
Embodied Ministries - Sacred Dance
Faith and the drama of the Biblical texts are often experiences beyond words. The church is gifted at verbal leadership. What would it mean to worship God beyond words? What does it mean to embody our faith and practice? This workshop will explore the opportunities and the challenges of the arts in worship.

Ecclesial and Existential Liturgy as Narrative Embodiment
We live as embodied creatures whose lives are storied by a vast array of competing narratives. In this presentation we will explore the purposeful rhythm between the ecclesial liturgy enacted within congregational gatherings and the existential liturgy enacted in daily life.
Rev. Tony Cook is assistant professor of practical theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Tony teaches in the area of education, pastoral theology, pastoral leadership, and postmodern studies including courses on preaching in a postmodern age and emerging Christianity. Tony also studies the growth of emerging Christianity in and around London. Tony serves as the Associate Dean of Curriculum and Instruction. He is currently a doctoral candidate at St. Louis University and is writing his dissertation on the perceived spiritual impact of seminary training on second-year seminary students. He has been married to his wife Elizabeth for 23 years and has a 16 year-old son, Ben.
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Sharpening the Tool: Architectural Space at Work
A close look at how architecture works in shaping our behavior as is serves a wide range of needs from the very practical to elusive and symbolic dimensions. From ancient times to today, what are the central elements of architecture? What makes architecture work? What values become embodied by space design decisions? Learn this vocabulary and to think spatially.
An architect, teacher, and liturgical consultant, Steve Edwins heads SMSQ Architects in Northfield, Minnesota - a renowned and award-winning church design firm established by a leader in liturgical architecture, Edward Anders Sovik FAIA, more than 60 years ago. Church design experience includes new and renewal design work over many decades with scores of buildings that support active engagement in worship through a holistic design approach to making places for gathering, worship and music.
Educated at St. Olaf College, and the Yale School of Architecture, Steve has practiced church design for over 30 years, teaches Architectural Drawing and Design at St. Olaf College, and has recently presented at the biannual Conference on Worship Theology and Art at St. Olaf.
Notable projects include renewal at Luther Memorial and Good Shepherd churches in Madison, Wisconsin; Normandale Lutheran, Edina, MN; First Lutheran Church, Duluth, MN; Church of St. Catherine Catholic Church, Redwood Fall, MN; Immanuel Lutheran Church expansion, Eden Prairie, MN; All Saints Lutheran master planning an renovation in Phoenix, AZ; Hope Lutheran Church's new campus planning and liturgical design in Bozeman, MT; Boe Memorial Chapel renewal at St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN; and numerous historic preservation works including the T.B. Sheldon Auditorium Theatre in Red Wing, MN. Current work includes a new chapel and visitor center for Bethany College in Kansas, and consultation with a Lutheran church and school in Glendale, CA.
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Bach and the Dance
The purpose of this presentation is through explanation and performance, to help the listener understand Baroque dances and recognize how Bach used the rhythms, accents, and styles of these dances in his organ compositions. With this understanding, the performer comes much closer to Bach's original intent and is able to create a more vibrant and stylistic performance of his organ music.
Trudy Faber is Professor Emerita at Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH, continues to teach organ and harpsichord, direct the handbell choir, and serve as University Organist at Wittenberg. She is also organist at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Ohio. From 1995-2004 she served as chair of the music department, during which time she raised funds to completely restore the Weaver Chapel organ...In the spring of 1998 she was the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award from Wittenberg University. One of her organ students was the National Winner of the 2004 Paul and Ruth Manz Organ Competition Award.
As a recitalist, Trudy has performed organ and harpsichord concerts in 32 states throughout the United States and in nine countries, performing twice at St. Paul's Cathedral, London and three times at the Bach St. Nicolas Church in Leipzig, Germany as a specialist in Baroque music, she has given her lecture/demonstration on Bach and the Dance for national conferences, at Universities, and for AGO chapters throughout the States.
After graduation from Calvin College, Michigan, she received a Fulbright Scholarship for a year of study in organ and harpsichord with the renowned Baroque scholar Gustav Leonhardt at the Amsterdam Consevatory, The Netherlands. She continued with graduate work at the University of Toronto, studying harpsichord with Greta Kraus, and completed her MA in Music on a full scholarship at Smith College.
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Growing Active Worshipers: Faith Formation Through the Children's Choir
There is a lot more to directing a children's choir than teaching an anthem. This workshop will discuss the need for deliberate and intentional spiritual and worship instruction, as well as offer practical teaching suggestions and repertoire ideas.
