Go & Tell the Story

  In spite of all we could not do during the pandemic, the Nebraska Synod did something it hasn’t done in a decade- we launched a new mission start congregation. Envisioned before the pandemic ever began as a hybrid church with a robust online presence, and vibrant small and large group gatherings in person, Church of the Way in Lincoln has already garnered a strong online following. And they will soon be launching their in-person events.  Church of the Way is also envisioned as an intentional source of ministry resources for congregations across the synod as they explore online options, or as they seek ways to sustain ministry even in the absence of a called ministry leader. To learn more about Church of the Way, see what Rev. Ted Carnahan shared about this new mission start below. Greetings from Church of the Way, the newest Synodically Authorized Worshipping Community in the Nebraska Synod! Church of the Way is an experiment exploring the possibilities involved in connectin...

  Kountze Memorial Lutheran Church, the oldest, continuous Lutheran church west of the Missouri River, is the birthplace of Lutheranism in Nebraska and the Nebraska Synod (1871), and has been worshiping, growing, and serving in downtown Omaha for over 160 years. Kountze Memorial (originally known as Emanuel’s Evangelical Lutheran Church) was founded in 1858, by Rev. Henry W. Kuhns, as a mission church of the Allegheny Synod of Pennsylvania. At the time, there were no other Lutheran congregations in the area. In 1862, after renting meeting facilities for a time, the congregation built a modest church at 13th and Douglas, the current site of the Holland Performing Arts Center. The church bell, cast in 1867, is the oldest church bell in Nebraska and was recently refurbished and remains in use in the current church building at 26th and Farnam.  A second church building was built in 1885 at 16th and Harney at a cost of $50,000 with a gift from charter member Augustus Kountze. This ...

  First Lutheran Church of Lincoln began its life in 1870 as Swedish settlers founded a church in the newly established capital of Nebraska. Though we often assume early founders were heroic pastors, First was mostly a lay movement in its first 30 years, served by a shifting array of preachers who travelled among congregations struggling to establish themselves on the prairie. First Lutheran Swedish Church consisted mostly of new immigrants, many of them young Swedish women brought over as domestics to serve in the houses of the growing town. This early open outreach and service remained a mark of First's ministry, situated as it was in a small structure at 13th and K Street near the heart of the growing town. However, the development of First Lutheran didn't really accelerate until the turn to a new century, when a larger building with a pipe organ was established; the focus on the pipe organ in the expense of building a new structure reveals another long term orientation of t...

 By Rev. Suzanne How, pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Wymore So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!  -- 2 Corinthians 5:17 Like that “new car” smell? Or perhaps you were in the store standing before hundreds of toothpaste choices and a box with “new and improved” emblazoned on it caught your eye. Ever watch a show where designers go in and completely change a house and you wait patiently for the end of the program where the shiny, new changes will be revealed? There’s a part of human nature that likes new, bright, different, improved – transformed. Until we’re talking about the way we do church, that is. Then it is less excitement and more consternation. The questions come hard, and fast: what’s wrong with the way we’ve been doing things? What things need to ‘pass away’ and who gets to decide that? Who is going to be upset? How in the world do we come up with the vision of what the “new” wi...

  By Rev. Emily Johnson, pastor at Christ Lutheran, Louisville, NE We all are one in mission, We all are one in call, Our varied gifts united By Christ, the Lord of all.   So starts the hymn by Rusty Edwards (ELW 576), which starts playing in my head (which frequently transitions to singing out loud) whenever we start talking about “being one” in church circles. This is a good soundtrack to accompany such a discussion, as it hits the main points, that it is Christ who unites, calls, and sends us even as it is Christ who gives each of us different gifts and ways for living out the mission. This last point is fleshed out in the second verse:   Our ministries are different;  Our purpose is the same: To touch the lives of others With God’s surprising grace, So every folk and nation May feel God’s warm embrace.   Unity resides in a commonality of purpose and oddly enough, this requires a diversity of skills and approaches. As part of my call I get to teach ...

 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 Tom Smith, Parish Ministry Associate Hello, my name is Tom Smith and I am a PMA from Rejoice Lutheran in Gering, NE. I began my PMA studies in 2001 after having been Lutheran for only three years, having joined Rejoice in 1999.  I was raised in the Christian church Disciples of Christ (DOC) as my father was an ordained minister in that denomination.  He retired in 1984, the church he was Pastor of in Mitchell, NE was DOC and UCC (United Church of Christ).  As that Church was heading out the denomination door moving towards being non denominational, I headed out the door and ended up becoming a Lutheran, not by birth but by choice. My wife and I visited and fell in love with Rejoice Lutheran in Gering and I felt at home in a style of worship completely opposite from the non liturgical worship of the DOC and I have never looked back. I was 46 years old at the time. I had felt called to do ministry since my early thirties and had been studying a lot on my own. ...

  By PMA Jim Germer Romans 8:28 NRSV:  We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. This scripture has been my favorite now during the whole time I have been a PMA – Parish Ministry Associate – first in Kansas and then in Nebraska, although I prefer an alternative ancient reading: “in all things God works for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”  I am presently serving First Evangelical Lutheran in McCool Junction and St. John’s Lutheran in Ohiowa, Nebraska as interim PMA.  I am also a caregiver and advocate for my good friend Steve who lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.  The two congregations I serve were part of a three point parish, which recently dissolved very amicably, and the three congregations still do activities together.  It’s interesting how the Holy Spirit works – I had a similar experience in Kansas that helped to prepare me for this.   ...

