Learning & Involvement

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  Forum
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Adult Forum

The Adult Forum Committee of the Board of Deacons seeks to provide a thoughtful and welcoming learning environment for members and friends of Plymouth Congregational Church.

Sunday morning Adult Forums are 9 to 10 a.m.
in the Jackman Room.

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September 12

Authenticity, Leadership
and Humanitarian Aid:
Engagement in the 21st Century

Daniel Wordsworth

Daniel Wordsworth is president and chief executive officer of the American Refugee Committee, a Minneapolis-based relief agency that has worked with tens of millions of refugees around the world for more than 30 years. He’ll share his perspective on building an international humanitarian organization in the 21st century to encourage the commitment and involvement of everyone seeking to act in the face of catastrophe as an integral part of creating a better world. This new model is based on building authentic relationships and empowering people to create change in their communities.

The story of ARC has been shaped by countless individuals all of whom have chosen to act – from a Minneapolis doctor who helped Cambodian refugees in Thailand, to a Liberian woman who opened a small business in Liberia so she could send her children to school, to earthquake survivors in Haiti who are rebuilding their homes, to school children in Maple Grove raising money for people in Darfur.

Wordsworth joined ARC in 2009 after 12 years with the Christian Children’s Fund. He’s lived in China, India, Vietnam and Thailand. He’s written numerous publications on children and poverty and started his career in the Royal Australian Navy.

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September 19

African American Museum
and Cultural Center Will Fill
a Gap in Minnesota’s History

Roxanne Givens

A new museum dedicated to the history of Minnesota’s African American community is coming to the Stevens Square neighborhood. It will fill an important gap in our state’s history. Founder Roxanne Givens, a well-known local entrepreneur and businesswoman and former member of the board of the Bush Foundation, says the museum has been embraced by several constituents around the Twin Cities, all anxiously awaiting its debut. It will be located in the Coe Mansion at 1700 Third Avenue South. The mansion, built in 1883, is being renovated as the result of a public-private partnership with the City of Minneapolis and contributions from generous individual donors.

Givens says the museum will reflect the many accomplishments, successes and challenges of pioneering African Americans from Minnesota and the Midwest. Givens is especially pleased that the 23-room institution will be in close proximity to neighborhoods that are among the city’s most diverse and points out that South Minneapolis is home to some of the city’s first integrated neighborhoods.

Please join us to learn about this exciting and welcome new addition to Plymouth’s neighborhood from the museum’s dynamic and inspiring founder.

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September 26

Augsburg’s StepUP Program:
A Collegiate Recovery Program
with Amazing Results

Patrice Salmeri and
Augsburg College student panel

Recovery from alcohol and drug addiction is a big challenge. Imagine trying to stay clean and sober while attending college, where partying seems ingrained in the culture. The StepUP Program at Augsburg College gets high marks as the country’s most comprehensive collegiate recovery program. Created in 1997, the program was designed to address the special needs of college students in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. During that first year, 25 students enrolled. Today, more than 440 students are part of the StepUP community.

Patrice Salmeri, the director of StepUP, and a few of the students currently in the program will talk about it. How is it structured? What makes it successful? How does it fit in within a liberal college environment? What are some of the greatest challenges facing students in recovery and how do they overcome them?

“StepUP is a place that pushes you to grow in a community and it helps you find who you are and find people who are like you,” is how one of its Augsburg alumni describes it. “I don’t know what I would have done without StepUP. I probably would not have a college degree.”

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October 3

Northern Minnesota Mining
and Its Impact on Our Water

Betsy Daub

Betsy Daub, policy director for Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, will show a short Minnesota-produced film that takes a hard look at the copper and nickel mining industry’s history of failed predictions and toxic water pollution. The film also explains the potential impact on northeastern Minnesota from newly proposed mines, including those planned for operation within the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Daub has studied the entire draft Environmental Impact Statement of the first of these proposed mines and submitted substantial comments to the Department of Natural Resources. She’ll give a presentation after the film and be available for questions and share ways that you can get involved.

Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, a nonprofit conservation organization, was founded in 1976. Two years later the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter.

Daub has worked in conservation for more than 20 years, conducting field research and advocating for sound, natural resource policies. She has a master’s degree in natural resource ecology and management from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s in zoology from Connecticut College.

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October 10

How 7 Proven Social Enterprise Principles Can Reduce Poverty
and Strengthen America

Steven M. Rothschild

Steve Rothschild is founder and chair of Twin Cities RISE!, an anti-poverty organization that provides education and training to adults in deep poverty and places them in living-wage jobs. Graduates average 82 percent one-year job retention and a $20,000 income increase. The program’s ex-offender graduates experience a 70 percent reduction in recidivism, and state taxpayers have earned a 450 percent return on their investment since 1997. Rothschild has been recognized for his work by being elected an Ashoka Fellow and a member of the Minnesota Volunteers of Fame. He also has been honored with the David W. Preus Servant Leadership Award from Luther Seminary.

