I had the privilege, honor, etc. to be part of the graduation at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary on Saturday, May 21, 2011. I was recieving a Certificate in Theological Education for Emerging Ministries. It was good to be able to be at graduation and have my family with me. This has been quite a journey and having them with me was very cool. It was also cool that our dear friend Mandy joined us and was the “official” videographer for the event.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that our graduation speaker was Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber from House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, CO. I absolutely love the way Pastor Nadia engages the mission to which we are called to serve as God’s children in the world. I believe that she is a wonderful and important presence in the church today. It was a great joy to hear her speak at graduation.

Anyway, here is her message to us on that day. I thought it was fantastic.

Peace & Enjoy,

Craig

Sorry everyone, but I’m a little burned out from the never-ending cycle that always seems to be more interested and focused on Royal Weddings, killing enemies and war, tornadoes, blizzards, power outages, and destruction of everything and everyone. It seems like a never-ending story of bad news.

It’s always refreshing to remember that we are called to live as children of the resurrection, so I thought this was something I could share and maybe, just maybe, it can offer a light of good news and hope when it seems like we are being swallowed at times in darkness and despair. 🙂

One of the great joys in my life as a follower of the risen Jesus is witnessing God working in and through people to bring blessings to their neighbor. Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ Gwen Kreft & Ron Frei are a great example of how I have seen this recently first hand.

Gwen and Ron promoted the “Shelter Me Tour” that in Bismarck this past Saturday evening. It was a fantastic evening and had a pretty significant impact on many – even the artists themselves.

Check out this post from Shaun Groves who is one of the artists on this tour.

Thank You, Gwen.