"You'll be driven by gifted instructors to expand your thinking. Make the decision to stretch your mind and challenge yourself. Faith and Leadership Academy will blow the cobwebs off your brain."

-- Janine Niwinski, Administrative Assistant to Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod Bishop Claire S. Burkat and a graduate of the Faith and Leadership Academy

What do the following diverse people have in common?

• A young Latina, new to the Lutheran church, and with no high school diploma, who now feels qualified to teach Sunday School
• An electrical engineer raised in a predominantly white southern community now serving as a pastor in Philadelphia
• A woman who serves both as an educational leader in her church and as a staff member in one of the area's social ministry organizations
• A middle-aged African American woman, once with a limited education, now serving as a pastor
• A soft-spoken woman now equipped to lead as president of her congregation council
• A middle-aged man enjoying work as a Park Ranger
• A formerly Roman Catholic woman now serving on her Lutheran congregation's council.

It was during their participation in the Academy that:

• The Bible became a living story, relating their growing faith to the real issues of life
• Their God-given leadership skills became affirmed and focused
• They came to value their diverse community relationships that a deeper understanding of their Christian faith made possible.

Would you like to have something in common with them? Be part of the next Faith and Leadership Academy. For 2008, the six Saturdays for the Academy are as follows: October 11, 25 and November 1, 8, 15, and 22. The Academy does not meet Saturday, October 18, due to the Synod Mission Fair.

The synod has sent a brochure on how to register to each congregation in Southeastern Pennsylvania and to each congregation council's president. For more information, contact Sara Calderon at the Seminary (215) 248-7384 or via email at [scalderon@Ltsp.edu].