Retreat Treat

I was disappointed this past year when our lay ministry retreat focused on the Psalms was cancelled due to bad weather.

Well, it's on again, for the end of the month. Lisa Dahill, Assistant Professor of Worship and Christian Spirituality at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, will be our facilitator.

A Lutheran professor of Christian Spirituality...may her tribe increase.

My last lay ministry outing, a skill day where various professional Lutherans came to advise us on ways we could use our training and continuing education opportunities, was incredibly depressing for me because it seemed almost totally focused on pastoral ministry. It reminded me of my high school gym class, which over the years had become nothing more than a farm team for girls' varsity sports; if you weren't varsity material, as far as the teacher was concerned you were basically wasting oxygen. Likewise, after listening to various pitches for late-in-life seminary all day, I felt like something stuck on the bottom of a seminarian's shoe.

Since then I've become much more philosophical about the whole endeavor. I'm just in this thing, I've decided, to learn and grow. What I do with what I learn -- who knows. Probably something off the books and under the radar. Which might be the most interesting place to be anyway.