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seminary, passing cartoons around to make classmates laugh.


“I think in pictures,” he explained. “I’m a very visual person.” For much of the print world, words lead and pic- tures and illustrations follow. For Erlander, the pictures have always led.


When he wrote his first book, Baptized, We Live, in 1979, he was on a year’s leave of absence from St. Paul Lutheran Church, Albuquerque, N.M. He spent this sab- batical at Holden Village, a retreat center in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. Sabbaticals of any length


30 The Lutheran • www.thelutheran.org


aniel W. Erlander has nearly always woven theology and art together. And because he has, people across the church have joined Lutheran congregations and


grown in their faith. What Erlander hopes they’ve learned is: “Grace, grace,


grace, grace, grace.” Talking in his gentle voice from his home in Freeland,


on Whidbey Island, Wash., he added, “What’s precious and special to Lutherans—what’s central—is the gracious love of God for all. Undeserved.” Erlander, a retired ELCA pastor, is the author and illustrator of seven self-published books/resources, including Baptized, We Live; Manna and Mercy; and his most recent, Tales of the Pointless People (visit www. danielerlander.com).


His unique style of writing the books by hand and illustrating them himself with cartoon-like characters is familiar to Lutherans across the church. Countless pas- tors have used his resources to welcome new members or teach the basics of the faith to current ones. One reviewer said: “When I loan Manna and Mercy to friends, I remind them: ‘Don’t judge this book by its cover,’ because the simple homespun look is deceptive. ... Do not let the look fool you. There is solid scholarship behind the simple presentation.” Erlander said he has been “drawing and drawing and drawing” since kindergarten. In first grade, the teacher told his parents, “Dan must understand that arithmetic is not art class.” He majored in art in college and continued to draw in


about grace


From childhood into retirement,


pastor has penned welcome By Julie B. Sevig


were unusual at the time, he said, and his bishop told him he had better do something with his time. Erlander decided to do a booklet he could use in the parish with new members and people new to the faith. The first print run was 100, and he’s lost count of all the printings since. A small publishing house in Albuquerque that mostly publishes Bibles has printed all his work, though most were produced long after he moved to Washington. While working two-thirds time as a campus pastor of


Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Wash., he spent the other one-third time writing Manna & Mercy: A Brief History of God’s Unfolding Promise to Mend the Entire Universe. Time in the wilderness inspired this book too. He and friend and theologian Charlie Mays went hiking at Holden Village, sat on two rocks and ended up telling the entire story of the Bible to one another, “laughing and weeping” throughout, Erlander said. “I wanted to try to get the Bible into pictures,” said


Erlander, recalling the joy he felt when hearing that a copy found its way to South Africa and was used at a seminary in Sudan. Erlander’s passion for tending the faith of children and young adults has resulted in four resources: Let the Chil- dren Come: A Baptism Manual for Parents and Sponsors;


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