Before starting TCR! Rothschild was an executive vice president of General Mills and the first president of its Yoplait yogurt subsidiary.

Audience members will learn about the steps they can take either as volunteers, board members or employees to improve the results of non-profits while increasing value and accountability. They’ll learn about a transformational curriculum that’s enabled adults, teens and children to become accountable and hopeful following lives of disappointment and despair. They’ll also learn about a Minnesota-tested new approach to finance non-profits that has national potential.

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October 17

Early Childhood Development: Economic Development
with a High Public Return

Arthur J. Rolnick

Persuasive economic research indicates there’s a far more promising approach to economic development than the conventional practice of trying to lure jobs from other localities. It rests not on an externally oriented strategy of offering subsidies to attract private companies, but rather on government support of those much closer to home – quite literally, our youngest children. This research shows that by investing in early childhood development, governments – in partnership with private firms and nonprofit foundations – can reap extraordinarily high economic returns and benefits that are low-risk and long-lived.

Arthur J. Rolnick, Ph.D., is a senior fellow at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota and former senior vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. His essays on public policy issues, including “A Plan to Address the Too-Big-To-Fail Problem” and “The Economics of Early Childhood Development,” have gained national attention. He serves on several nonprofit boards and his work on early childhood development has garnered numerous awards.

Please join us for an informative and thought-provoking examination of a pressing public issue that concerns us all.

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October 24

The Future of Publishing
in the Digital Age

Fiona McCrae

The landscape of the book publishing industry is undergoing steady transformation in ways that will have far-reaching economic, social and cultural ramifications. We’ve seen new means of distribution, new electronic reading devices and all manner of social networking sites develop. On top of this, there are arguments raging: about the Google Books Library Project, about the price of e-books and about who owns electronic rights. Where is all this leading? What is being lost? What is being gained?

Publisher Fiona McCrae will discuss the implications of the most far-reaching changes, including the ever-evolving means of “content” delivery, the evolution of reading and the future of the book itself.

McCrae is publisher and executive director of Minneapolis-based Graywolf Press, one of the nation’s leading nonprofit literary presses and the publisher of numerous award-winning collections of poems. She was born in Nairobi, Kenya, grew up in Hertfordshire, just north of London, and started her publishing career at Faber & Faber in London. She came to the United States in 1991 and joined Graywolf in 1994.

The future of book publishing is now! Please join us for a fascinating and informative look at where it’s heading.

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October 31

Ending Homelessness by 2020
– We Can Do It!

Cathy ten Broeke,
Heidi Johnson McAllister and Annie Harm

Members of Plymouth have a strong commitment to ending homelessness. We’re proud of the progress that’s being made and want to learn more about how to keep the momentum going until we reach the ultimate goal of ending homelessness in the Twin Cities and beyond.

Meet three leaders who are working toward this goal every day: Cathy ten Broeke (pictured at left), project coordinator from the Office to End Homelessness in Minneapolis and Hennepin County; and, from the Downtown Congregations to End Homelessness, Heidi Johnson McAllister (at left below), congregational organizer, and Annie Harm, volunteer coordinator.

They’ll provide an update on the progress being made by both the Heading Home Hennepin and the Downtown Congregations to End Homelessness plans. Find out how you can get involved in this worthy cause. They need advocates, volunteer service providers, financial supporters and cheerleaders.

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November 7

2010 Update on the
Vitamin D Controversies

Gregory A. Plotnikoff

Vitamin D is a hot topic. Is it truly a secret for longevity? Well-being? Optimal health? Could it be the single most cost-effective medical intervention in the United States? This is your opportunity to get the answers to these and other questions from one of the world’s foremost vitamin D experts, Greg Plotnikoff, M.D.

Dr. Plotnikoff is a board-certified internist and pediatrician who has garnered international honors for his work in cross-cultural and integrative medicine. A graduate of Carleton College, Harvard Divinity School and the University of Minnesota Medical School, Dr. Plotnikoff returned to Minnesota in 2008 after six years in Tokyo where he was an associate professor at Keio University School of Medicine. He’s well known for his work in interventional nutrition, herbal medicines and spirituality in clinical care. Dr. Plotnikoff has additional training as a hospital chaplain, in medical acupuncture, in mind-body skills and as a practitioner of traditional East Asian medicine.

Currently, Dr. Plotnikoff serves as an integrative medicine physician at the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing in Minneapolis and as senior consultant to the Center for Health Care Innovation at Allina.

