Art as Faithful Vocation

Connect Journal reached out to Mary Button to learn more about her artistic work in and outside of the ELCA. Her responses below have been lightly edited for style. My name is Mary Button, and I’m a pastor and an artist! I grew up in Southeast Texas in beautiful Galveston County on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Growing up in such a beautiful … Continue reading Art as Faithful Vocation

Offering Support for Pandemic Grief

by Joy Hensel On the Road to Emmaus  Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. (Luke 24:13-16 NRSV) … Continue reading Offering Support for Pandemic Grief

Finding True Self-Care in Pastoral Ministry

by Bishop Kristen Kuempel When I was a senior at Luther Seminary, I experienced a gift that I didn’t even realize was a gift until later. My pastoral care professor was the late Dr. Richard Wallace. I went into his class with some skepticism—new professors are always an unknown quantity, and a black professor in the early 00s was even more of an anomaly than … Continue reading Finding True Self-Care in Pastoral Ministry