Workshops

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

Workshop Session I: Tuesday, April 29, 10:45 a.m.

1.A: Thomas Quartier, OSB – Plenary Follow-up Q&A
1.B: Annemarie Hartner Cook ’03, M.Div – “Children’s Sermons, Not Grimms’ Fairy Tales”
1.C: Sarah Kathleen Johnson, Ph.D. – Participate in Research on Ministry with Occasional Religious Practitioners 
1.D: Marylynn Mennicke – “Through the Song, the Church Goes On”
1.E: Andrew Fields ’93, M.Div., and Martin L. Moeller – “Comforting Those Who Mourn: Working with Funeral Directors for the Dead and the Living”
1.F: Paul Soulek, M.M. – “Hymn Planning for Weddings/Funerals: Beyond Canon in D, Amazing Grace, and Borning Cry”
1.G: John Weit, M.A. – “Pastoral Care and Occasional Services Resources in the ELCA”

Workshop Session II: Tuesday, April 29, 3:45 p.m.

2.A: Kimberly Hope Belcher, Ph.D. – “Exceptional: Eucharistic Hospitality at Roman Catholic Occasional Rites”
2.B: Jennifer Baker-Trinity ’99, STM and Nathan Baker-Trinity, M.Div. – “Comforting All in Their Sorrow: Funeral Rites in a Changing Culture”
2.C: Liv Larson Andrews ’02, M.Div. – “Planning and Presiding at Weddings”
2.D: Max Johnson, M.Div., Ph.D. – “Celebrating the Lutheran Baptismal Rites in their Fullness”
2.E: Jim Marriott, M.Div., Ph.D. – “Popular + Sacred Mashups”
2.F: Bradley E. Schmeling, M.Div. – “New Occasions Teach New Duties”
2.G: Emily Smith ’19 – “Stories from the Sacristy”

Workshop Session III: Wednesday, April 30, 1:30 p.m.

3.A: Kimberly Hope Belcher, Ph.D. – Plenary Follow-up Q&A
3.B: Sarah Kathleen Johnson, Ph.D. – “Qualitative Research for Congregational Leaders”
3.C: Max Johnson, M.Div., Ph.D. – “Celebrating the Lutheran Baptismal Rites in their Fullness”
3.D: Thomas Quartier, OSB – “Ritual Creativity and Tradition: Re-inventing Liturgical Rites of Passage”
3.E: Dominic J. Rivkin, M.Div. – “Pilgrimage of Doubt: The Sacred Journey of Faith Transformation”
3.F: Paul Soulek, M.M. – “Hymn Planning for Weddings/Funerals: Beyond Canon in D, Amazing Grace, and Borning Cry”
3.G: John Weit, M.A. – “Pastoral Care and Occasional Services Resources in the ELCA”

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS & SPEAKER BIOS

Children’s Sermons can be one of the most stressful aspects of worship planning. In this workshop we will hear encouragement, learn practical ways to engage young people in the Word of God, and receive resources to keep aiding in this practice in local contexts. Come to learn and play!

Speaker Bio:
Annemarie Hartner Cook is an alum of Valpo (’03), a pastor in the ELCA, and currently serving in New Jersey. She is passionate about liturgy and worship that invites people of all ages and abilities to be full participants. Along with serving on the ILS Advisory Council and co-hosting the podcast Mind the Gap RCL, Annemarie has also served on planning teams for the ELCA Youth Gathering and the ELCA Rostered Ministers Gathering. 

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Plenary Follow-up: Participate in Research on Ministry with Occasional Religious Practitioners
Tuesday, April 29, 10:45 a.m.
Location: TBD

You are invited to contribute to research on ministry with occasional religious practitioners. Switching up the standard Q&A, in this session the presenter will ask the questions and participants will respond. You will be invited to share stories about ministry with occasional practitioners, as well as to reflect on the questions related to occasional practice that are most pressing for you. The format will include small group discussion, written responses, and plenary sharing. The session will begin with a process of informed consent and anonymized insights may be incorporated into a book on ministry with occasional practitioners.

Workshop: Qualitative Research for Congregational Leaders
Wednesday, April 30, 1:30 p.m.
Location: TBD

Qualitative research methods that facilitate deep listening can help leaders hear the theologies their communities are expressing and enacting everyday in new ways. Weaving these stories together, and reflecting them back to the community, can stimulate more honest theological reflection and build relationships of trust. Ethnography as a pastoral practice can contribute to leading social and spiritual transformation within and beyond a faith community. This practical workshop draws on insights from Mary Clark Moschella’s Ethnography as a Pastoral Practice and the experience of teaching a Master of Divinity course in which each student undertakes a small-scale ethnography in a local community.

