This document provides information about the Practice Discipleship Initiative, which includes a series of 7 webinars on various topics related to faith formation. The webinars are led by experts in their fields and hosted by Dawn Trautman. The initiative is a collaboration between the ELCA Youth Ministry Network, ELCA, partner organizations, and synods. The document introduces the speaker for the webinar on "If Necessary, Use Words" and provides an agenda for the webinar with slides on various related topics.

1. Welcome!
The Practice Discipleship Initiative
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2. Introducing…
Dawn Trautman
LutheranLifeCoach.com
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3. The Practice Discipleship Initiative
ELCA Youth Ministry Network
The ELCA & its Youth Gathering
Synods
Partner Organizations
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4. 7 Webinars
1. “Faith Formation in a Missional Age”
2.“If Necessary, Use Words”
3. “Theories of Culture”
4. “Working Together in Solidarity”
5. “Inculturating the Gospel”
6. “Dog Eating Chicken”
7. “Going Public”
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5. Introducing…
Dr. Hans Wiersma
Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minnesota
augsburg.edu
If Necessary, Use
Words
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6. “When Necessary, Use Words”?
Verbum Dei Theology for Right Now
a Workshop of the ELCAYMNet Practice Discipleship Initiative
with Hans Wiersma
Augsburg College, Minneapolis MN
Slide

7. Crypt of St. Francis
Assisi, Italy
Slide

8. Go Niners!
The original St. Francesco Mission (aka Mission Dolores) after the 1906 Quake
Slide

9. The Simpsons
“Homer the Heretic”
Slide

10. Slide

11. Slide

12. Slide

13. This will
probably get
more play if
I say it’s by
St. Francis.
Slide

14. “No brother should preach
contrary to the form and
regulations of the holy Church
unless he has been permitted by
his minister … However, all the
brothers should preach with their
deeds.”
—Rule of St. Francis, 1221 version
Slide

15. Preach the
Gospel at all
times.
If necessary,
use words?
Slide

16. What is
better? That I
should spend
my time in
prayer or that
I should go
around
preaching?
Slide

17. Slide

18. Slide

19. Slide

20. Slide

21. Slide

22. 1.
Backlash 3. Less
against need for
political communi
agenda ty locales
2. Later
starts for 4. More
marriage health,
and wealth,
family security
Slide

23. Slide

24. “[The Internet is] a religion destroyer as much
as anything else we’ve ever seen—open
access to information, the ability to prove
your pastors wrong, the overwhelming
number of atheists who make their case
online…how is that not a force to be
reckoned with?”
—Hemant Mehta
Slide

25. To “outsiders,” the Church is:
• an organized religion with
a political agenda
1. judgmental and negative
2. dominated by males and
an oppressor of females
3. homophobic
4. arrogantly claims that all
other religions are wrong
5. full of fundamentalists who
take the whole Bible
literally
Slide

26. Slide

27. Slide

28. Slide

29. Quiz
Time!
Slide

30. Question 1: According to the Augsburg Confession
(art. V, German text), in order that we might obtain
justifying faith, what did God do?
a. Institutum est ministerium docendi Evangelii et
porrigendi Sacramenta.
b. Gott hat das Predigtamt eingesetzt, das Evangelium
und die Sakramente gegeben.
c. God instituted the office of preaching, giving the
gospel and the sacraments (English translation).
d. Du, du, liegst mir in Herzen; du, du, liegst mir in
Sinn…
Slide

31. Question 1: According to the Augsburg Confession
(art. V, German text), in order that we might obtain
justifying faith, what did God do?
a. Institutum est ministerium docendi Evangelii et
porrigendi Sacramenta.
b. Gott hat das Predigtamt eingesetzt, das Evangelium
und die Sakramente gegeben.
c. God instituted the office of preaching, giving the
gospel and the sacraments (English translation).
d. Du, du, liegst mir in Herzen; du, du, liegst mir in
Sinn…
Slide

32. FOR DISCUSSION
Do we need to rethink what the preaching
“office” is?
Can “giving the gospel” mean more than
Words only, in much the same way that the
Sacraments are more than words only?
Slide

33. Question 2: According to the Augsburg Confession
(Art. 6), the faith produced by giving the Gospel is…
a. not yet fully formed.
b. needs to be proven by doing good works.
c. should yield good fruit or is bound to produce good
fruits.
d. irrational, foolish.
Slide

