• Building friendships that are authentic and safe
• Being connected, refreshed, and ministered to
• Helping one another be attentive to God’s presence, voice, and activity
• Helping one another experience God’s work of growing us up to live healthier and more mature lives

I’ve been teaching on and coaching others in starting up Life Together Groups for over three decades now. If you’d like to arrange a training seminar live or via Zoom for your district, fellowship, or region, contact me at mike@lcmc.net.

You may complete your designation online or obtain a form and mail it in. 

• Log into your account and click on “MY PLAN”
  • Click on "Forms" under “Plan Activity”  
  • Click on “Online” across from the beneficiary form 
• For a paper form, go to www.LCMC403b.com, click on "Plan Information" and then click on "Beneficiary Designation Form"
• Check this one off your TO DO list!

LCMC 3.0

In LCMC 3.0 we will embrace a practice of continuity. The Gospel will continue to be proclaimed. The good news of the kingdom of God will continue to be declared and demonstrated through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Word of God will continue to be preached and taught. Loving the neighbor and welcoming the stranger will continue to be practiced. We will continue to embrace our Lutheran Distinctives for ministry and mission. All of this and more will be part of the continuity we will experience and embrace in LCMC 3.0.

At the same time, LCMC 3.0 will be a season in which God will lead us to embrace changes that can help us be effective in our call to the mission of the Gospel in a changing cultural and sociological landscape. Our mission remains the same as it was in 2001 when 25 congregations came together to found Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ. However, the cultural and sociological context that we continue that mission in today has changed dramatically. And those 25 congregations are now almost 1,000. What worked in the culture of 2001 may not work as well in 2023 and beyond. What worked for 25 congregations may not work as well for 1,000. Embracing change as well as continuity will be part of life for us in LCMC 3.0

Districts and Fellowships

One of the changes that may serve us well in our present-day context will be embracing the revitalization of existing districts and fellowships and the establishment of new ones. The connectedness that healthy districts and fellowships can offer is essential in an association of almost 1,000 churches. The challenge to love, connect, and care for such a large number of congregations can be turned into an opportunity that the Lord can help us embrace through a system of districts and fellowships. The connectedness that they can offer is vital if we are to live our stated values of being accountable to one another and making disciples of all nations. Living out these values can happen best when we are connected with and in relationship with one another rather than trying to go it alone.

Many inside and outside of LCMC perceive our association to be one of individual and independent congregations held together by a Constitution, Statement of Faith and the missional implications of our name, Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ. The truth is, only half of the congregations in LCMC are active in districts and/or fellowships. In LCMC 3.0 we will seek to increase the level of regional participation and collaboration for the sake of the well-being of our congregations and to help them do ministry and mission together.

In this season of life and ministry together, we are asking questions like:

What if groups of congregations were more intentional about mutual ministry interests and sought to live out our core value of accountability to one another in a more intentional manner?

What if mission endeavors, mission plants, church revitalization and making disciples would spring from regional pockets within LCMC?

What if the formation of districts and fellowships was not about telling churches what you have to do, but about asking who do you believe God is calling you to be and what do you believe God is calling you to do, and then asking, how can we help you in that?

Rather than going it alone as congregations, what if we come together through the revitalization of existing districts and fellowships, and the birthing of new ones to experience the benefits of a peer-to-peer, not hierarchical system of connectedness?  

At its best, participation in a peer-to-peer system of districts or fellowships can enable our congregations to experience benefits such as:

• Helping one another process and navigate the challenges and issues of life and ministry in healthy and effective ways
• Connecting and networking with one another to develop partnerships and share resources for mission and ministry opportunities
• Emphasizing the significance of each congregation and leader in LCMC and letting them know they are not alone 
• Developing relationships and resources to aid in areas such as the call process, conflict management, equipping of volunteer and staff leaders, and congregational visioning
• Developing relationships and resources for those called to plant churches, and supporting them in their vision to reach out to those who do not yet know Jesus as Savior and Lord

All of these and more can be some of the challenges turned opportunities of a healthy system of districts and fellowships that can help almost 1,000 churches stay connected with one another so we can encourage and equip each other in our call to the mission of the Gospel and to live out the stated values of our association.

Intentional Care for Leaders

Another challenge turned opportunity can be the intentional care of leaders in our association. One of the greatest gifts we can provide our congregations are healthy leaders (lay and ordained) who are being loved, connected, and cared for.

The world doesn’t encourage leaders to care for their own lives, and sadly, too often, neither does the church. Both demand that leaders produce and perform without any thought being given to the fact that this will eventually result in very dedicated and gifted women and men wearing out, burning out, and giving up. Therefore, we must be intentional in developing ministries, systems, and relationships that will help us love, connect, and care for our leaders in LCMC.

Thus, a major emphasis in LCMC 3.0 will be identifying and networking existing ministries and people at the grassroots, national, and international levels that can help us take advantage of this challenge and turn it into an opportunity to love, connect, and care for leaders. Of course, the care for leaders in our congregations has already been happening to varying degrees through ministries and relationships already in place. However, we are hoping and praying that in 2023 and beyond, God will increase our capacity for the care of leaders, lay and ordained.

Toward this end, two new ministries are being launched in 2023. The first is a new fellowship group for retired pastors and spouses. This fellowship will create opportunities for these faithful women and men to connect in loving and caring relationships with one another and to discern how God may have them, as a fellowship, meet various needs in our association.

Another new ministry that is being launched in 2023 through districts, fellowships, and regional congregations is The LeaderCare Initiative. The LeaderCare Initiative is a series of retreats that will focus on God’s work in a leader’s life of relational, emotional, and spiritual formation. The retreats will provide leaders a place to gather in an atmosphere that is safe and will help them build loving and caring relationships with one another. In this atmosphere leaders will experience God’s work of increasing their capacity to live healthier and more mature lives as persons and as leaders. And a healthy and more mature leader will only bless a congregation. The intentional care of leaders, lay and ordained, can be another challenge turned opportunity by the Lord in LCMC 3.0.

Clergy Shortage

Another challenge that can become an opportunity for of our association is the shortage of clergy in general, and in our smaller congregations in particular. Thus, a major emphasis in LCMC 3.0 will be the process of developing relationships, systems, and strategies that can help us identify, equip, and mentor women and men to meet that need in our association.

Toward that end we will be working to identify and help network people and ministry resources that are already at work equipping and mentoring men and women for pastoral ministry in our association at the grassroots, district, and fellowship levels. We also anticipate that new ministries, people resources, and strategies can be developed so that we can face this challenge as an opportunity, trusting that the Lord will help lead us and provide for us.

Lutheran Distinctives for Ministry and Mission

Yet another challenge in LCMC 3.0 that can be turned into an opportunity is the expansiveness and limits of our theological commitments. For centuries the Lutheran Church has been a steward of certain theological distinctives that are gifts to the larger body of Christ. At times we have imagined this as more of a burden than a treasure. The great gift of our theological heritage is the relentless commitment to “keeping the main thing the main thing” while encouraging freedom and creativity in everything else.

The challenge is the temptation to equate our theological heritage with certain forms of cultural heritage. Where those cultural traditions are unhelpful the theological commitments are sometimes accidentally jettisoned as well. The promise of the Gospel is not some dusty dogma. It is the life-giving, faith-creating Word. Renewed clarity on what that promise is and is not will, along with clarity on other Lutheran Distinctives can help us meet the challenges for ministry and mission in our current cultural climate. Far from being a burden, this is the great gift we have to share.

Welcoming of New Congregations into Our Association

Another challenge embraced as opportunity in LCMC 3.0 is to intentionally welcome new congregations and leaders into our association in a manner that ensures they are being loved, connected, and cared for. It is one thing to join a new family, it is another to feel a part of it.

We have a particular culture or DNA in LCMC that will be new to most who are joining us. It can be helpful for us then, to connect relationally with our new congregations and leaders to help them become aware of any old culture or DNA of past affiliations they may need to leave behind, and the new culture and DNA to be embraced in LCMC.

Toward this end we are already at work implementing a very detailed plan for welcoming new congregations and leaders to membership in LCMC. This plan involves association staff, district and fellowship coordinators, and regional congregational leaders connecting with those new congregations and their leaders. With this plan in place, we’re better able to make a congregation’s transition from life in a denomination to life in this association a welcoming one.

What Can God Do in a Season of Continuity and Change?

LCMC 3.0 is the new season God is leading us into, a season in which we are being called to embrace the tension of continuity and change. As God launches us out into this new season, a question for us to encourage one another with is this: What can God do?

What can God do with an association of almost 1,000 congregations that is willing to follow His leading to embrace the tension of continuity and change in a healthy way? What can God do when an association of almost 1,000 churches embraces the continuity of proclaiming the gospel of what He has done for us that we can never do for ourselves through the life, death, and resurrection of His son, our Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ? What can God do when an association of almost 1,000 churches and their members and leaders continue to declare and demonstrate the good news of the kingdom of God in the power of the Holy Spirit?

What can God do with an association of almost 1,000 congregations that continues to embrace such continuity while at the same time is willing to discern and embrace changes that God is calling us to make in our life together? Changes that can help us continue to carry out our call in the mission of Gospel in a cultural and sociological context that is significantly different than the one in which our association was founded? Changes that can help us be aware that what once served 25 churches well, may not serve as well in an association of almost 1,000 churches?

The answer to those questions? God can draw millions of people to faith in Christ as Savior and Lord. He can disciple millions of people, training and empowering them to live as followers of Jesus in a complicated world. He can heal millions of people relationally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. And He can reveal to millions of people the ways He has designed them on purpose for a purpose that is significant. God can do all this and more through an association of almost 1,000 churches who are willing to embrace the tension of continuity and change.

And as it has always been, so shall it ever be, that the One who is leading us into this next season of life and ministry together is the One whom we can confidently follow, our Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

If you haven’t started saving early, you still have time to increase your retirement savings. Those over age 50 may contribute an additional “catch-up” contribution of $7,500.

For more information, go to www.LCMC403b.com, click on Plan Information, and scroll down to Retirement Plan Information. Contact Annette LaPlant at alaplant@cap-mgt.com with questions.

To watch from your mobile device, download our mobile app, tap on the "Media" tab, then select "2022 Annual Gathering" from the list of options.  The app is compatible with AirPlay and Google Cast, enabling users to play content on a TV or other compatible device. 

Videos can also be found online by navigating to Events > Media > Videos & Podcasts on our website, or by clicking the link: LCMC Media Library. 

To go directly to the videos for the 2022 Annual Gathering click this link:  2022 Annual Gathering Videos.

Downloadable copies of this year's book can be found on our website under Events > Media > Annual Gathering Books or by clicking this link:  Annual Gathering Book.

The theme of this year’s event was “Discipleship: Following Christ in a Complicated World”.

Programming began on Sunday evening with an opening worship service preached by Becky Hand.   

Monday morning kicked off with Bible study led by Wendy Poch, followed by a keynote presentation by Ebassa Berhanu.  

New for 2022, participants had the option to attend meet and greet sessions to connect with other people from LCMC who serve in their particular area of ministry.  

Mike Bradley presented his service coordinator's report on Monday afternoon, which was followed by the first of three breakout sessions.

As programming wrapped up for the evening, attendees had the opportunity to join together for the association’s annual fellowship dinner, then get connected with one the various districts and fellowships in LCMC through district meetings.

Tuesday morning’s programming featured keynote speakers Steve Turnbull and Graeme Sellers.

During the business session, new members were elected to serve on the LCMC Board of Trustees.  More information on current board members can be found here.

Perry Fruhling, the LCMC coordinator for pastoral ministry, recognized and prayed for the pastors, seminarians, and congregations in LCMC on Tuesday afternoon.

The evening concluded with two breakout sessions, followed by an evening gathering for worship and prayer.  

On Wednesday morning, Randy Freund presented our vision for LCMC 3.0 and announced the dates and location for next year’s Annual Gathering & Convention.  

A panel discussion on discipleship featuring keynote speakers Steve King, Ryan Alexander, Andrea Paulson, and Ebassa Berhanu was also held.  

The event wrapped up with a closing worship service preached by Ryan Alexander.

Next Annual Gathering:

Mark your calendars now...our next Annual Gathering & Convention will take place October 1-4, 2023 in St. Charles, MO.

Media Resources:

• BOOK: To download a digital copy of this year's Annual Gathering book, go to Events > Media > Annual Gathering Books. 
   
• VIDEOS: Videos of this year's speakers will be made available for streaming in the LCMC mobile app and on our website under Events > Media > Videos & Podcasts after they are finished being edited.

This year, we’re going to take that ancient prayer and practice of the Church and put it to use in LCMC’s Three Days of Prayer. As we pray together as individuals, congregations, and as one international association, I believe the Lord is going to use what we pray in this ancient prayer to pull us into the current of the plans and purposes He has for us in the present and in the future.

LCMC’s Three Days of Prayer will be on January 3-5. Each congregation or person can structure these days of prayer however seems best. In the past, some congregations put together a prayer vigil­ – a person signing up to pray in 30-minute intervals – perhaps for all three days or a few hours each day. Others have offered a prayer service at a set hour on each of the three days. Some have encouraged their people simply to pray at work, home, or school, wherever they are, and whatever they are doing. 

