Organ: Medium-Difficult | Laura Pufahl

Laura Pufahl

Organ: Medium-Difficult

Learn about the latest medium-advanced organ repertoire from NPH and a curated selection from other sacred music publishers.

Bio | Laura Pufahl

Laura will begin serving on the 4th grade teacher team at Augustine Prep in Milwaukee in fall 2024. For the past seven years, she has served as the 4th grade and K-4 music teacher at Trinity, Waukesha, Wis., as well as a regular worship and choir accompanist at Trinity. She has taught music; directed elementary music groups; and served as organist, pianist, and choir accompanist at every church/school she has served. While her degrees are in education and instruction, she has been a church organist since 5th grade and has played in a variety of sizes of churches. She studied organ formally for eight years throughout high school and college.

Musician’s Resource | Jeremy Bakken

Musician’s Resource

Learn about the various resources available via Musician’s Resource. Note: This session will not cover liturgical ensemble, which will have its own session.

 

Bio | Jeremy Bakken

Jeremy serves as director of worship and sacred music at Northwestern Publishing House. He is an active church musician, composer, presenter, and clinician. He served on the hymns committee for Christian Worship: Hymnal, which includes four of his original hymn tunes. He holds degrees from Wisconsin Lutheran College (BA in music and mathematics, 2004), University of New Mexico (MM in composition and choral conducting, 2013) and University of Southern California (DMA in choral music, 2022).

Paraments, Vestments | Sara Nordling

Paraments, Vestments, and Textile Art for the Worship Space

The design and creation of textiles used in the church is an involved process. In this sectional you will learn how Sara Nordling designs her paraments and vestments considering not only the theological implication but the specific site where the item will be used. The presentation will enlighten those who haven’t thought about ecclesiastical textiles, inform everyone of what’s involved, and perhaps inspire others to get involved in creating works of art for the church.

Bio | Sara Nordling

Sara is a lifelong Lutheran currently living in Fort Wayne, Ind. She is a rostered deaconess in the LCMS and has an MFA in studio art/textiles from Indiana University. Sara teaches art, weaves, and works on commissions for ecclesiastical textiles. Her art and textiles work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, and her commissioned work is in homes and churches around the globe.

A Defense of the Unique | John Bergmeier

A Defense of the Unique in Christian Art

What does the gospel look like? Is it an image of Jesus holding a lamb or a depiction of his crucifixion? Is the only avenue for devotional art a painting such as the Warner Sallman standard? This session shows how the message of the gospel can be expressed in many forms to serve the church’s purpose—both to do mission work among unbelievers and to educate and edify believers. We will look at some unique visual concepts that perhaps don’t fit into the traditional format of Christian visual arts but should still be valued for communicating the gospel.

 

Bio | John Bergmeier

John received a BA in studio arts from Hastings College in Nebraska and an MFA in printmaking and drawing from Wichita State University in Kansas. He has worked as a commercial designer and design manager since 1992 and has continued to create artwork throughout this time in his home studios. He has exhibited internationally and has also taught studio art and graphic design classes at various colleges.

Liturgy Myths and Truths | Michael Berg

Michael Berg

Myths and Truths About Liturgical Worship: Enriching Love of the Liturgy

This session will explore the benefits of liturgical worship. Leaving behind tired arguments that offer misleading dichotomies (e.g., liturgical vs. non-liturgical), we will discover that liturgically thoughtful worship addresses profound questions that all humans ask regardless of their background: Who are we? Who is God? Does the spiritual interact with the physical? How shall we live? Ultimately it asks and answers this question: How can we stand before the Almighty without being blown away? Liturgical worship is iconoclastic in this way. It shatters the images we have of God and ourselves and confronts us with a truly Christocentric message.

 

 

Bio | Michael Berg

Rev. Dr. Berg is associate professor of theology at Wisconsin Lutheran College where he teaches courses on worship, apologetics, Martin Luther, Christ in the Old Testament, and Christ and Culture. He is the author of Vocation: The Setting for Human Flourishing (1517), The Baptismal Life (NPH), On Any Given Sunday: The Story of Christ in the Divine Service (1517), and a forthcoming book from NPH called Peter: Theologian of the Cross.

Signals Not to Send | Michael Berg

Michael Berg

Signals Not to Send

It seems that our culture is divided up between left and right in just about every aspect including Sunday mornings. What a tragedy! The things that unite us are so much more precious and important than the things that divide us. This is true in our country and exponentially truer in the church. Of all places, the church should be the place where the truth of the gospel matters and everything else fades into the background. And yet is this the feeling our members sense while sitting in the pews? How about the visitors in the narthex? Would a person who holds a minority political opinion walk away because of unintended signals we send? Whether we realize it or not, we send unintended signals (good and bad) in preaching, worship, conversations in the narthex, and in Bible class discussions. In this session we will discuss signals not to send but also ways to reinforce the matters that unite us. We will try to hone the skill of challenging our audiences with the grand topics that relate to our current culture without putting a barrier between them and the gospel.