Speaker Bio:
Sarah Kathleen Johnson serves as Assistant Professor of Liturgy and Pastoral Theology at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario. She is a practical theologian who studies Christian worship in the context of a changing North American religious landscape. Her research at the intersection of liturgical studies and the sociology of religion employs qualitative methods that value everyday religious experience. Commitments to interrogating the relationship between liturgy and ethics and engaging ecumenically across Christian traditions ground her research, teaching, and church leadership. Sarah is ordained for ministry in Mennonite Church Canada. 

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Music is a powerful form of ministry and mode of worship. Lutheran Summer Music, a four-week music program for high school students, specializes in music education and combining music, community, and faith — catering to young people from Christian backgrounds, no church background, and those who have had negative experiences in the church. The singers of Voices of Hope, a prison choir, live in incarceration. Singing allows them moments to feel free. Hear about the success of these programs, and how music can bring high impact and deep meaning to occasional religious practices.

Speaker Bio:
MaryLynn Mennicke is the Dean and Director of Admissions for Lutheran Summer Music. She graduated from Concordia University, St. Paul with a degree in Music, with emphasis on vocal performance and choral conducting. She previously served as the Director of Music at Peace Lutheran Church in Bloomington, MN. In addition to her current work with LSM, Mennicke freelances as a conductor and singer, singing at churches in the Twin Cities, as well as with Minnesota Chorale, MPLS choir, and leading the Voices of Hope prison choir at the correctional facility in Stillwater, MN.

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Comforting Those Who Mourn: Working with Funeral Directors for the Dead and the Living

Tuesday, April 29, 10:45 a.m.
Location: TBD

This team-led workshop will suggest best practices for cooperating with funeral directors to plan and conduct funerals and memorial services, including advance planning, visitations, and interments. The leaders will draw from their own extensive experience working together and also invite participants to share their own ideas about what works and what doesn’t, who should do what, boundaries to set, guidance to provide, etc. to the end that Christian burials and memorials are faithful, meaningful, comforting, and hopeful for those who mourn.

Speaker Bios:
Since 2013, Andrew Fields has served as pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church, a large congregation in Valparaiso.  He also served eleven years as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, a small congregation in Atlanta, and four years as a missionary in Taiwan.  He grew up in Denver and is a graduate of Valparaiso University and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.  He and his wife, Heidi, have four children.  Andrew enjoys Christmas music, Bach, Bob Dylan, walks with his wife, hot peppers, watching sports, the Colorado Rockies, Lake Michigan, and, depending on the time of day, drinking beer or Oolong tea with friends.    

I (Martin Moeller) am the President of Angelcrest Inc. a Valparaiso funeral home, crematory and cemetery operator. I am a past president of Heritage Lutheran Church, Valparaiso Kiwanis Club, and Porter County Board of Health.  I also served as a Deputy Coroner in Porter County for 23 years, 8 of which I was Chief Deputy. (None of those things will appear in my obituary.)  What will appear in my obituary in some form is that I completed a self-contained trans-America bicycle crossing in 1984, and that I was the “architect’’ of Angelcrest Cemetery.  The latter 2 items mean a lot to me because they both took considerable personal conviction.  The former 4 offices were meaningful in their own way and I served with passion, but I have always considered that type of service to be a civic responsibility rather than personally defining episodes. I am a second-generation funeral director and our daughter, Jamie represents the third generation.  My academic credentials are embarrassingly sparse.  My natural skills lent themselves best to that of an entrepreneur.

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This workshop equips participants with tools to discern meaningful hymn choices, offer compassionate pastoral care, and foster creativity. We’ll explore how to honor individual preferences while broadening the creative process to best serve individuals and families with the Gospel.

Speaker Bio:
Paul Soulek, a hotdish loving Minnesota native, serves as Cantor of St. John Lutheran Church and School in Seward, Nebraska, where he plays the organ, directs vocal and instrumental ensembles, and all the other things cantors usually do. He teaches courses in organ and church music at Concordia University, Nebraska, where he also directs the Male Chorus. When not making music, Paul enjoys spending time with family and friends, undertaking home renovations, and enjoying the natural wonders of Nebraska. He is a graduate of Concordia, Nebraska (bachelor’s, 2007) and Concordia Chicago (master’s, 2015).

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Our regular gatherings around word and sacrament worship extend to other occasions and settings in the life of the church and the body of Christ. This workshop will explore the expansive library of pastoral care and occasional services resources in the ELCA. We will also explore recent work the ELCA looks ahead to future expansion of these resources.

