Fall Leadership Gathering

October 21 – 23, 2024
Holiday Inn, Kearney

This gathering is for leaders serving in the Nebraska Synod as pastors, PMAs, deacons, Faith Formation directors and other key lay staff positions.

“Mainline denominations are showing drops of 15 percent, 25 percent, and even 40 percent over the span of the last decade.”

“New projections forecast just 16,000 in worship across the entire ELCA by 2041. Why is this happening and what can be done?”

“What is wrong with the ELCA?”

You’ve seen this script before. Some of you can quote it from memory. Whether we hear it out loud or in our inner monologue, it’s a litany of anxiety about the future and nostalgia for a romanticized past, a script of scarcity, guilt, and failure.

Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past, See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”  (Isaiah 43:18-19 – NIV)

It doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to follow the old script. We can be different. We can start flipping the script.

Come to this year’s Fall Leadership Gathering ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work flipping the script. Let’s be curious about what’s going on in the communities we serve. Let’s be honest about what’s holding us back. Let’s be brave and imagine a different reality than the script we’ve inherited. Let’s be kind to each other as we engage in this hard work together.

Let’s start flipping the script, together: urban and rural, large and small, lay and rostered – all of us bring something to the writing table. Let’s come together to worship, pray, learn, and begin.

– Bishop Scott

 

View the Event and Register

Costs:

Attendee (Rostered under Call, PMA, Interns, Staff)Early Bird (until 8/31): $200⎮Regular (until 10/1): $250
Attendee (Lay Spouse, Retired & Not Serving a Congregation)Early Bird (until 8/31): $170⎮Regular (until 10/1): $220
Wednesday Workshops: $20
Contact the Holiday Inn at 308-237-5971 to reserve your room: $124.95/night

Resources:

Conversation Facilitators:

Gathered with us in the brave space of the Fall Leadership Gathering, Dr. Nessan, Dr. Yackel-Juleen and Bishop Scott Johnson will be our conversation facilitators as we explore the flipped script Dr. Nessan describes.

Whether we like it or not, God has flipped the script on what it means to be church leaders. In the inherited “attraction model” of church, the primary agents of ministry have been the clergy through the programs of the institution they lead. The goal has been to attract members to join the congregation, financially support the institution, and be active in the organization’s scheduled events. This model of church has disintegrated in our lifetime. At the end of Christendom, the church is in crisis. We hear widespread laments at the decline of the institutional church and despondency among church leaders. While nostalgia for that era continues, there is no going back.

In the emerging baptismal ecclesiology, we dare to become the midwives for the diaconal church God is bringing to birth. Our relational Triune God is calling the Christian people (aka laity) to become—again for the first time—the primary agents of the church in mission. Leaders need laser like focus on forming the Christian people for discipleship, evangelizing, and diakonia at all gatherings to prepare them for the sending. While Luther imagined a universal priesthood of believers, this church model was until now never implemented.

This paradigm shift is different from what is commonly meant by a “lay led” congregation. The main ministries of the baptized people of God are in their arenas of daily life, not in congregational programming. The role of ordained pastors remains crucial, although it requires a reorientation of the office of Word and Sacrament away from the attraction model. Pastors, deacons, Parish Ministry Associates (SAM/PMAs) together with other staff now need to focus attention on practices that form, equip, and activate the Christian people for serving neighbors in all their roles and relationships in life. What joy it brings to deeply connect faith and real life!

 

Rev. Dr. Craig L. Nessan

Rev. Dr. Craig L. Nessan is the William D. Streng Professor for the Education and Renewal of the Church, and Professor of Contextual Theology and Ethics at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. Dr. Nessan served eleven years as a parish pastor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and 23 years as Academic Dean at Wartburg Seminary. He holds degrees from Michigan State University, Wartburg Theological Seminary, and the University of Munich. He is the author of many books and articles. Craig and Cathy Nessan have six adult children, seven grandchildren, and a new puppy.

Rev. Dr. Mark Yackel-Juleen

Rev. Dr. Mark Yackel-Juleen serves as Director for Small Town and Rural Ministry with the Center for Theology and Land at Wartburg Theological Seminary. He is a graduate of Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary and received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Luther Seminary. Mark and his spouse Margaret founded Shalom Hill Farm and has served the church in various capacities over the years—missionary to Hong Kong, synodical rural ministry coordinator, internship supervisor, adjunct instructor to several seminaries. His deepest roots are in small town and rural congregations. Mark has a passion for travel, especially international travel. Mark and Margaret (also an ELCA pastor serving a small town and rural parish) have been married for 36 years and live in Elkader, Iowa. They have three children.

Bishop Scott Alan Johnson

Rev. Scott Alan Johnson was born and raised on a family farm near Wakefield, NE. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Classics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a Master of Divinity degree from Luther Seminary. Prior to being elected bishop of the Nebraska Synod in 2022, he served as pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Barrett, MN, as campus pastor of the University Lutheran Center at Iowa State University in Ames, IA, as pastor of St. Petri Lutheran Church in Story City, IA, and as Director of Campus Ministries at Midland University in Fremont, NE. Scott and his wife Kristin are the proud parents of two daughters, and they live in Fremont, NE.

Frequently Asked Questions:
  • What meals are included in the registration?

– Monday – Evening Meal, Tuesday – Breakfast & Lunch, Wednesday – Breakfast

  • What do I need to bring?

– Refillable water bottle or coffee mug

– There are a minimal amount of outlets, so if you need to charge devices, bring an extension cord and sit by a wall

– Note-taking supplies

  • What should I wear?- Casual, comfortable clothing and shoes