Decades before “teams” were popular in the workplace, a highly unusual one comprising three co-pastors was going strong at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Olympia, Wash. Between 1977…
As congregations seek new ways to minister to diverse communities, outdoor ministries are redefining how they welcome campers of all faiths, ethnicities and sexual orientations. One of the ELCA’s 145…
When we last left the personified feelings of Inside Out, they seemed to have everything together. In the 2015 Disney-Pixar animated film, Joy and Sadness (voiced by Amy Poehler and…
You might consider Lona Lee Balduf a one-woman Hallmark store—and a whole lot more. Like Hallmark, she cares enough to send the very best—in her case, handmade greeting cards to…
At the end of Christendom, the church is in crisis. The conditions that allowed the growth of the church until the 1960s have collapsed. While nostalgia for that era continues,…
Miriam (last name not given), a mother of four in Malawi, upgraded her kitchen with support from ELCA World Hunger. A fuel efficiency stove has been installed in her home,…
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the Leadership Circle interactive newsletter. Shepherd’s Table in Sioux Falls, S.D., formed around the idea of a dinner church, is leading with…
When William Siong came to the United States in the late 1980s as a 15-year-old Hmong refugee, he was seeking a better life, having lost both his parents during the…
Years ago, while working at a camp, Scott Wylie started referring to his safe space, where race or economic status didn’t matter, as “the bubble.” Whenever he left the camp,…
Editor’s note: Embracing Queer Family uses the term “Queer” to mean “anyone who does not identify as heterosexual and cisgender.” The authors acknowledge that not everyone in the LGBTQIA+ community…
As she took the podium, Jill Rode, a pastor of St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minn., looked out at a roomful of Asian Lutheran leaders of a…
A 134-year-old college and a similarly venerable nearby congregation learned through an ELCA initiative that their neighbors were thirsting for them to partner in fostering togetherness. That’s how Pacific Lutheran…
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