This year, I am encouraging us all to use the Lord’s Prayer as an outline to pray for our congregations and leaders, for those who don’t yet know Jesus as Savior and Lord, and for our international partners. Praying the Lord’s prayer as an outline can give form to our prayers and provide space for us to pray according to each petition for the churches or people we are focused on that day.

Pray each petition one at a time, then pause and pay attention to what comes to mind. Then pray out of those thoughts or impressions. For instance, pray “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name,” and pause. Then pray words and thoughts of thanks to God for being your Father, for His love, and for His goodness toward you. Glorify His name in prayer.

Then pray the second petition, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and pause. Think of how you would love to see God’s Kingdom life break in on those you are praying for, and then pray for them. Pray for relationships, emotions, or bodies to be healed. Pray for someone to become aware of God’s love for them. Pray for peace in someone’s life or in a region. And so on. Continue to pray each petition one at a time, pausing to listen to thoughts, scriptures, and impressions that come to mind, and then pray for that church, that person.

No matter how you structure this time of prayer, let’s come together as an association of congregations across the U.S. and around the world to pray. Check out our Three Days of Prayer Resources page to download a sample guide. 

The pastors of Bethel (Holdrege, NE), Fridhem (Funk, NE), Maria (Hershey, NE), Peace (Alma, NE), St. John, (Athol, KS), St. Paul (Blue Hill, NE), and Trinity (Axtell, NE) meet monthly for prayer, Bible Study, and discussion. More than a year ago, we began to brainstorm ideas for a mission project that all of our congregations could work on together.

Our small, rural communities are dependent on farming and ranching, and so our people understand the vital importance of water, especially since our area is home to the Ogallala Aquifer, the largest underground water source in the United States. For these reasons, we decided to raise money for the Water 4 Kids organization, which provides deep-water wells in areas of the world where safe, clean, drinking water has never been available.

More than 300 million people in the world don’t have access to clean water. Each day, women and children spend hours walking long distances to collect water from unprotected sources including open ponds, livestock water points, and polluted ditches. Seeing pictures of the muddy water holes that were being used for drinking was very eye-opening for our people, and we decided to set a goal of raising enough money to dig one well for a village in Uganda, which would cost $10,200 and reach hundreds of people.

We began to share our vision with our local congregations during the Lenten season, and that’s when the Holy Spirit really stirred things up! A family in one congregation offered an entire well if the rest of the group would match it. Then another member stepped up to do the same. Other individuals and churches offered matches or whole wells.

One congregation’s youth group held a Walk 4 Water to raise funds. A talented member of one church designed t-shirts to sell, with all of the profits going to the project. A couple of pastors created a sermon series using texts that spoke about water. A larger congregation nearby, (First St. Paul’s, Hastings) joined in and raised money during their VBS week.

Ultimately, our small group of congregations will have a big impact in Uganda—raising $90,000 to dig NINE wells—literally reaching thousands of people with clean water in the name of Jesus. Thanks be to God!

For more information, contact Pastor Leah Fintel Krotz at (785) 955-0037 or pastorofstpaul@gmail.com. 

If you would like to know more about Water 4 Kids, please visit them at www.w4ki.org.

That is exactly what happened this year when our students and their leaders came together at Grand View University in Des Moines, IA. God was there with us, and it was truly amazing.

The theme this year was “The Way, the Truth, and the Life” and students were reminded that even today, God is the one thing that they can rely on.  They spent time learning about their giftedness, how to read Scripture, and dealing with mental health in a society that does not look favorably on people of faith. Additionally, leaders were given opportunities to share thoughts and resources for programming when they returned home.

They also spent time in fellowship, meeting peers in the faith from across the country from Oregon to Texas to Georgia and all the upper Midwest.  New friendships were forged, and regional competition playfully sparked some state pride.  A night of “big kid” inflatables and ice cream also made an Iowa summer evening come alive.

A service element highlighted the “one mind, one mission” mentality that we developed over the course of the week.  We worked with a great organization, Meals from the Heartland, packaging meals for those in need. The truth really is in the numbers: 60,048 meals were packed for mission distribution which will feed 230 kids for an entire year.  Our students and adults worked selflessly to meet our mission goal.

Above all else, we worshipped the one true God, and it was amazing.  To stand there and see students from cities and towns across the country, side by side, worshipping was a true testimony of what we are called to be as the body of Christ.

It is often said that our students are the future of the church.  I believe that our leadership is of the mindset that our students are the “now” of the church.  If that is the case, LCMC is in good hands.  Our students are rock solid and ready to lead. 

Thank you, LCMC, for giving them a forum to join together and prepare for the work that they are called to do.

Keep your eyes open for more great youth opportunities in the future.  Be sure to join the LCMC Youth Leaders Ministry Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LCMCYouthMinistry to stay up to date with all of the happenings for youth ministry.

Those first months of a new call are critical to both the pastor and congregation to form healthy habits and dialog to arrive safely at a longer-term ministry.

LCMC is offering a New Call Orientation workshop this fall to help pastors and congregations to get off on the right foot.  There will be two opportunities to attend the online Zoom training: Saturday, September 17 from 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. CDT or Thursday, October 20 from 12:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. CDT. 

We ask that both the pastor and at least one congregational leader (preferably more!) be present to engage in dialog and mutual learning.

What our conflict coaches have experienced during these past years of working in congregations is that there are several crucial areas that can lead to conflict in a congregation. Decisions surrounding worship, pastoral styles of leadership, visitation of members, use of social media, and relationship between pastor and church council are just a few of the numerous areas of concern for both pastor and lay leaders.  But the question is, how do we have fruitful conversations regarding these and other issues?

At this New Call Orientation workshop we will discuss blueprinting and the powerful role it plays in developing healthy relational habits during the first months and years of ministering together as pastor and congregation.  We’ll delve into typical arguing types and how to overcome with focus on relationship and collaboration. We’ll look at generational differences, the continuum of self and its effect on interpersonal relationships, and of course, systems at work and their function in the pastor-congregation dialectic.

Our hope is for many of our LCMC congregations and pastors in a new call relationship to take the proactive step of working together to resolve conflicts in hot button areas by learning some basic steps in having healthy conversations. 

We invite you to join us either on September 17 or October 20 for this first of its kind LCMC offering. 

To register or for more information, please contact Perry Fruhling, LCMC Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry at perry@lcmc.net or (319) 575-8849, or LCMC Conflict Coach Pat Hogg at pkhogg@yahoo.com or (717) 309-3756.

Our gathering is so much more than a traditional, old-school business meeting, or a pastors’ only meeting. It is a gathering of God’s people, lay and ordained, coming together to worship the Lord, to begin building new friendships or nurture existing ones, to pray with and for one another, to be encouraged by vision-casting keynote sessions, and to be equipped for the work of the ministry through breakout sessions. The LCMC Annual Gathering is a time to be loved, connected, and cared for. It is all of this and more.

At this year’s Annual Gathering we will be reflecting on one of our core values as an association: working together to fulfill Christ’s great commission to go and make disciples of all nations. This is an important matter for us because it is God’s call upon our lives as individuals and churches. Furthermore, it is essential because the world is already at work discipling God’s people. The values and life practices of the members of our churches are being influenced by social media, the internet, the 24-7 news cycle, the network news option of your choice, and more. The influence these sources wield is often not in keeping with God’s Word, His will, or His ways. If we are not intentional and active in the discipleship of God’s people, the world will do it for us.

At the gathering, we hope to cast an inspirational vision for discipleship, provide a solid theological foundation for its practice, and share multiple models and resources for carrying this out in and through our churches.

With all of this in mind, and as I pray for the gathering, I cannot help but wonder: What does God have in store for you at the Annual Gathering this year? Who will He bring across your path to meet you and be blessed by you? Whom will he connect you with who will, in turn, be a blessing and encouragement to you? Whom will you find yourself praying with and for? How might God encounter you, speak to you, and act in your life during the gathering? What words of guidance and encouragement might you receive to take back home with you to share with others in your congregation? I cannot help but wonder about all of this and more. 

And so, I find myself praying for you and for the gathering. I find myself praying that God will remind us of His unshakable, unconditional love for us. I find myself praying that God will remind us that we are His beloved daughters and sons. I am praying that the Holy Spirit will help us network with one another so that every member and congregation of our association is being loved, connected, and cared for. And I am praying that we can rest, be refreshed, and be restored in God’s empowering and healing presence.

If you have not already registered for the gathering, please do. Registration information can be found at www.lcmc.net/annual-gathering, and the discounted “early bird” rate is still available through August 15. 

I hope to see you there.

• Conflict Coaches Training is to train up coaches who can assist congregations and pastors in conflict resolution in their respective areas of the country.  
• Congregational Conflict Team Training is for congregations to develop their very own conflict teams to help their congregation develop good processes for conflict resolution.

Conflict affects up to 40% of congregations at any given time to the point of disrupting mission.  Jesus gave us some clear processes for dealing with conflict along with numerous other Scripture passages which indicate clear means of reconciliation.  

We live in a world where there is so much division!  Why not become a part of the conflict resolution revolution! 

Would you as a pastor or lay leader have interest in becoming a conflict coach?  Would your congregation be interested in having a small group of individuals form a team for conflict resolution? 

Both events give training in understanding conflict from a systems perspective, learning to identify sources of anxiety in congregational conflict, and developing skills in the conflict resolution process.

The Conflict Coaches Training is a two day Zoom event held Monday and Tuesday, September 12-13 from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. CDT.  In this workshop, conflict coaches are specifically trained to go into congregations in their region/area and to listen for the parts that conflicted parties play in a system and lead them into a healthy conflict resolution process.

The Congregational Conflict Team Training is a one-day Zoom event on Saturday, October 22 from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. CDT. The Conflict Teams training consists of going through a conflict manual which teams keep as a guide, evaluating case studies, and helping participants learn how to set up a conflict team in their congregation using the same conflict resolution process coaches use.

Our hope is that getting this Conflict Resolution DNA into our congregations may help them develop healthy processes for finding mutually agreeable solutions when conflict occurs – before it disrupts mission. 

If you are interested in becoming a part of this movement either as a coach or developing a team in your congregation, contact Perry Fruhling, Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry for LCMC at perry@lcmc.net or (319) 575-8849 to register or for more information.

1. Register for online access
2. Review your account regularly and report any suspicious activity
3. Immediately report any suspected identity theft or unauthorized activity
4. Keep your contact information current with LCMC
5. Practice safe computing habits and keep your account information confidential and secure
6. If there should be an investigation of any unauthorized activity, cooperate with OneAmerica

For more details, go to www.lcmc403b.com and click on Plan Information, then scroll down and click on OneAmerica Customer Protection Promise.
 

The retreat is an opportunity for LCMC seminarians to come together to experience fellowship, learn about issues related to vocational ministry in LCMC, become more aware of our association’s DNA, and ask questions.

Registration for the retreat is being handled separately from Annual Gathering registration. To sign up for the retreat, contact Perry Fruhling at perry@lcmc.net.

There is no cost to attend the seminarian retreat, however lodging and travel costs are on your own.

Registration for the Annual Gathering & Convention is available at a discounted rate for seminary students who are listed with LCMC.

For more information on this event, click here. 

The theme of this year's event is Discipleship: Following Christ in a Complicated World, and speakers Ebassa Berhanu, Steve Turnbull, Graeme Sellers, Steven King, Ryan Alexander, and Andrea Paulson will help us to explore the importance of discipleship in our everyday lives.

In addition to hearing from our speakers, participants will also be invited to:

• Connect with other pastors, leaders, and church members in LCMC through fellowship and networking activities such as our fellowship dinner and district meetings
• Take part in breakout sessions
• Meet mission and ministry exhibitors
• Join together in worship, prayer, and Bible study with others from across the association

As a new experience for 2022, we will also be offering meet and greets to help people in different types of ministry establish relationships with one another and reflect on the role their ministry plays in the discipling of others.

The event takes place October 2-5 at Hosanna Church in Lakeville, MN.

For the best possible experience, we recommend signing up by August 15 to receive the discounted rate, then booking your accommodations as soon as you have registered in order to guarantee your spot. 

For more information and to register for the event, click here.  

We can't wait to see you there!

Hosanna! Lutheran Church will be hosting a new retreat for retired pastors and spouses from August 29-31, 2022 at Okoboji Lutheran Bible Camp in Milford, IA.

This event will give you an opportunity to connect with other retired pastors, be inspired, and hear helpful financial information…all at a cost you can’t refuse, even if you no longer have a church paying your way!

This retreat offers an opportunity to come together with others who may be facing the same things you are right now, and/or have a common life story that needs to be shared with those who understand what it is like to be a retired pastor and/or a retired pastor's spouse.  Our hope is that a retreat targeted for retired pastors and spouses may bless each person who attends.

There will be plenty of time for conversation, to renew old friendships and make new ones, for reflection, and for worship. 

We want those who are coming to have the opportunity to learn, worship, and take part in structured conversations.

A welcome will be shared by John Nelson, Rod Quanbeck, and Mike Bradley. Julie Smith will lead the devotions and worship.  Stephen Anenson and Lee Leevag will reflect on retirement for them to initiate conversations, and Tom Luing will present on finances in retirement.

We will also discuss the idea of forming an LCMC fellowship for retired pastors and spouses. 

