2008 Assembly
April 18 and 19, 2008

Friday, 1-9 p.m.
Saturday, 9-5 p.m.
St. Andrew Lutheran Church, Eden Prairie

Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson will be the ELCA Churchwide representative at our 2008 Synod Assembly.

Speakers at 2008 Synod Assembly to Focus on Wholeness

The two speakers for the 2008 Minneapolis Area Synod Assembly will help develop the theme of “A New Creation: Fit for Mission” by focusing on both the issues of the health and wellness of our leaders as well as the Scriptural fluency of our congregations.

The Rev. David Brueshoff will address how healthy leaders can positively affect the mission of the church in the world. Brueshoff currently is a member of the synod’s Leadership Table. He has been working with parents and families for 25 years. He is an ELCA Clergy and educator teaching at the college level since 1990. Dave is a board member for the Working Family Resource Center and Minnesota Council on Family Relations.

Dave is also a retired United States Army Reserve Officer, where he specialized in combat stress management, family support, mobilization and its impact on families. Today, Dave speaks extensively to corporate clients on issues of work-life balance.

He lives with his wife, two almost out-of-the-home adult children, and one English bulldog. Dave runs for his mental health (and doesn’t own a cell phone)!

The director of the ELCA’s Book of Faith initiative, Dr. Diane Jacobson, AiM will engage the Assembly in an overview of the Book of Faith initiative and how congregations and individuals can join the conversation, make a commitment, and become involved.

Diane Jacobson came to the Luther Seminary faculty as an assistant professor in 1982, and was promoted to associate professor in 1990. In 1999, she became professor of Old Testament. She was chair of the biblical division from 1993 to 1996. She currently serves as associate dean of MA/MSM programs, but is first and foremost, a lover of Scripture. “I'm in love with this Book,” she says, pointing to the Bible. “My calling is to teach Scripture for the sake of God's world. My scholarship serves that larger purpose."

She wants her students to learn to read Scripture clearly so they can be moved and changed by it. “If you slide over the details, it becomes easy to make Scripture say what you want it to say,” she declares. “We can't avoid imposing our own prejudices on scripture, but the gift of careful reading is that it opens up the possibility of hearing a voice other than our own.”

Jacobson also wants her students to develop a “Biblical imagination,” so they will think with Scripture as a partner. “We live in a secular world. Everything reminds us of a movie or television show. Jesus doesn't enter naturally into our conversations. A Biblical imagination allows this to happen,” Jacobson says. “When you experience challenging or joyous or frightening circumstances in the world, you can bring Scripture to the process of thinking about them. In other words, God becomes a player instead of being incidental to your experience.”

A graduate of Connecticut College, Jacobson earned the doctor of philosophy degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York. She also holds a master of arts degree from Columbia University/Union Theological Seminary.

She embraced Lutheranism as an adult. “What started for me as an intellectual adventure deepened into a calling. I was attracted by the centrality of the theology of the cross and the liturgical traditions. I love the Lutheran capacity to embrace ambiguity: we're both saints and sinners. We walk that tightrope. We don't fall on one side or the other. As Lutherans we hold the ambiguity and rejoice in it. We don't try to solve it,” she says.

If you have any questions please call Terri Endres, diaconal minister, and synod assembly manager at  612-230-3307 or email her at t.endres@mpls-synod.org.