New Deacon thinks outside the box
By Suzanne Werre
Editor
Augustana Lutheran Church’s new leader plans on making connections with people of all ages as she takes on her new role as Deacon. She considers it her gift, and her privilege.
Deacon Jodi Lorenz, a Deacon of Word and Service, recently accepted the call to Augustana and Birka Lutheran Churches after having served a four-point parish in northwest North Dakota, and she is busy trying to get to know her congregants and the other people in the community.
Jodi was an elementary school teacher in Arizona for 30 years before she felt the call to become a Deacon, so she has plenty of experience dealing with children, she noted. She also loves to visit with elderly folks, listening to them as they regale her with their storied histories. And she loves visiting with all the people in between.
Having been a teacher for so long, she likes to think outside the box, knowing that she has to be relatable to people of all ages.
“I have a very different lens in that I know that I need to work with all the generations, so I’m very, very much cross-generational in my approach,” she said. “Kids need adults, and adults need kids.”
She sees how the adults get so much joy out of the children’s Christmas programs and even the children’s sermons. And she sees how the children enjoy when an older person comes to Sunday School and shares in the Bible study.