The cost to attend is only $75 per person, and has been subsidized by Hosanna! Lutheran Church to help keep costs low.  Registration includes two nights lodging, five meals, and snacks. If you wish, you can stay in a cabin for an additional $75 for the complete stay, whether you attend on your own or with a spouse.

To register for the retreat, contact Okoboji Lutheran Bible camp at 1 (800) 656-2654 and ask for Chris.  

For those in need of financial assistance, scholarships to help cover the costs of the retreat and/or a portion of travel are available through Hosanna! Lutheran Church in St. Charles, IL. 

For questions about the retreat, or if you are in need of assistance, call Hosanna! Lutheran Church Senior Pastor John Nelson, at (630) 650-0905.

• Online: Visit www.LCMC403b.com, log into your account, and click on “My Profile” and scroll down to Beneficiary Information.
   
• By Mail: For a paper form, go to www.LCMC403b.com, click on Plan Information, then click on Beneficiary Designation Form.

For more detailed information and a link to online registration, click here. 

We look forward to hearing from you.  God bless you all.

This article was updated to include the deadline for completing the survey. 

To download the app, go to www.oneamerica.com/mobileapp.  

Participants can register and log into the app using the same username and password as their account.

Call OneAmerica at 1-800-858-3829 with questions.  Let them know you are with LCMC, plan #963003.

We, as a congregation, along with many who have been visiting the Mayfield area as well as other towns to offer help, have been sorting through all the items that have been donated. 

Currently the organizations are asking that we not send any more items.  Instead, they are requesting cash or credit card donations to help get these families back on their feet. 

It will be many years before things could ever be considered normal again.  Many of the first volunteers have already left the area but we are anticipating groups coming back to help again.  There are plenty of areas where helping hands would be useful.

We have had the blessing to be able to coordinate LCMC churches across the country who want to help in some way.  Many donations have been collected both in items and cash donations.  We thank you all so very much, for your concern and support.  

The items we received were quickly delivered to a variety of distribution centers.  We have been reviewing options of where to donate the money that has been graciously donated. 

We met George Glover, president of the “Bread of Life” group who told us about the “Tiny Home” project.  This group has decided to buy “Tiny Homes” to help families return to their towns. 

Right now, some children, after being dispersed, are traveling two hours on a bus to get to their hometown school.  That is four hours a day!

The Tiny Homes are being placed in an old campsite in or near Mayfield that still has water and electric hookups.  Volunteers are donating their time and materials to get things hooked up and to finish the insides of the Tiny Homes.  Another organization is donating all appliances needed for these homes.  It is a beautiful thing, during these hard days, to see so many good people rise to the top and help!

Families with children are being invited to occupy one of thirty Tiny Homes until their houses can be repaired or rebuilt.  George expects to take this on a year-to-year basis thinking it will take up to two years before their homes are ready.  At that point, another family will be invited to stay in the Tiny Home and so on.

For more information on the “Tiny Homes” project, we have recorded the presentation George gave to us at Amazing Grace.  You can see this video at our website, www.amazinggracepaducah.com and click on “Weekly Sermons”.  It is the icon with George standing on the platform. 

We have decided that, should more contributions come in, we will forward these funds to this project until another opportunity arises and seems more fitting for the stage of recovery they are in. 

As of today, we have collected over $17,000!  Way to go LCMC churches! 

May God bless you all abundantly who have helped and those who decide to stick with us in the years to come.  We will keep LCMC updated on the current needs.

For more information on tornado relief efforts in west Kentucky, including information on how to donate, click here. 

• Sample Guide – A sample guide to Three Days of Prayer with suggested points of emphasis for each day (PDF Download)
• LCMC Facebook – We will be posting on our official Facebook page during each of the three days.  Feel free to "Like" our page and to share our posts and graphics on your social media channels.
• LCMC App – Download our app and "opt-in" for Three Days of Prayer notifications in your app settings to receive a message with suggested points of emphasis during each of the three days. 
• More Resources  – Download sample guides submitted by other LCMC congregations by visiting our website. 

In keeping with tradition, we invite our congregations to share the creative ways in which they took part in Three Days of Prayer by taking our online survey. 

Additionally, those who would like to submit a photo from the event may do so by clicking here.  For best results, all photos should be in .jpg format and 300dpi resolution.  Please note that we are unable to accept Microsoft files (e.g. Publisher, Word, PowerPoint, etc.) in lieu of images.

All responses received by the Thursday, January 20 deadline will be considered for publication in an upcoming article on our blog and in our newsletter. 

No matter how you choose to structure this time of prayer, let's join together as an association of congregations to pray!

We all need a little help because, knowing that prayer is central to our life with God, we are prone to turn prayer into a mandatory performance. So, we try hard to do it right, believing the better we pray, the likelier we are to get on God’s good side and receive the answers we’re after.

It’s an exhausting way to pray, with the result that we become fatigued by our best efforts to pray our best prayers.

There is a better way. In How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People, Greig shares the best advice he ever got concerning prayer: keep it simple, keep it real, keep it up.

This aligns with Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6:5-8, where he tells his friends, “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them…When you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” [nlt]

Keep it simple, Jesus says. Keep your prayers short and to the point—there’s no extra credit for extra-long prayers.

Keep it real, Jesus says. Don’t act out a part God isn’t looking for you to play.

Keep it up, Jesus says. Don’t stop—keep talking with your Father about the real stuff of life.

Of the three instructions, the most challenging for many of us is the last: keep it up. We pray for a bit, and if we don’t see what we’re looking for, we move on. It doesn’t help, either, that we hear the exhortation Don’t give up! as a directive to pray harder. But it’s not. When it comes to prayer, Jesus isn’t looking to load us down with religious requirements. He isn’t cracking the whip, demanding we up our prayer game.

We hear “don’t stop” and think God wants a more Herculean effort. But then, when we pray and don’t see results, there’s a disconnect for us between Jesus’ theology and our experience of prayer.

Maybe it all comes down to our perception of what God is like. If we do not know God as the kindest Person we’ve ever met, our prayer life will reflect that. Perhaps that’s why, ultimately, Jesus points us not to the kind of praying we do, but to the kind of God we have.

“So, if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children,” he remarks in Mt. 7:11, “how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.” [nlt]

Here, as elsewhere, it all comes down to relationship with the Father for Jesus. And maybe this is what Jesus would tell us when we give up too soon or wear ourselves out trying too hard: “Your problem is that you don’t know what the Father is like.” What Jesus offers is less a primer on proper praying than a guide for the best possible friendship with God.

So, keep it up, not as an obligation or a burden, but rather as an invitation to a beautiful, more authentic life with your Father.

Keep it up, not with arduous effort, longer petitions, and a threshold of desperation that you hope finally moves God to give you what you’re asking.

Keep it up, because that’s what friends do. That’s what love does. It keeps on showing up.

• Deductible: $1000
• Maximum Out-of-Pocket: $2500

Rates:

• Employee Only: $560
• Employee & Spouse: $1250
• Employee & Children: $997
• Employee & Family: $1650

If you have not submitted your health application, we have a one-time extension to December 10, 2021 to be part of our January 1, 2022 start date.  If you do not apply by that time, you will not be able to enroll until the following year (2023). 
 
The online link is: 

• https://enrollment.ngic.com
• Employer Code: B6CLGXDV 
  • Please note that the employer code is case sensitive.

We invite you to be part of our LCMC launch, but we need your information submitted by December 10.  If there are any questions please reach out to the Hahn Financial Group at 1-800-516-4246.

Registration

The theme for 2022 is The Way, The Truth, The Life, and keynoting the program will be speakers Brandon Foster of Trinity Lutheran Church (Columbus, NE) and Andrea Paulson of Hawley Lutheran Church (Hawley, MN). 

Chip Reynolds of First English Lutheran Church (Victoria, TX) will serve as preacher, and Noah Ruppert of Morningside Lutheran Church (Sioux City, IA) will lead worship services. 

The event takes place July 19-22, 2022 on the campus of Grand View University in Des Moines, IA and is open to students completing grades 7-12, LCMC youth leaders, and adult chaperones.

The cost to attend is $350 per person and includes food, housing, and convention materials.  A $50 deposit per person will be due at the time of registration. 

The deadline to sign up is April 1, 2022 or when capacity for the event has been reached, whichever occurs first. 

More detailed information and online registration can be found by clicking here.  We hope to see you there!

During the past year, Perry Fruhling, Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry for LCMC, has been conducting Conflict Resolution Workshops around the country.  The desire now is to take this training to the next level as we train coaches for various regions of the country.

There will be a Conflict Coaches training event held online Monday through Wednesday, January 10-12, 2022 from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. CST.  

The event will include training on the following:

• Basic information about anxiety in congregations – learning to identify the source of anxiety and management of it
• The process of conflict resolution – with hands on exercises
• Family Systems and congregational conflict
• Protocol for listening and discernment in congregational conflict
• Assessment and working with leadership on a plan for conflict resolution
• Reconciliation, restoration and healing in the congregation
• Referral and steps for long-term care

Registration is free and this LCMC event is open to LCMC pastors and lay leaders.  Attendance at one of the Conflict Resolution Workshops or having other background in conflict resolution would be beneficial, but is not required.

If you are interested in attending, please contact Perry Fruhling at perry@lcmc.net to register and for additional information.

I don’t pray as often as I should. I often read about prayer, talk about the need for prayer, and yes, even write about prayer more than I pray. As sincere and honest has these endeavors are, they are not substitutes for prayer itself. Paul’s encouragement to “pray without ceasing,” and to make “our requests known to God with thanksgiving through prayer and petition,” come across as unrealistic exhortations more than a Kingdom reality. I’m comforted by the request the disciples made to Jesus, “Teach us to pray.”

Jesus, more than willing to do so, taught his friends, including you and me, to pray, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This is a bold prayer, for it anticipates that what happened at the Fall is now being undone through Jesus and his community of followers. That perspective can only come through a prayer-bathed life. After all, we are often surrounded by what seems like evidence to the contrary.

This January 4-6, our association will embark on a crucial journey together: Three Days of Prayer. Our churches need it. Our communities need it. Our association needs it. For some, this will be a continuation of an already grace-filled posture towards corporate prayer. For others, this will be a time of reorienting ourselves to the call of making prayer central to the life of our congregations. Prayer illuminates the vision for the Kingdom, moves the community forward and transforms the church into the image bearers ready for the good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do.

Pray with faithful expectancy. Anticipate that God is ready to speak with us individually and collectively about how he is making all things new. Discern his voice and follow his leading. He can be trusted.

Three days. It may not seem like a lot of time. Yet, that’s how long Jonah spent in the belly of a fish, coming to terms with God’s desire to save the Ninevites. It was on the third day that a wedding took place in Cana where Jesus turned water into wine, setting him on a trajectory that would take him to the cross. It was on the third day, after lying lifeless in a tomb, when Jesus’ body began to breathe with the life of the new creation, defeating the final enemy, death. A lot can happen in three days.

My prayer is that we experience a resurrection-shaped renewal, living in the new creation, trusting that Spirit-led, grace-filled, life-giving, fruitful service awaits us. Paul’s 2,000-year-old prayer for the church is as needed for us today:

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. 

Ephesians 1:17-23, NIV

Come, Holy Spirit, come.

For more information on LCMC's Three Days of Prayer, click here. 

The total number of in-person attendees included 280 voting delegates, 76 members, all eight board of trustees members, and five members of the LCMC staff. 

"Speak It, Live It, Share It" was the theme for the event, which focused on exploring some practical ways in which the Gospel can be spoken, lived, and shared in one's everyday life. 

Programming began on Sunday evening with an opening worship service preached by Steve Turnbull, the senior pastor of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, along with Katie Borden serving as this year’s worship leader.  

Morning Bible study was led by Erik Anderson, the discipleship pastor at New Life Lutheran Church.  

Pastors Jeremey King of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church and Nathan Hoff of Trinity Lutheran Church keynoted the event on Monday morning. 

Mike Bradley presented his service coordinator's report on Monday afternoon, which was followed by the first of three breakout sessions. 

As programming wrapped up for the evening, attendees had the opportunity to attend a fellowship dinner or get connected with one the various districts and fellowships in LCMC. 

Tuesday morning's programming featured keynote speaker Jenn Alexander, the worship and speaking pastor at Hosanna Church, followed by a panel discussion on ministry featuring LCMC Coordinator for Districts and Fellowships Julie Smith, Upper Arlington Lutheran Church’s Director of Children’s Ministry Andrea Taphorn, and Trinity Lutheran Church Pastor Nathan Hoff.  

Perry Fruhling, the LCMC coordinator for pastoral ministry, recognized and prayed for the pastors, seminarians, and congregations in LCMC on Tuesday afternoon. 

During the business session, Jeremey King (Area 1), Jonathan Anderson (Area 2), Susan Gunderson (Area 4), Jason Eliot (Area 7), and Cindy Glessner (At Large) were elected to serve on the LCMC Board of Trustees.

The current board members are:

• Jonathan Anderson (Area 2) – Secretary
• Jason Eliot (Area 7)
• Randy Freund (Area 3) – Chair
• Cindy Glessner (At Large) – Treasurer
• Susan Gunderson (Area 4) – Vice Chair
• Jeremey King (Area 1)
• Brodie Taphorn (Area 5)
• Darrin Vick (Area 6)

The event wrapped up on Wednesday morning with a keynote presentation by LCMC Service Coordinator Mike Bradley, followed by a closing worship service preached by Gabrielle Arland, the student ministry director at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church. 

