Women of the ELCA

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). This scripture (along with the 23^rd Psalm, 100^th Psalm, Matthew 5:3-11, Matthew 6:9-13 and John 3:16) was one that I learned to recite as a child. But it was not until I reached adulthood that I discovered I was reciting it incorrectly. I was missing a key word in the verse. A tiny three letter word that begins the verse, it is the word “now.”

The dictionary defines now as at the present time or moment.

Often times I view the word faith as indicative of what is to come. But when I add the word now to the beginning of the verse, it takes on a whole new meaning for me.

Now faith gives me the blessed assurance of knowing that I am, not I will. My faith is being activated at this present time for the current situation that I am facing. It reminds me of the faithfulness of God:  A very present help in the time of trouble. Even when things do not turn out the way that I’d want them to, I know that God is in control and is working it out for my good. The situation will be handled according to God’s timing.

Now faith allows me to live out the promises of God’s Word in the here and now.

No longer am I living on the hope that tomorrow has to offer, but I am living in the present.

Now faith enables me to call those things that are not as though they are. Although I cannot see the finished product, I know that it is completed. As humans we can only know in part and see in part, but God knows the outcome before we begin. And the Word of God tells us that we are more than conquerors.

Women of the ELCA, we are called to act boldly on our faith through Jesus Christ. So I challenge you to act boldly by stepping out on faith (not fear) and fulfill the purpose for which you’ve been called.

Deborah Powell is associate executive director of Women of the ELCA.

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We’ve changed the name of Lutheran Woman Today to Gather and, holy macaroni, the reactions we’ve received. They run the gamut from love to hate: “Thank you so much for this new name, now I can share the magazine with my friends” to “I am disappointed…what are we gathering—eggs, flowers, etc.  …But then I was disappointed when they changed it from SCOPE!”

A recent National Public Radio story discussed the challenges companies go through when they consider a new name.

“For instance, would Google be as successful if it were named BackRub—the name when the company started in 1996?” the reporters asked, adding that Twitter first considered calling itself Twitch.

“[The name Twitter] just felt great,” co–founder Jack Dorsey said of the name his company decided on, “so I knew that if I felt great about it, I could convince others to feel great about it, too.”

We feel great about the name Gather (for faith and action) too. We understand change can be rough on some people. And we acknowledge that all names do not appeal to all people.

Take Apple for example. Steve Wozniak, co–founder of the wildly successful computer company, said publicity advisers warned them to get rid of the name, according to the NPR story. Advisers told Wozniak and co–founder Steve Jobs that Apple just wasn’t powerful enough. But the owners wouldn’t budge. “And so we had to fight to hold it a bit, but it was a good name, and we knew it,” Wozniak said in the story.

We believe we have a good name too.

Gather editor Kate Elliott writes in the September issue: “We believe that Gather will help us open our magazine to a wider, more inclusive audience—women of all ages who live out their faith in many ways—but who come together in community to ‘affirm our gifts, support one another in our callings, engage in ministry and action, and promote healing and wholeness…’”

In a column that bookmarks Kate’s, Linda Post Bushkofsky, Women of the ELCA executive director, writes: “This name change brings new possibilities and much hopefulness. Gather offers a more open and inviting image, welcoming more women, both those within the ELCA and also those who are ecumenical partners.”

Back to the NPR story. Twitter’s co–founder Dorsey said you have “two seconds to open the door with the name, and after that, it’s down to the product.”

We like our product, and we think you will too. We might have a new name, but we have the same great, award–winning articles, columns and Bible studies.

It should take you fewer than two seconds to figure that out!

P.S. While you’re at it, come “like” Gather on Facebook.

Terri Lackey is managing editor of Gather.

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By my estimation, those attending the ELCA Churchwide Assembly this week have sat for at least 30 hours during deliberations and worship. And for the women among us, that’s not good news.

