Youth Resources

40 FREE Relational Faith and Life Discussions
Conversational Bible Studies!

Each written by a Peer Ministry Leadership student at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, MN or at Concordia University in St. Paul, MN.

Each faith and life discussion is based on one of Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets, the very building blocks that kids need to succeed!

Go to Click on “Resources” and go to the “40 Free Discussions” tab! Use these student written discussions as they are or adapt as you need for your group. Download pdf copies as you need.


Specializing in equipping youth and families for ministry to be lived...


Lyle Griner
www.peermin@peerministry.org

ELCA Resources

This is an email received at the Resource Center, and I thought readers should be notified of changes happening at churchwide and how orders will be handled.

"I want to give you an update on the new ELCA distribution center, which will
handle all future orders for ELCA resources.

Augsburg Fortress stopped taking orders for churchwide-developed resources
effective October 20, at 5:00 p.m. CDT. (Staff who are responsible for
resource development within each unit have been working with us for a few
months to make this possible.)

Callers or visitors looking for churchwide products on the Augsburg Web site
immediately will be directed to contact the new distribution center at
800-638-3522, ext. 2580. As of October 25, 2010, orders can also be placed
online www.elca.org/resources.

Northern Printing Network will manage the distribution center for us. You
may see their name and logo (or the acronym "NPN") on invoices and
correspondence related to orders.

ELCA resources previously carried by Augsburg Fortress are being transferred
to the new warehouse this week and next. Backorders will be filled by
November 8.

We are working closely with the Web team to update ELCA.org with all the
correct order information for ELCA resources.

Thank you for your patience as we make the transition to our new
distribution center. If you have any questions, please call 800-638-3522,
ext. 2580. I will send another update about the transition in the next few
days.

Sincerely,

Scott J. Hendrickson
Associate Executive Director for Communication Services"

2011 Vacation Bible School

To keep you up-to-date: Augsburg Fortress will not be producing a new VBS kit for 2011. Promotion will be for the re:new kit - The Green VBS from 2010 with up-dates. Your Synod Resource Center had held VBS workshops for the past 7 or 8 years on the Saturday before Thanksgiving; in other words, the opening day for Wisconsin deer hunting. It was a time for women and children to get together and find out what would be available for the summer learning adventure. We will not be doing that this year.

Baobab Blast will still be offered, so if you didn't have the opportunity in 2010 to learn more about Africa, especially our companion synod in Malawi, now is your chance to catch up. Remember, we have on hand to enhance your program, many wonderful items from Malawi, courtesy of Diane Kaufmann, who has collected some excellent things for display and some for useage.

Simply call us: 715-833-1153 and reserve what you need for a meaningful, top-notch experience for the young people in your congregation/neighborhood.

New Resource

For those of you with standing orders at the Alban Institute, you'll have received Bob Sitze's beautiful new book, "It's Not Too Late: A Field Guide for Hope." If you don't have a copy, rush out this minute to buy it! It's a stunning collection of short reflections, quotes, texts and questions that celebrate the realities of life through the lens of hope. It's a book for personal balance and well-being, for small group discussion, and just about any other kind of setting. Highly recommended for trying times! BTW, there's a study guide in the works too which I'll share here as soon as I get it. (This from Julie Aageson, Resource Center director from Eastern North Dakota Synod) We have it here in our Northwest Synod of WI Resource Center available for check out as soon as it is returned from a pastor who checked it out at the Fall Ministry Retreat! Get your name on the list.

Flannel Fortress Video

I just finished watching a four minute video titled "Flannel Fortress" which tells the story of Augsburg Publishing House. Beth Lewis sent me the link and asked that we share it. This is an engaging video, and I recommend playing it for your confirmation class, your adult Bible study groups, and Sunday morning if you use video projection.
Beth's letter tells the story of how it was created.
Enjoy,
Greg


Dear Friends:

What in the world is a “Flannel Fortress?”

It's a fun new video created to explain who Augsburg Fortress, sparkhouse and Fortress Press are to customers, prospective writers, prospective employees, and anyone else who wants to know!

A few months ago, my brother, who works as a sales manager for McGraw Hill (publishing runs in our blood...we have two cousins who work for MH, too!) sent me a link to a video that their corporate communications folks had put together talking about their sense of "mission" (I'm not sure that they exactly used that word, but that was the sense) as publishers....not just a Fortune 500 profit-oriented company. While the talking heads were a bit dull, the idea was interesting to me.

So, I sent it to our in-house video team. I said something like, "could we do something like this but not boring, talking corporate heads? And, without spending much money?" (tall order!) But, of course....they came through! They proceeded to interview a whole bunch of AF colleagues to ask about our reasons for working here, our sense of call, what Augsburg Fortress and Fortress Press and sparkhouse stand for, etc. Then, they went to work. They came up with the idea to play with a "flannel board" much like many of us used in the "pre-PowerPoint and video" days of Sunday School and to have some fun while getting across the sense of call that we feel for our work.

So, here it is ! Enjoy! Feel free to share it with friends, family, customers, and random strangers you meet along the way, post it, etc.

Blessings,
Beth