- LOM collaborations throughout the ELCA are gaining momentum. This was obvious to me in my recent round of visits and meetings at ELCA Churchwide. We are making great strides in our collaborative work with the Youth Ministry Network, Youth Ministry Gathering, Lutheran Men in Mission, ELCA Area Mission Strategies, Lay Schools for Ministry, and Mission Investment Fund. Check out my recent blog postings for more details on these exciting and growing collaborations.
- With an executive director, LOM is already reaping the benefit of a unifying voice with a national presence on behalf of all of the LOM member camps and retreat centers. One example is the opportunity we are being given to have impact on the ELCA organization known as Lutherans Restoring Creation.
- The initial round of site visits has already had its rewards for all of us in LOM. Ideas, trends, and opportunities are being shared around the whole network as the executive director’s office becomes a gathering platform for the sharing of resources that can benefit all.
- LOM now offers the services of a contact person to offer help and guidance in times of crisis, conflict resolution, executive transition and search, and referral to outside resources. As the strategic plan for LOM envisions, outdoor ministry organizations are already turning more frequently to LOM for these kinds of consultations.
- We will soon see the result of strengthened affiliations with like-minded organizations when we partner with the UMC Camps and Conferences in providing occasional webinars and podcasts that will expand the LOM commitment to provide ongoing educational opportunities throughout the whole year.
As part of our March 2016 LOM News, which will be distributed soon, we will be publishing lists of the organizations and individuals who have made contributions to LOM during 2015. To everyone on these lists, I extend gratitude from the whole outdoor ministry network. THANK YOU!!! Your financial contributions are paving the way for a bright future for LOM. That future is already shining brightly as we move into 2016. Here’s just a few of the ways this is already taking shape:
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Executive Director Don Johnson will occasionally post reflections as he travels to Lutheran Outdoor Ministry sites. Here is his latest entry from his travels in December 2015:
I’m still behind in posting blogs about my travels, but no less enthusiastic about my travels. Just before Christmas, I made a trek to Chicago for a couple days at ELCA Churchwide Headquarters and then a visit to a few outdoor ministry sites closest to Chicago. It was a very valuable opportunity to open up some good channels of communication and collaboration throughout all of the ELCA.
Please see the two attached documents for an important message from Lindsey Scheid, LOM Board President.
Executive Director Don Johnson will occasionally post reflections as he travels to Lutheran Outdoor Ministry sites. Here is his latest entry from his travels on November 30- December 5, 2015:
This was a great week for meeting new outdoor ministry folks and reconnecting with some who I’ve known for a long time. The week ended by representing LOM at a significant event in the life of the ELCA. On Monday, November 30, I flew to Milwaukee, rented a car, and then drove to Minocqua, way up in northern Wisconsin. The occasion was the annual gathering for ELCA Region 5 outdoor ministry leaders. There’s some outstanding ministry brewing in Region 5! All kinds of excellent programs and creative ideas are being implemented. Many of these creative programming ideas bubbled up as we went through the “asset mapping” process facilitated by a consultant by the name of Luther Snow. It was fun to get to know and interact with so many ultra-committed, enthusiastic, creative leaders. The Region 5 Gathering concluded at noon on Wednesday, and from there I headed south to Madison, WI. I met with Paul Petersen, the executive director of Bethel Horizons, at Bethel Lutheran Church. Bethel Horizons is owned by Bethel Lutheran Church and Paul, in addition to serving as the executive director, serves on the pastoral staff of Bethel Lutheran Church. We had good conversation and we made a commitment for me to visit at the Bethel Horizons site in Dodgeville upon my next trip to Wisconsin. I also had the good fortune to meet the new program director for Bethel Horizons, Patrick Tenney. Patrick and Paul are going to be a great team, along with the staff on site at Bethel Horizons, for giving leadership for this outstanding outdoor ministry program. I then headed south and on Thursday morning I visited Ewalu Camp and Retreat Center in Strawberry Point, Iowa. Ewalu is in a beautiful setting set on over 500 acres of woods, stream, and rolling hills right there in the middle of all the Iowa corn fields. I was disappointed that I didn’t have the opportunity to meet the executive director, Clark Baldwin. Clark was out on the west coast at that time meeting for the first time his first grandchild. I did get to briefly see Tina Vaughn, the current intern at Ewalu, before she had to run off to an appointment at a nearby congregation. I did have the opportunity to have extended