Speaker Bio:
Deacon John Weit serves as Executive for Worship of the ELCA where he provides leadership on behalf of the presiding bishop in matters related to worship. This includes developing and implementing resources that support worship in synods and congregations across the ELCA as well as planning and worship leadership for churchwide events. Prior to his call to the churchwide organization in 2016, John served as musician for congregations in Pennsylvania and most recently as cantor to Trinity Lutheran Church in Worcester, Mass. John is a graduate of The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, now United Lutheran Seminary.

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Liturgical norms about participating in worship are often broken, such as in crisis situations or when Christians are near death. We normally consider these pastoral exceptions, but using cases in which Protestant or Orthodox Christians have been permitted to receive Roman Catholic communion, Belcher argues that they are eschatological exceptions. Christians in crisis experience the presence of the parousia,and express their confidence in a liberty from norms we ordinarily follow. How can eschatology guide us in discerning a broader application of these exceptions to the rules?

Speaker Bio:
Kimberly Hope Belcher is Associate Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame and 2025 President of the North American Academy of Liturgy. She researches liturgical theology, ritual studies, and ecumenism. She serves on the Vital Worship, Vital Preaching Board of the Calvin Institute for Christian Worship and represents the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the Methodist-Catholic, Episcopal-Catholic, and Pentecostal-Catholic dialogues in the United States. Recent publications include “Ritual Techniques in Affliction Rites and the Lutheran-Catholic ecumenical Liturgy of Lund, 2016,” Yearbook for Ritual and Liturgical Studies (2022) and Eucharist and Receptive Ecumenism: From Thanksgiving to Communion (Cambridge, 2020).

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Comforting All in Their Sorrow: Funeral Rites in a Changing Culture

Tuesday, April 29, 3:45 p.m.

Location: TBD

How do our funeral liturgies make space for individuals or families with little or no connection to the church? This workshop will offer pastoral strategies that contextualize current funeral rites as well as alternative prayers, scriptural metaphors, and ritual symbols. The presenters will reflect on their process of crafting the commissioned liturgical texts for this year’s institute while seeking engagement and feedback from attendees.

Speaker Bios:
Deacon Jennifer Baker-Trinity serves as Program Manager for Worship Resource Development, a shared position between the ELCA and Augsburg Fortress Publishers. In this position she attends to developing and teaching about resources that support the church’s worship. Jennifer completed her studies at Valparaiso University and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. From 2017-2020 she served as co-Director of the Institute. She has been active in ALCM and serves on the advisory council for Lutheran Summer Music. Jennifer has served as a church musician and has written for several devotional and worship resources. She lives in Shoreview, Minnesota, with her spouse and three children. 

The Rev. Nathan Baker-Trinity currently serves as senior pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Stillwater, Minnesota beginning in September 2024. For the previous 18 years he served in three calls to rural congregations in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, as well as a year of service as a dementia care chaplain. Nathan has made several devotional and preaching contributions to the larger church, including for Sundays and Seasons, Christ In Our Home, and The Word In Season. He has been Chaplain to the Lutheran Summer Music Community since 2020. A long-time attendee of the Institute, this is his first time as a workshop presenter where he will draw from his experience of funeral ministry in many contexts.

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*More information to come

Speaker Bio:
Liv is a pastor, writer and artist who lives in Spokane, Washington with her spouse and two children. Her work in parish ministry, community building, and worship renewal connects liturgical spirituality with social justice. She loves sharing meals with others and remembering her baptism by being near the Spokane river. 

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This practicum will look at the rites of baptism in LBW/ELW and LSB seeking to provide insights on “How” to preside at these rites, and, perhaps more importantly, what NOT to do in presiding.

Speaker Bio:
Maxwell E. Johnson is emeritus professor of liturgy at the University of Notre Dame and a retired pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. His numerous publications are on the origins and development of early Christian liturgy, contemporary rites, and current ecumenical and theological questions in both East and West. He is the author and/or editor of more than twenty books and over one hundred essays and articles. He is also a former president of the North American Academy of Liturgy, a member of the Society of Oriental Liturgy, a member of Societas Liturgica, and a member of the scientific advisory board for the journal Ecclesia Orans.

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From Canon in D to Con Te Partiro, church musicians are frequently asked to incorporate popular music into the service music for weddings, funerals, and other services. This workshop will model creative ways to pair these melodies with hymn melodies, creating an intersection of church in the world.

