Bible Study #1

LCMC

Bible Study #1

October 3, 2016 • Pr. Janine Rew-Werling

Janine grew up in Mitchell, South Dakota getting to know Jesus at her LCMS Wednesday school, Saturday school and Sunday school in the 60's and 70's. She graduated from Augustana College in Sioux Falls with majors in English and Journalism.

Jesus called this unlikely disciple while she was working for Citibank doing New Projects in the Marketing department. She went to seminary with the dream of becoming a Youth/Family Counselor thinking that seminary would "offset" the secular PhD in Psychology she hoped to achieve. Jesus had other ideas. She was at Princeton Seminary for two years and went on internship in Wykcoff, NJ. She loved parish ministry. She headed to LSTC in Chicago for her final "Lutheran" year and fell head over heels in love with Craig Werling and they thought it was a good idea to get engaged after 6 weeks of dating. They graduated, got married and set off to tackle a new idea in parish ministry: serving 4 rural congregations together. They had so much fun, they thought having 3 kids would only make it more fun! They were called to Milbank, SD thirteen years later to serve in a larger congregation together.

In August of 2010, she left parish ministry to serve as Director of Development and Marketing for Volunteers of America, Dakotas. She was sure that her days in the parish were over. Jesus had other ideas. In February of 2011, a small mission start asked her to supply preach. In September of 2011, they called her part time and two weeks later made it full time! The congregation is now over 420 people and just moved into a new building in March of 2016. They are in the process of adding a second pastor so that she can remember if she has any hobbies.

She serves on the Board for Theology and Ministry of the LCMC Augustana District, and on the board of the Institute for Lutheran Theology (ILT). She and her husband are also on the NALC clergy roster. Her professional interests include: Youth and Family Ministries, Bible Study, Strategic Planning for Churches, Christian Counseling, Deaf Ministries, and Stewardship.

Janine and Craig have three children: the oldest is married and a school counselor and is teaching in Bangkok, Thailand with her husband. The middle one is graduated from college and is off in the workforce. The baby is a freshman at Hillsdale College in Michigan. Jesus has another idea about life and ministry as she is called with her husband to an "empty nest" and looks forward to the new adventure ahead!

Keynote Speaker #1 – Part One

October 3, 2016 • Dr. Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Distinguished Chair for Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College. Ed also serves as the Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton, and as chair of the Evangelism and Leadership Program in the Graduate School. Ed is a prolific author, and well-known conference speaker. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written a dozen books and hundreds of articles. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He is also the Executive Editor of The Gospel Project, which is used by over 1 million individuals each week. As of fall 2015, Stetzer co-hosts BreakPoint This Week, a radio broadcast that airs on over 400 media outlets. He also serves the teaching pastor at Christ Fellowship, a multi-cultural megachurch in Miami, Florida.

Keynote Speaker #1 – Part Two

October 3, 2016 • Dr. Ed Stetzer

Keynote Speaker #2 – Part One

October 4, 2016 • Dr. Mark Granquist

Mark A. Granquist is Associate Professor of the History of Christianity at Luther Seminary, a position he has held since 2007. Prior to this he taught in the Religion Department at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota (1992-2000) and at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota (2000-2007). Granquist has served in parish ministry or Lutheran higher education since his ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in 1988. He was pastor of youth and education at Bethel Lutheran Church, Rochester, MN from 1988-1992 and has served several times as an interim pastor in local congregations. A 1979 graduate of St Olaf College, Granquist received his M. Div. from Yale University Divinity School in 1984 and his Ph D degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1992. He serves as the editor of the Luther Seminary journal Word & World and of the Journal of the Lutheran Historical Conference, and has been active with the journal Lutheran Quarterly. His publications include Lutherans in America: A New History (Fortress Press, 2014), Scandinavian Pietists: Spiritual Writings from 19th-century Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland (Classics of Western Spirituality, 2015), and The Augustana Story: Shaping Lutheran Identity in North America, (Fortress, 2008). He is one of the editors of the Dictionary of Luther and the Lutheran Traditions (Baker Academic), which will be published in 2016, and the author of many book chapters, articles and essays, especially on the history of Lutherans in North America.