AN EMBER DAY* EDUCATIONAL EVENT FOR ALL WHO PREACH
Pastors, deacons, & lay worship leaders are invited to rekindle a passion for preaching the gospel by gathering with colleagues, sharing peer support, and engaging in a deep reading of the Gospel of Mark. Dr. Mindy Makant will guide us in a day designed to strengthen our preaching & engagement with the gospel in preparation for the lectionary year to come.
$15 registration fee includes lunch.
RSVP by Monday, December 4.
The woman in Mark 5:33, in fear and trembling, tells Jesus the whole truth, and the Truth sets her free. As preachers, we are invited – called – to tell the whole truth of Jesus, even in a world that often cannot handle the truth. How can we preach the liberating Truth of God to a world that desperately needs it? How do we do this in what is arguably the most polarized cultural context any of us have ever lived?
Deacon Dr. Mindy Makant
Deacon Dr. Mindy Makant is associate professor of religious studies and director of the Youth and Family Ministry Program at Lenoir-Rhyne University. She previously held the roles of director of the Living Well Center for Vocation and Purpose and dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Our ministerium might best know Dr. Makant from her Bible study on Esther at the 2023 Rostered Ministers Gathering in Phoenix.
She is the author of two books: The Practice of Story: Suffering and the Possibilities of Redemption and Holy Mischief: In Honor of Women in Ministry. Her research interests include pastoral care, justice, the relationship between church and state and the role of the imagination in the Christian life.
Dr. Makant is an ordained deacon in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and certified spiritual director. She is currently serving on the ELCA’s Task Force on the Social Statement on Church, Government and Civic Participation.
* Unfamiliar with the tradition of Ember Days? Philip H. Pfatteicher sheds light on these observances in Journey into the Heart of God: Living the Liturgical Year:
"The turning of the four season of the natural world has been incorporated into the church's calendar. These are the Ember Days, the name derived from the German Quatember, a corruption of quattuor tempore, "the four times." ... Recognizing an increasing estrangement from the agricultural setting of the Church's calendar, [the Church] replaced the Ember Days with prayer for various needs set by regional conferences of Bishops... but eventually replaced by quarterly lectures and examinations in the catechism." (p.67)