MattCleaver.com

Reimagining Youth Ministry

  • Home
  • Youth Ministry has Failed
  • Best Youth Ministry Books
  • Church Websites
  • Contact Me

ELCA Names

Last Updated June 11, 2009 by Matt 6 Comments

I’ve noticed since joining an ELCA church three years ago that the groups in the ELCA do not seem compelled like other Christian groups to come up with cool names for their organizations. You know, some might call their older groups something catchy like “Prime Time.” In the ELCA, it seems like we use only functional, descriptive names. Some are almost comical:

  • Association of Lutheran Older Adults
  • National Youth Gathering
  • Synod Youth Gatherings
  • Lutheran Youth Organization
  • Women of the ELCA
  • Young Women of the ELCA
  • Young Adults in Global Mission
  • And my favorite: ELCA Senior Pastors of Large Lutheran Churches Conference

This isn’t an indictment or anything, but an observation. All groups have their quirks. This might be one of ours.

What groups did I leave out?

Filed Under: Random Tagged With: elca

About Matt

Matt Cleaver has written since 2004 on youth ministry, theology, and the church. His blog was ranked by Youth Specialties as a Top 20 Youth Ministry Blog. Click here for Matt's list of the Best Youth Ministry Books.

Comments

  1. KaGe says

    June 11, 2009 at 2:57 pm

    I’ve worked with the ELCA before…and to be honest, even though they’re not trendy names, i kind of like the fact that you get exactly what you’re looking for. I know in a previous church (not ELCA) that i volunteered with, it was 6 months of me missing the Prime Timers meetings (and trying to remember to go to them) before i realized that it was for the old, over 65, members…could you imagine, me a 25 year old showing up to the over 65 crowd…it’d be fun, but very embarassing.

    Reply
    • Matt says

      June 11, 2009 at 5:34 pm

      Haha, that would have been awesome. Yeah, I know there are pros and cons to both sides, I just think it’s funny how descriptive and unimaginative some of the above group names are. The gospel can be proclaimed whether the group is called Prime Timers of the Association of Lutheran Older Adults.

      Reply
  2. alaina says

    June 11, 2009 at 3:06 pm

    I think it may be a lutheran thing… the lcms’ers do it too. Except then they make them into adjectives. It gets really confusing when everything is referred to by their adjectives and they are only one letter different:
    Concordia Publishing House CPH or Concordia Health Plans CHP

    I recently got an email titled: “BRTFSSG Information You Need To Know.”
    It might have been spam, but it was actually an update on the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synod Structure and Governance.

    Not everything should be acronymed. 🙂

    Reply
    • Matt says

      June 11, 2009 at 5:35 pm

      Wow. BRTFSSG. Amazing.

      You should do an LCMS abbreviation post.

      Reply
  3. Bryan Jaster says

    June 11, 2009 at 3:06 pm

    Lutheran Student Movement
    Lutheran Outdoor Ministries

    Reply
  4. Jeff Greathouse says

    June 16, 2009 at 9:55 pm

    I have to come over to Matt’s blog to find Bryan …. hope all is well with you Bryan.

    It has been awhile since I chatted with you as well Matt, it seems. Love the posts that you have been doing.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Best Youth Ministry Books

These are the books that will completely change the way you think about youth ministry, for the better. Links are to my reviews of each book.

Teen 2.0 by Robert Epstein

A psychologist makes you question every assumption you have about adolescence.

Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry by Andrew Root

Why build relationships? Root’s answer will surprise you.

Best Youth Ministry Books: Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Ostreicher

Yesterday I finally read Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Ostreicher, and since I’m one of the latecomers to the conversation I won’t summarize the book too much. Marko has linked to tons of reviews on his blog if you are interested in more in-depth summaries. If you are fairly in-tune with a lot of the […]

Best Youth Ministry Books: Postmodern Youth Ministry

Postmodern Youth Ministry by Tony Jones is the book I would recommend to youth ministers if they could just read one youth ministry book. I first read the book in my Foundations and Practices of Youth Ministry class at John Brown University. After the preface to the book there is a page titled, “The Day […]

You can find my new blog on philosophy and teaching at MattCleaver.com

Search

Archives

Categories

  • Best Youth Ministry Books (4)
  • Blogging (42)
  • Blogroll (1)
  • Book Reviews (17)
  • Books (32)
  • Christianity (50)
  • Ecclesiology (52)
  • emerging church (13)
  • Featured (8)
  • Links (27)
  • Ministry (4)
  • Neo-Youth Ministry (8)
  • News (25)
  • Personal (69)
  • Podcast (4)
  • Quotes (14)
  • Random (43)
  • Seminary (16)
  • Theology (48)
  • Uncategorized (50)
  • Websites (15)
  • WordPress (1)
  • Youth Ministry (149)

Copyright © 2022 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in