The last month, since my bishops visit to our Lutheran seminary in Chicago and Spring Conference of Bishops, has been filled with three important retreats.

After Conference of Bishops, I flew to Spokane. March 8, I led worship at Salem Lutheran in Spokane, WA. All Saints Lutheran, which recently sold their building, is worshiping occasionally with Salem. It was a wonderful morning. Then I drove to Wenatchee and met some of our newer to the synod pastors for dinner. The next day I had lunch with Pastor James, who serves Grace Lutheran in Wenatchee.

Monday afternoon I headed up past Leavenworth to the Grunewald Guild for the annual Deans Retreat. During this annual gathering of our synod’s cluster deans each dean gets to report on all the ministry sites in their cluster. DEM Pastor Liv Larson had to be in Chicago, but Assistant to the Bishop Pastor Phil Misner was also along. We were only missing one dean. In addition to hearing from each dean, we had two really generative discussions, one about the upcoming Synod Assembly (specifically how we are going to use small group time during the plenaries) and another about how our ministry sites can support the fall elections (prayers, being present at polling places, encouraging discussions in homes about local issues). I led and planned our closing Holy Communion worship but three other deans volunteered to plan and lead morning/evening prayer. I always love watching their personalities shine when given these opportunities. The first night some of us played games and others enjoyed the sauna. The second night we enjoyed a hymn sing, turning to both of our hymnals. It was such a gift to both laugh and sing together.

I had about a week at home in the Treasure Valley and then it was back to Chicago for the ELCA Church Council Retreat. Each of the ELCA’s nine regions sends a liaison bishop to ELCA Church Council and beginning last fall, I am the liaison bishop for Region 1 (Alaska, Montana, NWIM, Oregon, Northwest WA, and Southwestern WA). I gave up my position on the Pacific Lutheran University board which I held for two years and have this assignment instead.

At the triennial ELCA Churchwide Assembly (most recently in Phoenix in summer 2025) half of the ELCA Church Council is elected to six-year terms. So every three years, in the spring, there is a retreat so relationships can nurtured and trust can be built. I was at the fall meeting before Presiding Bishop Curry’s installation in Minneapolis, but that was quite rushed.

Though I left the retreat (Thursday night – Sunday morning) quite exhausted, I am humbled and grateful to be a liaison bishop. This is a wonderful way that I get to serve the larger church and tell the larger church stories from Region 1. The group of pastors, deacons, and lay leaders who have volunteered and been elected are remarkable humans so committed to the ministry we do as the ELCA. It was a joy to get to know many of them at table discussions, over meals, and even during some physical team building activities. We also had a number of ELCA Churchwide staff with us and I was able to have some helpful conversations with several of them as well. Some of that wisdom will show up in our spring synod council meeting.

I needed to be in the Seattle area Monday morning, so instead of flying home Sunday, I stayed with an old roommate and her family near O’Hare. We hadn’t seen one another for two years so it was great to catch up (and see how much her kids have grown!).

Six years ago, right before the pandemic, Region 1 held an all staff retreat. For the last few years, I’ve heard about how generative that time together was. Last spring our region had four bishop elections. We won’t have any more elections until 2029, when NWIM Synod will have an election, so it seemed like the right time to invest some time and money in an in-person gathering. We spent four days at the recently refurbished Archbishop Brunette Retreat Center at the Palisades, very accessible from SeaTac Airport and right on the water. Our days were framed by simple worship services. We had time in affinity groups (DEMs, admins, bishops, assistants to the bishops…). We Zoomed in Bishop Curry for about 20 minutes to hear his vision and perspective right now. We gave every synod about 30 minutes to introduce their synod to everyone else. We had a few conversations about discipleship formation and training Synod Authorized Ministers. There were trails to explore in the mornings and during breaks. The hospitality was wonderful and we had lots of conversations over tea or coffee. During the final morning we harvested what we could collaborate on easily that would have a big impact. Stay tuned for more!

I rode back to Spokane with Phil Misner and then spent Friday in the office with Cathy Steiner. Today was Brendan Wiechert’s ordination- see the next post.

These times of deep connection and relationship building are what I love and what I know how to do. At the same time, I will admit to craving some solitude and of course my own bed.