Bio | Michael Berg

Rev. Dr. Berg is associate professor of theology at Wisconsin Lutheran College where he teaches courses on worship, apologetics, Martin Luther, Christ in the Old Testament, and Christ and Culture. He is the author of Vocation: The Setting for Human Flourishing (1517), The Baptismal Life (NPH), On Any Given Sunday: The Story of Christ in the Divine Service (1517), and a forthcoming book from NPH called Peter: Theologian of the Cross.

Worship Lessons Learned | Jonathan Hein

John Hein

Worship Lessons Learned from Consulting

Imagine over the course of two years attending worship at a different WELS congregation every week. As you observed what went well and what didn’t, you would gain valuable insights: about what God’s people find most edifying, about what enables both members and guests to better participate in worship, about what makes a sermon well received, etc. In his decade of serving the WELS Commission on Congregational Counseling, Rev. Hein has attended worship in more churches than you could visit in two years. In this presentation, he will share some lessons learned from congregational consulting. He will provide hard data about worship in congregations that the Lord is blessing with growth. He will share insights about walking the Lutheran middle in our worship planning, trusting that only God’s Word can effect and strengthen faith while also understanding that God expects us to use his gift of reason to conduct worship so that the Word is well proclaimed and received.

Bio | Jonathan Hein

Upon graduation from the seminary in 1997, Rev. Hein was assigned to a home mission in the Charleston, S.C., area. In 20 years there, he helped start two congregations. He has served as chairman of the South Atlantic District Mission Board as well as a member of the executive committee of WELS Board for Home Missions. In 2014 he was called to be the director of WELS Commission on Congregational Counseling. In that capacity, he works with congregations and schools to assess and plan gospel ministry efforts. In 2017, his duties expanded to include serving as coordinator of the six commissions that make up WELS Congregational Services: Congregational Counseling, Discipleship, Evangelism, Lutheran Schools, Special Ministries, and Worship.

Piano | Linda Moeller

Linda Moeller

Piano

Learn about the latest piano repertoire from NPH and a curated selection from other sacred music publishers.

Bio | Linda Moeller

Linda is a graduate of Dr. Martin Luther College. She has taught organ at DMLC; in the music department at Michigan Lutheran Seminary; primary grades at Abiding Word, Houston, Texas; and directed the band program at St. Andrew in Chicago. Linda has spent most of her teaching career as band director and private instrumental teacher at both Trinity-St. Luke’s Lutheran School and Luther Preparatory School in Watertown, Wis. She has served on the hymnal’s Musician’s Resource committee and the WELS School of Worship Enrichment and was the founder of both the WELS Summer Strings and the Trinity Lunchtime Recital Program. She is published by Northwestern Publishing House and has self-published two well-received sacred songbooks for children and a Christmas service entitled “The Story of Christmas Night,” which contains several of her original songs.

Strings and Keys | Kevin Becker and Michael Schultz

Michael Schulz and Kevin Becker

Strings and Keys

This workshop has been offered at previous conferences. It continues to evolve and expand as more keyboard/guitar arrangements for psalms, hymns, and liturgical songs in the Christian Worship suite of resources become available. It will feature the liturgical songs of Christian Worship, Setting 5, composed by the presenters. It will also sample other arrangements that demonstrate how worship can be well led even if all of the musical forces of a full liturgical ensemble are not available.

Bio | Michael Schultz

Michael SchultzPastor Schultz has served WELS congregations in Flagstaff, Ariz., and Lawrenceville, Ga. He chaired the hymns committee for Christian Worship: Supplement and served as project director for the WELS Hymnal Project. He enjoys working on arrangements that combine piano and guitar. Michael currently serves as a parish pastor in Tallahassee, Fla., and is the chairman of the WELS Commission on Worship.

Bio | Kevin Becker

Kevin BeckerKevin serves as music minister at Grace, Milwaukee, Wis. He has loved church music from a young age and has played regularly for Lutheran worship since high school. Prior to serving in ministry, he worked as a collaborative pianist with singers and instrumentalists, accompanied ballet classes and musical theatre, instructed collegiate music courses, and taught private piano lessons. Kevin earned a bachelor’s degree in piano performance and music theory/composition from Wisconsin Lutheran College, a master’s degree in composition from Truman State University, and has completed WELS ministry certification through Martin Luther College.

175 Years of Change | Joel Otto

Joel Otto

175 Years of Change in WELS Worship

The founders of the Wisconsin Synod were not confessional Lutherans, and their mixed confession showed in worship practices in the early decades of the synod’s history. While a pietistic influence has always been felt in worship attitudes in WELS, changes have occurred throughout the synod’s history. By examining church architecture and the use of hymnals in Wisconsin Synod congregations across 175 years since her founding, we will note the shift toward a more confessional Lutheran understanding of worship in WELS.

Bio | Joel Otto

Prof. Otto chairs the WELS 175th anniversary committee (2025). Since 2011, he has served at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, where he teaches church history and education and is the dean of students. Previously he served congregations in Michigan, California, and Wisconsin. He is also the chairman of the WELS Historical Institute and serves on the Commission on Inter-Church Relations. He has previously served on the Commission on Worship, the Commission on Lutheran Schools, the WELS Hymnal Project, and as a writer for Forward in Christ.