Forgiveness Seminar
The Healing Power of Forgiveness
with Dr. Rick Rouse
"The Healing Power of Forgiveness" is a program which explores the radical and transforming nature of God's grace. Pastor Rick Rouse shares a personal and moving story of an arsonist and Trinity Lutheran Church in Lynnwood, WA. He utilizes a film of this incredible story entitled "Forgiveness: A Miracle of Love". Participants explore the five stages of forgiveness that include: 1) denial, 2) anger, 3) bargaining, 4) depression, and 5) acceptance; and learn how to apply this process to their own lives.
Because all of us wrestle with the issue of forgiveness and the need for healing in our lives and relationships, this program seems to resonate strongly with audiences of all ages. The video by Seraphim Communications was featured in the ELCA Seeds for the Parish and is now being used by many congregations for confirmation and adult education programs. Pastor Rouse is the author of "Fire of Grace: The Healing Power of Forgiveness," first published by Augsburg Fortress in the summer 2005.
To schedule a seminar, contact Prince of Peace Lutheran Church at (480) 945-9537 or send an email to rwrouse@comcast.net. The seminar can be adapted from a one hour adult forum to a one day or half day retreat format. Presented at Western States Youth Gathering, ELCA Global Mission Event, youth groups, retirement centers, community colleges, Sunday adult classes, and other all-church events.
Consider "the Prodigal Son and his restoration to his place in his father's house, though he neither asks to be restored as son nor even repents of the grief he has caused his father...Jesus puts His hearer in the role of the father, of the one who forgives. Because if we are, so to speak, the debtor (and of course we are that, too) that suggests no graciousness in us. And grace is the great gift. So to be forgiven is only half the gift. The other half is that we also can forgive, restore, and liberate, and therefore we can feel the will of God enacted through us, which is the great restoration of ourselves to ourselves."
--From the 2004 Pulitzer Prize winning book GILEAD by Marilynne Robinson (p. 161)