Linda Staats’ story, centered on children, bears striking similarities to the biblical story of Sarah, who was 90 years old when God surprised her with a child.
Linda, who currently serves on the Grand Canyon Synod stewardship team, is featured in this Living Lutheran story of an ELCA family who helps settle a Kenyan family through the green card lottery.
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I’ve always wanted to be a pastor. When I was 15 years old and visited a classmate’s church, I saw with my own eyes that a grown-up girl could be a pastor. The church had me at “hello.”
My parents, on the other hand, were not so inclined. I remember my father telling me, “The best way to help poor people is to not become one of them. Be an attorney. Make some money.”
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In this article in Living Lutheran, a Colombian camp counselor reflects on serving in South Dakota.
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Founded less than 150 years after Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, Frederick Lutheran Church has witnessed more change, growth and conversation on the lives of African descendants than any other church in the Western Hemisphere.
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The Psalms become our words when we don’t know how or what to pray. They give hope when all we have are sighs. This month, however you’re feeling—at home, work or school—take time to sit with your feelings. Ask your family how they’re feeling, listen to one another and trust that God holds you, no matter how you feel.
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Imagine measuring congregational vitality by how alive people and faith communities feel in their gathering and in their interactions with their neighbors, instead of determining success by counting the number of people attending worship or the number of dollars collected.
That’s what congregations are doing, or learning to do, throughout the ELCA in programs funded through grants awarded by Lilly Endowment Inc.’s Thriving Congregations Initiative. Congregations can apply for the Nourishing Vocation Project.
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Watch a video from the Rocky Mountain Synod on Ascension Lutheran’s response to the Marshall Fire.
On Dec. 30, 2021, the Marshall Fire, a destructive wildfire and urban conflagration whipped by sustained winds, swept across Boulder County, Colorado. The fire completely destroyed the homes of several families who are members of Christ the Servant Lutheran Church in Louisville, including pastor Stephanie Lord’s.
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Today we are announcing that Living Lutheran magazine will print its final issue in December 2023. Also, the magazine will print six issues in this final year. The Churchwide Organization will not stop telling stories of this church when the printing of the magazine ends.
This year, we will begin transitioning Living Lutheran to a full online storytelling engine featuring new ways of reaching people, providing a more economical and far-reaching approach for us to engage with a broader audience.
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My home congregation is the same church my parents grew up in and got married in. I was baptized and confirmed there. I went to Sunday school after services there for as long as I can remember, and I really got involved in the youth group program there in middle school. I also have been on multiple mission trips with my church to different locations out of state.
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More than two decades after the ELCA and The Episcopal Church became full communion partners, congregations from both denominations are joining forces in arrangements that many see as the way of the future.
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Pastor Katie Langston, pastor of mission and outreach at New Promise Lutheran Church in St. George, Utah, shares her adventures in delivering cookies to the church’s neighbors.
“Operation Cookie Conversations” was the product of the question, “What would happen if we tried to talk to the neighbors near us?”
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From helping those in need to team-building to deepening people’s faith to improving a congregation’s self-esteem, Resurrection’s disaster-relief ministry is a robust and holistic one. For this Cincinnati congregation, disaster relief is a passion. The 400-member congregation has made 19 trips to help rebuild homes after disasters, including several visits to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
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King’s theology is many things. It is dynamic, revolutionary and loving. But above all, his theology was actually lived, providing us with a theological legacy of a Christian answer to racism, segregation, violence and other evils. King’s daughter, Bernice, describes his life as a “walking sermon inspired by God.”
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Living Lutheran shares an interview with Norma Frances "Tootsie" Tomanetz, an associate member at Grace Lutheran Church, in Giddings, Texas, as well as the 87-year-old pitmaster at Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, Texas. Tomanetz’s episode of Chef’s Table: BBQ is available on Netflix.
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As a parent now, I find that keeping the time filled with more holy days than holidays is a challenge. We attempt to do this by honoring the saint days that lead up to Christmas Day. Lutherans hold the saints as portals through which you see the faith embodied across the ages.
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Roxana Boroujerdi had spent decades as a social worker serving youth in Everett, Wash., when she opted for a change of pace in her career: She opened an ice cream business. That might seem like a major shift but, at its heart, Boroujerdi said, the work was similar. “There’s nothing that brings me more joy than seeing a happy kid,” she said.
With that, her transition to being the “Fun Times Ice Cream Lady” was complete.
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Mary J. Streufert wrote her new book Language for God: A Lutheran Perspective (Fortress Press, 2022) for those people and other readers who need assurance that language and images for God include all genders and ethnicities, who are unsure why language and images for God matter, and who want language for God to be faithful to the Scriptures and to the witness of Christian theological tradition.
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Bounce around the internet for a while and you’ll catch wind of how virtual reality experiences, such as those sought in the metaverse, are supposed to change the world—and soon.
Pre-COVID-19, these conversations might not have meant much to congregations. But since the outbreak of the pandemic, which forced nearly all congregations to close their doors at some point and made “going digital” one of the only ways to connect with congregants, conversations about the digital future have taken on new meaning for the church.
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In the predawn hours of May 30, 2022, in Valley Springs, S.D., tornado sirens pierced the air, rain poured and windows clattered as they blew off hinges.
Beaver Valley Lutheran, a steadily growing congregation of around 420 active members, was directly in the path of the tornado. The church, more than a century old, suffered significant damage. Its offices, kitchen, fellowship hall and education wing were mangled into unrecognizable piles of debris, said Greg Johnson, pastor of Beaver Valley.
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