Maybe because it’s almost Thanksgiving, but I keep finding myself noticing the various ways that people give to others. The folks with whom I interact a lot are faith filled people who have busy professional lives with family commitments, etc. But, they seem to find the time and energy to do “just one more thing” to help those who are in need. They inspire me!

Just this morning, I received an email from my friend and colleague, Sandy Middendorf, our VP for Human Resources at AF. Instead of eating too much on Thursday, as most of us will do in our traditional Thanksgiving celebration, Sandy will be walking in the Catholic Charities “Walk to End Hunger.” Starting at 7:00 am on Thanksgiving morning, she will be walking a 5K at the Mall of America. What a great idea! I contributed toward Sandy’s walk goal. Feel free to join me in supporting her or join her in walking!

As I write this, I am sitting in the Minneapolis airport between flights. I was in Boston this morning having attended the SBL convention all weekend. On my first flight of the day, I read the Boston Globe. There is a wonderful essay in this morning’s edition and in the business section, no less, called “Giving to charity matters now more than ever—and you can probably afford it.” Yes, indeed!

So, these two bits of inspiration today have prompted me to donate to the ELCA’s World Hunger campaign, too.

Or, if you are feeling stretched financially these days, as many people are, and yet you want to give a gift to family and friends, you might consider giving them the gift of a donation in their name instead of another tie or sweater. There are many ways to do this, of course, but one is through the ELCA’s Good Gifts catalog.

Whether you can give $5 or $5000, giving will help someone and you’ll feel great!

Blessings and thanks to Sandy and many others who inspire me!

Beth

Beth A. Lewis, President & CEO
Augsburg Fortress

Greetings from Boston where I have been attending the Society of Biblical Literature convention. In addition to having a booth where we have sold quite a few books, talked with authors and prospective authors, and helped professors find the best texts for their classes. We also hosted two events: a reception last evening (there must have been 300 or more people there…it was packed!) and a champagne toast today to to celebrate the publication of The People’s Bible.

These types of conventions are exhausting. Standing on hard cement floors covered by a thin layer of carpet (and it seems much thinner by the end of the day than at the beginning of the day!), talking, listening, talking some more. At one point this afternoon, I didn’t have any appointments and there weren’t too many customers in our booth. So, I went into a nearby hotel’s quiet space, found a chair and began to read. In the hour or so that I was resting my feet and reading, four or five different people sat next in the chair next to mine. Every single one of them remarked on the fact that I was reading from my Kindle. They wanted to see it, ask questions about it, etc. I was proud to tell them that we are certain that we lead among religion and theology publishers in terms of having titles available for this new way of publishing. We are quite aggressive in terms of experimenting with new technologies. I also think that Amazon should give me a commission! I have probably sold several dozen of these for them in the time I’ve had mine!

A few days ago, I noted in this blog that I am beginning to experiment with using Twitter. So, this afternoon, I posted something on Twitter about our reception to celebrate the publication of The People’s Bible. It wasn’t too long before someone posted the query, “What is The People’s Bible?” With Twitter, you are limited to postings of 140 characters. I must admit that I was skeptical when I began using it 10 days or so ago whether 140 characters was enough to convey anything. As it turns out, it is! Challenging sometimes, but rather an intriguing form of communications. If you are engaged with Twitter, my address is www.twitter.com/bethalewis I would have had bethlewis, but someone else already has it!

Best of all, tonight as I am sitting in my hotel room catching up on emails, booking a couple of flights, etc., I checked my Facebook account. Another media format that intrigues me but that I haven’t done much with yet. I received my first ever Facebook invitation! To Chris Duckworth’s ordination on December 20! While I won’t be able to be there in person, I will certainly be at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Arlington, VA in spirit! And, I love the fact that this next generation of pastors is using technologies like Facebook to communicate…even to inviting people like me to attend his ordination via this tool! Very cool.

I can’t wait to see what is next! I love this experimentation! How do you use new technologies to proclaim the Gospel? I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas!

Blessings,
Beth

Beth A. Lewis, President & CEO
Augsburg Fortress

On Sunday afternoon, I left the ELCA church council meeting early to drive to Dubuque, IA. I had been invited to Wartburg Seminary for Monday morning through lunch.

I have had the privilege of being on this campus for each of the past 5 years. I enjoyed the company of President Duane Larson where we compared notes on the critical importance of strategic planning and of making hard, but essential, leadership decisions. We have both received much affirmation and a bit of grief for hard decisions that we’ve recently made and announced. So, it was good to compare notes. It was wonderful to hear the enthusiasm in his voice as he talked about the future of Wartburg Seminary and the educational opportunities they provide for future pastors, youth ministers, CE directors, etc.

AF author, Norma Cook-Everist, was the catalyst for my visit to Wartburg Seminary. But, my visits always expand off of her hospitality! I enjoyed speaking to the students in her Christian Education class. Not only was I able to share information about some of the innovative and successful resources that we have published over the past several years, but I was also able to give them a “sneak preview” of some of our forthcoming resources, including those related to the Book of Faith Initiative and our spring 2009 Sunday School curricula, Spark! They reacted to the slides just as I expected they would. With energy, enthusiasm and excellent questions.

After class, Norma had invited anyone from the Wartburg community to join us for lunch and Q&A about publishing. There was quite a turnout! People came and went, so I didn’t have an exact count, but there must have been 20 people who stopped by at some point during the lunch hour. Students, faculty, staff, spouses of students. They had excellent questions for me related to their interests as writers of curricula, music composers and arrangers, copyeditors, book authors, etc. There is obviously a lot of talent in this community!

Last, but far from least, I had the opportunity to spend a bit of time during the day with Barb, Jill & Jean, all staff members in our Augsburg Fortress bookstore on campus. It was bittersweet to be with them. We announced on November 7 that we will be closing 9 bookstores, including this one, by no later than April 30, 2009 so that we can focus our time, talents, and financial resources on the creation of new resources for the church. So, these good, hardworking people will be laid off. But, they were incredibly gracious, warm and welcoming to me. Class acts! They noted that they are sad and a bit nervous about the future. But, they also commented on how much they appreciated the 6 months’ notice that we have given them along with the “safety net” of severance, outplacement assistance, etc. We are blessed by such loyal and gracious staff members. I encourage anyone who reads this blog to say a prayer for these good people and the others from AF and so many other companies, who are being laid off. These are challenging times, to be sure.

I always enjoy my time on our ELCA Seminary campuses. Interacting with the students who are our future pastors and other church leaders gives me such optimism for the future! These are nurturing, challenging, inspiring communities!

Blessings,
Beth

Beth A. Lewis, President & CEO
Augsburg Fortress