The cover graphic is a design from the artist Jane Rødden. Posters of her clever designs that incorporate song lyrics can be ordered at www.songshape.dk.  The well-known Grundtvig song “Nu falmer sloven trinket om land” serves as inspiration for this month’s cover. The music and Danish and English lyrics are on pages four and five. The Church and Life website also has YouTube links to both a keyboard accompaniment if you want to sing it in English and another video to sing along in Danish with Phillip Faber.

Keeping with a theme of leaves falling from trees, the opening article by Rita Simon is “The Spaciousness Between Our Branches.” She takes the inspiration of trees encountered on a walk to use as a metaphor for the seasons of life.

The Grundtvig song appears once again in “Interview with Thure Lindhart,” by Sofie Buch Hoyer, originally written in Danish for the publication Højskolebladet. The interview with the Danish actor was prompted by his performance in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of Grundtvig’s death.  Thure tells about his newly found interest and respect for the man and how this has led him to  initiate a new alternative educational opportunity.

In “Grand View University’s 14th President, Dr. Rachelle Keck,”Marilyn Andersen Gift introduces the person who will be leading the next chapter of the university and gives highlights of her inauguration. 

Sonja Knudsen, daughter of former Grand View President Johannes Knudsen, serves as secretary of the Danish Interest Conference. The board has already approved her minutes from this year’s annual Board of Director’s meeting, so they are published here for the sake of transparency.
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A little prayer of thanksgiving, shared at a Folk School Alliance community of practice meeting, appropriately comes with the listing of gifts to Church and Life. You may note a few gifts in memory of Don Lenef, Joy Ibsen’s husband. The next issue will carry a remembrance of his life.

The final Post Script by editor Bridget Lois Jensen is a personal reflection spawned by the death of a longtime family friend.

English translation of lyrics of "Nu falmer sloven trinket om land"
Link to musical accompaniment on YouTube here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdNhwjZvKtM
Scroll down to link to sing in Danish with Phillip Farber

1. The forest leaves are fading fast,
and bird-song now is rarer;
the swallow flees the stormy blast,
the stork seeks climates fairer.

2. Where fields once waved with golden corn,
fair. ears to ripeness straining,
there stubble lies, bereaved, forlorn,
mere barren soil remaining.

3. But in our barn, upon our floor,
God’s gift for all our sowing,
our enterprise yields up its store
of harvest overflowing.

4. And He who made it grow on earth,
the golden ears unveiling,
will live with us and share his Word,
the gospel never-failing.

5. We thank Him now with joyful song
for all that He has given.;
for fields that grew all summer long,
for word and life from heaven.

6. Through all the year on ev’rything
He breathes his peace eternal;
and after winter comes the spring,
the summer, corn and kernel.

7. And when life’s hour-glass runs dry,
His word to us is spoken:
in Paradise will God on high
grant summer sun unbroken.

8. There shall we reap as birds do here,
who neither plough nor scatter;
and there be free of toil and fear,
and strife of earthly matters.

9. For harvest here and harvest there,
to God be praise and glory,
who shows through Christ, our Saviour fair,
the Fahter’s loving story.

10. His Spirit, who does all things well,
through life’s short dates precedes us:
in faith and hope and love we dwell,
as He to heaven leads us.

Edward Broadbridge, ed. and trans., Living Wellsprings: The Hymns, Songs, and Poems of N.F.S Grundtvig [Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2015] no. 73 (p. 161-2).

By Marilyn Andersen Gift

On March 22, 2022, the Board of Trustees announced the selection of Dr. Rachelle Keck to succeed Kent Henning as president of Grand View University.  She is the fourteenth president and the first woman to serve in this role in the college’s 126-year history. She previously served as President at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa, after serving in Executive Vice President University Counsel and Chief of Staff roles at the university. Dr. Keck is known as a confident decision maker and visionary leader possessing strong problem-solving, organizational, and prioritization skills. Her experience in higher educational administration, philanthropy, and law in addition to her astute communication skills and ability to work collaboratively with others are foundational to visionary leadership.  Dr. Keck is a purpose-driven Christian with a passion for helping others discern, develop, and claim their callings.

She has passionately shared her amazing faith journey from growing up as one of nine children to becoming a first-generation college student to earning the presidency at Grand View University. Along the way, God has guided her decisions as she moved up the career ladder. She earned a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, degree from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, majoring in psychology with minors in business administration and sociology. She then earned her Juris Doctor degree, with distinction, from the University of Iowa College of Law. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Education from Drake University with a 4.0 GPA. Her impressive resume is available online here. 

Keck first built a career as a lawyer. From an early age, those close to her identified her advocacy skills, honed in the midst of a large family and recommended law as a future career. She worked for four years as a prosecutor in Poweshiek County, Montezuma, Iowa and then in private practice for sixteen years. She managed her own law firm with a focus on real estate, abstracts, titles, probate, estate planning and corporate law.
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As a member of the Wartburg College Board of Regents, she served on the college’s presidential search committee in 2007-2008.  Some of the candidates had law degrees, and it was during this process an idea that she could become a college president was ignited. That was her “God” moment. She first sought the advice of people in the higher education industry to understand what working in higher education looks like. Those conversations solidified her determination and she set a course to achieve this new dream. From there, she became the Director of Planned Giving for the University of Iowa Foundation in Iowa City, Iowa, and, thereafter, the Executive Director of Philanthropy and Alumni Relations for Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa. While working at Indian Hills, a friend told her about an interesting opportunity at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa. She initially served as Chief of Staff and University Counsel for the university and was later elevated to Executive Vice President and then President of Briar Cliff University from 2018-2022.  

The goal of becoming the president of a Lutheran University was the reason she pivoted from law to higher education. Keck was raised Lutheran and had a grandfather who was a Lutheran pastor. The fact that three of her and her husband’s four children live in the Des Moines metro area cemented her decision to apply for the presidency of Grand View. Grand View University is fortunate to have her leadership in the years ahead.

Dr. Keck officially became Grand View’s president on July 1, 2022, and quickly provided various opportunities to connect with alumni and the community through “Meet the President” events. These opportunities included The Viking Golf Classic, a worship service at Luther Memorial Church and ice cream social, a question and answer social at the West End Salvage coffee bar, socializing together with her husband Jim and dog Hava at Kinship Brewing and dog park, and welcoming friends and alumni at the Iowa State Fair Grand View University booth.

The official inauguration for Dr. Keck occurred during the five days of Homecoming festivities. “Honoring the Past, Celebrating our Present, Igniting our Future” was the title of her message for the 1896 Club and Inauguration Dinner on Thursday, September 29, 2022. This theme was evident in every Homecoming and Inauguration event.