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November 14

Transitioning from Warrior
to Citizen: One Man’s Journey

William J. Premo

What’s it like to be in a war situation and how difficult is it to change tempo when transitioning from warrior to civilian? How does this transition impact family life, kids, communities? What’s the cost – to individual and society – of post traumatic stress disorder?

Bill Premo, Ph.D., is an organizational psychologist and Vietnam-era veteran. To give a snapshot of what it’s really like to be in a war situation and how difficult it is to return home, he’ll show some videos of real fighting and “normal” day-to-day life in wartime Iraq. Dr. Premo will also offer his insights, both professional and personal, into PTSD, a legacy of war that concerns us all.

Dr. Premo is program director of the Management Consulting and Organizational Leadership program at the Adler Graduate School and an adjunct professor at Argosy University. He specializes in coaching senior executives, assessing organizational problems and instituting corrective interventions related to teams, individuals and the overall organization.

Please join us for this timely and personal presentation on the psychological consequences of war by a man who speaks from knowledge and experience.

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November 21

The Pilgrims: Turkey, Cranberries and
Early American Folklore

Ralph Colby

Ralph Colby, M. Div., a native of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, will discuss the roots of our Congregational Way, beginning with the persecution of the Pilgrims in England and their escape to Holland before sailing to the New World. He’ll help us to decipher the facts and fictions of the Pilgrim experience and its relevance today to Plymouth Congregational Church.

Colby is a retired Congregational (UCC) minister and member of Plymouth. He served Congregational churches in New Hampshire, Ohio and Minnesota. After completing interim ministries in Boston and New York, he served for a number of years as executive director of the Interim Ministry Network, centered in Baltimore. He also served as coordinator of the Pastoral Residency Program at Plymouth during its inception.

He enjoys the study of Colonial history and the opportunity to share it with others.

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November 28

Sacred Absence:
Kierkegaard, Heisenberg
and the High Calling of Doubt

John Edgerton

In this introduction to what will be a longer series of programs on faith, doubt and science offered at Plymouth in the spring, John Edgerton will discuss the contributions to theology of the 19th century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Special focus will be given to Kierkegaard’s descriptions of faith in God as leading to encounter with paradox. Kierkegaard, known as the father of existentialism, used paradox to craft stirring descriptions of humanity’s relationship with God. This session will also include a brief description, in lay language, of the uncertainty principle of the 20th century German physicist Werner Heisenberg. This principle of quantum mechanics states the (perhaps startling) idea that human knowledge is fundamentally limited. The combination of Kierkegaard and Heisenberg will offer ground for mutual enrichment and conversation around issues of theology and science.

Edgerton grew up in Chicago and attended St. John’s College for his undergraduate education. It was there that he first encountered the work of Kierkegaard, and it was through studying Kierkegaard’s works that Edgerton first began to discern a call to ministry. Edgerton is currently the pastoral resident at Plymouth and will serve in that capacity until June 2011.

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December 5

A Spiritual Progressive Agenda
to Promote Economic Recovery
and National Security

Bruce A. Peterson

The United States is beset with external threats to our national security and internal breakdowns in our economic system. Yet our political process seems more polarized and gridlocked than ever. Bruce Peterson, J.D., an active member of the Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP), will show how our spiritual consciousness can guide us to effective responses to these issues and bring people together across political divisions.

Peterson has been a Hennepin County judge since 1999, following more than 20 years of law practice, first with the U.S. Department of Justice and then with a large law firm. From 2006 to 2008, he served as the inaugural chair of the Minnesota chapter of NSP, a grassroots movement founded in 2005 and focused on spiritual activism and the politics of meaning. Peterson has written, spoken and taught widely on law and social policy and the spiritual dimension of public policy issues. He’s a 1978 graduate of Yale Law School.

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At a glance...

Sunday Mornings, 9 a.m.

Authenticity, Leadership and Humanitarian Aid:
Engagement in the 21st Century

African American Museum and Cultural Center Will Fill
a Gap in Minnesota’s History

StepUP: A Collegiate Recovery Program
with Amazing Results

Northern Minnesota Mining
and Its Impact on Our Water

How 7 Proven Social Enterprise Principles
Can Reduce Poverty and Strengthen America

Early Childhood Development:
Economic Development with a High Public Return

The Future of Publishing in the Digital Age

Ending Homelessness by 2020

Update on the Vitamin D Controversies

Transitioning from Warrior to Citizen:
One Man’s Journey

The Pilgrims: Turkey, Cranberries
and Early American Folklore

Sacred Absence: Kierkegaard, Heisenberg
and the High Calling of Doubt

A Spiritual Progressive Agenda to Promote Economic
Recovery and National Security

Tree and Water, by Plymouth member Chris Bohnhoff