Title: Lutheran Vespers Speaker: Preserve Family History
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

October 7, 2002

LUTHERAN VESPERS SPEAKER: PRESERVE FAMILY HISTORY
02-235-JB

     WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (ELCA) -- Tell your children and
grandchildren about your childhood, and ask your own parents and
grandparents about theirs, said the Rev. Walt Wangerin Jr., speaker for
Lutheran Vespers, the radio ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America (ELCA).  Wangerin made the comment at a Lutheran Vespers
rally Sept. 30 here at the Lutheran Church of Hope.
     Wangerin is an ELCA pastor who also teaches at Valparaiso
University, Valparaiso, Ind.  He is currently touring the Midwest,
meeting with a variety of audiences in congregations along the way to
raise attention to Lutheran Vespers.  He is also using his experience as
an author and storyteller to talk about his role as a grandfather, and
his relationships with his parents and grandparents.
     In his presentation, Wangerin said people often miss the
opportunity to share childhood experiences with their own children and
grandchildren, and they may know little about the childhood experiences
of their parents and grandparents.
     "We have to talk," Wangerin told the audience. "We must talk in
our daily living.  If we don't talk, (childhood experiences) will be
lost forever."
     "How can you not talk?" Wangerin asked.  "How can you not tell
your grandchildren what their ancestors fought for and worshiped over?
When you talk to the children and grandchildren, you are passing down
the spirit of Jesus Christ."
     Wangerin began the "OutSpoken for Lutheran Vespers" tour Aug. 17
in Chicago.  His intention was to ride much of the 2,600-mile journey on
a bicycle, but on Sept. 9 he broke his left hip in a bicycle accident
near Alexandria, Minn.  Following surgery there and recuperation,
Wangerin resumed the tour Sept. 19, traveling to Lutheran Vespers
rallies in a truck.
     Wangerin's trip is planned through Oct. 20.  When completed,
Wangerin and staff will have traveled through seven states in the Upper
Midwest, and will have appeared at 24 scheduled rallies and made other
personal appearances.
     The 2,600-mile trip has three goals for Lutheran Vespers:
increasing listener involvement, raising an endowment to help keep the
program on the air, and seeking endorsement of the program from ELCA
leaders and others.
     The radio program is broadcast on 235 stations in the U.S. and
abroad.  About 3 million to 4 million people listen each year.
     Wangerin told the attendees that in the eight years he's been
Lutheran Vespers speaker, he has rarely had direct contact with
listeners.
     "I yearned for a relationship with the listeners, and it was
essential for me to get out of the studio.  I wanted to see you,"
Wangerin said.
     Lutheran Vespers listeners should think of themselves as partners
in the ministry, which reaches many people who may not attend a church.
"We reach out to people who will never darken a church door," he said.
     Prayers for the radio ministry are important, Wangerin said.
"Your prayers are seas on which this ministry sails," he said.  "Without
them we run aground."
     Wangerin pledged to the listeners that he will use the radio
ministry to teach, tell stories and proclaim the "good news" of Jesus
Christ.
     "Always at the center of my stories is Jesus Christ," he said.
"My deep truth is Jesus.  I will always make what I do start with
Jesus."
     In return, he asked his audience to make two pledges.  First, he
asked them to talk about their childhoods with their children and
grandchildren, and second, he asked audience members to learn what
childhood was like for their parents and grandparents.
     Also during his visit here, Wangerin met Sept. 29 with about 100
adults at St. Augustin Church, a Roman Catholic congregation in Des
Moines. Members there have been reading his book, "Paul: A Novel," based
on the biblical writings of Paul the apostle, a missionary of the early
church and author of several of the 27 books in the New Testament of the
Christian Bible.  "Paul" was published in 2000 by Zondervan Publishing
House, Grand Rapids, Mich.
     Wangerin read brief excerpts aloud and answered questions about
the book.  Paul, he said, was an interesting subject because his
personality is reflected in biblical accounts.
     "Paul wrote letters.  Paul's mood and feeling comes behind the
directives and theology he offered," Wangerin said.  "One of my joys was
taking Paul's letters and putting them in context."
     Pope John Paul II "is a modern-day Paul, doing marvelous acts of
reconciliation and recognizing other communions as brothers and sisters
in Christ," Wangerin told the St. Augustin audience.
-- -- --
     Information about OutSpoken for Lutheran Vespers is available at
http://www.elca.org/lv/OutSpoken/ on the ELCA's Web site.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html