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Spiritual Direction Retreat |
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Is God Calling You to be a Spiritual Director?
Take advantage of this special retreat where you can reflect
on your calling and learn about the options in becoming a certified
Spiritual Director.
Carol Joy Holling’s Swanson Retreat Center
Ashland, NE
5 p.m. Tuesday, April 1,- 2 p.m., Wednesday, April 2, 2008
- Are you on a personal spiritual journey, committed to a faithful prayer life, and willing to reflect on and share your inner experience?
- Do people seem drawn to you for a discussion of spiritual questions?
- Is God calling you to companion others on their spiritual journeys?
- Do you seek a strong foundation from which to refine your skills to respond to God’s call?
If you answered yes, consider attending this exploration retreat!
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Call Stories
Lonna Grabenstein, PMA - Grace Lutheran Church, Lexington
 One Sunday, our Pastor, Richard "Dick" Magnuson, St Paul's Lutheran, Grand Island, asked my mother if it would be alright, if he took me along for his Sunday aftemoon visits to the local care homes. He said, "I could sure use Lonna's help in singing the hymns." Now in 1965, care homes looked much differently. They were large houses and the beds of the residents were crowded in, side by side. The elderly and the severely handicapped were placed in the same rooms. There was a lot of commotion, people were tied in beds, and it was smelly. It was frightening to me and I stood close to Pastor. When Pastor Dick read the gospel and told stories about the hymns we would be singing, the patients did not quiet down. When we began to sing they listened. I remember singing, Fanny Crosby's, Blessed Assurance, "This is my story this is my song praising my Savior, all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long."
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Home
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The Strategy of Operation IDEA |
Operation IDEA is a grassroots initiative of the Nebraska Synod Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, created for the purpose of raising leaders for Christ's Church!  1. Let us pray!
2. Let’s boldly look for the brightest and best among us, and invite them!
3. Let’s look in the places where there are “lots of them.”
Our parishes.
Our outdoor ministries.
Our campus ministries.
Our own families and communities.
4. Let’s not underestimate our personal importance! There are persons who respect us, look up to us, and will listen to what we say because of it. When we identify a person with special gifts, let’s raise what we see with them.
5. Let’s plot, scheme, brood over just who is the right person to help “make the ask,” and let’s “gang up” on the prospect. We may not be prophets in our own country, but we can surely bring in some “big gun” to help us!
6. Let’s “put ideas in peoples’ heads,” people who come to us as having wonderful gifts for ministry, whether or not we think they’ve ever thought they have them.
7. Let’s build a relationship, one-on-one, with persons we identify, and make sure we keep in touch over their life and living.
8. Let’s let them know how excited we are about serving in Christ’s church. Excitement rubs off!
9. Let’s tell the prospects we identify of the benefits, and there are many, both tangible and intangible.
10. Let’s spare no expense! Recruitment is an expensive thing, time-wise, dollar-wise. Let’s be just that…wise! Let’s get past this baloney that says that people must pay some part of the experience in order to get the most out of it. Not true! Let’s pay the cost.
11. Let’s above all, go ahead and act! Let’s be proactive! So often in the church we go through multiple stages of theological reflection, vocational assessment, spiritual gifts assessment, etc. before we act. The word “gift” and derivatives is used about 75 times in the bible. “Giving” on the other hand is used over 900 times. Let’s reflect, but let’s DO while we are reflecting.
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