I’m here to find resources that can help me innovate faithfully and renew Christian communities.
One of the joys of teaching at Luther Seminary is the opportunity to learn from my fantastic colleagues. This week Matthew Skinner, Professor of New Testament, reflects on how the vision of giving in Acts 4 can inspire the church today. I’m particularly drawn to Skinner’s description of the scene as a time “when things…
The Funding the Next Church series has been a great joy to organize, and I’m very grateful to our six fine writers. Today, our final article in the series is no different. In fact, the Rev. Andy Greenhow ends with the perfect exclamation point: a contemporary, powerful modern metaphor for funding congregations today. Yours truly,…
For the last four weeks, our series Funding the Next Church has featured articles by leaders of new worshipping communities. These leaders have described new visions for Christian life together, and for supporting mission with money. Today, Rev. Sara Hayden explains the why behind the how of recent weeks, with a fine article about theology…
A blog post by Terri Elton This weekend I sat behind a grandpa and his preschool granddaughter in worship. It was sweet to watch him guide her and explain the various parts of worship. At one point in worship small group leaders of children, youth, and adult ministry were invited up front, and we prayed…
A blog post by Terri Elton Sunday I participated in my first race of the year, a duathlon in downtown Minneapolis. It was a hot, humid August morning. As racers made their way to the starting line, the race organizers warned us that they’d be keeping an eye on the weather and if the heat…
Courtney Young is a graduate of Luther Seminary – M.Div. with an emphasis in Congregational Mission and Leadership. Missional, a Millennial, and a new mother, Courtney shares her thoughts with us here: Two observations I’ve had since I am not being paid to be at church on Sunday morning: First, Sunday morning is the only…
A blog post by Jesse Weiss A good friend of mine is about to start his first teaching job in a couple of weeks — high school English. As we were talking about what excited him and what made him nervous, he pointed to one area in which he was very unsure of himself: where…
A blog post by Jesse Weiss Often, when we realize that we need to make changes in programming or other ministry-related endeavors, the tendency is to search for ways to change in places that might be more complicated than they need to be. Change is good, but we can be overcome with new curriculum, new…
A blog post by Megan Clapp There’s been a lot of “talk” online lately about millennials and the church, why they’re leaving, why they need the church, and a whole bunch of responses along the spectrum. I’ve read a lot by Rachel Held Evans, the author of all the links above, and I appreciate the way she wrestles…
A blog post by Sarah Bane Coming out… I cannot claim to know the courage and poise it must take to come out to someone. But, as someone to whom more than one person has come out, I have started to notice a common thread to each story: middle school. For each loved one who…
Courtney Young is a graduate of Luther Seminary – M.Div. with an emphasis in Congregational Mission and Leadership. Missional, a Millennial, and a new mother, Courtney shares her thoughts with us here: It’s hard to recap a conference with so many different angles and perspectives on a topic that is huge all by itself…
A blog post by Tim Bowman Last week, I wrote about the different service project ideas that my middle school students came up with. Today, I want to use that experience to spark a new conversation. In varying situations, churches have avoided, wrestled with, rejected, and/or embraced our modern culture and contexts. We live in…
A blog post by Megan Clapp About a year ago, I made a pretty big mistake. I attempted to make a huge change in our Sunday School programming, and it was a colossal failure. I had spent a full year working with the youth and family leaders in the congregation. We produced a vision statement,…
A blog post by Adam Butler Yesterday, Aaron wrote these words about idolatry and the dangers of a self constructed God: “We call this the incarnation, and that is the core of what the Gospel is all about: the reality of what it means to be human, in God’s view. And most of the time,…
A blog post by Aaron Fuller “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” ~Anne Lamott My faith has been shaken up a bit recently…well, more than a bit. I’ve been engaging with another blog lately, the author of…
