Spend five days in the resort area of Traverse City, Michigan, and learn what it means to be part of "The Missional Church in the New Millennium" during Trinity Lutheran Seminary’s annual Great Lakes Theological Academy, July 25-29, at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Traverse City.
There is still time to register for this unique summer educational opportunity that mixes vacation and academic enrichment. The program begins Monday evening, July 25, and continues Tuesday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to noon, with afternoons free to explore the area. Registration starts at $175 for church professionals. A special registration fee of $75 for students and lay persons is also available for others interested in attending.
This year’s program will look at what it means to be a missional church, understanding that "missional church" describes not so much what the church does as who God is. It frames an ecclesiology in which the church has "left the building" to be the heart, hands, feet and mind of Jesus in the world. The missional church recognizes that the privileged position the church held under Christendom has all but ended. It rejoices in the place it now occupies nearer the margins of society, from which it can faithfully participate in God’s mission to redeem the cosmos.
Presenters include Gary Dorrien, the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. An Episcopal priest and author of 14 books, he will challenge participants to think about the church’s rich ecumenical and theological tradition and how it applies to the current state of affairs in the church and in the world. He will be joined by Brad Binau, the newly appointed academic dean at Trinity Lutheran Seminar and professor of pastoral theology. Dr. Binau’s presentations will provide a pastoral grounding for leading the church into the new millennium.
More information is available at www.TLSohio.edu or by contacting Skip Cornett, program coordinator for the Great Lakes Theological Academy, at wcornett@tlsohio.edu or 614-384-4654.