Friday, June 13th was a fortuitous day at the Schuler home. From electronic proofs to a tangible book is a huge step! On Sunday I asked my 11-year old friend Ellie to give a reading from the introduction to the book. I will be having parties in the backyard all summer to celebrate with friends (and peddle the book at a “family and friends” discount).
Last week we received the news from our publisher, Wipf and Stock, saying that Journey to Jesus “is officially published”!
Thanks be to God!
Yesterday Kent and I finalized the index (the final step before publication) and sent it to Heather, our typesetter (along with news of a misspelled word I discovered while working on the index). We heard back from her with version 08 that included the index added to book proof (photo, right) and misspelled word corrected. I reviewed it, found one minor item that needed editing, and sent it back to Heather.
Today Heather sent us version 09 (photo, left). Notice that the box proclaiming “UNCORRECTED PROOF” is no longer there! We now await word that our book is published. As of this writing, it’s still listed on Wipf & Stock with a publication date of July 2025. Stay tuned!
Last week Kent Burreson (my co-author) and I gave the opening plenary address at the Multiethnic Symposium held May 6 and 7, 2025 at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Our presentation (with the unwieldy title “A House of Catechesis and Prayer for All Nations: Formation through a Contextualized Catechumenate”) was well received by the audience of about 200 clergy, seminarians, and lay church leaders. This paragraph from the presentation summarizes our address:
The Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture was prepared by the Lutheran World Federation in 1996. For today’s presentation, we’ve expanded the language and will speak about worship AND catechesis in relation to culture. For us, worship and catechesis go hand-in-hand and both are essential for strong faith formation.The Nairobi document includes four statements about worship as transcultural, contextual, counter-cultural, and cross-cultural, each of which is grounded in statements about Jesus Christ also as transcultural, contextual, counter-cultural, and cross-cultural. These categories serve as the outline of our presentation, with Christ as transcultural bookending our remarks.
We drew on Kent’s research at Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Bronx (included in our forthcoming book) and also on our recent research at Salem Lutheran Church in Springdale, Arkansas, a bilingual congregation (English and Spanish) that is introducing some innovative practices for lifelong faith formation. Pastors Adam Gless and Brandon Martin of Salem, along with two couples active in church leadership, attended the conference (photo, below).
Interested readers can find out more about the relaxation side of our visit to Salem Lutheran in February here. We really did do some serious research while there, interviewing Hispanic and Anglo members. Over the summer we will be preparing a report for the congregation with recommendations for strengthening the congregation’s faith formation process and practices that will promote a sense of unity across the cultures and languages of the people of Salem.
Today we approved our final proofs! And we are set up for pre-orders through Wipf and Stock!
Click here if you wish to order now.
Huzzah! Kent and I just received this email from our publisher’s type-setter. One small step in a long process; one giant leap closer to publication. As we head toward Holy Week, I’m thrilled that my Lenten discipline will be reviewing copy edits. Thanks be to God!
When asked what I’ve been doing since retirement, I’ve often said that I’m working on a book project. It’s been so long that I suspect some friends and colleagues might have thought that book was merely in my imagination. No wonder, when I look back on the lengthy gestation process! Kent and I started working on a book proposal in August 2021. Ten months later (June 2022) we sent the proposal with a couple of drafts chapters to Wipf and Stock Publishers, working with the team of “publishing midwives” at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. In late October 2022 (a mere four months later), our proposal was accepted for publication as part of the CICW Worship and Witness series, a Cascade imprint.
Roughly a year and half later (late May 2024), we submitted our manuscript to our editor. Since January 2025, we seem at last to be “in labor” but not yet to the point of pushing. We have the image of a cover, including endorsements on the back, and we have proofread the first typeset manuscript. Here’s what Rodney, our editor wrote in an email on February 10, 2024:
Kent and Rhoda, I have finished a close reading and copyediting of Journeying to Jesus. Thank you for this deft melding of on-the-ground research and theo-missional reflection. It will be urgently helpful in helping churches consider and implement the catechumenate in their midst. Your inviting and respectful tone throughout is salutary.
Stay tuned for more updates on the official publication!
This post is in response to the Lent Madness 2025 match-up on March 19; St. Ursula is up against Verena of Zurzach. Click the link for details: https://www.lentmadness.org/2025/03/ursula-vs-verena-of-zurzach/
The first photo is the door to the basilica. The second is close-up of one of the medallions on the door. There are 11 (Ursula with the nimbus is included among that number) virgins in the boat. The third is a plaque commemorating the 100th anniversary of the basilica (1920-2020). Sadly, the building was locked when we visited.
Photos by Rhoda Schuler, June 2024. Copyright: Rhoda Schuler
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