conversation with Jesse Klosterboer, associate director for program and development; Kati Stieler, environmental education curriculum developer and marketing manager; and David Stieler, environmental education director. It was so good to learn about the many diverse programs that take place at Ewalu, and to hear their concerns as outdoor ministry professionals in regard to the work they do and how LOM can be supportive. They have so much to offer to the LOM network because of the expertise they have acquired. Jesse has been on the cutting edge of outdoor ministry programming at Ewalu and several other organizations. David and Kati both have master’s degree in environmental education and they have some of the most expansive environmental education programs I’ve seen anywhere among our ELCA camps and retreat centers. My visit ended with a visit to the Ewalu Conference Center, a great facility that is located on a separate but nearby parcel of almost 300 acres of land. From Ewalu, I headed south to Maquoketa, IA, where I spent most of Thursday afternoon at Camp Shalom. Shalom started as a ministry of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa. It has since evolved into an independent nonprofit corporation of its own. Shalom continues as an organization rooted in the Lutheran tradition while serving an ecumenical constituency. It has grown over the years and now offers year-round programming for a variety of retreats and conferences. I met with Tom Bley, the executive director, and Benjamin Carlson, the program director. We had a lively discussion centered on a number of different topics. Much of our conversation focused on the ways that Shalom is reaching out to schools and other community groups and how that is growing the summer camp program of Shalom and many of its year-round programs. Both Tom and Benjamin are very passionate about the ways that the Shalom program has a positive and lifelong impact on the people it serves. It was a great visit! From Camp Shalom I headed back north to my final destination – Dubuque, Iowa. Thursday evening gave the opportunity for me to reconnect with two of my good friends and colleagues from Project Connect and Philadelphia Seminary days, Louise Johnson (no relation) and Matt O’Rear. Then on Friday I had some excellent conversation with Amy Current, the Dean for Vocation at Wartburg Seminary. We explored a variety of ways that seminaries in general, and specifically Wartburg can collaborate in order to advance the work of leader formation in the ELCA. I’m confident that we, of LOM, are on the verge of some great new and expanded ministry partnerships with our ELCA seminaries. At Wartburg, I’m sure that will be particularly true because of the leadership now being provided there by our good outdoor ministry friend and advocate, Louise Johnson, who is now serving as president of Wartburg Seminary. What an honor it was to celebrate with many church leaders and the Wartburg Seminary community at Louise’s installation service on Friday evening. Another great trip! And then back to Milwaukee for the flight home on Saturday. Executive Director Don Johnson will occasionally post reflections as he travels to Lutheran Outdoor Ministry sites. Here is his latest entry from his travels on November 7-14, 2015:
Well, I’ve been very inattentive to my commitment to post blogs regarding my travels on behalf of LOM. To all who read my blogs – sorry about that and at the same time I’m always gratified upon discovering that you are reading my blog posts. This blog will be brief and enthusiastic about my trip to North Carolina, November 7-14. For me, personally, it couldn’t have come at a better time because three months into my appointment as executive director of LOM, it gave me an opportunity to meet, in person, around 150 outdoor ministry leaders, ministry partners, and stakeholders, all at the same time. It was a thoroughly exhilarating experience! On Sunday I flew to Charlotte and then drove a rental car over to Lutherock, part of the NovusWay organization. Lutherock is such a spectacular place, set as it is in the mountains of western North Carolina. And the accommodations are extremely comfortable. I dropped into the final 24 hours of the LOM Leadership Training Event (LTE). What a great group of camp professionals participating in this outstanding event! I had the opportunity to make a presentation with Melissa Kornkven about the importance of participating in the life of LOM and other networking opportunities. What really impressed me, however, was the cohesiveness of the group, the professionalism of the participants, the fun everyone experienced, and how quickly I was assimilated into the community that had formed. Hats off to co-deans Mary Stutz and Marianne Brock for organizing such a wonderful event. On Monday I took on a few passengers for the drive over to Lutheridge. It’s a very scenic drive! And I can’t say enough about what a great place Lutheridge is! They do a marvelous job of providing hospitality for a large group like ours. We were there, of course, for the Annual LOM Conference. Not only were the accommodations at Lutheridge fantastic, but the Conference program in and of itself was terrific. The keynote speakers were