34. Question 2: According to the Augsburg Confession
(Art. 6), the faith produced by giving the Gospel is…
a. not yet fully formed.
b. needs to be proven by doing good works.
c. should yield good fruit or is bound to produce good
fruits.
d. irrational, foolish.
Slide

35. FOR DISCUSSION
What is the difference between a faith that
“should” produce good fruit and a faith that is
“bound” to produce good fruit?
(Note: Augsburg Confession, Article Six,
makes clear that “good fruit” means “good
works.”)
Slide

36. Question 3: According to Luther’s Large
Catechism, “the reason we take such care to preach
on the catechism frequently” is
a. to impress it upon our young people
b. so that it may penetrate deeply into their minds
c. so that it may remain fixed in their memories
d. Wait. What? We’re supposed to preach on the
Catechism frequently?
Slide

37. Question 3: According to Luther’s Large
Catechism, “the reason we take such care to
preach on the catechism frequently” is
a. to impress it upon our young people
b. so that it may penetrate deeply into their minds
c. so that it may remain fixed in their memories
d. Wait. What? We’re supposed to preach on the
Catechism frequently?
Slide

38. FOR DISCUSSION
•Isn’t it time to proclaim clearly that the
Catechism is concerned with more than just
what one thinks or says but also what one
does?
a.Can the same be said of the Catechism’s
other sections (Creed, Prayer, Sacraments)?
b.By neglecting catechetical preaching, have
we truncated the original Lutheran vision for
the preaching office and for teaching the
gospel?
Slide

39. Question 4: According to Luther’s Small Catechism,
what are believers redeemed and set free for?
a. To become Franciscans.
b. To belong to Christ.
c. To live in Christ’s Kingdom.
d. To serve Christ (in ever-lasting righteousness,
innocence, and blessedness).
Slide

40. Question 4: According to Luther’s Small Catechism,
what are believers redeemed and set free for?
a. To become Franciscans.
b. To belong to Christ.
c. To live in Christ’s Kingdom.
d. To serve Christ (in ever-lasting righteousness,
innocence, and blessedness).
Slide

41. FOR DISCUSSION
•Has the Lutheran teaching of justification by
faith (or any other teaching of justification)
emphasized what believers are saved from
or what believers are saved for?
a.What kind of changes would you like to see
in our pulpits so that the hearers of Lutheran
sermons will be taught about “freedom from”
as well as “freedom for”?
Slide

42. Slide

43. Verbum Dei
= Word of
God.
What Does
This Mean??
Slide

44. THESIS ONE
We can learn much from the fake St
Francis Quotation. AND we can learn
much from the real St. Francis.
Slide

45. THESIS TWO
If the Lutheran understanding is that
good fruit (good works) are bound to
follow the faith that results from
preaching, perhaps we can also say that
“actions that preach” follow “words
that preach.”
Furthermore, there is also a way to
understand that words that preach
follow actions that preach.
Slide

46. THESIS THREE
We have a great resource for how to
live lives that “preach”: it’s called the
Small Catechism (esp. the Ten
Commandments section).
Slide

47. THESIS FOUR
Not only should we enhance our
understanding of the preached Word,
we should also enhance our
understanding of the preaching office.
Slide

48. Be Doers of the Word and not
merely hearers.
—James 1:22
Slide

49. Be Hearers of the Word and
not merely doers.
—a Lutheran Take on James 1:22
Slide

50. Thoughts…Questions…
Reflections…
Hans Wiersma Dawn Trautman
Please type your questions or comments into the
question box on your screen. We’ll try to get to as
many of them as we can. 50

51. Recording of this
Webinar
www.practicediscipleship.org
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52. Workshops Live at the E
www.elcaymnet.org/extravaganza
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53. Next Practice Discipleship Webinar
Guest: Dr. Nathan Frambach
From: Wartburg Seminary
Date: February 3, 2013
Time: 3pm Central Time
Topic: “Theories of Culture”
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54. Next 3rdTuesday Conversation
Guest: Dr. Andrew Root
Date: February 19, 2013
Time: 1pm Central Time
Topic: Taking Theology to Youth
Ministry
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55. Thanks!
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