The association’s next Annual Gathering & Convention will take place October 2-5, 2022 at Hosanna Church in Lakeville, MN. 

The following upcoming events were also announced:

• Youth Leadership Webinars: ongoing monthly, online via Zoom [More Info...]
• 10th Annual Three Days of Prayer: July 4-6, 2022 in your congregation [More Info...]
• National Youth Event: July 19-22, 2022 at Grand View University (Des Moines, IA) [More Info...]
• District and Fellowship Leaders Retreat: June 14-16, at Hosanna! Lutheran Church in St. Charles, IL [More Info...]

Those who participated in this year’s Annual Gathering are invited and encouraged to share their thoughts by completing our evaluation form.  All responses received by the October 22 deadline date will be reviewed by the staff and board of trustees in upcoming meetings.  We appreciate your feedback!

Annual Gathering Media

• VIDEOS:  The LCMC staff plans to update the LCMC website (go to Events > Media > Videos & Podcasts) and mobile app with edited videos of this year’s Annual Gathering & Convention speakers by winter 2022.  If you would like to be notified when new videos become available, please be sure you’re subscribed to our monthly e-newsletter.  A playlist of the livestreams is temporarily available at ualc.org/lcmc2021. 
   
• BOOKS:  Downloadable copies of our Annual Gathering book can be found on our website under Events > Media > Annual Gathering Books or by clicking here.  
   
• PHOTOS:  For additional photos from the event, be sure to check out our official Facebook page, and search the hashtag #LCMC21AG on social media. 

Just for Fun...

We asked those who follow the LCMC Facebook page what they enjoy most about LCMC Annual Gatherings.  Here are a few of their responses:

• "Reconnecting with dear friends and colleagues as we share the joys and heartaches of ministry. As Julie said “every pastor needs a pastor” and LCMC Gathering provides that, as we encourage and preach the promise to one another. See y’all in MN next year." – Andrea Paulson
   
• "The speakers were great. The focus on the Kingdom and as a new person to the LCMC knowing I found a home!" – Mary Arfmann
   
• "The Gospel! The people and the presence of Christ which is joy! The priority of Bible, the prayers, the humor and deep love of God and each other. Spiritual Direction was a nice touch. Thank you to everyone who put 2021 Annual Gathering together." – Joseph Beal
   
• "Practical teachings and fellowship with others." – Bryan Anderson
   
• "I love the speakers, but the fellowship and networking is great. Those are conversations that are invaluable." – Eric Hullstrom
   
• "Meeting people with similar passions." – Mark Loche

Registration for the event has closed early due to space limitations caused by construction delays at the venue, however a livestream option will still be available on our website beginning with opening worship on Sunday, October 3, 2021 at 7:00 P.M. EDT. 

For those who are tuning in via livestream, a copy of the schedule is available on our website (go to Events > Annual Gathering > Schedule) as well as in our 2021 Annual Gathering book.  All times listed on the schedule are in the Eastern Time Zone. 

The event wraps up on Wednesday, October 6 at 11:00 A.M. EDT after the closing worship service as ended. 

The LCMC staff plans to make edited videos of this year's speakers available for streaming online and in our app by winter 2022.  Those who would like to be notified when new videos become available may subscrible to our monthly e-newsletter by clicking here. 

Reviewing, editing, and cataloging our Annual Gathering videos can sometimes be a time-consuming process.  Your patience while we work to make this happen is very much appreciated! 

In the meantime, a playlist of the livestreams can temporarily be found here. 

This article has been updated to include the YouTube link for the livestream. 

All registrations received through Thursday, September 16, 2021, have been confirmed.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to accept walk-in registrations. If you do not have a confirmed registration, we will not be able to make an exception due to space limitations.

We regret the frustration and disappointment that capping the registration will cause for you.  We thank you for understanding.

Livestreaming will be available starting with opening worship on Sunday, October 3 at 7:00 P.M. EDT.  More information on how to access the livestream will be available on our Annual Gathering page in October. 

This article has been edited to include the reason for capacity limits at the event and an update on registration confirmations.

Blessings,

Sharon MacFadyen 
Director of Operations 
Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ

Due to space limitations at the venue, we have closed registration and can no longer accept new registrations for the event. 

We look forward to a great event and will be live streaming, so if you are not able to attend in person, you are welcome to participate online. 

More information on how to access the livestream will be available on our Annual Gathering page (Events > Annual Gathering), and on the LCMC Facebook page, in October.  As you are making your plans, do note that all times listed on the schedule are in local time (EDT) for Columbus, OH.

A digital copy of this year's Annual Gathering book will also be available on our website (Events > Media) and in the LCMC app once the event is underway.

The staff and board of trustees appreciate your understanding!

The event is open to high school students completing grades 8-12, youth ministry leaders, and adult chaperones, and is designed to serve as a leadership development experience for both students and youth leaders.  

Registration for the event will be online only and opens November 22.  A $50 deposit per registrant will be due at the time of registration.  

The deadline to sign up is April 1, or when our capacity of 243 participants has been reached.

More detailed information will be available on our Youth Event page once registration has officially opened.  

If you would like to be notified when registration opens, visit www.lcmc.net/enewsletter and subscribe to our mailing list.

In the meantime, youth leaders serving our LCMC congregations are invited and encouraged to take part in our ongoing monthly webinars, a new initiative designed to help train, equip, support, and encourage those who are serving in youth ministry roles.  For more information and to sign up, click here. 

Registration for the event has closed. 

If you are unable to attend in person this year, don't worry, we will still be livestreaming the event each day.  More information on how to access the livestream will be available on our Annual Gathering page (Events > Annual Gathering), and on the LCMC Facebook page, in October. 

As you are making your plans, do note that all times listed on the schedule are in local time (EDT) for Columbus, OH.

A digital copy of this year's Annual Gathering book will also be available on our website (Events > Media) and in the LCMC app once the event is underway.

This article has been edited to indicate that registration for the event is closed as of 9/7/2021. 

We invite all LCMC pastors, congregational leaders, and interested congregation members to a new online Zoom “Congregational Conflict Team” training on Saturday, October 9 or Saturday, October 23, from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. CDT.

We encourage congregations across the association to identify members who are interested in learning the basic steps of Biblically-based conflict resolution and attend one of the these online trainings.

The training will consist of understanding conflict from a systems perspective, learning to identify sources of anxiety in congregational conflict, and developing skills in the conflict resolution process.  

Conflict that disrupts mission affects up to 40% of congregations at any point in time.  All congregations experience conflict at some level.  The question is how we deal with it. 

Often times pastors or church council leadership will “power up” attempting to exert their influence to solve a problem. Others will capitulate, run from conflict, and deny or ignore its existence.  This rarely works, but causes the conflict to go underground and resurface at a later time in more dramatic ways.  

Unresolved conflict results in a myriad of people leaving churches every year. Congregations become unproductive, discouraged and drained of energy, and live in despair when we avoid conflict and become hopeless to remedy it.

But there is good news!  God has given us his Word and tools to resolve conflict that can restore hope and bring reconciliation and forgiveness.

Congregational conflict teams will be trained to see the larger picture of a system at work instead of the usual blame game that results in most conflicts. Conflict teams will become skilled at helping conflicted parties in your congregation identify resolutions that are mutually satisfactory to all parties involved in a conflict. Conflict teams will be trained to help participants see each other as humans – God created and redeemed – in order to gain a heart of peace towards one another and seek solutions together that can bring help and hope.

For more information or if you would be interested in having a group from your church participate in Congregational Conflict Team Training, contact Perry Fruhling, LCMC Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry, at perry@lcmc.net. 

As we continue to learn about anxiety and its effect on the life of the church, we thank God for the opportunity to walk together to grow in bringing hope to struggling congregations.  

Conflict Resolution Workshop Video Available

Congregations who are interested in viewing the LCMC Conflict Resolution Workshop video recorded by LCMC Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry Perry Fruhling, may email Perry (perry@lcmc.net) for a link to the video along with the workshop workbook. 

Congregational councils, small groups, or newly forming conflict resolution teams may have interest in forming a study around the video presentations. 

The video was recorded at Richland Lutheran Church, Richland, WA, in February, 2020, and is a great opportunity to learn the basic concepts of anxiety in congregations and how to resolve conflict between two individuals or parties of people in a Biblically-based process.  

Pastor Fruhling is also still available to do in person Conflict Resolution Workshops in your congregation.  Simply contact him for more information and to schedule the event.

We begin Monday night at 6:00 P.M. with dinner, worship, and fellowship.

Class begins Tuesday morning at 8:00 A.M. with afternoon and evenings off to enjoy a wide range of activities or nothing at all.

The cost to attend is $400 for single occupancy, or $550 with a spouse, and includes lodging at the retreat center for three nights, plus breakfast and lunch. 

Arizona is a great place in January.  The retreat center offers a pool, and each room has a private deck.  Check out the center at www.spiritinthedesert.org. 

The retreat will be led by Steven Lien and Steven Abend and everyone who has completed the basic course is invited to attend. 

To register, contact Cathy Nichol at (734) 788-7476 or cathy@lcmc.net, or visit victorylutheran.com/interim-pastors-retreat to register online. 

For more information, please call Steven Abend at (989) 202-530. 

This article has been edited to include a link for online registration. 

His face was flushed as he purposely came towards me on the church patio. After all these months I thought Bill was excited to see me. I was wrong. He immediately complained about a staff member, the leadership of the church, and how I had no courage during the COVID crisis because I did not arbitrarily open the church and let people take off their masks. He said I was a coward and should have stood up for the rights of Christians to worship. The parting shot was him saying his family might leave the church.

Over the last year I’ve experienced more conflict than ever before. How about you? Finding that ministry had dissolved in maintaining unity and addressing conflict and complaints found me thinking about wearing an umpire’s uniform for worship.

Is there a proven process that can be used to manage oneself when you find people who are coming at you in an aggressive and angry manner? Absolutely.

Please join us on Thursday, August 26 from 11:00 A.M. to 12:30 P.M. PST for a hands on workshop to help you manage people who have frustration and anger using empathy, listening, and reframing.  Advance registration is required, and the deadline to register is Friday, August 20.  Registered participants will be contacted via email with the Zoom link within 24 hours before the event. 

I will be joined by Michael Boyle, founder of BOB Search, an executive search firm. Michael is a master communicator, trainer, and skilled negotiator who has taught this course to help pastors in a very complicated and complex world.

Register Now >>

About Thomas Brashears:  Ordained 35 years, Tom has been a mission pastor, associate pastor, and senior leader in large  churches in almost every role in ministry in the church setting. His background includes earning a BA  in Business at Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ), M.Div. at Graduate Theological Union in  (Berkeley, CA)., Masters of Science in Organization Development (Pepperdine, CA) HR Cert. at University California (Irvine, CA), trained facilitator for "God Dreams" with  Auxano, Succession Planning with Wil Heath, XChange facilitator, Strategy and Human Interaction Certificate from  National Training Labs (Bethel, Maine), and continuing education at NonProfit Think Tank, University  of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA). He currently is President of Cascade Consulting, which  works with pastors and churches in getting results. 

I’m writing to you to ask for your help with our upcoming Annual Gathering & Convention. We’ve all been through a lot since early 2020, and we’ve had to go through much of that time without being able to gather together in person, but now it’s time.

It’s time to gather again in the same place at the same time with the Lord and one another. It’s time to come together to worship the Lord, to encourage each other, exhort one another, and pray for our sisters and brothers. It’s time to rekindle relationships we already have and be surprised at the new ones God has waiting for us as we gather at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church in Hilliard, OH from October 3-6 . 

There is a growing sense of anticipation and excitement for many as they look forward to coming together again. We share that anticipation and excitement as a staff but to make this time together the best it can be we need your help.

Planning and hosting a gathering like this involves hundreds of details, details which are difficult to plan for if we do not know how many people will be attending. It would be a big help to us if you’d go online today and register for the LCMC Annual Gathering.  As a reminder, the discounted rate will be available through August 15. 

Thank you for taking the time to help us out in this way.

We look forward to seeing you in person this October!

Mike Bradley
Service Coordinator, LCMC

Unfortunately, it seems evident that many take a stance – on several “hot button” issues – based on personal and political views and opinions rather than the scriptural mandate of, "love your neighbor as yourself."

It would be easy to ignore the topic of race/racism because we feel it does not directly affect us or maybe we are uncomfortable; others might deny the reality that racism exists; some want to tackle the issue, but they don't know where to start. 

Regardless of where you might fall on this spectrum, it is important to approach this topic together, delicately yet directly. 

Scripture reminds us in Philippians 2:4, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." (ESV).

As we come together like this in Christ, God can bring us to a place of hope and healing.

My wife Hana and I are leading a webinar to start a dialogue on racial healing and hope.  We will share our personal stories/experiences with you and invite you into a conversation that is a call to the Church of Jesus Christ to be at the center of the movement to heal the “broken hearted” and create a safe place for dialogue, an opportunity to hear each other’s story.

We invite you to join us on Zoom on July 6 and 7 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 P.M. CDT (attend either one or both – content will be the same).  A link to join the webinar can be found on our calendar event page. 
 

