By Pastor John Hulden A day or two before my first class at pastor-school many, many years ago, a classmate I had just met asked: “What is your mission statement?” During those first days at seminary, I had never fully shaken off my reluctance about going to seminary. I didn’t major in religion in college. [...]
By Nicholas Tangen Last week I joined a number of other Minneapolis Area Synod representatives at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Columbus, Ohio under the theme “Embody the Word.” Churchwide Assemblies are the highest legislative body of our church and, every three years, voting members from each synod gather to deliberate and pass memorials, amend [...]
By Pastor Norma Malfatti “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:34 NRSV) This past week I had the great joy of being the pre-school leader at Vacation Bible School (VBS) on the Farm. This week-long summer project was a collaborative experiment of the synod’s Southwest Conference, River of Hope [...]
By Brenda Blackhawk I have a six-year-old sister, Camille. She is the youngest of nine siblings, so she is the cutest, the whiniest, and the most picked-on (which makes her the toughest, too). She also has the biggest case of FOMO of all of us. FOMO is the “fear of missing out” and the youngest [...]
By Nicholas Tangen I’ve often joked that my large appetite is my greatest intercultural and community engagement tool. It’s not often that I meet a food I’m unwilling to try and, if it’s really tasty, I’ll go back for seconds or thirds. Tamales, pozole, injera, any kind of dumpling, hotdish of all kinds – if [...]
In early May, I attended a conference that was simultaneously shocking, challenging, and inspiring. It was called “Neighborhood Economics” and was hosted at a variety of sites in and around Indianapolis. The purpose of the conference was to explore ways that churches, nonprofits, and foundations could use their assets for greater impact in their local [...]
By Bob Hulteen With apologies to those who use the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), I am writing this week’s blog the week after this text (the parable of the “The Good Samaritan”) appears. You can read the text from Luke 10:25-37, the RCL gospel for the fifth Sunday after Pentecost, at the end of the [...]
By Bishop Ann Svennungsen In 1991, the ELCA approved “A Social Statement on Abortion” that provides for our church one of the finest articulations of ethical discernment on an issue that is, once again, tearing our country, our congregations, even our families apart. I recommend it to you as a foundation for your thoughts [...]
By Kayla Zopfi With less than a month until my Lutheran Volunteer Corps year of service concludes, I cannot seem to go more than 12 hours without being asked the question, “So, what’s next for you?” As an Enneagram 3, I cringe each time I have to admit that I don’t have anything lined up [...]
By Bob Hulteen So, I’m probably not the best person to write this blog. After all, in the early 1980s I wrote editorials against having the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday as a federal holiday. Wait, you might be thinking: You were against MLK Day? Well, sort of. King was definitely a hero-from-afar [...]
