Copyright 2000 Des Moines Register

Reprinted with permission

February 6, 1999 Saturday
SECTION: METRO IOWA; Pg. 4M
HEADLINE: Feeling connected to God's larger family
BY STEPHEN BUTTRY
Register Columnist
Church can be a comfortable environment. Beautiful music inspires you.
Stirring sermons uplift you. Warm fellowship surrounds you.
Sometimes, it's too comfortable.
"Now it's time to go outside of my church and do something else," said Jean
Solem, a charter member of the 49-year-old Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd
on the south side of Des Moines.
Solem and 14 other members of the church are leaving today for a week-long
mission trip to Jamaica. February is a traditional time of year to flee Iowa for
warmer climates such as a Caribbean island. Most snowbirds, though, don't plan
to spend their time in a school or a clinic.
The Good Shepherd team includes a doctor and three nurses who will join other
American volunteers in providing primary patient care, mostly to children, at
the Penwood Medical Center in Kingston.
The rest of the Good Shepherd volunteers, including Solem, will work at the
Hope Valley Experimental School. Solem and other grandmothers in the group will
work with children. Younger volunteers will paint an auditorium and classrooms,
install screens in the cafeteria and do carpentry work on the staff bathroom.
"I was just really thrilled," Solem said, "to get the chance to help somebody
that needs it worse than I do."
While the Good Shepherd group works in Jamaica, another Des Moines mission
group will be working in Cuba. The Rev. David Nelms, Bob Bradford and Jim Parlee
of Grace Church will take the Cubans medical supplies and Bibles -"medicine for
the body as well as the soul," Nelms said.
Both Des Moines groups are part of a larger mission effort.
The Good Shepherd group is working through a program of its parent
denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Two churches from
Minnesota and one from Georgia will be in Jamaica at the same time. They will
continue work begun by other mission teams, and still more will carry on after
the Iowans, Georgians and Minnesotans leave.

The Grace group is joining a state-sanctioned mission trip led by Detroit

evangelist Rick Amato, who has preached several times at the church in northeast
Des Moines.
The purpose of the trip is simple, Nelms said. "It's just the old Bible
concept: I was sick and you took care of me. I was hungry and you fed me. I was
naked and you clothed me."
This is Nelms' first visit to Cuba, but he tries to make at least one mission
trip a year. "It helps me to keep a world focus and stirs me up for global
evangelism."
The world focus is helpful for the home church as well as for those who are
served in the mission field.
When Good Shepherd interviewed the Rev. Chet Prashad two years ago as a
candidate for pastor, the church was facing financial struggles. Its focus was
inward. "We were very caught up in how to maintain," Prashad said. The church
leaders "wanted to look beyond our four walls."
Prashad quickly got the congregation involved in serving the Churches United
homeless shelter and the community food pantry.
"I was so happy when we started doing the homeless shelter," said Sara Downs,
who's going on the Jamaica trip.
The Jamaica mission has energized the congregation, even those not going
along. They are participating with financial support and as prayer partners.
"They're already seeing our enthusiasm and saying, 'Next year, we're going,' "
Downs said.
For some, the trip fulfills a longtime desire that got pushed aside by career
or family responsibilities. "I've always been interested in mission work but
haven't been able to do it," said Ruby Short.
The trip will help Good Shepherd feel more connected, Prashad said, "to the
larger family of God."
-----Reporter Stephen Buttry can be reached at (515) 699-7058 or buttrys
@news.dmreg.com
Copyright 2000 Des Moines Register
Reprinted with permission
February 13, 1999 Saturday