Rev. Dr. Ebassa Berhanu
LCMC Ministry Board Member and LCMC Pastor

If this is true, what hinders us in ministry and mission in today’s world? Sometimes the thing that hinders us is us. Sometimes we are willing to settle for less than all God has in store for us. Sometimes we have wounds from the past that are still influencing our present in unhelpful ways. Sometimes we are believing lies to be truth. Sometimes we have constructed a God-box which is our understanding of who God is and how He wants to speak and act in the world, and in some cases our God-box is too small.

Where and when any of these things are the case, we need God’s power to be at work in our lives. We need the Lord to encourage us to not settle for less, to heal those wounds from the past, to replace those lies with His truth, and to blow up our God-boxes so we can embrace a fuller understanding and experience of who He is and how He wants to speak and act in the world.

This is where an ancient prayer can be helpful for us today.  That prayer is this: “Lord, do whatever You need to do in me so You can do whatever You want to do through me.” 

We can pray this prayer with great confidence and expectation because God’s Word tells us: “This is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15).

So, let’s persistently and expectantly pray this ancient prayer. Then, let’s listen as the Lord speaks to us about whatever He needs to do in us so that He can do whatever He wants to do through us in order to impact those around us with His love and His power.

As we’ve discussed plans for the gathering, a shared heart and desire to attend to the care of youth leaders has become a focus.

In our meetings, we’ve had conversation about common topics of concern for those who work with youth. We’ve prayed for solo pastors doing all the things, but also striving to provide kids and teens relevant ministry. We’ve shared our compassion and concern for youth ministry staff who continue to press on in the face of a challenging year. We’ve shared our heart to equip the amazing adults who, for many congregations are the “youth staff”, whole-heartedly volunteering their time, talent and money for the teens in their congregations.

As a result of these conversations, we are excited to share an initiative designed to serve youth leaders. In the coming months, we will be offering a Zoom webinar for youth leaders to support, equip and encourage anyone passionate about youth ministry. This webinar will be a space to gather and be supported in the call to serve kids and teens. 

The first Zoom meeting is scheduled for Thursday, June 17 at 11:00 A.M. CT.  If interested, please contact Cathy Nichol (cathy@lcmc.net) to be added to the email list.  A sign-up form to be added to our email list is available here. 

The goals of these meetings are:

• Equip: Provide tested, tried and helpful resources
• Train: Engage in discussions on topics that are relevant to leading youth ministry
• Encourage: Prayer, support and a safe place to share your heart, struggle and needs

In addition, a survey was sent to congregations, pastors, youth leaders and adult volunteers to learn more about what issues and challenges are impacting their ministry. The results of this survey will help us to continue to develop robust, meaningful sessions for all called to serve our kids and teens.

If you know of a youth leader, volunteer, or congregation member that is passionate about youth ministry and would like to be included in this group, please share this information with them.

Keep your eye out for information (via the LCMC blog, Facebook and e-newsletter) about upcoming opportunities for LCMC youth and youth leaders.

As we continue to develop this opportunity, please know we are praying for you in your ministry to kids and youth. Keep these words from Paul’s letter to Corinth in your heart:

Therefore, beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. – 1 Corinthians 15:58

This article has been edited to include the date and time for the first youth leader webinar and a link to the sign-up form. 

In a culture which is often judgmental, condemning, arrogant, angry, and polarizing, becoming a safe place is an essential key for increasing our effective witness in the world.

Being a safe place creates an atmosphere to build authentic relationships, struggle without judgment, and ask real questions; a place to grow in our ability to relate to people helping them to experience the love and power of God.  "Safe Place" is a metaphor to help us be intentional about becoming more like Jesus.

This seminar is designed to:

• Introduce the "Safe Place" vision
• Present its importance in developing healthy leaders and disciples for living lives of effective witness
• Begin identifying safe-place characteristics
• Challenge participants to identify at least one way God wants to further transform them to live as a Safe Place person
• Help participants develop a Safe Place Action Plan to intentionally experience God’s transforming work in their lives.

This two-day online event takes place Tuesday, May 18 and Wednesday, May 19 from 10:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. Central Time online via Zoom.  For more information and a link to join, click here. 

The goal of the fund is to reach out to those impacted by disaster who otherwise would not have resources.

Grant decisions are made by a committee made up of representatives from five contributing churches (one representative per congregation).

The LDA Fund provides grants of up to $20,000, to local churches as a result of damages received from natural disasters in their region.

Starting in 2018, service grants are now being provided for volunteers serving in a disaster area. For each volunteer sent from an LCMC church, the service organization working in a disaster area will receive $1,000 per volunteer up to a maximum of $10,000.

Since the inception of the Fund in 2013 through December 31, 2020, contributions to the LDA Fund have totaled $749,064. 

Disbursements for floods, mud slides, hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, and earthquakes totaled $455,194 distributed as follows:

• Local Churches - $388,194
• Faith-based Disaster Relief Organizations served by local churches - $28,000
• Disaster Service Project - $19,000
• LCMC Related Project - $20,000

Funds remaining for future LDA grants total $294,630 with four applications now being reviewed for the 2021 massive ice storms in the south.

In 2020 a new fund was established with LDA contributions to provide grants to pastors in situations of crisis or distress in an emergency context who have reached out for help to LCMC or the LDA.

The Pastors Benevolence Emergency Fund will provide grants up to $3,000. As of December 31, 2020, $21,988 was available for these grants.

In April 2021 a review of the LDA Fund 2020 transactions was completed by a CPA and transactions were found to be properly recorded and documented.

Praise God for the generous support for all the LCMC churches and individuals who have sent money to the LDA fund and the Pastors Emergency Benevolence Fund! 

There are no administrative costs associated with these funds, with 100% of all contributions going to victims of disaster.

Please consider sending contributions to:

Lutheran Disaster Assistance Fund
c/o St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
8300 C Avenue
Marion, IA  52302
Attention: Dave Brauhn, LDA Director. 

For more information, please feel free to call Dave at (319) 849-0013 or email brauhn1864@gmail.com.

Photo Caption: Relief work in Cedar Rapids, Iowa following the derecho on August 10, 2020.  LDA provided a service grant to Eight Days of Hope for the volunteers serving from an LCMC church.

While this is a brand new position, LCMC’s commitment to districts and fellowships goes back to our earliest days. Our founding documents highlight local, grassroots partnerships as crucial for congregational support in carrying out their missions.

Districts can be places for shared mission endeavors, collegiality and accountability, educational and service opportunities, church planting, and countless other aspects of congregational ministry that are more readily done with coordination and cooperation among local churches.

I look forward to getting to know the existing districts and fellowships in LCMC, learning more about the successes and challenges they have experienced, the goals they have for their shared work, and being a resource in whatever ways I am able.

There is also interest in forming new districts and fellowships and revitalizing others. Faithful attention and commitment to the kinds of work and witness that are more effectively done in partnerships will strengthen our entire association.

I am thankful for the opportunity to serve our association in this way.

Keynote speakers Jeremey King, Nathan Hoff, Jenn Alexander, Julie Smith, Andrea Taphorn, and Mike Bradley will take the stage to help us uncover some practical ways in which we can speak, live, and share the Gospel in our everyday lives, as well as how the association can help support our congregations to be able to do so.

Steve Turnbull and Gabrielle Arland will preach the opening and closing worship services, and Erik Anderson will serve as our Bible study leader each morning.  

Throughout the four day event, participants will also have the opportunity to join together in worship with other LCMC-ers from across the country, connect with mission and ministry organizations in our vendor area, take part in up to three breakout sessions, and enjoy time for fellowship and networking.  

The cost to register is $200 per person for those who sign up by the “early bird” deadline of August 15.  All registration fees include program, dinner and dessert on Sunday, plus lunch on Monday and Tuesday.  

This year’s event will also be live streamed for those who are unable to attend in person.  More detailed information on how to access the live stream will be available on the Annual Gathering page of our website in October.

For more information and to register, click here. 

With that in mind, I am looking forward with much anticipation to attending and helping lead the annual meeting for LCMC District and Fellowship Group leaders, along with our newest staff member, Julie Smith. We’ll be meeting on June 15-16, 2021 at Hosanna Lutheran Church in St. Charles, IL.

This gathering will be a time for building relationships that are authentic and safe, and exploring how we can serve existing districts and fellowship groups while also creating new ones so that we can be connecting, equipping, and caring for you as leaders, and for your congregations.

Along with this, I am looking forward to finding venues and opportunities to meet with LCMC leaders and congregations who are not part of a district or fellowship group.  I’d love to find ways to bring that same heart for connecting, equipping, and caring to bear upon my own relationship with you, and learning how we as a national staff can serve you in your call to the mission of the gospel.

Connecting, equipping, and caring for leaders in LCMC because we love you, value you, and are thankful to God for you!

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In choosing to go on a mission trip, a variety of reasons have been shared over the years, including these three:

• To help people, especially those living in incredibly impoverished areas of the world.
• It is a calling from God and an opportunity to serve the Lord.
• As a “vacation with a purpose” to see a part of God’s creation they have not yet experienced.

All of these are valid motives and can be matched with any of our key programs as we endeavor to meet the needs of those in Limpopo, South Africa. Some may not seem very “spiritual”, but when done with the love of Jesus, the “practical” applications also serve the people there and extend a hand with tangible results that lead them to a deeper relationship with Christ.

I have been on well over 100 short-term mission trips and helped host approximately 1,100 individuals on our beautiful campus. These have given me a pretty good sense of the true benefit of investing in these efforts. There is no question of the impact to the general public stakeholders in the country that teams visit, and also the testimony of generosity to its leadership.

Simply, the fact that a group of Americans would spend their own money and vacation time to travel halfway around the world to meet them and do any kind of good works is an encouragement. They always appreciate having new friends from a different culture, especially from America. There is a place for you.

I have personally experienced many medical mission teams, construction teams, and evangelistic teams. Other groups have played pivotal roles such as drilling wells, constructing toilets (to keep young school children from drowning in the derelict systems in the area), assisting with agriculture, and teaching all kinds of other skills. All these things are very worthy humanitarian efforts and I have seen much spiritual growth in the nationals and churches that are served.

A benefit many people fail to realize is the spiritual and emotional growth that mission participants experience.

Most of us have experienced a spiritual dry season in our lives at one time or another when our prayers seem to bounce back off the ceiling. We get the feeling that we are just not connecting with God. For me, a mission team experience anywhere overseas has been the perfect solution in my own life. Nearly every time, especially in Africa, there always seems to be an open window or door to heaven and communication with the Holy Spirit is so much more active and vibrant.

I always love sitting around an African campfire and hearing individuals share what God is doing in their hearts as they spend their days serving beautiful, disadvantaged African children and widows. It is especially meaningful when we are able to assist people who can never return the favor. God seems to always bless that sort of gift by filling our own hearts with great sense of satisfaction. Once you feel this kind of joy, you realize that it is so much more valuable than money, power, or fame.

We often see that the children we serve are happy, smiling, and cheerful despite living in a shack with a dirt floor, no indoor plumbing, and almost no material goods. For them, it is love and faith that give them inner joy, despite unhappy circumstances. I often hear from people who travel with us to Africa that they plan to bring their children on the next trip so that they can experience that it is not possessions that make people truly happy.

The Opportunity:

On a typical year not affected by COVID, Blessman International hosts 10 to 12 mission teams each year. With the vaccine, we are praying that we again will soon be hosting even more short-term missionaries (aka “you”).

We like to cap each team at 20 individuals, representing folks from all over North America. The typical trip is 12 days long and costs approximately $4,500 including everything. On the trip, people will experience working with the two churches we have planted and helping with our large feeding program of over 20,000 children. We also have a 120-acre farm that is always in need of physical assistance to grow vegetables on the scale needed to feed the children in our program.

Nearly all of the team members will have the opportunity to join us in blessing the children with our Sports 4 Christ and our Celebrate Recovery programs for high school youth. When we have medical professionals on the teams, they often volunteer in our local 350-bed public hospital. Our water and sanitation projects are usually carried out by nationals that we employee but occasionally team members may also participate in these activities.

Everyone can take walks in the African bushveld where they can view many different species of African game animals. We also offer photo safaris for anyone interested in these.

What’s Next?

Please visit our webpage: www.blessmaninternational.org, to learn more about our ministries in the country of South Africa and upcoming trip dates. Sign up to receive our newsletter, and for additional information on the trips and how to register. We are in the process of designing a specific trip for LCMC congregations. Stay tuned for more information.

Build enduring friendships with your team and those in Limpopo you serve, deepen your personal faith in our awesome God and provider, and you too, like me, will be changed forever for the good.

A condensed version of this article first appeared in BY THE WORD, the quarterly newsletter for LCMC.  For more information and to view past editions, click here. 

For more information on international mission organizations, click here. 

We believe that developing a healthy and robust district and fellowship group structure will help LCMC congregations deepen their ties to one another for the sake of strengthening their witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It will also increase our effectiveness in implementing a strategic-operational plan that is being designed to more effectively serve and support all the congregations and leaders in our association.

Julie Smith is a life-long Lutheran and became a pastor in 1998. She has served congregations in Clarkfield, Bock, and Springfield (all in Minnesota). In addition, she served for several years as a Bible camp director. She is also a co-founder of St. Paul Lutheran Seminary.

