ELCA World Hunger helps an ELCA congregation in O’Fallon, Ill., reach out to its neighbors. | more »
Evangelism
It is not important that we get the world to come to the church. Our calling is to bring the thirsty and the water of life together. | more »
Unlike the movie, church members don’t just magically appear out of the corn fields. | more »
We are called to be Lydias today — people who hear the good news and share the good news in all that we say and do. | more »
Favorites are ones that “seem simple but are really effective.” | more »
I’m learning that talking about God — witnessing, evangelism — is as easy as talking about Fat Stoppers, or any exciting job, program, sport or hobby. | more »
Proclaiming the good news should go beyond sanctuary walls to reach those who don't yet believe. | more »
At the very basic level even throwing around a label like “None” is troublesome. (See also: “unchurched or underchurched.”) Stop using them. | more »
It’s about God working through you and the members of your congregation that you might become vibrant witnesses to the good news of Jesus Christ. | more »
Placing thumbprints and signatures on their new charter was an important milestone for all members at River of Hope, an ELCA worshiping community in Hutchinson, Minn.
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Would your congregation pass a Natural Church Development annual checkup? | more »
It is all about God working through you and the members of your congregation.
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For the second time in its history, Atonement Lutheran Church in Chicago will become home to a growing, invigorated community of members. | more »
Neatness counts; what message is your congregation sending to the neighborhood? | more »
The ELCA's first new-mission start celebrates its 25th anniversary by branching out. | more »
For an ELCA congregation in Elgin, Ill., re-enacting a 400-year-old Mexican Christmas tradition is a way to welcome their Spanish-speaking neighbors.
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Members of Santa Maria de Guadalupe haven't needed to knock on doors to invite people to church — potential members just show up. | more »
Open Mike Night is one way Grace in Action, a new ELCA congregation, works to build a community in the Southwest neighborhood of Detroit. | more »
Experience and the right technique can help spread interest in your congregation. | more »
Kaw Prairie Community Church in Lenexa, Kan., started because leaders in the community heard God's call to step out in faith, says Dan McKnight, its pastor. | more »
Members of First Lutheran sponsored their first ELCA missionary in 1999, which has led to the support of an additional missionary every year since. | more »
Successful mainline churches have remembered to take care of people’s spiritual needs. That includes meaningful worship services with good music and lots of Bible study. | more »
... and the courtyard, congregations like Zion Lutheran in Superior, Wis., consider how they can best use their gifts to meet the needs of their communities.
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Are we, in short, there for us, or for others? In what way are we there for both? | more »
A new ELCA congregation in Farmington, Minn., builds community over coffee. | more »
For this congregation, "living Lutheran" means going public with their faith. | more »
Anna-Kari Johnson, a pastor in Hawthorne, Calif., says she hung out with Jesus on Ash Wednesday at the intersection of El Segundo and Inglewood Avenue.
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Through ELCA World Hunger, members of this church can make a difference, ensuring that the most basic of human needs are met. | more »
About 250 people from Ethiopia’s Oromia region have found a spiritual oasis in their Washington, D.C., congregation. | more »
Offering prayer and a cup of java on the street is how two ELCA congregations in Rochester, Minn., get to know their neighbors. | more »
Stories — real, hot-blooded stories — of Jesus are Christians’ only hope to live into a new narrative of new redemption and new life. | more »
The later years of life can be good at Beth-Anne Place, a community for seniors started by an ELCA congregation on Chicago's West Side. | more »
The vision is to create a place where kids are welcomed and accepted. | more »
Our calling today is to open our hearts, open our doors, open our tables. Invite one and all to join the feast of God’s goodness. | more »
Christ empowers us and calls us to be effective — yes, even to the point of participating in "miracles" — and we do so because we, in baptism, bear his name. | more »
ELCA members in the Bay Area collected school supplies for the 2,200 homeless students in San Francisco’s public schools. | more »
Although floodwaters have left behind pain, despair and stench in Minot, N.D., ELCA members see the healing power of God in their midst. | more »
Two ELCA congregations in Minnesota discover that door-to-door visits, blessing tractors and seeds are part of an effective evangelism strategy.
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I suppose you never really know if what you say makes a difference. In the end, you can only hope. | more »
Podiatrists, medical students and pastors will be among those ministering to the people who live on the streets of Philadelphia. | more »
For Ron Glusenkamp, senior pastor at Bethany Lutheran Church in Denver, reading is fun, as long as it doesn't involve Thing 1 and Thing 2. | more »
Those of us who hold to the true meaning of the word must continue to remind each other that it is something else, something different. | more »
Five hundred trees from around the world will be planted at the Wittenberg Center to honor the Reformation's 500th anniversary and the worldwide Lutheran communion.
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An ELCA new start congregation in Maricopa, Ariz., is filled with an energy that flows from all the members. | more »
I’m always grateful for those who go out of their way to accept me and make the effort to get to know me as another human being. | more »
I now understand why it’s easier for people to get up in the morning and go to the Apple Store than to get up and go to worship. | more »
We remember with gratitude our past, and yet move on, knowing that there is One who gives us the courage to travel the road ahead. | more »
Whether you like him or not, Tim Tebow's visible faith provides a jumping-off point for almost any person to talk about God.