Sarah Hawbecker is Organist and Director of Children's Music at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Atlanta, where she has served since 1996. A prize winner of numerous competitions, she has performed and presented workshops for conventions of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) and the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, and served as adjudicator for several organ competitions. Her organ performances have been broadcast on American Public Media's Pipedreams. Ms. Hawbecker earned the Master of Music degree in Organ Performance from the Eastman School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music degree, Magna cum laude with Departmental Distinction, from St. Olaf College. She served three terms on the AGO's National Council, as well as on local and national committees. She is one of the authors of Prelude Music Planner and a faculty member of the Greater Atlanta Leadership Program for Musicians.
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Bread, Wine, Oil, Water
God is present to us in the radically common signs of bread, wine, oil and water. Things found in our kitchen are also found in our sanctuaries. In this session, we will consider the use of these signs in worship and the meaning they have in encountering our bodies.
Liv Larson Andrews is a pastor in the ELCA, serving in the West Central neighborhood of Spokane, Washington. She remembers her embodiment when baking bread with her son Arlo and when tasting wine with her spouse Casey.
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Place Your Hand in My Side
The only body Christ has today is the one that gathers 'round the Table. As always, you can recognize it by the nail prints and gaping wound we invite a hopeless, groping world to touch.
Dr. Frederick Niedner is Professor of Theology, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN. Frederick Niedner teaches biblical studies, Hebrew language, and introductory courses in Christian theology. He has written numerous articles on forgiveness and reconciliation and contributes text studies to the Christian Century and Augsburg Fortress resources such as Sundays and Seasons and the New Proclamation Commentary series. He serves in the preaching rotation of Valparaiso's Chapel of the Resurrection and writes a fortnightly column on contemporary religious issues in the NW Indiana Post-Tribune.
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The Brain on Music: How Music Therapy Principles Shape Worship Practice
Throughout history and across all human cultures, music is omnipresent as a means of mediating the divine, expressing emotion and enlivening social interaction. Music serves a central role in Christian Worship and is at the center of the therapeutic discipline, music therapy, that optimizes the ways the brain processes music in order to advance therapeutic goals in the areas of communication, learning, motor skills, emotions and social interaction. This workshop will illustrate the foundations of music therapy as they pertain to the use of music in worship and explore how worship practice can be shaped by this understanding.
The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Phelps Ollikainen holds a Bachelors of Music Therapy and worked as a board certified music therapist before seminary. She also holds a Master of Divinity, Sacred Theology Masters in New Testament studies and Doctor of Ministry in Worship from the Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia. She is the Director of Ministries at Liberty Lutheran Services, a social ministry organization of the ELCA located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Editor of CrossAccent, the journal of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. Previously, she served as the Associate for Worship Resources in the Worship Office of the ELCA and as Associate Pastor at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Springfield, Pennsylvania.
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Making the Body
This workshop will explore how movement and touch serve the liturgy by constructing communities of compassion and justice.
Pastor Bradley Schmeling serves as the senior pastor at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minnesota. A graduate of Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, he did further graduate work at Emory University in liturgical studies, pastoral care, and theology. While serving St. John's Lutheran Church, Atlanta, he was an adjunct instructor at Candler School of Theology, teaching an annual practicum in liturgical leadership. Previously, he served in Columbus, Ohio and on the religious life staff at Emory. Bradley lives with his partner and their 19-year-old cat in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Two Bodies Personal and Corporate, Physical and Spiritual
We will consider parallels between the human body and the body of Christ, which is his Church and are his churches: their fall, their afflictions (two cansers), their namings (false and true), and how they are made whole again.


Offers an opportunity for considering the importance of the visual arts in the worship environment, highlighting the connection between liturgy, image and symbol. The work of Ernst Schwidder (1931-1998), teacher, architectural and liturgical artist, designer, wood carver and churchman, provides a model for the environment of worship space as his work is both instructive and doxological. Schwidder has installed work in over 300 churches across the USA and Canada, primarily in Lutheran churches but with a good ecumenical mix. His unique calligraphy connects word and image, truth and beauty, congrefational identity and topographical location. This will be an illustrated presentation about his life and work.
Joel Nickel is a retired Lutheran pastor, working artist, living in Salem, Oregon. Richard Tietjen is a retired Lutheran pastor, liturgical specialist, living in Tacoma, Washington.
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