SECTION: METRO IOWA; Pg. 4M

HEADLINE: Date seminars build spiritual intimacy
By STEPHEN BUTTRY
Register Columnist
It's date night for more than 250 couples. Some are holding hands. Some are
laughing. Others appear tense. A few eyes brim with tears. The hum of mass
intimacy fills the ballroom, not quite drowning out the bland instrumental
background music.
After two minutes of intimacy among couples, Gary and Barb Rosberg command
the crowd's attention again. With a mixture of humor, advice and enthusiasm, the
Rosbergs help the couples try to bring more than romance to their marriages at
Valentine's Day.
"Romance is the fruit of a relationship," Gary explains. "It's not the
foundation." The foundation, he says, is a shared faith in Jesus.
"Date With a Purpose" is just that. "It is a date," said Jodi Prideaux, happy
to be with husband Todd for a night out without their 3-year-old daughter,
Rachel.
The Prideauxs are veterans of previous dates hosted by the Rosbergs, who lead
various programs for men, women and couples through their ministry, "America's
Family Coaches."
As with virtually any seminar, the nuggets of advice dispensed Tuesday night
at the Des Moines seminar resonated differently with individual listeners.
Jodi, whose patience can wear thin caring for a 3-year-old, said after the
program, "I think I need to work on my tenderness a bit."
Todd hesitantly told which message applied most strongly to him: "I need to
learn to talk more about my thoughts and feelings."
Much of the Rosbergs' message is standard but valuable advice that can be
heard in most any secular or religious marriage enrichment program: Talk.
Listen. Romance. Intimacy. Creativity. Time. Security. Trust.
That's just a start, the Rosbergs said. In addition, Gary told the couples,
both husband and wife must "be in the word of God on a regular basis."
They must read the Bible, Gary said, noting that the "One Year Bible" is on
sale outside the ballroom. They must share their faith with one another and with
other couples, he added. They must pray.

"There's nothing better," Gary exhorted the crowd, "than when a husband comes
to his wife and says, 'Let's pray.' "
If you were a skeptic waiting for the smiling hosts to tell wives they must
submit to their husbands, you wouldn't hear it in these two hours. The Rosbergs
had little to say about proper gender roles. Their strongest statements about
differences between men and women were to urge Todd and his brethren to talk
more to their wives. Both partners, the Rosbergs say, must share their thoughts,
their feelings and their needs if the marriage is going to work.
Submission did come up, though. The successful marriage, Gary said, is
actually a holy threesome: "two people who are submitting to Christ."
The Rosbergs' peppy pitch for a strong Christian marriage won't appeal to
everyone. If you've been to a weekend retreat such as Marriage Encounter, the
large crowd and the two-minute breaks might seem an odd atmosphere to be
practicing intimacy. At best, the intimacy breaks are a tease, a chance to start
a deeper discussion that will resume later in the evening in the privacy of the
car or bedroom.
In two hours, the Rosbergs cover a lot of ground without covering anything
thoroughly. But this isn't a retreat. It's a date. And the couples gathered
Tuesday responded enthusiastically, seeming to feel it was well worth the $20
registration (more if you wanted the books or tapes the Rosbergs were peddling).
Many raised hands to indicate they had attended Rosberg programs before
-previous Date programs, Gary's weekly CrossTrainers for men or Barbara's
Woman's Legacy. These were people who know and enjoy the Rosbergs' approach to
Christ-centered family life. The couples even laughed heartily at Gary's
predictable jokes.
Mostly, though, they embraced the Rosbergs' call for "building spiritual
intimacy into our marriages."
Tony and Jana Rhoads, divorced but reconciled, thought they might have a
better relationship in a second try, based on a shared relationship with Jesus.
Said Jana: "This is probably one of the best things we can do for us."
-----Reporter Stephen Buttry can be reached at (515) 699-7058 or buttrys
@news.dmreg.com
Copyright 2000 Des Moines Register
Reprinted with permission

March 6, 1999 Saturday

SECTION: METRO IOWA; Pg. 4M
HEADLINE: Churches learn power of dramatic storytelling
By Stephen Buttry
Register Columnist
Television star Frank Runyeon will perform "Afraid! The Gospel of Mark," at 7
p.m. March 13 at St. John's Lutheran Church in Des Moines. Runyeon has starred
in a number of shows including "General Hospital" and "As the World Turns."
A reader recently objected to our use of the word "perform" in an
announcement about a program by her church's choir.
The choir director was adamant, the reader said, in telling choir members
that they were not "performing" (and thus, in her view, drawing attention to
themselves). They were singing only for God's glory.
Dennis Dewey performs for God's glory.
Dewey is a biblical storyteller. He's an ordained minister but he doesn't
preach. And he doesn't read Scriptures. He tells Bible stories. He performs.
The word comes from Latin and Old French words that mean "thoroughly" and "to
complete." Performing biblical stories, Dewey said, completes them more
thoroughly than simply reading or preaching about them.
Dewey will demonstrate and teach dramatic storytelling March 14 in two
seminars at Presbytery Day, an educational and inspirational program presented
by the Presbytery of Des Moines.
In another of the seminars in the program, Curt and Lisa Joseph of Highland
Park Lutheran Church and Trunk-in-the-Attic Dramatic Resources in Des Moines
will tell how Bible drama can enhance worship and other facets of congregational
life.
Many Des Moines area churches are learning the power of storytelling and
dramatic performance to heighten the impact of biblical and contemporary
stories.
Several churches are using full-scale dramatic presentations with costumes,
props, makeup, sets, lights and wireless microphones. Some use brief skits or
plays as part of the Sunday worship service, tying to the theme of the day's
sermon and Scripture.
Some congregations have replaced the traditional Easter or Christmas choral
concert with a full-scale dramatic musical.

