Cultivating curiosity
Faith in Action

Cultivating curiosity

Blueprints were strewn hastily over a tabletop. A truck putt-putt-putted its way across the carpet squares. Little orange hard hats circled a room filled with the cacophony of a construction…

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Voices of Faith

Losing faith • finding it

Some years ago, just before Christmas, I was sitting and enjoying conversation with a staff member one minute, then lying on the ground the next, completely unaware that my body…

Study guide: Called, gathered and sent
Spiritual Resources

Study guide: Called, gathered and sent

Missionaries have been part of our Christian faith since the resurrected Jesus gathered with his followers on a mountaintop in Galilee to give them the Great Commission. But the work…

Lectionary blog: ‘Love one another. Period’
Lectionary Blog

Lectionary blog: ‘Love one another. Period’

Lectionary blog for Feb. 19 The seventh Sunday after the Epiphany Leviticus 19:1-2,9-18; Psalm 119:33-40; 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23; Matthew 5:38-48 Not too many years ago, a mother of two…

Lectionary blog: The minimum isn’t enough
Lectionary Blog

Lectionary blog: The minimum isn’t enough

Lectionary blog for Feb. 12 The sixth Sunday after the Epiphany Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37 In the 1980s, I was a pastor in Rowan County,…

Seminary status check
Mission & Ministry

Seminary status check

For nearly 200 years, Lutheran seminaries in the United States have been educating pastors, missionaries and other church workers for service in congregations, social service agencies and other countries. Thousands…

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Mission & Ministry

A new kind of pastor

As seminaries rework the ways they train new pastors, congregations may have to alter their “image” of a pastor. “We look at the world around us, and the church, as…

Study guide: Recovery and the church
Spiritual Resources

Study guide: Recovery and the church

Our world is full of broken people and individuals who are flawed, right? And aren’t we all right there among them? Some of our brothers and sisters are suffering from…

Study guide: Seminary status check
Spiritual Resources

Study guide: Seminary status check

For centuries in Europe, and since 1826 in the Americas, Lutheran ministers and thinkers have found that seminaries are the place to learn and grow into church leaders. As the…

Lectionary blog: The simple message
Lectionary Blog

Lectionary blog: The simple message

Lectionary blog for Feb. 5 The fifth Sunday after the Epiphany Isaiah 58:1-9; Psalm 122:1-9; 1 Corinthians 2:1-12; Matthew 5:13-20 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did…

Lectionary blog: The haves and have-nots
Lectionary Blog

Lectionary blog: The haves and have-nots

Lectionary blog for Jan. 29 The fourth Sunday after the Epiphany Micah 6:1-8; Psalm 15; 1 Corinthians; Matthew 5:1-12 All parents have things they say so often that, eventually, their…