Go & Tell the Story

 Shared by Rev. Kristine Hileman, pastor at St Paul's, Gilead God’s Faithfulness for 25 years On May 9th at the 11:00 am Worship Service, St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church of Gilead celebrated God's faithfulness to them for the 25 years since a tornado destroyed their church building. On May 8, 1996 at 8:55 pm on a Wednesday night, a tornado pushed the entire building off of its foundation and scattered it on the surrounding ground and into the kitchen of the parsonage. No one was injured or killed. The choir had been practicing that night and had left just a half hour before. The night before there had been a Congregational Meeting in the basement.  If the tornado had hit on the upcoming Friday night, the basement would have been full of women at a Salad Supper. The pictures of the scene are breathtaking. The pews, organ, and piano were lifted and broken and scattered. Debris was everywhere. Two members found the historic carved altar and covered it with a tarp. They ...

WELCOME EXTENDED 8,508 MILES AWAY  by Barb Johnson Frank  When it’s Adult Forum time at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday morning in Lincoln, Nebraska, it’s late-afternoon in Kitui, Kenya, where Shadrack Matuku Musyoka lives.   8,508 miles away from First Lutheran Church, Mr. Musyoka taps his keypad a few times to join the Adult Forum session. Connie Kisling, host for the church’s Zoom gathering, smiles as she greets Shadrack, a familiar participant, by name. First Lutheran Church members, Kay and Lee Rockwell, had invited Musyoka to attend, certain that the subject would interest him.  Forum topics vary by the week. Many have offered ideas and information that the guest from Kenya finds applicable at work. Recorded sessions, available on the church website, enable Musyoka to watch later and to include family members or colleagues.   Musyoka’s relationship with First Lutheran began in 2011 when he met Kay Rockwell, then a volunteer for monitoring and evaluation in a...

 By Deacon Timothy Siburg, Director for Mission, Innovation and Stewardship When we proclaim Christ crucified and resurrected, and believe that God is alive, we profess a living faith. It’s one that abides. It’s also one which knows that God’s promises are true. That God is present and up to something- through, for, with, and even in, you and me. That’s bold and awe-inspiring. It might be terrifying too. But such is life with our God who knows us better than we know ourselves, and who loves us, is with us, and is for us, always.  That raises a question though for me. As we have moved through this pandemic, and come to this point where many of us adults, at least, have now been vaccinated, I’ve started to hear and wonder myself, “what’s next?” What might this mean for us as God’s people today in the weeks and months ahead? And what might it mean about what God is up to? Amid this pandemic time, my own life has changed again since I last shared space on the synod blog....

 By Bishop Brian Maas When Jesus sent out the twelve, the first task they were given was to “proclaim the good news.” He gave many other instructions, including advice to “shake off the dust from your feet” if a community wouldn’t receive it. Not everybody will hear the good news as a good thing. The kingdom of heaven is disruptive. Throughout the pandemic, the church has done a pretty good job of going out to proclaim the good news—or at least going out beyond the building’s walls, livestreaming worship and other events, literally to the ends of the earth. Now things are beginning to change. Congregations are beginning to gather again in person, and they’re noticing something. The numbers in the pews now are smaller than they were before pandemic. And there’s a bit of anxiety and a lot of uncertainty about it.  That makes it all the more likely we’ll hear objection to the good news or its proclamation. We’ll hear calls to end online outreach and to ensure an appealing message...