Rev. Renae Boehmer has been called to serve as Director for the Holy Playground Initiative for the South Dakota Synod.
The program is funded through Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative, a national initiative designed to help Christian congregations more fully and intentionally engage children in intergenerational corporate worship and prayer practices.
The Holy Playground Initiative will use funding from Lilly Endowment to invest in structured support for participating congregations, including coaching, multi-modal training opportunities, and targeted grants to implement research-based, developmentally informed programs and practices in their congregations and worshiping communities to strengthen their ministries to engage children in worship and prayer.
“I am excited to welcome Pastor Renae Boehmer to the Synod staff as the Director for the Holy Playground Initiative, said Bishop Constanze Hagmaier. “Her expertise in early childhood education and experience as a pastor will be a great fit for the development and expansion of children’s ministry in the congregations of the South Dakota Synod.”
Rev. Boehmer is an ordained pastor, a mother (and soon-to-be mother-in-law!), a former childcare professional and children’s ministry director, a lover of all things chocolate, a novice crocheter, and someone who relishes deep and connecting conversations. She looks forward to this new role where all those passions can merge, and we can be creative, compassionate, and child-like together!
“I am so excited to work with congregations across the South Dakota Synod to dream of new ways we can engage children and families in worship and prayer using developmentally-appropriate practice, creativity, art, music, movement, a huge dose of curiosity and, perhaps most importantly, relationships,” said Pastor Renae. “Many of us can name the people who first took an interest in our faith development because those loving and eager adults found ways to make God’s love real. With our imaginations and the resources provided by the Lilly Endowment, we have the capacity to make this happen for the next generation as well!’
Pastor Renae will officially begin her call on April 1. You can welcome her by sending her a note at rboehmer@sdsynod.org.