Speaker Bio:
Rev. Dr. James Marriott is the Associate Pastor at Faith Lutheran in Georgetown, TX, and Associate Professor of Theology and Music at Concordia University Texas, where he serves as the chair of the Theology Department.  Holding undergraduate and graduate degrees in Parish Music from Concordia Nebraska and Concordia Wisconsin, respectively, he earned a Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL, with an emphasis in liturgical inculturation. He was also ordained into the pastoral ministry through Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He frequently lectures and performs across the United States, using workshops and hymn festivals as an opportunity to demonstrate the cultural diversity of the church. Jim and his wife, Kristi, have been married for twenty-one years and are blessed with two children, Joel and Kirstin.s on Chapel staff.

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Queer people have painfully and playfully crafted rites at the margins, often claiming a shocking freedom to embody the church’s tradition in liberating and healing ways. They took seriously both the real lives of the participants and the power of ritual to embody divine presence that was itself a new witness. In this workshop, we’ll look at some rites, discuss their development, and consider what it means for us to be a church that meets people who arrive at our doors, yearning for depth, mystery, and the power of God.

Speaker Bio:
Bradley E. Schmeling serves as Senior Pastor at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, St. Paul, MN. He is a servant of the Sunday assembly, a 35-year beginner, practicing at the beautiful and complicated intersection of liturgical tradition, congregational life and prophetic hope. He struggles to find work-life balance, get to the gym, and keep his wardrobe updated, but feels profoundly privileged to serve the church, have a settled and happy life with his husband and live in a state where for a long time every year the promise of spring has to be trusted rather than witnessed.

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A look into the life and work of a full time, professional sacristan living and serving a parish in New York City. ‘How did we get here?’ And, ‘What do you actually do?’ These are two of the most common questions I get from other church workers. It’s a unique path I’ve found myself on and I’ll share some of the unique experiences from my work in the sacristies of the holy places I’ve served – from managing a columbarium to hosting mass weddings and baptism services, there’s lots of fun to be shared.

Speaker Bio:
Emily serves as an Assistant Head Sacristan at Trinity Church: A Parish in the City of New York. As a member of a team of sacristans, she oversees the logistics of many worship services and events happening in the church and chapels of Trinity Church. Prior to her time at Trinity Church, she served as Sacristan at Saint John’s Cathedral in Denver, Colorado. As a student at Valparaiso University, she was a member of the student sacristy staff. Emily serves as a member of the Institutes’ Advisory Council and enjoys spending time back in the chapel that formed her for the work she does, walking with people in the most holy parts of their Christian life.

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Life passages are changing rapidly in modern society. Not only is the ritual enactment no longer evident, but also the experiences of passages as such are not the same as some decades ago. What are the actual passages people face? How are they enacted ritually? Where do people miss ritual symbols, words and gestures? In this workshop, we will try to build the bridge between ritual creativity and tradition by using the method of a ‘ritual lab’. We will look at concrete cases and try to collect symbols, gestures and words from our own background. In an ecclesial context, the notion of ‘re-invention’ (Grimes) implies a pastoral attitude that needs to be linked to lived religion (McGuire). Participants are invited to take part in a creative exploration of liturgical needs and practices today.

Speaker Bio:
Prof. Dr. Thomas Quartier osb (1972) is a benedictine monk and full professor for Ritual and Liturgical Studies at Radboud University Nijmegen (NL). He is the head of department Comparative Religion and director of the Benedictine Center for Liturgical Studies at the same university. He did research on funerary liturgy and new ritualistions of death in the Netherlands and on liturgical spirituality in monasteries.

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Many young adults are experiencing what they call a “deconstruction” of their faith. Often their questions are a challenge to inherited beliefs in search of deeper understanding of identity and purpose. This journey, when undertaken without intentional spiritual guidance, can leave them vulnerable to confusion and disillusionment. Approached as a sacred journey, the pilgrimage of doubt offers unique opportunities for deep spiritual growth. Together we’ll delve into liturgical forms grounded in ancient practices toward guiding young adults through the stages of leaving behind former certainties, facing new questions and insights, and rebuilding a more resilient faith in Christ. Join us in learning how to equip the next generation of believers with tools for navigating this sacred journey of faith transformation.

Speaker Bio:
Rev. Dominic J. Rivkin serves as the Mission Executive for the Pacific Southwest District of the LCMS. Dominic is called to support existing ministries as they create new faith communities that intentionally proclaim the Gospel of Jesus to their neighbors. This includes developing strategies and partnerships and equipping leaders to engage our densely populated, culturally diverse, and rapidly growing region. His ongoing study is in movements of Spiritual formation in the early, Reformation era, and current Christian Church with an applied project focused on identity and purpose to follow. Dominic and his wife Cassie reside in Los Angeles, enjoying the excitement of the city as much as they love exploring the trails and mountains of Southern California.

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In addition to these workshops, there will also be plenary follow-up workshops for each of the plenary speakers. You can find those on the schedule above.

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