By Jack Hurbanis Being present in rooms with the people who have power and make decisions in our communities is one of the foundational pieces of community organizing. Whether those are elected officials, business and nonprofit executives, or religious leaders, showing up is key to ensure their decision-making power is used in the interest of [...]
By Bishop Ann Svennungsen If you ever catch yourself wondering if you should vote in the next election, spend a few days with our Lutheran partners from Leipzig. Last week, several leaders from our synod had that very experience. We were blessed with the company of five remarkable leaders from the Leipzig District of the [...]
By Maya Bryant Walking into Lord of Life Lutheran in Ramsey on October 6, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. It was our second Communicators Gathering in person since the beginning of the pandemic, and our constituents were excited to come together again with some new faces in the mix. The topic: style guides [...]
By Nicholas Tangen Last week, John Hulden and I spent three days in Indianapolis meeting with other leaders who have received a Thriving Congregations grant from the Lilly Endowment. Each day we gathered for worship, listened to the stories of project leaders and participants, and met in small groups to process the work we’ve all [...]
By Bishop Ann Svennungsen Founded in 1988, we will soon celebrate the 35th anniversary of the ELCA, formed by the merger of three predecessor bodies – the AELC, the ALC, and the LCA. However, even before the anniversary celebrations begin – and you are planning one, right? – the ELCA will launch a process to [...]
By Pastor Norma Malfatti The story of Cleopas and the other disciple walking on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 has been a passage resting with me for several months. If you don’t remember it, Cleopas and another, unnamed disciple left Jerusalem sometime after the women found the empty tomb. Dejected and a bit lost, they [...]
By Emilie Bouvier If you’ve talked to me in the past five months, you’ve probably heard me talk about my planned trip back out west to go hiking in the Cascades. It’s been almost three years since I was a full-time artist at Holden Village, and I’ve missed those mountains something fierce. That landscape taught [...]
By Bob Hulteen If I learned anything from my religion professors in college (which, of course, I did since they were great), it was that a deep understanding of context is essential when working with sacred texts. If one doesn’t know the context, they can’t know the text. I mean, how could you? If you [...]
By Pastor Craig Pederson As the odometer on my body passed the 54-year mark earlier this summer, I gave thanks for the gift of living a relatively healthy life thus far. I also took stock of the “routine maintenance” items one must tend to when reaching that odometer reading, and I’m still working on some [...]
By Bob Hulteen I woke up this morning planning to write a great blog about how fortunate I feel, as a lay synod staff person, to be able to attend the Bishop’s Theological Conference (BTC) in September. The annual conference is always held the last week of September (Sunday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon). It’s a [...]
