By Pastor Norma Malfatti We all have experiences during our growing up years that shape our values, faith, and viewpoint of the world. My first communion class taught me that grace is God’s love given freely to everyone, all the time, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. God loves because that’s who [...]
By Bob Hulteen For most human beings, Isaac Asimov is a renowned writer of science fiction and popular science. He is one of the most prolific authors in American literary history. (Oh, and he was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University; nice side gig.) Ah, but at the synod office, Isaac Asimov is our [...]
By Bishop Ann Svennungsen My trips to Nigeria are filled with surprises. I was surprised in 2017 when I stood up to greet the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria’s annual assembly and saw a gathering of more than 70,000 people. I was also surprised to meet members of the church who had graduated from [...]
By Brenda Blackhawk This weekend I was helping my mother clean out an old closet in my little brothers’ bedroom. The closet was packed full of too-small shirts, old jackets, and shelves full of books, picture albums, and other memorabilia. I’m not a big fan of cleaning but I love organizing spaces, especially when I can [...]
By Bob Hulteen As I write this blog, I am preparing to walk out the door for an in-person, outdoors gathering of the synod’s communicators. We are going to talk about the annual Give to the Max event, and how congregations might engage with such a fundraising effort. First, I want to note that the [...]
By John Hulden I heard a powerful news story on NPR last week. It got me to thinking how much I love a good story – news story, Bible story, a story told around the campfire or the kitchen table. If you are a Jesus follower like me, I’ll bet you like a good [...]
By Bishop Ann Svennungsen Growing up at St. Luke’s Lutheran, my friends and I always knew which adults were “in our corner.” Alice who laughed at our silly antics. Dave who listened to our stories, our hurt feelings, our questions. Even more, I suppose, we knew which adults weren’t so enamored with the way we [...]
By Nick Tangen Can I just share with you that I really love my job? One of the great benefits of working on a Lilly-funded project is the immense community of people who are engaging with similar questions, similar challenges, and similar opportunities in congregations and communities across the country. The Lilly Endowment launched the [...]
By Bob Hulteen Soon after arriving at Concordia College as a student, I declared my certainty that God was calling me into ordained ministry. So sure was I that I left my anticipated math major behind and started talking humanities, Greek, and Hebrew classes. I even served two terms as president of the Cobber pre-seminarian [...]
By Eric Howard When I was a kid, I used to love playing with kaleidoscopes. The shapes, colors, and movement could transform everyday objects into infinite complexity and beauty. As an adult, kaleidoscopes still inspire me to look at the world in a new way. If you pointed the scope at the work of equity, for example, [...]
