary has skyrocketed over that period (page 38). This is the first of three articles on seminary education. • The fallout of declining enrollment and escalating expenses played out recently at Luther Seminary, where a $4 million deficit led to a leadership change, early retirements and layoffs (page 44). There’s cold comfort to be found at Calvin College, a liberal arts institution of the Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Mich. It recently announced it was $115 million in debt.

• A civics lesson gone viral

  Fifteen sixth-graders at St. Paul Lutheran School, Waverly, Iowa, headed off to Washington, D.C., on March 15. It didn’t turn out quite as planned, but the disappointment of a canceled visit to the most famous house in the country taught the students how government works — and sometimes doesn’t.School staff and parents spent two years planning the adventure. Conceived of as a key element in a “capstone project” for students soon to graduate, the trip was intended to teach them about government, citizenship, vocation and to help them grow as people of faith.Along with their teacher, Lynn Brown, and school principal Christi Lines, they visited the U.S. Capitol building, the front steps of the Supreme Court building, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Zoo, Arlington National Cemetery and George Washington’s home in Mount Vernon, Va.Conspicuously absent from the itinerary was the White House. Landing a tour is always chancy because timing is everything (allow too little time to secure gate passes and you can’t get in). The sixth-graders did everything right and received necessary credentials at the last minute.

• A Place at the Table

  Forty-nine million people in America don’t know where their next meal is coming from. One in four American children is food insecure. This documentary, directed by Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush, puts faces on those facts and also profiles citizens and activist groups who are working to end hunger in America.

• Just as I am

  For most of his life, Roger Knight didn’t sing. Knight vividly remembers the day his music teacher walked to his desk, slammed his music book closed and said: “Will you be quiet?” The other second-graders laughed. He loved singing, but that day, humiliated and embarrassed, he stopped doing so in public. For decades while music played and others sang at church, Knight would move his lips, pretending to sing. In 2002, Knight’s wife, Sally, and daughter, Becky Knight Lilly, joined the choir at Trinity Lutheran Church, Westbrook, Maine. His daughter repeatedly invited him to sing with them. Repeatedly and emphatically Knight said, “No.” Yet Lilly knew that when he was a school bus driver he led songs with the kids during the drive. So she surprised him with a gift for his 67th birthday: three singing lessons with the congregation’s choir director, Betty McIntyre. Lilly told her father the lessons were nonrefundable. Not wanting to disappoint his daughter, Knight reluctantly agreed to one lesson. To his amazement, McIntyre helped him relax and enjoy learning songs. Soon he began working on a hymn to offer as a solo. He joined the choir.

• ELCA sabbaticals go global

  Demon possession. Discerning real prophets from false. Dancing in church: yes or no? Tough questions abound in Kathryn Schifferdecker’s classes at the Mekane Yesus Seminary in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Through the ELCA Global Sabbatical Awards program, the professor from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., has spent a semester teaching in the master’s program in practical theology, while husband Doug Steinke serves at the nearby International Lutheran Church. Schifferdecker’s students have bachelor’s degrees in theology and years of experience as pastors and evangelists in the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus. The fastest-growing Lutheran church body in the world, the EECMY recently broke off relations with the ELCA and the Church of Sweden over questions of sexuality. In Ethiopia, awareness of the reality of Satan and evil is acute, and all of Schifferdecker’s students have done exorcisms. “I’ve been challenged to address questions that would never come up in an American classroom, like how to preach the gospel of reconciliation in traditional cultures,” she said. Everything she encounters, from exorcisms and healings to development projects aimed at poverty, is evidence of the Spirit moving in the EECMY, she said. “I see it as ministry to the whole person — about helping people live an abundant life now,” Schifferdecker added. “Classroom discussions have enlarged my vision of ministry and taught me again how broad and deep is the body of Christ around the world.