St. John's Lutheran Church in Des Moines is presenting "Afraid! The Gospel of
Mark," a one-man show by touring professional actor Frank Runyeon, on March 13
at 7 p.m. Runyeon plays Mark, telling his Gospel story in contemporary American
language.
First Church of the Open Bible in Des Moines is presenting a two-act dramatic
production in a dinner theater setting March 12-14. Tickets for the dinner
theater are $10. Reservations may be made by calling 274-9296.
The play is adapted from "In His Steps," the 19th century novel by Charles
Sheldon that asked the currently popular question, "What would Jesus do?"
The novel "made a great impact on my life," said Jane Thomas, director of
drama at First Church. "It was the first play that I wanted to do."
Some pastors use a dramatic storytelling style to present the sermon in a
worship service. "I've actually had people think I've not done a sermon," said
the Rev. Cheryl Thomas (no relation to Jane Thomas). To avoid that confusion,
she usually presents most of the sermon in character, then reverts to her pastor
persona for the conclusion.
Thomas, who was installed last month as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in
Des Moines, is presenting a Lenten series on Wednesday nights, performing the
stories from the Gospel of Matthew in a modern context. The series, "Jesus in
Des Moines," includes installments such as "Jesus Heals a Drug Dealer's Son."
"I particularly enjoy putting the Bible in the context of where the people
actually live," Thomas said. "I think it really makes the Bible narrative come
alive."
Thomas usually tells her stories without dressing in costume, and with
minimal use of props.
Sometimes she will read a Scripture passage as pastor, then take on the
characters to elaborate on the story. Other times, such as for some of the
longer Scriptures during Lent, she will make the reading itself a first-person
narrative.
Too often, Dewey said, Christians are content simply to hear the word of God.
He notes, though, that the Gospel of John says, "The Word became flesh and
dwelled among us."
Performing helps give the word flesh for modern audiences. "Jesus usually did
not read Scripture and preach sermons," Dewey said. "He was a storyteller."

-----Reporter Stephen Buttry can be reached at (515) 699-7058 or buttrys

@news.dmreg.com
On the Web
Read more about the upcoming performances on the Internet at:
www.dennisdewey.org
www.firstchurchdsm.org/spec/inhis.html
www.stjohnselca.org/performi.htm
Copyright 2000 Des Moines Register
Reprinted with permission
March 20, 1999 Saturday
SECTION: METRO IOWA; Pg. 4M
HEADLINE: Small-town churches struggle to survive
By STEPHEN BUTTRY
Register Columnist
The country church is one of our most cherished images of rural life.
The steeple, along with the grain elevator, is the skyline of many a tiny
town. Between towns, white churches on hilltops are visible for miles, a
testament to the faith of the country people who built them and are buried in
the nearby graveyard.
As the country people have faded away, to the graveyard or to cities and
suburbs, the churches are struggling to survive. And some of them don't.
"Denominations have a tendency of writing off or ignoring small-town churches
like this," said Bill Kerns, a Disciples of Christ minister who is the part-time
pastor of the optimistically named First Presbyterian Church in Lucas. "There's
a real ministry, a real opportunity, being here in a rural area."
It's a stereotype of rural America that country people are God-fearing,
Bible-thumping, church-going folk. "That's just not true," Kerns said. Rural
folk are as likely as any to sleep in on Sunday, to attend church only on
Christmas and Easter, to fall away from the church they grew up with.
Kerns' congregation will be accepting three new members as part of the Easter
celebration. One, he said, grew up in church but told him, "I just got out of
the habit."

That's a story as common in the countryside as in the city.

