Pr. Taran's Sabbatical 2026 - St. Luke Lutheran Church

Our latest stay has been in the idyllic town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. We stayed in a hotel that is more than 700 years old. Just through the lobby was a rose garden where we could duck out of the bustle of tourists and relax. It was a great stay. The many fun German shops (including the famous Christmas store), dining options, ice cream shops (the daily stop hasn’t ended)...

How do you keep track of which important Luther “E” city is which?!? I genuinely messed them up in my planning several times. And we almost drove to the wrong “E” city when plugging things into my phone’s GPS. Now though, I have memories for the places. There is something about stepping foot somewhere, and taking in the sites, that helps place the locations ...

I’m a day behind (we arrived in Erfurt yesterday), but we’ve had a fun filled entry into Germany. The Lenzs and the Spokane Dennings train-ed and airplane-d from Italy up to Berlin, Germany. One delay on the tarmac later (and girls that were more patient than their dad), we made it in one piece.

We spent our first day in Berlin at the Zoo. We’ve been trying to break...

Something I’ve learned and confirmed while on sabbatical is that I have a hard time sitting still. I get stir crazy. I feel as if I’m only as productive as whatever I’ve gotten checked off the list. For those of you familiar with Strengths Quest or Enneagram personality stuff, I come out as an Achiever for both.

I’ve often quoted from David Zahl’s book, Seculosity. ...

We have wrapped up our time in the Holy City, Rome. The heat was sweltering. We took daily naps in our cool hotel during the warmest parts of the day. Even with built in rest, we saw so much over our four days. The history, art, churches, and stories were incredible to take in. Below you will find pictures that include some (but not all) of the sites we saw. One of m...