Roughly 400 Churchwide employees, including those based in Chicago and those deployed (like Directors for Evangelical Mission (DEM) and global missionaries), gathered for a retreat July 20-23 at the Q-Center in St. Charles, Illinois. This was the first time in over a decade and was intended as a time for the different units to connect, collaborate, and reflect.
Churchwide is one of the three expressions of the ELCA, representing the national church-body office. Congregations and Synods comprise the other two expressions. To read more about the Churchwide expression, click here.
Presiding Bishop Curry shared about the next three year’s themes: Connecting, Sustaining, and Reforming. There were various keynotes and panels to further describe these themes along with an interview of Bishop Curry where he shared his own vocational journey, God moments, and vision for the Church. Connecting was imagined as belonging and collaboration, helping the ELCA in each expression become more interwoven as the body of Christ. Sustaining was conveyed as relationships formed by community as branches connected to the common true vine, Jesus Christ. Reforming was expressed as how God uses our own formational experiences and continues to form and re-form us as individuals, congregational communities, and the ELCA church-body.
In attendance were Deacon Kat Tigerman (DEM) and Seminarian Quentin Berhardt. At Wednesday’s worship Quentin was installed and blessed by Bishop Curry for his upcoming year-long internship in Malaysia.