But the rural church has fewer resources to reach and attract the unchurched.
Carla Hillyer, pastor of Disciples of Christ churches in Chariton and
Woodburn, recently tried a "contemporary" worship service, one of the techniques
used by growing metropolitan churches.
Contemporary worship relies on lively music typically led by a "praise team"
of musicians and singers. It's easier to find accomplished guitar and keyboard
players in a larger congregation. Some churches feature praise teams nearly as
big as Hillyer's congregations, about 35 in Woodburn and 75 in Chariton.
"Our music was really weak," Hillyer conceded.
The contemporary service might have helped address the most pressing
challenge of many rural churches: attracting young families.
"Our average age of attendance is about 65," Hillyer said. Young people, she
said, "church shop," but don't see many young people, so they move on.
"The dilemma is how do we get started? How do we get enough young people to
stay that young people who visit will see other young people?"
If the young people were to stick around, she said, they might discover one
of the most appealing features of the rural church: "You can have that feeling
of belongingness that I think people today are seeking."
The Lucas church, with attendance ranging from 25 to 40, started an
after-school program serving 17 to 22 children per day from the nearby
elementary school. Most of the children are from families that don't belong to
the church, but some of the families have started attending.
Kerns is planning some family programs to minister to the needs of the
congregation and increase people's involvement with the church.
"We're just going to jump into it and whatever mistakes we make, we make and
just learn from it," Kerns said. "What's absolutely frustrating is in the
seminary we weren't taught any of this."
Kerns, like Hillyer and many other rural ministers, used to lead more than
one congregation. He worked three-fourths of the time for Lucas and one-fourth
for a church in Osceola. The Osceola church closed last year.
Hillyer preaches Sundays at 9 a.m. in Woodburn and at 11 a.m. in Chariton.

She spends most of her time ministering to the Chariton church, which pays 80
percent of her salary.
Woodburn has only one other church in town, and plenty of families who don't
attend church. "There is a lot of potential there, but I can't spend the time to
take advantage of that potential," Hillyer said.
For years, when more people lived on farms and in small towns, healthy rural
churches sent money and young people away to mission fields in faraway lands or
impoverished inner cities.
The mission field, Hillyer said, has changed: "I think the rural church today
is the mission field."
-----Reporter Stephen Buttry can be reached at (515) 699-7058 or buttrys
@news.dmreg.com
Copyright 2000 Des Moines Register
Reprinted with permission
November 6, 1999 Saturday
SECTION: METRO IOWA; Pg. 4M
HEADLINE: From their hands to God's ears: Deaf congregations
By Stephen Buttry
Register Columnist
God doesn't hear the prayers of Pastor Stuart Thiessen and his new
congregation. But Thiessen knows God sees their prayers and understands them.
"There are a lot of deaf people that have that image of God as a hearing
God," said Thiessen, who lost his hearing at age 4.
Speaking through a sign language interpreter in a recent interview, Thiessen
recalled the boy who fueled his passion for preaching to other deaf people. The
boy said he was unable to pray because "God doesn't understand sign language."
"God made sign language," Thiessen said, his swift-moving hands and intense
face communicating his enthusiasm before the interpreter could translate. "God
is the creator of language."
Thiessen uses that language to communicate with the deaf congregation at
First Federated Church in Des Moines, not as an interpreter, but as a pastor.
Several area churches offer interpretation for deaf parishioners but lack

pastors capable of direct communication with the deaf. Both of Des Moines'
free-standing churches for the deaf are seeking pastors.
"I've gone blind enough that I can't see the sign language anymore," said the
Rev. Darrel Kois, former pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church for the Deaf. Before
he went on disability in May, Kois, a hearing pastor, led the Des Moines
congregation of 150 people as well as preaching for deaf ministries in Ames and
Fort Dodge.
Marion Van Manen, a deaf trained lay minister, is leading the east Des Moines
congregation while it seeks a new pastor.
The Rev. Clearencene Gullett retired in June after 44 years as pastor of
Trinity Church for the Deaf north of Des Moines. The congregation of about 15
people uses videos for its services, she said.
Thiessen is the first pastor of the deaf congregation at First Federated. The
church's deaf ministry started in the 1970s with sign-language interpretation
during regular services and added Sunday school in the 1980s.
In 1994, the congregation decided to offer sign-language services, led by
deaf elders Philippe Gallant and Michael Lemley. The deaf congregation meets at
the same time as the larger congregation, 10:30 a.m. Sundays. A Bible study for
the deaf meets at 6:45 p.m. Wednesdays.
Gallant and Thiessen said deaf people understand much more of a message
preached originally in sign language than they do of a sermon that is
translated.
You know this if you've ever tried to follow closed captioning of a program
you could hear. Some words get garbled. The typist falls behind and omits words
or even full sentences while trying to catch up. Even when the words are
accurate, they are a few seconds behind the actions, reactions and other visual
context. I'm not being critical. I couldn't type as quickly or as accurately as
the professional captioners. But I can see that someone relying on the captions
is missing part of the message.
Communication for the deaf is complicated by various factors: whether a
person mastered English before losing hearing, the possibility that some in the
audience won't understand some background that the speaker assumes, which sign
language an interpreter uses.
English Sign Language is an alphabetical language based on English words.
American Sign Language is a visual language in which speakers communicate with
physical actions that a hearing person might mistake for pantomime.

