The Extravaganza, an annual gathering of children, youth and family ministry leaders from across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, took place Feb. 3-6 in Anaheim, Calif. The event was hosted by the ELCA's Youth Ministry Network.
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Over the weekend, the ELCA Youth Gathering team announced that "the registration fees for the first 1,000 registrants for the ELCA MYLE and the first 200 registrants for the tAble will be waived by the Gathering for the 2024 cycle." These events are in New Orleans, 7/13-7/16/2024.
The Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE) is a gathering for youth of color that happens just before the ELCA Gathering, and The tAble is a gathering for young people who live with a range of physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities. Be on the lookout for more details coming soon!
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ELCA Disability Ministries began accepting grant applications on 12/12/2022, and will officially close the application process on 2/15/2023, for funding to ministries that are committed to inclusion and accessibility. Read more about these grants in this letter from coordinator Rev. Lisa Heffernan.
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As part of the latest Stories of Faith in Action, we share UP Wild Brings Worship Outdoors (view online or as PDF). Located in the town of Marquette in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, UP Wild Church is among the newest ministries in the growing movement of “wild” outdoor worship communities.
View all the Stories of Faith in Action here, and how your offering becomes mission support.
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How Is God’s invitation to discipleship lived out in a democracy?
The ELCA invites you and your congregation to explore this and other questions by using "A Study Curriculum on Civic Life and Faith." View a video on this question in this post, along with a PDF guide.
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ELCA Global Mission shares their Global Links newsletter for January, 2023, featuring: new family ties in Senegal, news around the world, mission personnel, and how to get involved.
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The 11th Asian Lutheran International Conference (ALIC) was held in Chiang Rai, Thailand, Jan. 12-17, with the theme “Comfort, Comfort My People: Prophetic Justice and Healing.” Sivin Kit, Lutheran World Federation interim director for the Department for Theology, Mission and Justice, spoke to this theme by asking, “Have we lost touch with the experience of pain and suffering in our churches and our world?”
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At its November 2022 meeting, the ELCA Church Council authorized the establishment of a Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church (CRLC) to consist of no more than 35 voting members and directed the Executive Committee of the Church Council to initiate the process of forming the Commission.
Each synod is being asked to submit two nominees. Read more in this post about this process and how to nominate yourself or others.
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Deanna Branch is an activist for lead-poisoning awareness. She is a mother, a member of Hephatha Lutheran Church (ELCA) and a resident of Milwaukee, Wis. Vice President Kamala Harris invited Deanna to attend the recent White House Lead Pipe Summit.
Deanna Branch and her sons, Jaidyn and Aidan are featured in "Blessed are the peacemakers," the first episode of the new season of "Talks at the Desk" video series.
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Lutheran women will gather via Zoom for Living Faithful: Called and Thriving, a new online leadership event, February 16-18, 2023.
The four-hour sessions from Women of the ELCA on both Friday and Saturday will include worship, Bible study presentations, breakout time, Q&A and much more. Prior registration is required. Spanish language translation services will be provided. Learn more and register here.
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For the family of Tyre Nichols and the city of Memphis as they experience the trauma of police brutality…
For the city of Jerusalem as it mourns those killed in the recent synagogue shooting…
For victims and families following a mosque bombing in Pakistan…
For labor strikes in the U.K. and for fair working conditions for all…
For the UN, NATO, and all world leaders working in global collaboration…
For warmth and safety following ice storms in the southern and central USA…
For a renewed commitment to seeking racial justice as we enter Black History Month…
For free access to education, and in thanksgiving for all educators…
For anyone in our ELCA interested in telling stories—stories of God, ourselves and others—join the ELCA Mission Support Team on Tuesday, 2/7/2023 5-6:15pm MST, 4-5:15pm PST, for “The Story Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us.” Info flyer here, and access the Zoom link here.
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As we enter Black History Month, be sure to visit the ELCA Justice Portal and find worship resources, educational tools and ways you can work toward racial justice in our church and our society.
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Black History Month begins this week — and so does a new season of the “Talks at the Desk” video series. This four-part series amplifies and celebrates Black voices across our church.
Wednesdays in February, 6:30pm MST, 5:30pm PST. Watch this and last year’s season videos on YouTube here. For more information and accompanying discussion guides, visit ELCA.org/ADM.
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Professional ministry can be isolating and lonely. We were created to be together – that story is told in our scriptures from Genesis through Revelation. Let’s practice that this summer.
You can still register for the Rostered Ministers Gathering, July 17-20, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona, and the early-bird rate of $245 is good through March 31.
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Today we are announcing that Living Lutheran magazine will print its final issue in December 2023. Also, the magazine will print six issues in this final year. The Churchwide Organization will not stop telling stories of this church when the printing of the magazine ends.
This year, we will begin transitioning Living Lutheran to a full online storytelling engine featuring new ways of reaching people, providing a more economical and far-reaching approach for us to engage with a broader audience.
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The science of taste is fascinating, perhaps because food is a universal part of our daily lives. We eat to live and, for many of us, sharing a meal with others brings a whole new sense of joy to our daily lives. Food tells stories and we use the flavors of food to experience it in all sorts of different ways.
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The churchwide office entered into an agreement with Bravura Technologies for a customized event app that could incorporating the PDF navigation and annotation capabilities of the Foxit PDF editor. That agreement includes the option for synods and ELCA-related organizations to build an event app using Bravura’s platform for $550/event. For more information about the Bravura offering, view this Bravura flyer as PDF.
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The churchwide office has negotiated a new 3-year agreement with Guidebook.com to offer their mobile event app building platform with a couple changes. Last year Guidebook raised their prices across the board for the first time in close to a decade. For more information, view this Guidebook flyer in PDF or view this post. A Wednesday, February 1, 2023 webinar is also available.
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