Suzann (Johnson) Nelson

Janet Letnes Martin

If you search for the word "coffee" in the Bible, if you're pretty sure that all the pairs of animals in Noah's Ark were married, and if you know that Heaven is up and Hell is down, you'll love Growing Up Lutheran. If the Lutherans you know seem rather, er, mysterious, it will do you good.

Combining their own memories with those of other Lutherans who grew up in the 1940s through the 1960s, Janet and Suzann have written a delightful expose of what it means to be Lutheran and how it's done. Endearing, often hilarious stories shine a light on Lutheran life from baptism ("And His Name Shall Be Called Gilman Einar Stedje") to death ("He Is Not Gone, He Is Only Away"). In between, you'll learn about Sunday School, Christmas pageants (a.k.a. "bathrobe pageants"), Bible Camp, Confirmation, and Lutheran weddings. You'll get the inside scoop on the Lutheran Church Basement Women ("a special species of people"), lutefisk suppers, pew protocol, church architecture, and much more.

In the words of the authors, Growing Up Lutheran is "a mixture of ingredients that we had on hand, generously salted . . . With gentle humor, and lightly peppered . . . with quite a few hot granules of Lutheran theology." This is most certainly true.

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