stimulating and challenging; the workshops were practical; the worship was creative and inspirational – everything was top-notch. Many thanks to Keith Johnson (CEO of NovusWay), the Conference Committee chairperson and to all who were involved in planning and running this wonderful event. Kudos to Randy Youngquist-Thurow, our very part-time LOM Events Coordinator, for making a complex piece of organizing and coordinating look so easy. And the auction! This annual fundraiser for LOM took place right in the middle of the conference. It’s a great event because it not only raises lots of operating funds for the work all of us do for the benefit of all of us, but it is such a great event for building a sense of community among all of us at the Conference. Paul Hanson and Jake Hanson did an awesome job as the auctioneers, and Joel Abenth once again did a lion’s share of the pre-planning to make this such a good experience for everyone. Thank you, one and all, especially to everyone who came to the auction ready to bid. This evening of fun and laughter raised over $30,000! The conference ran from Monday afternoon through breakfast on Friday. Then the LOM Board stayed on for a day and a half of meetings. It’s one of the only two times that the Board gets to meet face to face during the whole year, and Nathan Pile, Board president, with brilliant leadership, kept us on task in order to make the best use of this time. The dedication and commitment with which the board members go about their responsibilities of providing governance for LOM is very impressive. My week ended by driving back to Charlotte and then catching my flight back to New England on Saturday afternoon. What an awesome week it was! The 2015 Annual Conference is now history. And it will go down in history as an absolutely wonderful experience. The keynote speakers were at the same time inspiring and challenging in so many ways. Our largest ever contingent of exhibitors enhanced our community with rich resources and many new ideas. The worship times brought us together around that which is the source of what unifies us. Thanks to the generosity of several donors who provided for scholarships for first-timers we experienced an added boost of "new blood" enthusiasm. The auction set an LOM record for dollars raised and laughs recorded. We sure did have an interesting array of workshops. The meals were top-notch. The accommodations were A-1.
Thank you to Keith Johnson and the Conference Committee for putting together a great event. Kudos to the Lutheridge staff for taking care of every detail. A great big bear hug to Bob Kuehner for bringing together an excellent group of exhibitors. A heartfelt tip of the hat to Pastors Mary and Tim Canniff-Kuhn for the great worship experiences. Many thanks to Joel Abenth for planning an awesome auction and to everyone who made a complex event look so effortless, especially the auctioneers, Paul Hanson and Jake Hanson. Most of all, thank you to everyone who was part of the 2015 Conference community. You were the living embodiment of "Transformational Leadership." And a great big word of thanks to Marianne Brock and Mary Stutz for their leadership as co-deans of the Leadership Training Event which immediately preceded the Conference. They, together with the terrific faculty they assembled for that event got the LOM time in North Carolina off to a great start. It feels like waiting a whole year until the next Conference will be way too long. See you in Nebraska, everyone! --Don Johnson, Executive Director LOM presented their 2015 Innovative Program Award at the recognition banquet on Thursday night at the LOM Conference. The winner this year, the fourth the award was presented, was Voyageurs Lutheran Ministry (VLM) of Minnesota and their Jacob’s Well Leadership Initiative. That project begins to address how summer staff and year-round leadership talk to those who are “unchurched” but come to their site. The program centers around 15 month internships; six months spent with VLM and nine months spent with Jacob’s Well (JW), Minneapolis. They currently have three interns in the program. The six months spent at VLM are summer months both before and after the nine months with Jacob’s Well. During the first summer at camp, the intern(s) experience what all summer staff experience – the community, the campers, the program, and the joys and challenges of talking faith with others. It is during this season that the internship idea is presented, and interested staff are encouraged to talk with both the VLM leadership and the JW leadership. During the nine months with JW, the intern(s) experiences and participates in the JW community while focusing on how they can bring this experience back to camp the following summer. Jacob’s Well sees themselves as a church for those who don’t like church. Under the theme, “Transformational Leadership,” nearly 130 Lutheran camp professionals and board members gathered at this year's LOM Conference at Lutheridge in Arden, NC. The theme provided attendees the chance to look at ways leaders can create and realize futures with some innovation and initiative. Three keynote speakers from sister Evangelical Lutheran Church in America institutions helped focus conversation. They included Pastor Rick Barger, president of Trinity Seminary, who addressed the need for change through innovation; Angela Bovill, president and CEO of Ascentria Care Alliance, who shared how chief executives can shape change; and Dr. Wayne Powell, president of Lenoir Rhyne University, who addressed how to change leadership culture. Worship was led by Pastors Tim and Mary Canniff-Kuhn, Lutheridge Program Co-Directors, using scripture texts from Exodus 3 when Moses became a transformational leader. Executive Director Don Johnson's "column" for our November 2015 E-News:
During these first two months of serving as your executive director, one of the most gratifying things I’ve been doing is visiting camps and retreat centers. There are so many great outdoor ministry organizations throughout this marvelous network! It has been truly a pleasure to visit you in some of the most beautiful corners of the world and to talk outdoor ministry language with some of the most creative people imaginable. I’ve been in the practice of posting reflections on my visits on a blog that our expert webmaster, Chad Hershberger, has established for me. So if you want to see where I’ve been and how I feel about it, just check out my blog on the homepage of the LOM website. Obviously, it’s impossible to visit every outdoor ministry all at once (although I sure wish it were possible). So I’ve also been making it a point to initiate phone calls with lots of outdoor ministry leaders from around the ELCA. That has been very insightful for me and it’s helping me to shape some ideas on how LOM might respond to issues and concerns that so many of you have been willing to call to my attention. For those of you I’ve had the good fortune of connecting with already, thank you for the sharing you’ve been willing to do in this way. I just wish there was more time in each day. Be patient with me – I’ll track you down sooner or later! And if you have a burning concern about anything related to outdoor ministry – at your organization or for all of us in the Lutheran outdoor ministry network – please don’t hesitate to get on the phone to give me a call or give a shout out by email. The next couple of weeks are going to be very exciting for me and all of us who will gather in North Carolina for the Annual Conference preceded by the Leadership Training Event. It’s always so good to re-connect with friends we have been connecting with over the years, and this year I’m especially thrilled that there will be at least 27 participants in the Conference for whom it will be their first time. Here’s a great big “tip of the hat” to the following donors who have made much of this possible by contributing to this year’s “First-Timer Scholarship Fund”. Thank you very much to:
LOM is poised for some great days ahead. We are stewards of an exceptionally rich and powerful resource for forming and nurturing faith. May God continue to bless you in all you do to extend this resource to all people. Executive Director Don Johnson will occasionally post reflections as he travels to Lutheran Outdoor Ministry sites. Here is his latest entry from his travels on October 26-28, 2015:
A very interesting retreat took place on October 26-28 at Cross Roads Camp in New Jersey. It was a gathering of church leaders from throughout ELCA Regions 7 and 8 whose work includes a focus on the faith formation of persons who are in the first third of their lives. Most of the group was comprised of outdoor ministry leaders, campus ministry leaders, and youth ministry leaders. Organizers of the event were Anthony Briggs, executive director of Cross Roads Camp, and Chelle Huth, director of Theological Education with Youth (TEY). Making presentations during the event were Molly Beck Dean, director of the ELCA Youth Gathering, and our own Mark Burkhardt, the ELCA director for congregational centers for mission. The event began with a review of the document, “A Framework for Faith Formation in the ELCA”. This document became the reference point for much of the ensuing discussion and work that transpired during the next two days. This included an audit of faith formation activities and programs taking place in Regions 7 and 8, an assessment of where the “gaps” are, and an analysis of what could be more effective with deeper collaboration among a wide range of ministry colleagues. There was much satisfaction expressed about the consensus around the value of more intentional efforts to collaborate. There was especially strong enthusiasm about the relationship-building that took place at this event and plans were hatched for a similar event at around the same time next year. My day ended on Wednesday, October 28, with a visit to Rev. Paul and Carol Howells in Frederick, PA. Paul was the director for outdoor ministries of the LCA, one of the predecessor bodies of the ELCA. He was a mentor for me and I know many others during the 70’s and 80’s. It was great to reconnect with Paul and Carol and to “pick Paul’s brain” in regard to the challenges of providing leadership for an organization that encompasses the whole ELCA. My day was enriched by this visit just as my whole career has been enriched by Paul’s friendship throughout virtually my whole career. |