A study released just in time for all this Lutheran sitting reports that women who sit the longest and exercise the least have twice the risk of death compared with women who are more active and sit less. Well, that’s sobering news for someone like me who sits a lot in my work. Sobering is an understatement.

Despite a sprawling hotel property that produces a lot of steps between one’s hotel room and the plenary space, our sitting here at the CWA has nearly reached a 40-hour work week magnitude. True, the ELCA Board of Pensions offered a run, walk and roll early each morning and one of our bishop’s offered a stretch and pray session each morning. But the truth remains, we sat a lot this week and some of us are going to pay more dearly for it.

Women,  we need to make some changes in our lives and we need to support and encourage one another as we make those changes. I like some of the practical suggestions writer Rochelle Melander suggests on her blog today. You can find ideas on the Web for making your meetings healthier too; just Google “healthy meetings” you’ll get lots of responses.

Here at Women of the ELCA we’re engaged in a fight. A fight for our health. It’s all about Raising Up Healthy Women and Girls. What’s your best tip for moving more and sitting less?

As executive director, Linda Post Bushkofsky sits way too much in meetings. She’s vowing to change that!

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Greetings from the 2011 Churchwide Assembly. Much deliberation is ongoing here, voting members engaged in the business of the church. Maybe you’ve been following the live feed from the plenary hall or daily worship. That gives you a sense of what’s happening here in Orlando. I’ve been keeping my ears open as I move from event to event, and thought I’d share some of what I’ve overheard.

Bishop Hanson, preaching at the opening worship, used an evocative phrase: “God’s disrupting, interrupting grace.” I’m going to think on that phrase for a long time.

A happy subscriber of Gather, at the Women of the ELCA breakfast: “I never go anywhere without Gather!” That’s what we like to hear!

Newly-elected churchwide president, Jenny Michael (l.), talking with Beth Meyer, former president of the Nebraska Synodical Women's Organization at this morning's breakfast.

“Make malaria history by 2015.” That was said by Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl as the assembly voted to launch the ELCA Malaria Campaign. (You’ll be hearing more about how Women of the ELCA will be part of that campaign in the coming months.)

“Uplifted by our church that allows + encourages young ppl in leadership. As we debate some of r youngest bring the greatest wisdom.” That’s a tweet sent this morning during the discussions about social statements.

“@WomenoftheELCA Thank you for the gift! I LOVE jump drives and resources!” That’s a tweet in response to the gift Women of the ELCA made to every voting member: a flash drive loaded with more than 35 program resources, Bible studies and reflections.

Today will be a long day of deliberating; there are many matters before the house. If you haven’t seen a churchwide assembly in action before, check out the live streaming at elca.org/assembly. If you’re tweeting, follow the hashtag #CWA11 for the inside scoop, including fun comments reviewing the ties of speakers. (So far, ELCA vice president Carlos Pena seems to be winning in the tie category!)

Linda Post Bushkofsky, a veteran of many churchwide assemblies, is the executive director of Women of the ELCA.

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When I was in college, I had a friend who would tell me not to engage in “Preliminary Freak Out,” or “PFO” for short. It’s natural for me as a born worry wart to fret over perceived disasters.

I often hear many people go on and on about how there are no young people at church. So I couldn’t help but think the church might be experiencing its own PFO today regarding younger people of faith.

A recent study by the Barna Group about church behaviors among different generations offers some surprisingly upbeat information about “Baby Busters,” the folks born after the Baby Boomer generation, and their behaviors around faith and church. “Baby Busters” in this study represent Generation X and part of the millennial generation, people born after 1965 and through 1983.

This study examined religious behaviors from these two generations over the last 20 years. For instance, it revealed a 9 percent increase (to 41 percent) in Busters who were reading the Bible on their own, not at a church event. And it also showed that Busters increased their volunteerism at church by 9 percent, up to 19 percent.  However, there was also an 8 percent increase (up to 39 percent) since 1991 of the number of Busters who had not attended church in the last six months.

So, is this study telling us that younger people are becoming more active in their faith community, but not showing up at services on Sunday?