 By Jacquelyn Samway, PMA Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.                                                                                        John 12:26 Just this month I was informed that I have hit another milestone in being a PMA for the Nebraska Synod.  It will be my Twenty-Year Anniversary.  Suddenly my mind went back to where it all began. Our small Lutheran church had a wonderful pastor as an interim for several years.  He told me about the PMA program and said that he thought I would be interested.  On his recommendation I began classes to become a PMA.  I was not sure why, but I followed the advice of a Pastor whom I revered.  For three years I had three wonderful pastors as i...

By Patrick A. Gregory, Parish Ministry Associate (PMA), Spiritual Director, & Co-facilitator of Drinking from the Well 31 But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  --Isaiah 40:31 (NIV) As persons of faith, we depend on God as our source of hope and strength.  However, even the strongest people get tired at times, but God’s power and strength never diminish.  God is never too tired or too busy to help and listen.  When you feel all of life crushing you and you cannot go another step, remember that you can call upon God to renew your strength.  Hope in the Lord means expecting that God’s promise of strength will help us to rise above life’s distractions and difficulties.  It also means trusting God to fulfill this promise found in his Word.  There is always hope. Just like many people, you probably have a toolbox full of various tools to make home repairs.  Just like a home repair toolbox, you can build a spiritual toolbox of re...

 By Sr Anne Hall, Nebraska Synod Council I am sure many of us have a story to describe our experiences of the last year.  We watched the long lines for food on the evening news and the despair that many people have felt losing their jobs and sometimes their homes.  The elderly felt the isolation from friends and family and children struggled to keep up with their school work. Many years ago, my husband and I served a congregation in Texas that was deep in conflict. It was during the time when the ELCA was discerning the vote for the Ordination of LGBTQ individuals.  We had been searching for new calls for two years with no success. Finally, we decided to resign without calls for the sake of our family.  We were given three months of severance pay and the search for calls continued.  He had a few interviews and no word came by New Year’s Eve when our last check arrived.  Our families helped us out financially and asked why we didn't find another career....

Faith can heal our wounds if we believe and recognize that God’s love is in us. Jesus came to the world not only to fulfill what Prophets had prophesied, but also to reconnect our faith and love with God and to present himself in us. Therefore, the church brings us together as Christians, to worship, and journey to the cross, and that is the way “we journey to the Cross-as the church for the sake of the World”.  Sometimes, we as Christians misunderstood our calls; some Christians think that, the call to take up your cross and follow Jesus Christ might be a call to get a good job, a good family, and good friends. It is not that way; Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me” this means, to accept the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. We cannot be able to be good followers of Jesus Christ if we don’t have faith and if Jesus Christ is not present in our faiths. Rev. John Gok Badeng Nile Lutheran, Omaha We get to Hope! Hope – I think that is what so many people are yearning to f...

 By Jacob Krueger, ELCA Seminarian Wartburg Theological Seminary This month’s blog posts are focusing on Where is God Calling You? A couple of weeks ago, Bishop Maas wrote about the visionary aspect of this question and what might the church look like in the future. I’m curious what this question means for lay people in the church who are discerning or pondering God’s call to love and serve their neighbor by becoming a Pastor, Deacon, or Parish Ministry Associate (PMA). In 2013, over fourteen students from the campus ministries in Nebraska joined together at a restaurant in Lincoln, NE. The major topic that day was about discernment, call, and vocation. While we gathered for fellowship and food, Bishop Maas asked a question for the group to discuss. I can’t remember exactly what he said, but it went something like this, “In spite of what are you discerning God’s call?” This question got right at the heart of the many reasons people to this day don’t answer God’s call to w...

 By Rev. Ricardo Riqueza Greetings in Christ,  For those who do not know me, my name is Ricardo Riqueza. I am the pastor at St. John's in Marquette and Trinity in Polk. I am also not a native Nebraskan. I have done ministry in many places and have seen much of the United States. I did ministry in California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and now I am here in rural Nebraska. In each place I saw God in different ways. I have been very blessed to experience all those states, where I was able to learn and grow. In California, I did my teaching parish in Berkeley and the church was very passionate about social justice. I saw God in Berkeley in people’s passion to care for all God’s creation regardless of gender, national origin, and sexual orientation. People in Berkeley were living God’s commandments in their daily lives.  In Arizona, I did my internship in Phoenix in a congregation consisting of people from Mexico. The people at the congregation were Spanish speakers and most were ...

 By  April Nible, Certified Spiritual Director  Where do you see God at work in this pandemic?  I’ll answer that question with another question.  “What is the life-giving choice?”  I was in my early thirties and facing some of the toughest, most life-altering decisions of my life. The kinds of decisions that uproot years of planning, relationships, finances, complacency, and would most definitely affect others’ lives as well. It took an intense session with a dear spiritual director to cut through the hem-hawing and floundering voices in my head.  “April,” she said, “Be gentle with yourself. What is the most life-giving choice?” As I sat there, I knew deep in my heart that the choice I needed to make was not the easy path. But it was the honest and true path that needed to be taken. It would require massive change, that would bring changes to others as well. But on the other side of the change, I felt a glimmer of freedom, a loosening from inner bondag...

 Shared by Rev. Sarah Cordray, pastor at Luther Memorial in Syracuse Most often through this pandemic, the reality of limitations has caused us to look at what we cannot do. But, Luther Memorial would argue the opposite in what they have been able to do because of what the Drive-In service in their parking lot has brought them. They have learned so much through who has joined them and what they have celebrated together!   Drive-In service has allowed their members to bring their pets to worship. Odin, a yellow lab puppy is being brought up in the church with every honk of “Peace be with You” as he lays in the back seat and chews on his toy. He is the most excited member to greet the pastors after worship in the drive by greeting. Several other new puppies, who were brought home as a result of the quarantine and the additional stay-at-home time for families, have also been a part of their service. Oscar and Scooter were a few of the other dogs who made it apparent that a pet bl...