Julie's main hobby is running around to whatever activities her seven nieces and nephews are involved in. She is a sports fan, and while high school football is a favorite, NBA games featuring any former Minnesota Timberwolves are a close second. Like all Minnesotans, Julie believes as many summer days as possible should be spent at the lake, with the Twins on the radio. Please don't ask her about the Vikings. 

Julie is a graduate of Luther Seminary and loves any opportunity to teach, whether that's leading silly Bible skits with first graders or giving seminary students some pointers in preaching. She has previously served on the LCMC Board of Trustees and has worked with the Augustana and Epiphany Districts of LCMC.

Julie's last Sunday in her congregation in Springfield, MN will be on Easter Sunday and she will begin work with us on the LCMC staff shortly thereafter.

As Service Coordinator, I am very excited about what Julie is going to add to our team in terms of her skills and experience, and who she is as a person. I’m looking forward to having her join our staff.

Welcome aboard, Julie!

Even in our congregations, we had to get down to the “essentials” for ministry to move forward. As things progressed, innovation took place. These changes were not easy for any of us.

The role of the Church is to respond to change while holding firmly to the essentials so that a new generation’s needs might be met. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” writes the author of Hebrews. He is the essential, but the mode of communicating His essential message requires innovation.

Here’s what I’m getting at: if we want the next generation to understand the essential message, we have to make them essential to the message. Our congregations need good youth ministries where students are treated as essential to our strategy of making disciples in all nations. Students need to feel that their congregation wants, likes, and needs them there.

I’ve had the joy and privilege of working with students for over 12 years now. In this time, I’ve heard their stories, shared in their pain, and pointed them towards hope. What’s funny is with youth, there’s always an opportunity to dwell on the essentials of our faith. But with these students, I’ve also seen Jesus become essential to their lives.

When students see that the church wants to leverage this time in their life for the important things, they grab on. They show up, they work hard, and they develop a faith that will last. Students are worth celebrating and when they are, it innovates more than you can imagine!

So, where can you start? Make young people essential in your own life. Read and learn about them. Pray for them. Talk with them. Invite them into your life. Show them how Jesus is for them. When you make our youth essential to your life, you’ll find Jesus innovating everything.

The impact an interim pastor has on a congregation is substantial, as it can be the time a congregation moves from unhealthy patterns and behaviors to a more positive healthy environment.  Interim pastors are in a unique position to move a congregation forward during uncertain times.

The need for intentional interim pastors is critical.  Many congregations need some intentional healing before moving on to the next pastor. Intentional interim pastors provide that opportunity.  However, interim pastors need to be intentional about equipping themselves for the complex tasks that could be done. Training is critical to both the pastor and the congregation. 

Do you have the skills and tools to assist a congregation to navigate the interim period?

LCMC will be offering online intentional interim pastor training via Zoom on May 3-5, 2021 from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 PM Central Time to help pastors engaging in interim ministry. This workshop is open to those who are interested in serving within LCMC as intentional interim pastors. It is designed as an introductory training course, however it is open to all pastors – even those who have taken the course before – as a refresher or review.

We believe the opportunity to take the training online will allow many more pastors to participate without the costs and hassle of travel, hotel stays, and time away from home.  So, please consider this opportunity to get equipped with the right tools for this work which can make all the difference to our congregations and pastors!

The cost is $150 paid at the time of registration. To sign up, contact Cathy Nichol at (734) 788-7476 or at cathy@lcmc.net. There are three books that are required reading. They contain critical information and terminology for intentional interim ministry.  The books are short and will apply directly to our class.

For more information, please contact Dawn Spies at (760) 208-0986 or Steven Abend at (989) 202-5301.

After much discussion, our board has decided to reorganize our funding program.  Currently, we have two funds, the Loan Fund and the Gift Fund. The Loan Fund is designed to provide a no interest loan to small/mission congregations that can be used for building purposes.  The Gift Fund is designed to support an LCMC mission congregation by an outright gift to the congregation. Gift Funds are to be used primarily, but not exclusively, for start-up office equipment in mission congregations.

The Loan Fund is supported by the Buck-A-Month Club, and the Gift Fund is supported by the Committee of 100.

Over the past several years, fewer than 100 men from all of LCMC have supported the Buck-A-Month Club, and the fund is simply not large enough to provide a loan sufficient to help with building a church.  Even less men have supported the Committee of 100, but virtually all of the requests we receive asking for support ask for gifts.

Because of those realities, we have decided to combine the two funds into a new single fund we will call the Mission Assistance Fund.  Our thrust will still be to help new/mission congregations, but the things we could support would be open ended, not limited to audio equipment, office equipment, etc.  Basically, if you have a need…ask.

Obviously, funding the Mission Assistance Fund will still be an issue.  We can’t continue to help congregations and not replenish the fund.  In order to provide that revenue, we will keep our current Buck-A-Month Club and Committee of 100 and keep the current campaign months of March and September, but all contributions would go into the one fund. Downloadable insert forms can be found at https://www.lcmc.net/lcmc-lutheran-men/243.

Men, we need you. There are few of us who can’t afford $12.00 a year.  Can you imagine how many congregations we can help if all…or even most…of us become supporters of the Buck-A-Month Club?

Each Sunday as we prepare for the offering, we pray, “In response to God’s perfect love and mercy, we are blessed to share our time, our treasure and our love.”  Following the collection, we pray,” We offer with joy and thanksgiving what You have first given us, ourselves, our time and our possessions.

Those are not just words…they carry a significant meaning.  Won’t you give a small amount of your treasure…your possessions…just $12.00 a year to allow us to help small, mission, growing congregations across LCMC?

Donations can be sent to: LCMC – LM, 7000 N. Sheldon Road, Canton, MI 48187.

Chuck Hunsaker
President, LCMC – Lutheran Men

To learn more about the LCMC – Lutheran Men, click here. 

In light of the circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is no surprise that fewer congregations than usual opted to host in person events.  According to the results of our January 2021 poll, only 14% reported attending or organizing an in person event for Three Days of Prayer this year, down from 18% in 2017 and 56% back in 2014.  

While a decline in the number of large in-person activities such as prayer services, meetings, vigils, and walks this year was evident, a handful of LCMC congregations still welcomed the opportunity join together in person with others from their congregation to pray, including St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church in Clyde, OH.

“It touched my heart when I heard a woman in our group pour out her heart in prayer. Her passion and intensity surprised me,” said the Kurt Luebkeman, the pastor at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church.  

Unsurprisingly, praying on one’s own was the most popular way to structure this time of prayer in 2021.  42% of poll respondents reported that they chose to simply set aside some time to pray on their own for each of the three days, an increase from only 20% in 2017.  

Small group prayer was also popular this year, with 18% of participants reporting to have spent at least some time together in prayer with family, friends, or fellow congregation members throughout the three days.  

8% of participants reported hosting virtual events for at least one of the three days, including John Foss, an associate member of LCMC from Community of Hope in Wilsonville, OR.  

Foss’ congregation organized an online event over the following weekend that featured prayer meetings, testimonies, and music using the digital video conferencing platform Zoom.  Afterward, videos from the event were posted to the congregation’s YouTube channel, allowing a greater number of people to access the content.

“It was great to see everyone and pray together, even on Zoom, in a time where most of these people haven't been together in person at church. The testimonials were powerful about prayer and the individuals' experiences with God,” Foss said.  

One new trend that emerged this year was an expressed desire for LCMC congregations in close geographical proximity to connect and plan events with one another for future Three Days of Prayer events.  

“It would be nice if several congregations in an area were to gather together, either on Zoom or in person,” Luebkeman said.  

When it comes to promoting Three Days of Prayer to congregation members, 10% of congregations distributed printed resources or included messages in their church bulletin encouraging church members to set aside some time each day to pray, while 8% opted to get the word out using electronic media such as e-newsletters, mobile apps, or social media. 

The association’s annual Three Days of Prayer event was started in 2012 by then-Service Coordinator Mark Vander Tuig in an effort to help the people of LCMC become more and more a people of prayer.  

“Our attitude toward prayer has often been characterized by saying, “Well, all we can do now is pray!”.  Prayer is not the hopeless act of desperation.  Prayer is a gift that God has given to us as a means to approach the throne of grace with confidence, like that of a child coming to her parents sharing concerns, victories, defeats and every part of life.  It is an opportunity to express the deepest heartache and the greatest joy.  Prayer is a conversation between the Creator and the created…and the conversation began with God, for us, in Christ Jesus,” Vander Tuig wrote in a 2012 blog post.  

Participants are encouraged to join together in prayer for three consecutive days at the start of each new year, structuring this time of prayer in any way that makes sense for the congregation. 

For those who may be feeling inspired to organize a more interactive experience for our next Three Days of Prayer event, the single piece of advice offered up most – by pastors and congregation members alike – is to plan ahead.  

“Get prepared earlier. Print the prayer brochure earlier and get them out to everyone much sooner,” said Luebkeman.  

LCMC's next Three Days of Prayer will take place January 4-6, 2022.  If you would like to follow along with us during our 2021 Three Days of Prayer, be sure to “Like” and follow our Facebook page and/or download our mobile app and opt-in for Three Days of Prayer notifications [Here's How]. 

Photo Captions

First Photo (Top Right): Members of St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church gather together to pray on the final day of Three Days of Prayer.  Second Photo (Middle Left): A virtual event hosted on Zoom at Community of Hope Lutheran Church.  Third Photo (Bottom Right): A graph of the different ways that people in LCMC chose to structure Three Days of Prayer in 2021. 

In that same text Jesus does something remarkable. He is Jesus the Christ; He is the Son of God. He could have carried out this mission of declaring and demonstrating the good news on His own, but He chooses not to. Instead, He calls Simon and Andrew to follow Him, be with Him, and to participate in His mission. Then He invites James and John to join in too. As I read that passage, I was reminded how often throughout scripture God chooses to accomplish His purposes in the world, in and through human beings, in fact, almost exclusively. Abraham. Joseph. Moses. Miriam. Joshua. Rabab. Deborah. The disciples. The woman at the well. Mary Magdala. The list of human beings through whom God carries out and accomplishes His kingdom purposes in the world is long. And now He adds your name and mine to that list.

When Christ made you his own, gave you a new life in baptism, and forgave your sin, something new truly happened. He gave you a calling; a calling to love your neighbor and to be witnesses to the good news. As surely as Simon and Andrew, James and John were called, so are you and so am I. That calling works itself out in all kinds of different ways, in all kinds of different vocations. But the thread that runs through all those calls is being a witness and serving the neighbor as the forgiveness and mercy that Christ is constantly pouring into you spills out to those you encounter.

The Lord has more in store for you and me, and He does not want us to settle for less. He calls us, as He did Simon and Andrew, James and John, to become fishers of people. He invites us to participate with Him as He seeks out those who do not yet know Him as Savior and Lord. He invites us to participate with Him as He reaches out to help Forgetters become Rememberers. In his book on evangelism, theologian Walter Brueggemann, points out that Israel was consistently called by God from forgetfulness to remembrance of His call and purpose for their life as a nation. In the same way, followers of Jesus can be forgetful of God’s activity and presence in our lives, and like Israel, need to be called to remembrance. In these ways and more Jesus calls us to come follow Him and be with Him and to participate in His kingdom purposes in the world; and as we say yes, His joy is made full in us.

I will never forget the joy I experienced when God acted in and through me to give witness to His unshakable love and to share the gospel with someone whom He was drawing to faith in Jesus. When that person responded to God’s activity in their lives, was baptized, believing in their heart and confessing with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, it was amazing—for that person and for me. God completely changed the trajectory of that person’s life and invited me to be a part of it all. What a joy!

Now He is calling all of us in LCMC, just as He called Simon and Andrew, James and John, the woman at the well and Mary, to participate with Him in His kingdom purposes in today’s world. Let’s cast this vision before the members of our congregations. Let’s encourage and equip them to love their neighbors, pray with people, and share their God-stories as the Lord provides opportunities for them to do so. Let’s ask the Lord’s help in creating a welcoming environment for the Holy Spirit who pours God’s love into our hearts (Romans 5:5) and gives us power to be witnesses to those around us of His love and His power (Acts 1:8).

Let’s pray that God would be at work in our association, calling us to follow Him and bringing us together as one so that millions might be drawn by God to faith Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Prayer is a holy habit of our Christian faith that can position us before the Lord to be with Him, to listen to Him, and to experience His work of aligning our minds and our hearts with His mind and His heart. Intentionally setting aside time for prayer can help us still our hearts as we turn off all our devices and tune out the white noise that constantly surrounds us. “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10, ESV).

Prayer was a holy habit practiced by Jesus Himself (see Mark 1:35, ESV). LCMC’s Three Days of Prayer on January 5-7, 2021 is an opportunity for us to follow the Lord’s example and to come together as one across the association with a shared purpose: to pray.

Each congregation or person can structure these days of prayer however seems best. In the past, some congregations put together a prayer vigil—a person signing up to pray in 30-minute intervals for example—for all three days or a few hours each day. Others have offered a prayer service at a set hour on each of the three days. Others have encouraged their people simply to pray at work, home, or school—wherever they are and whatever they are doing. During this time of COVID-19, we encourage you to do whatever works best and whatever is safest for your congregation.

