Have you ever wondered how your congregation might best support veterans and service members? Or how to create greater hospitality when space is a barrier? Or, perhaps how your scrappy congregation can grow their vitality?

Synod Gathering participants could choose from thirty-three different options over three days for learning, exploring, practicing, and growing. The Rhyne Building was bustling with Gathering attendees making their choices and, in some cases, settling into the last available seat. Thanks to some thoughtful planning, all of the workshops were on the first floor, so there were no tall flights of stairs to climb. Each day’s schedule featured a time for workshops, with two scheduled times on Friday—with the afternoon reserved for spiritually nourishing workshops. On Saturday, the workshops were called Intensives as they offered almost double the time for covering particularly hefty topics—including, “Flight Check: Final ELCA Youth Gathering Preparations,” for adults leading youth groups to New Orleans in just over a month.

Read some attendees’ workshop comments:

In the Rev. Dr. Stacey Spence-Baldwin’s workshop, Scrappy Congregations, she encouraged members of small, rural congregations to trust the Spirit to guide us into places of ministry that don’t look anything like the ministry in large, city congregations. She helped us ask, “How can we take another step closer to our neighbors? How might we look at our setting, people, and community from a slightly different angle, so we might see an opportunity we are missing…then step out in faith and try!”

In Stephanie Burke’s workshop, Planned Giving:  The Exclamation Mark to Your Faith Story, the quote that stuck out to me was, “Estate Legacy Plan is a thank you note to the past and a love letter to the future.” I learned that the ELCA Foundation and its services (and Stephanie!) are a resource for all church members, whether you have a little or a lot.

In Pastor Tim Brown’s workshop, Storytelling in Ministry, these were my notes:

• • Practice storytelling.
  • Know what you do and do it really well.
  • Simple things can be amazing.
  • The bulletin is the one thing people take home from worship, so “cut down on information and increase the inspiration.”
  • The best thing about a story is that people are telling it from the heart.
  • Places to use stories: social media, bulletin, annual meetings, and stewardship & appeals 

Pastor Carrie Bishop’s The Scriptures in Color was my favorite workshop!!  Even though I am not an artist, Carrie Bishop shared her talents and introduced us to ideas of how we can be creative.  Using magazines, colored pencils, a glue stick, and scissors, we each created a work of art that expressed our thoughts about a passage of scripture.  I would attend this workshop again!

Several workshop presenters offered their slides; a handful of workshops were recorded. Find workshop resources here.