Grantee Directory

This grant gives 12 congregations an opportunity to explore how congregational storytelling might become a renewing force by connecting directly to persons searching for meaning and the revelation of Jesus Christ. This grant discovers how congregations can accompany people in narrating, interpreting, and integrating their direct encounters with the living Christ. Storytelling, Luther Seminary believes, creates encounters that shift the congregation’s identity from resource-provider to a community of discernment and meaning-making. The learning takes place as 12 congregations engage in a process of experimenting with identity- and community-forming practices and reflecting on the Christian narrative in a secular age. Luther Seminary hopes to embed a small group of thinkers and scholars among these 12 congregations. They will foster theological reflection in and through the stories that come from each congregation about each congregation, but also reflect on the stories shared by the distinct persons in these communities, exploring the concrete marks of peoples’ encounters with God and how they are making meaning in their day-to-day lives.