No matter how you structure this time of prayer, let’s come together as an association of congregations across the U.S. and around the world to pray. As Mark Vander Tuig has said many times: “I believe that the church will never rise up until we first get down on our knees.”

Following are some suggested points of emphasis for each of the three days of prayer. These are not the only things to be prayed for of course, but they can be points of daily emphasis that bring us all together as one in prayer. God bless your time during our Three Days of Prayer.

Day 1 – Lord, Reveal Yourself to Us

Have you ever had someone say, “Complete this sentence,” and then give you a partial sentence to finish as ideas and thoughts come to mind? Today, we pray by finishing this sentence, “Lord, reveal Yourself to me, to us, as…” I invite you to repeat this partial sentence, then patiently sit with the Lord and allow thoughts to come to mind that will complete it for you, for your family and friends, for your congregation, or for us as an association. Then, turn those thoughts into prayers to the Lord.

Jesus said, “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Luke 10:22, NLT). And the Apostle Paul wrote: “But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11, NLT).

Let’s pray for God to reveal Himself and the truth of His Word to us in whatever way we need Him to. Let’s pray that He would reveal Himself to us and increase our understanding and experience of who He is. Let’s pray that He would reveal Himself to us and provide us with discernment and wisdom regarding decisions we are faced with. Let’s pray that He would reveal Himself to us that He might continue to sustain us in the unique and challenging season of life and ministry we have found ourselves in since March of last year.

“Lord, we pray, reveal yourself to us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Day 2 – Lord, Bring Home the Lost and the Prodigals

We know that our Lord Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10, ESV). And we know that our Heavenly Father is a father who joyfully welcomes home the prodigals. Today, let’s pray that God will bring us together as one across our association so that millions might be drawn by Him to faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Let’s also pray that the Lord might bring home the prodigals who have walked away from a life of faith in the Him. Lord, bring home our spouses, bring home our sons and daughters and grandchildren. Lord, bring home our friends and neighbors. Let’s pray that God might set them free from any woundedness or deception that has driven them away from their relationship with Him. Let’s pray that they might experience God’s love and acceptance and affirmation as His beloved daughters and sons.

“Lord, give us Your heart for the lost and the prodigals. Create in us a boldness to love them and serve them and to share our God-stories with them as opportunities arise. Open our eyes to be aware of everyday encounters in which we can minister Your love and Your power to those in need. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”

Day 3 – Lord, Grant us Your Favor for Your Purposes

Today, we pray for the favor of God to be upon us as individuals, congregations, and as an association for His purposes in and through our lives. God’s favor was upon Joseph (Genesis 39). It was upon Esther (Esther 2; 5). It was upon Mary (Luke 1:30). And of course, it was upon Jesus Himself (Luke 2:52).

Favor is the attraction of God that releases an influence through us so that other people are inclined to like, to trust, and to cooperate with us in the assignment God has given us (Esther 2:9). The favor of the Lord can come upon us for the purpose of an assignment He has given us. It is not something we generate; it is something God places upon us. The favor of God can take us from the place we’re in, to a place of influence and effectiveness for His purposes; not our purposes. We see this in the lives of Joseph and Esther.

Let’s pray that the favor of God may be upon us as we seek to carry out the mission of the gospel wherever in the world the Lord has placed us. Let’s pray, “Lord, do whatever You need to do in me so You can do whatever You want to do through me.” Let’s pray these things so that millions might be impacted by God’s love and God’s power through the Holy Spirit’s empowering presence. 

Get Connected: 

If you're on social media, be sure to "Like" and "Follow" our Facebook Page to follow along with us during each of the three days.  Don't forget to tag your Three Days of Prayer posts using the hashtag #LCMC3DOP so others can see them! 

Share Your Story:

The LCMC staff is inviting all who take part in Three Days of Prayer to share their stories, testimonies, and photos from this year's event by clicking here.  All responses received by the deadline date (Friday, January 15) will be considered for publication on our website and/or in an upcoming issue of our quarterly print newsletter, BY THE WORD.

• Augustana District Youth Confirmation Retreat
  March 5-7, 2021  |  Event Details  |  Contact: Randy Freund
   
• Wisconsin Youth Retreat
  March 6, 2021  |  Contact: Lisa McCormick 
   
• Texas District Youth Gathering
  July 30-31, 2021  |   Event Details  |  Contact: Bryce Formwalt

For more regional events happening within LCMC, please visit our calendar page.  Regional events hosted by LCMC districts or congregations may be submitted for the LCMC calendar at any time by clicking on the red "Submit an Event" button at the top of the page, or by clicking here.

To watch from your mobile device, download our mobile app, tap on the "Media" tab, then select "2020 Annual Gathering" from the list of options.  The app is compatible with AirPlay and Google Cast, enabling users to play content on a TV or other compatible device. 

Videos can also be found online by navigating to Events > Media > Videos & Podcasts on our website, or by clicking here. 

In case you missed it, a recap on our 2020 Annual Gathering & Convention can be found on our blog, and downloadable copies of this year's book can be found on our website under Events > Media > Annual Gathering Books or by clicking here. 

This total included 105 voting delegates, 14 guests, 8 members of the board of trustees, 5 members of the LCMC staff, 5 members of the ministry board, and 2 speakers.

The event, which was also live streamed online, featured a discussion on the future plans of LCMC, keynote presentations by Gemechis Buba and Matt Randerson, and an interactive panel discussion. 

Mike Bradley was formally installed as the association's new service coordinator, and former LCMC Service Coordinator Mark Vander Tuig was thanked for his service to LCMC over the past ten years. 

Business + Board Members

Due to mandatory attendance limits placed on in person events in the state of Minnesota, the trustees asked the voting delegates to extend the terms for the trustees from Area 2 and Area 4 one more year until 2021.  This was affirmed by vote.  [View Board of Trustees]

Eddy Perez and John Waak were appointed to the ministry board of LCMC, while Nathan Hanson and Steve Turnbull were thanked for their service. [View Ministry Board]

During the business session, delegates voted to extend the association's 2020 budget into next year. 

Videos + Media

Videos from this year's Annual Gathering will be made available in the LCMC App and on our website under Events > Media by winter 2021. 

We will make an announcement via e-newsletter, blog, and mobile updates when when videos from this year's Annual Gathering become available for streaming.  If you're not already subscribed, please be sure to do so if you would like to be notified when new videos become available. 

Digital copies of this year's Annual Gathering book, as well as books from past years, can be found on our website under Events > Media or by clicking here.

Share Your Thoughts

If you would like to submit feedback on this year's event, please click here to fill out the form that is available on our website. To guarantee that the staff and board members of LCMC are able to review your form, all responses must be received by Friday, October 23.

Next Annual Gathering & Convention

Our next Annual Gathering and Convention is scheduled to take place October 3-6, 2021 at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church in Hilliard, OH. 

For updates, stay tuned in our e-newsletter, "Like" and follow us on Facebook, and/or download our mobile app and subscribe to Annual Gathering push notifications in your app settings [here's how].
 

It is with real regret that I inform the LCMC of the resignation of our treasurer, Jeff Wold.  Jeff Wold served as a trustee and then as treasurer for a total of three years. 

Jeff has been a valuable addition to our board and an important voice in this transition process and hiring of the new Service Coordinator for LCMC. 

Jeff has been prayerfully considering the demands of the treasurer’s role while weighing the risks of travel and meetings during this heightened season of COVID-19 risk. 

After much prayer and discernment with his family and the board he has decided it is best for him to resign his position at this time. 

We the Board of Trustees greatly appreciate Jeff’s service to LCMC as well as his wise and mature discernment of this matter and wish him God’s best.

As for next steps, the constitution and bylaws stipulate that the Board of Trustees is responsible for appointing a new treasurer until the next scheduled Annual Gathering, at which time an election to finish the term of the previous treasurer will be held.

The Board of Trustees is prayerfully discerning who they might invite to serve as treasurer until the 2021 Annual Gathering in Columbus, OH.

Please join us in thanking Jeff Wold for his service!

Regards,

Brodie Taphorn
Chair, LCMC Board of Trustees

Those of you who plan to "attend" the event virtually can access our live stream on Monday, October 5 from 9:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. CDT by visiting www.lcmc.net/live. 

A digital version of this year's event program, which includes a detailed schedule, speaker bios, and more, can be downloaded from our website under Events > Media > Annual Gathering Books or by clicking here.

If you're active on social media, be sure to share your photos and other Annual Gathering related posts using the hashtags #LCMC2020AG and #LCMC3point0 so others can find them!  [Follow us on Facebook]

Event Highlights:

• LCMC 3.0 - Introducing Mike Bradley as LCMC's new service coordinator and thanking Mark Vander Tuig for his service to the association
• Keynote Speakers - Gemechis Buba and Matt Randerson
• Panel Discussion - To help provide a more interactive experience for our 2020 participants, a panel discussion will be held. If you would like to submit a question to the panel, please text it to (515) 333-2772 by 3:30 P.M. CDT on October 5.

For those who are unable to attend in person or tune in live, we plan to make videos of this year's speakers available on our website under Events > Media > Videos & Podcasts and in our mobile app by winter 2021.

If you would like to be notified when videos become available, please download our app and opt in to receive notifications. [Here's How]

Our Lord Jesus articulates the mission in Matthew 28, telling us to go into the world to make disciples. That was the mission for the first disciples and churches, and it remains the mission for us today. Remembering the mission will inform the decisions we make as an association moving forward and will shape what we do and how we do it in the time and place in which we live. It is important that we remind one another of just what our mission is. History teaches that it is far too easy for leaders to become distracted from focusing on God’s priorities by focusing more on religious activities that do not help us remain focused (see the Pharisees).

One way to articulate the job God has given us to do is this: Our mission is to develop healthy leaders and disciples in the Church (see Colossians 1:28) and equip God’s people for lives of effective witness and mission in the world today (see Ephesians 2:8-10; 4:11-12). These will be things that we will prayerfully and strategically develop more in the days ahead in LCMC. We will be asking the Lord to show us how we can work together as leaders, congregations, districts, and fellowship groups in developing healthy leaders and disciples, particularly next generation leaders. And we will seek His guidance in how we can network and resource one another in equipping God’s people for the work of ministry He has prepared for them so that we can experience a robust practice of the Priesthood of all Believers.

All of this will only be possible, of course, as we experience the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit at work in us and through us. The Holy Spirit made a difference in the life of Jesus. He made a difference in the lives of those first disciples. And He still wants to make a difference in our lives today. The mission remains the same, but in order to more effectively accomplish the mission, some of the ways we carry it out will need to be adapted and Holy Spirit-led risks will need to be taken.

Let us remind one another as often as we need to sisters and brothers of the mission God has given us because one thing that is most certainly true is this: The mission remains the same.

The training has consisted of understanding conflict from a systems perspective, learning to identify sources of anxiety in congregational conflict, and developing skills in the conflict resolution process. 

The coaches will be available in the months ahead for initial contacts with congregations in conflict.  We invite congregations to contact their LCMC District or Fellowship Group Coordinators to find a conflict coach near them. 

For more information or if you would be interested in participating in a future conflict coach training, contact Pastor Fruhling at perry@lcmc.net. 

As we continue to learn about anxiety and its effect on the life of the church, we thank God for the opportunity to walk together to grow in bringing hope to struggling congregations. 

Congregational councils, small groups, or newly forming conflict resolution teams may have interest in forming a study around the video presentations. 

The video was recorded at Richland Lutheran Church, Richland, WA, in February of this year.  The video is a great opportunity to learn the basic concepts of anxiety in congregations and how to resolve conflict between two individuals or parties of people in a Biblically-based process. 

Perry Fruhling is still available to do in person Conflict Resolution Workshops in your congregation.  Simply contact him at perry@lcmc.net for more information and to schedule the event. 

The LCMC Conflict Coaches Training event has been rescheduled for those who are interested in assisting congregations with conflict resolution. 

The training will be offered twice (individuals may choose to attend either of the events):

• Wednesday and Thursday, August 19 - 20, 2020 (10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. CDT)
• Monday and Tuesday, August 31 - September 1, 2020 (10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. CDT)

The online version will have training, an opportunity to discuss case studies, and plans for utilizing what we learn in congregational settings. 

The hope is to develop LCMC conflict coaches throughout the country who can be an initial contact for LCMC congregations who are experiencing conflict.

Coaches will receive basic training for diagnosing congregational conflict and assisting congregations who need limited help in working through conflicted situations. 

There will be NO COST associated with this event! 

We will host it through Zoom (participants will need to download zoom to their computer to attend).

Click here for an event brochure with the basic information.  Feel free to share it with someone whom you feel may serve well in this capacity (generally meaning someone with a non-anxious presence and some basic knowledge in conflict resolution or psychological systems). 

To register, please reply to perry@lcmc.net with the basic registration information included in the brochure. 

We highly recommend participants having attended an LCMC Conflict Resolution workshop with Pastor Perry Fruhling, Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry for LCMC, or other conflict resolution and peace-making workshops. If not, a participant may download a previously recorded workshop video to view before the event.

Attending does not obligate or guarantee a person in any way to serve as a conflict coach.  But, as there is mutual agreement about being equipped and called for this purpose, perhaps God can use us to bring restoration, health, and wholeness to a neighboring congregation.