“Gen Xers are far more interested in experiencing God at all levels of their lives than experiencing church or organized religion,” Peter Menconi writes in his book, The Intergenerational Church.  As for Millennials (1982-2000), he wrote: “They expect their worship experiences within and without the church to be authentic, real, and sincere. That is they readily identify and reject religious activities and programs that do not genuinely bring them closer to God.”

As an aside, the study also identifies some rather disconcerting information about the Baby Boomer Generation (1946 to 1964). Since 1991, church attendance among this group fell 9 percent to 38 percent in 2011, and volunteerism during the week dropped 10 percent over the last 20 years, from 28 to 18 percent.

But back to the Buster group, are we as a church PFO-ing about the right generation? What ways can we make church more relevant to all generations? Does church as we know it need to change to increase the participation of Boomers, Gen Xers and Millenials? Is your unit or congregation doing anything to engage different generations outside the church building and Sunday worship?

Elizabeth McBride is the director of intergenerational programs and editor of Café.

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On July 26 McDonald’s announced a big change with its Happy Meal by adding apples. Yeah! I was excited and so was every children’s rights advocacy group. This was pleasant news for a Tuesday. I knew there might be more to the story and something was brewing. Do you remember that McDonald’s made this same announcement in 2004? Duh, Ronald? I thought you already had apples.

Articles are reporting that first lady Michelle Obama, advocacy groups and parents are expecting McDonald’s to take the fall for all that is unhealthy in the U.S. diet today. So, are you wondering what happened to the apples added in 2004? According to a McDonald’s spokesperson, people come to McDonald’s for choice and control and when tikes are served fruit not fries “there was a huge disappointment factor.”

I was almost sucked in. Why had McDonald’s been singled out from the other fast-food giants? The answer is simple. Burger King’s version of the Happy Meal includes chicken nuggets, apples, a drink and a toy. Wendy’s has no kid’s meal. Subway’s meal includes a 6” sandwich, apples, a drink, a cookie and a cool re-useable bag. Hmmm, they all serve apples.

Today I’ll call the corporate offices of Burger King, Wendy’s and Subway to see how much the “huge disappointment factor” has cost them and thank them for giving parents a choice. I’ll call McDonald’s also to share my disappointment in their inability to follow the lead of their counterparts and to tell the truth. It’s not about the fries. Any parent can purchase a Happy Meal and an order of fries if they want fries with it. What it’s really about is saving a new generation of kids from expecting fries with their burgers or nuggets. It is about choice and control.

Valora Starr is director for discipleship for Women of the ELCA; in that role she oversees the organization’s health initiative, Raising Up Healthy Women and Girls.

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I’ve been thinking about age lately. My birthday is this week and it seems like over the last few days, I’ve come across many articles and books about what it means to get older.

I was sorting through stacks of review books in my cubicle—stuff that piled up in the busy weeks before the triennial gathering. Among those books, I found How Did I Get to Be 70 When I’m 35 Inside?  by Linda Douty. Its subtitle is “Spiritual Surprises of Later Life.” I glanced through the chapters: “Buried Dreams,” “Listening to the Body’s Wisdom,” “Changing Your Script,” “Honoring Memories,” and more. I thought to myself, I’d better hold on to this one; it may be a good book to excerpt in the magazine. But really, I just want to read it for myself.

Then I came across an article on Salon.com by Lillian Rubin. Rubin is an author and social scientist who was, until recently, a practicing psychotherapist. She was writing about what she experienced while writing her latest book, 60 on Up: The Truth About Aging in America. Rubin is in her 80s and she recently experienced age discrimination herself. She writes that “we live in a society that worships youth, that pitches it, packages it, and sells it so relentlessly that the anti-aging industry is the hottest growth ticket in town…” And she lists the components of that industry:  plastic surgeons, billion-dollar cosmetics companies, foods that supposedly offer anti-aging properties, the stuff of the late-night infomercials. All in the hope that something will stave off the effects of time and life lived.