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Pueblo de Dios, an ELCA mission start in Compton, Calif., shares spiritual and material bread with its community. | more »
Darius Larsen, a pastor in Big Sky, Mont., describes outreach as "not getting people into the church, but getting church people out into the communities." | more »
Who would play a loud drum for a newborn baby? What an impractical gift! Yet sometimes the impractical and unconventional is just what we need. | more »
Age shouldn't be a barrier to generosity. Camp Indian Sands helps children learn about this "loving response that brings glory to God." | more »
Perhaps it was simply bowing your head at a restaurant for a silent grace. Maybe a friend was in a crisis and you were able to draw on your faith to provide support. In what ways, large or small, have... | more »
Each congregation is one piece of the fabric that makes the ELCA. | more »
"Evangelism" and "angel" have the same Greek root, meaning "relaying
good news" — the good news you as an angel can share.
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The crew of the M/C Christian is on a mission as they navigate the waters of Alaska: spearheading a ministry of hospitality among Alaskan residents. | more »
Taking piano lessons at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Oakland, Calif., took Dante Millet to a place he never thought he'd go — college. | more »
Coffee is waking up a rural Haitian community to economic growth and hope. | more »
By working together, ELCA members are sustaining farming and ranching communities in drought-stricken Texas. | more »
We are presented with a generation that is desperate to see him, not just talk about him. | more »
Meeting American Jeanne Mueller in Chuzhou, China, eventually helped Nicole (Xiao) Zhang decide to be baptized. | more »
In a neighborhood some call “blighted,” an ELCA congregation sees rich soil and opportunity to plant the seeds for change. | more »
It's a church without walls reaching out to people without homes. | more »
An ELCA congregation in Huntington Beach, Calif., has learned it's not a science and you can't use a shoehorn to make it happen. | more »
In sparsely populated Montana, 50 congregations join together to reach out to the state's inmates.
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Clint Schnekloth in his blog writes movingly of worshiping in a prison with the inmates. Have you worshiped inside a prison? What effect did the experience have on you? Was that service meaningful in ways that a more normal service... | more »
Not having a church building doesn't keep a group of ELCA members from worshiping. | more »
In this Gospel reading, Jesus appears to be playing this game with the 12 apostles, and they are not doing very well. | more »
I don’t think advertising, great websites or Facebook pages will do it, but individual relationships will. | more »
Cross Lutheran Church attends to the physical and spiritual needs of the people it serves, many of whom have daily struggles. | more »
Vacation Bible schools bring the gospel stories alive, often for children who have not heard them before. | more »
While fishing on the Medina River I think I got a little insight into evangelism. | more »
St. Matthew Lutheran in Renton, Wash., wanted to try something different with a new outreach. To get started, they bought beer.
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Movie posters? A popcorn machine? What do they have to do with Sunday worship? Everything, if you’re at GPS Faith Community in Machesney Park, Ill. | more »
Jennifer Phelps Ollikainen writes in her blog, “Worship and evangelism,” that evangelism should reach “beyond the walls of the sanctuary.” Communicating with people around the world is just a click or a phone call away, but there are still people,... | more »
If even those who knew Jesus face-to-face had troubles, then there is hope for you and me. | more »
We have been called to live in a freedom that enables us to serve one another in love. | more »
Pastor Richard Young, a physician and ELCA missionary serving in Guyana, is struck by the fact that prayer is requested first, medical care second.
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As we heard our Guatemalan friends share their fears, we faced our own worries about mission and ministry. We were forever changed. | more »
The story of a homeless man who was changed after being touched by Angel Network (of Honolulu, Hawaii). | more »
Consider what God has done for us, what God is doing for us — and how we are involved, even if that involvement is a challenge. | more »
Canceling a worship at two ELCA congregations is an invitation to service. | more »
An ELCA military chaplain lives by the motto, "Bringing God to soldiers and soldiers to God."
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I think it is important for a congregation to concentrate on ministering to others rather than on increasing its membership. | more »
A photocopier, a hand and God's work. | more »
What's cooking at a Boston-area soup kitchen? Tonight's special: respect. | more »
If there is a prison in your community, has your congregation reached out? How does the congregation serve the inmates, and what has been the outcome — for the prisoners and for your congregation?... | more »
Two LivingLutheran.com entries today deal with answering a call to reach out to those in other countries and to reach out to those nearby. What call to mission have you received that you didn’t expect? Have you ever found yourself... | more »
Fine china is best used when serving the homeless. | more »
It started 18 years ago, on the other side of the world — a refugee family's journey to a new home. | more »
I think tattoo artists, perhaps better than most people, can understand the absolute unique faith that every individual has. | more »
A primary part of my job was to follow-up with visitors. As I looked through the small stack of visitor cards, one stood out. | more »
Fern Lee Hagedorn writes in a blog entry that Jesus asks us to BE the neighbor to those around us. How have you been a neighbor to others in your community, in your congregation or in your family today?... | more »
Jesus turns to us and asks us to BE the neighbor. He doesn't specify to whom. Just BE. To whomever we encounter. | more »
Jesus comes to us in our fear-filled lives and offers peace. | more »
The crucifixion of Jesus is both a scandal and a gift of life, both tragedy and ultimately our hope. The resurrection resolves dissonance into harmony. How can you share the song?... | more »
Maundy Thursday is the day when Christians remember Jesus’ servant leadership — and the new commandment “that you love one another as I have loved you.” There are many ways that congregations reflect that love — through footwashing, a shared... | more »
"I believe in the mission of the ELCA. It is what I have in my life, and it is good,” says Kathleen Elliot Chillison, a member of the Living into the Future Together task force.
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After decades of cocaine and meth addiction, Manuel found a way out. | more »
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