Deepen your engagement throughout the season of Lent with the ELCA’s weekly study and learn more about how your gifts to ELCA World Hunger are at work in the world.
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In this episode of the Three Sides podcast we hear from three women from within the ELCA who hold leadership positions in three different fields – religion, business and the nonprofit world.
In the three segments of Three Sides, we’ll introduce you to ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton; Dr. Sylvia Sloan Black, a retired professor and now an executive coach; and Wendy Davidson, president of US Specialty Channels at the Kellogg Co.
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The ELCA has formed a preferred vendor agreement with Vanco, allowing congregations to accept gifts and payments through credit and debit cards, websites, card readers, text messages and a mobile app.
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This ELCA statement on gender identity discrimination is an important reminder in light of the recent Supreme Court decision allowing the president’s restrictions on transgender individuals in the military.
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Seasonal times of the church year like Lent and Easter are perfect times to raise awareness for issues surrounding hunger and poverty. If your congregation plans to use any of the ELCA 40 Days of Giving materials for the Lenten Season, they need to be ordered now. Follow this link to place your order: https://www.elca.org/Resources/ELCA-World-Hunger
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Congregations can be vulnerable to legal issues and liabilities related to corporate status, taxes, property, insurance and abuse prevention. Many of these problems can be avoided by using an ELCA-prepared checklist of key issues for congregations to address.
In a free webinar at 11 a.m. (Mountain Time) on Thursday, Feb. 21, the ELCA legal staff will discuss this checklist and best legal practices for congregations. The webinar should be of particular interest to rostered ministers and lay congregational leaders and staff, including congregation council members and officers, church administrators, and pastors and deacons. Register by Feb. 15
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Send hogs ‘n’ kisses to your valentine! Give in ELCA Good Gifts honor of your valentine, and help support creative, sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty.
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Pastor Kristin Engstrom, the Country Coordinator for the Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) program in Senegal, shares her latest newsletter. Each year, six to seven young adults from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America join her in Senegal, where they serve for one year with our partners in the Lutheran Church of Senegal and Senegalese Lutheran Development Services.
You can support Pastor Kristin's work by giving through ELCA Global Church Sponsorship. To receive the newsletter, visit the YAGM website and ask to receive it via the contact page.
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From Rob Blezard: “Dear Colleagues, Attached is the monthly “Stewardship Toolkit” I prepare for congregations in my synod. It includes a newsletter article, RCL-based stewardship blurbs for each Sunday bulletin, as well as links to teach, preach, think and do stewardship. The theme of the newsletter article and links is “Holistic stewardship for Lent.” Please use or distribute as you see fit. Also, I’ve launched a blog of current and archival postings on stewardship: www.thestewardshipguy.com.
Blessings, The Rev. Robert C. Blezard, Assistant to the Bishop, Lower Susquehanna Synod”
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What is to be done? Our congregations are growing older and smaller. At least 40 percent of our congregations have an average weekly worship attendance of 50 or less. ELCA membership decreases by 70,000 people a year, or roughly the loss of a synod per year. Clergy retirements outnumber new candidates for ministry. Financial pressures and building maintenance create stress. There is a dearth of people in their 20s and 30s in our pews. How do we change this? How do we reverse the trends?
These are anxious questions that come from anxious people across this church. We aren’t the only ones asking them—just about every mainline denomination, including the non-Latino population of the Roman Catholic Church, is in the same boat. Even some megachurches are showing signs of plateau or decline. And this is not exclusive to the Christian community. I once attended a national conference of Muslims where one workshop was titled “Un-Mosqued to Mosqued: How to Get the Young Muslim Back to the Masjid.”
Some now see the decline of the church in general, and the ELCA in particular, as inevitable. The response can be to turn our churches into bunkers with our congregations sheltering within the walls or to try every new program that breathlessly promises to attract people to our congregations. Neither is an effective or faithful long-term strategy.
I think we are asking the wrong questions.
The questions we are asking have to do about us: “What can we do?” They express loss and grief and fear—loss and grief for what we were and fear about what we will become. Not only do these questions not lead to productive answers, they also don’t point to hope. It’s as if the church’s one foundation rests on us and our efforts.
I think we need to ask: “What is God up to?”
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Form A & C Parochial Reports, which are due February 15, 2019, are available on the ELCA.org Office of the Secretary resource page. These reports as well as many types of other resources can be found the page, which provides a visual way to explore and download resources the ELCA has available. You may also use the ELCA’s powerful search engine to find other resources not listed here.
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Living Lutheran's January cover story looks at how wellness programs enrich and extend congregations’ ministries. Read the article and participate in discussion with a corresponding study guide.
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