The Campaign for the ELCA: What you need to know
Mission & Ministry

The Campaign for the ELCA: What you need to know

Celebrating 25 years as a church body and bringing together members, congregations, synods and partners in ministry, the ELCA’s five-year, $198 million “Always Being Made New: The Campaign for the…

Recovery and the church
Mission & Ministry

Recovery and the church

Suzanna Hayes says she was broken four years ago. She’d been sober for 14 years but felt stagnant in her recovery. Around that time she saw a flier for Common…

Her needs unseen
Voices of Faith

Her needs unseen

Being a compassionate person, you usually respond to the pleas of the needy around you with a generous heart. But are you and others somehow missing the obvious? Chances are,…

Small congregations share strengths, struggles
Faith in Action

Small congregations share strengths, struggles

When Thomas Batterman retired from full-time parish ministry, he began serving as a supply pastor in the Dayton, Ohio, area. The call often takes him to serve small congregations in…

Study guide: Small congregations share strengths, struggles
Spiritual Resources

Study guide: Small congregations share strengths, struggles

Many of our congregations are struggling with the same three interrelated difficulties: a smaller pool of members, a shrinking financial base, and fixed costs from an older building that may…

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Spiritual Resources

Study guide: The face of the church is changing

Pastors, bishops, congregations and other leaders across our country are adapting and innovating to keep up with a shifting religious landscape. Fewer people are coming to church, and a rising…

Jesus bread
Voices of Faith

Jesus bread

The communion bread my wife Kathy brought home from the Easter Vigil at Abiding Hope Lutheran Church in Erie, Pa., was the late Milton Sontheimer’s recipe. It was light, slightly…

Pipe organ wisdom
Faith in Action

Pipe organ wisdom

Music is central to Lutheran worship. For centuries the pipe organ has been the instrument of choice to lead choirs and congregations in praising God through music. How does the…

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Faith in Action

Alive with history

As the ELCA prepares to spend the next year observing the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, several ELCA congregations can celebrate their individual rich histories. Ten churches, mostly on the…