Interpreters using sign language to translate a sermon in English fail to

truly communicate in the language of the deaf, Thiessen and Gallant said.
"English is a second language," Gallant said. "I struggle continually to try
to improve my English."
Through the physical communication of American Sign Language, deaf people can
catch the personal flair that volume and inflection bring to the spoken word.
"It is a visual language," Thiessen explained. "When a hearing pastor is
preaching, we don't hear that dry sense of humor. We don't hear the people
saying 'amen,' or laughing or crying. The deaf people are missing out on that."
Reporter Stephen Buttry can be reached at (515) 699-7058 or buttrys
@news.dmreg.com
Open house
* The deaf congregation at First Federated Church will have an open house at
1:30 p.m. Nov. 14 in Room 108 of the church, 4801 Franklin Ave.
Copyright 2000 Des Moines Register
Reprinted with permission
January 16, 1999 Saturday
SECTION: METRO IOWA; Pg. 4M
HEADLINE: 4-year Greek class proves enlightening
By STEPHEN BUTTRY
Register Religion Writer
This isn't your typical Bible study class.
The students pore over thick three-ring binders, reading the Gospel of Mark
and pondering questions the text presents.
"What grammatical construction is it?" asks the teacher, Ginger O'Keefe.
"Everybody's favorite."
Oh, that must be the ornery genitive absolute.
The class, which meets at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Des Moines, is
reading in the original Greek. The Scripture looks like it has been cobbled
together from the signs in front of the nearby Drake University fraternity and
sorority houses.
"It's either perfect or pluperfect," O'Keefe says, steering a student toward
the correct translation of a difficult passage.

A visiting scribe who speaks and reads only English struggles to stifle a
cliche that seems appropriate.
At one point, star pupil Jamie Magruder, who chants in Greek at St. George's
Greek Orthodox Church, explains a particular challenge: "With the passive, they
all sound the same."
That's perilously close to what the columnist was thinking.
O'Keefe and her four students are wrapping up a four-year class in New
Testament Greek. They've learned the vocabulary and grammar of the ancient
language, mostly from the Scriptures that are so familiar in English.
Their study stems from the collegiate interest of the Rev. Robert Elfvin,
rector at St. Luke's. He lacked confidence when facing his college's language
requirement. "I looked for a course so hard that when I failed it there would be
dignity." He chose classical Greek. The professor was persistent, Elfvin said,
and he mastered classical Greek in college, then New Testament Greek in
seminary.
In 1982, he offered his first Greek class at St. Luke's. O'Keefe, a student
in that class, mastered the ancient language as well, eventually taking over the
instruction. This is the second class she has taught at the church, where she is
director of religious education. She'll be starting a third class shortly.
Interested students may call her at 277-0875.
Don't worry about tests or grades. There aren't any.
And don't worry if you're not a member of St. Luke's, or even an
Episcopalian. Neither are any members of the current class. Magruder and Jim
Zeller are Greek Orthodox. Another student, DeWitt Clinton, is a member of Grace
United Methodist Church who also attends synagogue and reads Hebrew. Ken Hunt, a
graduate of an American Baptist seminary, attends Heartland Christian
Fellowship.
The students said reading the Gospel in Greek has expanded their
understanding and appreciation of the Scriptures.
Zeller and Hunt noted that their newfound knowledge has been handy in
refuting "religious fanatics" who persist in a particular view of the
Scriptures. "I just say, 'That isn't exactly how it's translated,' " Hunt said
with a laugh.
And the students learn exactly how it is translated.

"That dative plural participle looks like the third-person plural form of the
verb," O'Keefe explained at one point during this week's class. Again, the
visitor choked back that cliche that was growing persistently obvious.
Though O'Keefe is exacting on grammar and vocabulary, the students are
learning more than Greek. They study footnotes and the stories themselves. "This
is more of a Biblical criticism class," Magruder said. "I have a background and
context for understanding, and that's more important than an ability to decline
a word."
Word order often is different in Greek than in English, so the understanding
sometimes follows confusion. One passage studied this week, for instance,
translated literally, "Mary the of James one."
As with any language, verb forms can be especially vexing. "That one was a
real verb, not a participle," O'Keefe explained. "That make sense to everybody?"
Finally, the scribe just has to say it: It's all Greek to me.