New Year’s Eve A new year can offer hope and enthusiasm for starting anew, or it can bring fear and despair stirred by our human weaknesses and failures. Ask God to help us achieve our new endeavors and resolutions and reground ourselves in God’s grace, forgiveness and newness when we fall short of our expectations and goals. Ask the Spirit to help us encourage, assist and surround with grace people who stumble or whose confidence is unsteady.
Read MorePray that the light, celebration and blessings of community we experience as followers of Christ will continue far beyond the Christmas holidays and permeate our daily lives as we participate in God’s life-giving work and witness in the world.
Read MoreThese petitions are offered as guides to prayer for the global, social and outreach ministries of the ELCA, as well as for the needs and circumstances of our neighbors, communities and world.
Download a Word doc, or PDF for letter size printout or legal size printout, or view the ELCA resource page.
Read MoreAugsburg Fortress has great worship resources for congregations and individuals available for 2021, some as inexpensive as three or four dollars.
Let our prayers, creation and all living things give glory and honor to God, our creator, sustainer, guiding light and redeemer.
Read MoreThe ELCA Systems Academy is a four-year structured engagement with family systems theory, theology, and clinical work. For more info, read more in this post and this introductory PDF.
Pastor Steve Beyer, Lord of Life Lutheran in Sun City West, is our synod representative. Through the academy he’ll learn more about family systems and conflict, and assist our synod after he’s been trained.
Read MorePray that we will carry forward the story and significance of Jesus and their implications for our daily actions, relationships and decisions as loved and reclaimed children of God. Ask the Spirit to guide us in responding to God’s call to proclaim the gospel, make peace, work for justice, propagate hope and serve our neighbors in need — without partiality, foot-dragging, embarrassment or expectation of reward or credit.
Read MorePray for the Spirit to help us understand and have faith in Jesus as the son of God, born to walk among us, live through our daily struggles and needs, teach us God’s ways and word, and restore our relationships with God, one another and creation.
Read MoreBeginning of Kwanzaa Kwanzaa is a weeklong celebration of African culture and traditions that stresses family, community and shared principles. Give thanks for the rich and meaningful traditions, celebrations and practices of our African American siblings and the global African community.
Read MoreChristmas Day Give praise and thanks for God’s boundless love, mercy and grace, revealed to the world and all humanity through the light of Jesus Christ ― son of God, son of humanity; our source of truth, salvation, new life and wholeness.
Read MoreRemember and give thanks for the people in your life who taught you the nativity story and recounted the promise God made to us and fulfilled through Jesus Christ.
Read MoreThis training includes 12 hours of group coaching time, one hour individual coaching at the time when you start in your interim context or at a time of your choosing, plus contextual work, reading and reflecting.
Begins Thursday, January 21, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. Visit purposeful pastor.com for more info.
Read MoreWith prayerful sighs of relief and expressions of gratitude, give thanks for God’s covenant to grant humankind love, forgiveness, new life and redemption through the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Read MoreOn Wednesday, 12/23/2020, we will practice holding space together, similar to a support group or grief group. Jill Beverlin and Tammy Devine will facilitate. For more personal matters, you may request a breakout room with a coach for up to 15 minutes during the hour-long gathering, subject to availability.
The Weekly Online Gathering for ELCA Leaders continues every Wednesday, 1 pm Central, 12pm MST. Links to the meeting at elcacoaching.org as well as archives.
Read MoreRemember in prayer the approximately 26 million refugees, immigrants and asylum-seekers around the world and at our borders, awaiting entry into safe, welcoming countries and communities so that they can rebuild their lives without threats of conflict, persecution, violence or economic crisis. Pray for their safety, that their spiritual, physical and emotional needs will be met, that they will find caring advocates, and that their faith and hope will be strengthened and sustained by siblings in Christ and our faith communities.
Read MoreWinter solstice On this day with the least amount of daylight, observed as the beginning of winter, pray that we will be drawn to the eternal light of Christ born into the world — a gift for all people and all generations that illuminates God’s redemptive love for us and God’s desire and intent for how we might live together.
Read MoreThis PDF resource, Let's Talk Faith and Climate: Communication Guidance for Faith Leaders, is designed to be useful to both experienced and novice climate change and faith communicators.
From the ELCA and ecoAmerica, this guide synthesizes the latest academic research and message testing on climate communications into a practical guide to support meaningful discussions on climate change and faith among individuals and groups.
Read MorePray that we will be receptive to angels and divine beings sent by God to guide us and bring us good news, as the angel Gabriel did to Mary and Elizabeth. Pray that we will hear God’s assurance that “nothing will be impossible with God” and that our response will echo Mary’s: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Read More“The Lord has done great things for us.” Rejoice, laugh and shout with joy!
Read MorePray that, in anticipation of Christmas, we will invite others into the joy of our meals, celebrations, community events and faith. Pray that the Spirit will move us to reach out with acts of love, hope, inclusion and good news to people who are alone, incarcerated or homeless.
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