The wisest book I’ve read about aging is by Sister Joan Chittister: The Gift of the Years, Growing Older Gracefully. Chittister’s book gently asks readers to look at challenges and blessings of growing older. She writes about limitations, nostalgia, letting go and appreciation. She writes, “It the shaping of the soul that occupies us now … we set out to find out for ourselves who we really are, what we know, what we care about and how to be simply enough for ourselves in the world.”

I am heartened by Sister Joan’s wisdom and deep faith. I want to be wise and funny and gracious like her. Or like our former columnist, Marj Leegard. A friend once asked her, “How you get to be one of those ‘really cool old ladies?’”  Her answer was, “You start now—before you’re old.”

So, how do you feel about getting older? Have you experienced age discrimination? Do you dread your birthday?  Or do you celebrate it?

Kate Elliott is editor of Gather.

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Would Americans increase peace in family life and strengthen family bonds if they adopted more accepting attitudes about sex and what’s allowable under the family roof?  That was a question posed in a NYTimes opinion column a couple of weeks ago.   Tackling the issue of teenagers and sex, the author and researcher is asking those hard questions about how, as a parent you deal with your kids and sex.

Now when I was a teenager, I thought my parents were out of touch, way too strict and my curfew was ridiculously early.  11 p.m.?!  My parents thought anything that happened after 11 p.m. probably shouldn’t be happening at all.  Not bad reasoning, though teenagers can be pretty creative and if they really want to do something, they can figure out how to make it happen before curfew.

Allowing teenage sex in the house?  I wasn’t even allowed to have boys on the second floor of our house!   And talk about sex?  That conversation was short and sweet:

“Mom, I’m thinking about having sex with my boyfriend.”

“Don’t.”

Well, that was the end of that conversation.  It certainly never got as far as discussing contraception.

Now, this opinion author goes as far as to say, if your kids are going to have sex with their boyfriend/girlfriend, why not be more accepting and allow it?   She has done research in both the Netherlands and the United States, and the teenage pregnancy rate in the Netherlands is 4 times lower than in the U.S.  She connects this with a national report that 7 of 10 Dutch girls reported that by the time they were 16, their parents had talked to them about pregnancy and contraception.

So, will our teenagers be more safe, more responsible, if we, as parents suck it up and have honest, more open conversations about sex?  My daughter is only 4 so fortunately I have many years before our conversation takes place and I am hoping that when the time comes, I will say the right things.  (And no matter what comes of that conversation, the “no boys on the second floor” rule is going to apply!)

Emily Hansen is Women of the ELCA’s director for stewardship and development.

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As I packed the umpteenth box yesterday, I started thinking about “stuff.” Not the stuff that dreams are made of. No, I was thinking about stuff that collects dust, fills drawers and collects on shelves.

We’ve got a lot of stuff in our house. Mind you, we’re not moving into the league of hoarders. I take some consolation in that. But we still have a lot of stuff. Not as much as many, but more than others and certainly more than we need. There’s a certain irony that as I type there’s a magazine sitting on my desk top with a cover article, “Organizing solutions for every room!”

By the time you get into your 50s it’s not unusual to have accumulated a lot of stuff. And I’ll admit, as long as my husband isn’t reading this, that the vast majority of our accumulations can be traced to me. We’ve been really intentional over the last year or two in sorting, donating, etc. Clearly, we have more work to do.

There’s a lot of weight in that stuff. Not just the weight of the boxes on moving day. There’s emotional and psychological weight too. I’ve been reading the Unclutterer blog for a year or more now, and I really appreciate the thoughtful posts that go beyond just organizing to asking the harder questions about our personal possessions.

So, where are you in all this? Are you traveling lightly in this journey on earth or are you bogged down with possessions?

Linda Post Bushkofsky, executive director, is taking her week’s vacation to clean out her finished basement after 2″ of water spent some time there following a heavy rain.

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