• Men's Black Polos
• Sandstone T-Shirts
• Navy Blue T-Shirts
• Black T-Shirts

Contact Cathy Nichol, LCMC Administrative Coordinator, at (734) 788-7476 or cathy@lcmc.net for available sizes and to order.

Mike brings 40 plus years of leadership and ministry experience, having served in Lutheran congregations in Nebraska (Christ Lutheran Church) and South Dakota (Trinity Lutheran Church) as a youth pastor, worship leader, associate pastor, and senior pastor. He also served as President for The Master’s Institute Seminary for ten years and most recently, as Director for the Alliance of Renewal Churches (ARC). Mike is passionate about helping leaders and congregations create an atmosphere that is a safe place for developing healthy leaders and disciples in the church, and equipping God’s people for lives of effective witness and ministry in the world. He is the author of the book, Being a Safe Place for the Dangerous Kind, in which he articulates the essential connection between solid theology and healthy practice in mission and ministry. 

Mike enjoys sports of all kinds, having served as a high school basketball and baseball coach while serving Trinity Lutheran Church in Rapid City, South Dakota. He and his wife of forty-two years, Debi, enjoy reading, hiking, and swimming, and Mike enjoys the occasional golf outing. They have five adult children – Andrew Michael, Joseph Ross, Rachel Christine, Stephen Daniel and Benjamin John, and three grandsons – Michael, Isaac, and Lucas. Mike and Debi live in Gilbert, Arizona with their three-year old white Labrador, Maggie Mae.

Again, we are so excited to have Mike begin his ministry with LCMC. Please be in prayer for the association, our staff, and the Board as we begin this next chapter, together.
 
God’s peace to you,
 
Brodie Taphorn
LCMC Board of Trustees, Chair

Brodie Taphorn, Mill Run Campus Pastor, Upper Arlington Lutheran Church

Seemingly overnight almost everything that we did – practically speaking – as a church…had to change.  No more face -to-face pastoral calls, no more sacraments and baptisms as we have always practiced them, no more worship services, no more church council meetings (ok, things could be worse).  Everything changed.  Everything was complicated.  Everything needed to be rethought.  There is no magic formula to this kind of thing. 

Good leadership is good leadership regardless of the circumstance.  We collaborated, we got creative, we empowered people to figure things out, and ultimately we came up with a lot of new, creative, and hopefully temporary ways to be the church in a global pandemic.

Perhaps the best thing that we have done is figured out a way to connect with our people in a regular and deliberate way.  We call it UALC Live on the 9s. We do a Facebook Live event every day at 9:00 A.M. and 9:00 P.M.  We have used staff, council members, and regular church folk to share something substantively for about 20 minutes, twice a day. It has helped our people feel connected to the church much the same way that morning and evening prayers did in yonder year.

Again, it is not a magic formula. It doesn’t have to be twice a day, [just] something regular and purposeful that has broad ownership and demonstrates to the church that we will figure out, by God’s grace, how to be the church regardless of what hardship comes our way.

I’m confident that churches across our association are coming up with other creative ways of being the church.

May God be glorified as we figure out how to ‘love one another’ as a responsible, social distanced, church body!

Mark Schimmel, Pastor, Zion Lutheran Church

Staying in touch while staying distant is the most challenging part of this whole experience. I’ve been making many more phone calls than usual.  The group of rugged individuals I minister to here in central Texas is usually not very demanding of this pastor’s office time, but in the midst of this event I think they appreciate the calls that I and our council members have made to just stay in touch and see how they are doing.

In terms of worship, I’ve been a bit ahead of the curve in presenting an online option as we have been doing Facebook Live broadcasts for over two years now and have a system in place.  The change to a virtual-only service took a bit of adjustment, but it was a fairly easy transition for us.

I’m not comfortable with the idea of “online communion”, so I really wanted to get us together physically on Easter Sunday. 

Fortunately, the governor of Texas and our county judge put out some guidance in the weeks before Easter that churches were to be considered essential services and specifically authorized the use of drive-in worship services and even drive-through communion, citing the fact that drive-throughs are permitted for many types of businesses (restaurants, pharmacies, and even liquor stores). 

I got to work early in making sure that I had the technical equipment needed to put on a drive-in service (primarily the FM transmitter to be able to send the audio to car radios) and lined up our members who are medical workers to assist with communion so folks would have confidence in their aseptic handling of the elements. 

I also made sure that we could stream the service on Facebook Live so that members who were unable to attend would still have the option of attending online.

Our church is located directly across the street from our local school and the school has a much more suitable parking lot, so I got permission from the school administration to have our service there rather than in the church parking lot.

The service went great and many people commented on how meaningful it was for them to be able to attend church, even if it meant that they needed to stay in their cars and remain “socially distant”. 

We’ll be doing this drive-in church probably once a month going forward as long as the quarantine life is with us.

Fear not!

Laurel Swanson, Lutheran Church of the Cross

At Lutheran Church of the Cross in Altoona, IA, much like at your churches, March 13 was the day that we had to stop talking about all the things we should be doing to empower our members to BE the church, and actually put some of those ideas into action. 

While this wasn't a choice, and it definitely wasn't easy, we are seeing God at work in some miraculous ways.  If you want to check out any of our video options, they can be found at www.lccaltoona.org/watch. 

Some of the things we are doing to keep connected include:

• Pre-recording our weekend worship service and making it available on-demand by Saturday afternoon.  We are asking members of the congregation, not just staff, to participate in video segments, and finding unique places to shoot the video. This picture is from our Easter service opening of "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" recorded at a staff member's pond.
• Kids Connect Videos - Our Children's Ministry coordinator, Kristie Kolsrud, along with her family, records a 5 minute "Kids Connect" video with a "big idea" and activity.
• Virtual Wednesday Youth Nights - Our Discipleship Pastor, Noah Ruppert, records a 10 minute message and worship segment for our Wednesday Night Youth.  Our youth small group leaders set up zoom calls with all of our 6th-12th grade youth to check-in.
• Daily Facebook Live - Each weekday, one of our ministry staff leads a 20 minute Facebook Live session.  These have ranged from live music, to scripture reading, to devotionals.  Whatever the staff member chooses.
• Phone Call Team - We have a team of members making weekly calls to our 65+ age group to check in with them and make sure they are doing okay.
• Virtual Small Groups - Our group leaders are encouraged to connect with their group virtually.

We continue to consider ways that we can improve how we are reaching the community and the world in meaningful ways.  We know that this is not going to be "over" or "back to normal" any time soon, and our desire is to see God glorified in ways we never could have imagined.

Kip Tyler, Pastor, Lutheran Church of the Master

At Lutheran Church of the Master in Omaha we have leveraged technology and social media in ministry and worship during the Covid19 pandemic:

• We use Zoom for meetings, confirmation, youth Bible studies and keeping in touch.
• YouTube is used for sermons, Bible studies and general teaching announcements.
• We send out electronically a bi-weekly/weekly letter on congregational updates due to current governmental advisement.
• We have launched a Facebook page called LCM Coronavirus Outreach FB Group which serves as a ministry, idea, inspiration and outreach site for the congregation and others where they can participate in encouraging and informing each other in service to our neighbors.
• We video both contemporary and traditional worship with a joint sermon which can be accessed either through our website, app or Facebook.
• A South Sudanese service is posted in Nuer on Facebook.
• We have phoning and card contacts to shut-ins by members, Stephen Ministers and our youth.
• Unfortunately funerals have been extended gravesite gatherings, usually of just family members.  
• Members are making non-medical masks, holding a blood drive, raising funds to help people who have lost jobs and have financial needs, getting resources to Pine Ridge Reservation and taking supplies to shut-ins who are unable to leave their homes.

Sue Gunderson, Pastor, Immanuel Lutheran Church

We realized right away that not gathering with our Bible School and Confirmation students every Wednesday afternoon was going to be a huge loss during the lockdown. 

An important thing we do during that time is to gather around the table for snack time after school.  So, our idea was to help families create that time together but around the family meal.

Through some funds donated to us we have been able to provide a pizza a week for our families.  We have a member that has a gas station with pizzas and sandwiches to order. The families call in their order and when then pick it up they receive a devotional guide for the week along with their pizza. 

The devotional guide is created by our education leaders.  Holy Week’s devotions focused on different parts along Jesus’ journey to the cross, so the devotional came with pictures depicting each step along the way – from Jesus entry into Jerusalem, to his crucifixion and burial. 

Families were encouraged to make palm branches by tracing their hands and cutting them out to make a palm branch; then to place the pictures for each day on the palm branch as a way to mark the journey to the cross. 

It has been a great way for our families to stay grounded during this time while creating a meaningful family devotional time and hopefully a pattern for their lives that will last long after Covid-19 is gone.

Barb Baker, Morningside Lutheran Church

For Easter this year, the Morningside Lutheran Church staff threw around the idea of some sort of drive-up service or special interaction for our church family.  

The MLC Food Pantry is currently offering drive-up assistance for those who need food and the process has been working well.  We strongly believe that connecting with one another is vital, so with the state regulations and weather forecast in mind, we decided to have drive-up communion!

MLC’s Easter Services were prerecorded in the weeks leading up to Easter.  Both a traditional and contemporary version of worship was uploaded to our website and Facebook page late Saturday night, so it could be viewed at any point on Sunday.  

From 9:00 -10:00 A.M. Sunday morning, we offered drive-up communion at the church building.  One at a time, vehicles would pull up next to the church front doors and roll down their windows.  Drive-up communion consisted of receiving an individually packaged communion wafer and juice cup, time to pray or talk with one of the pastors, drop off an offering, and pick up a child activity bag for those in 5th grade and below.

Weather did not cooperate with us on Easter Sunday (as you can see in the picture), but it was a wonderful experience and we had a lot of great feedback from those who were able to come out.  

Moving forward, we will be offering drive-up communion the 1st Sunday of each month to accompany our live streamed services.  Of course, we are still constantly thinking outside the box on ways we can reach all in our community!

Larry Kassebaum, Pastor, Victory Lutheran Church

At Victory Lutheran Church here in Mesa, AZ, our response to the “physical distancing” requirement of the COVID-19 pandemic has four key components:

• We videotape an abbreviated version of our regular weekend worship service and make it available for replay on our website and through Facebook
• We offer three “drive in” worship options in our parking lot for those who don’t use technology or who just desire at least some measure of real community. We purchased an FM radio transmitter and worshipers turn to an assigned FM radio station available only in our parking lot
• We create two versions, one audio only and one video, of a daily devotional by Pastor Steve Lien or me that we call “Daily Hope.” In these devotions we share a reading from scripture, our personal reflection on that scripture, a prayer and any virus-related updates to our scheduling or activities. For those with cell phones and e-mail, we send a link to these messages at 8:00 A.M. For those without this technology, we created a dedicated phone line that makes the same pastor-led daily devotion and information update available on a “call in” basis.”
• We have created an intentional pastoral (phone) call system to provide an opportunity for us to just “check-up” on our members.

To share what your congregation is doing in response to COVID-19, please visit our Facebook Page and share your story in the "COVID-19 Megathread" post pinned to the top of our page. 

For more COVID-19 resources, click here. 

Last time we gave you an update, it was specifically about the history of our church plant, the ways that we were reaching out to the community, and how God had been starting that work for years before.

Dan Clites was so integrally involved in both the challenges and the successes that we experienced in those years of growth, and we are so thankful to him and the LCMC for their support.

This time our update is focused on how we’ve been trying, like many of you, to navigate our way through the first half of 2020. 

If there are a few words that would describe our ministry activity since the beginning of March, they would be: discernment, agility and flexibility. 

Our timeline in March was:

• March 8: Regular worship at our worship rental space at the local high school, but we took out passing the offering basket (collection in the back of church), and added hand sanitizer for communion distribution.
• March 15: Live stream Bible study and worship from our home with a few members of our worship team there in person - all done live.
• March 22: Live stream Bible study and worship from our home, but worship team had individually pre-recorded songs from their homes and those were added into the live service.
• March 29: All elements of Bible study and worship service were pre-recorded and edited together during the week and broadcast “live” on Sunday morning.

That’s how we continued until May 31 when we were able to get together again on a limited basis and in a new location.

During this time we had our fair share of challenges, and while those challenges have minimized, they still exist. Our Executive Board and Elders were an excellent support to these transitions as we had to make tough budget decisions, such as:

• We turned our leased office/meeting space back to the landlord at the end of April, and moved all of our operations into our home
• We also reduced our administrative assistant’s hours to just working from home 8 hours a week from 26
• My wife took on more of the administrative workload, simply because she was part of all of the moving pieces in real time, and she’s a full time member of our church staff already

As we shifted focus to live streaming, we worked hard to incorporate as many others as possible from their homes for things like worship songs, readings and prayers, so that worship experience could be effective at home, and also let those that really enjoy being part of worship do so.

These additions were very well received by our church family!

In addition to Sunday mornings, we felt that it was important to have more consistent contact with not only our Firmly Rooted family, but also opportunities for those in our local community as well as across the country, to be fed daily by our ministry. We added a daily live stream devotional entitled “90 seconds with God” at 8:30 A.M. Monday - Saturday, and a segment offered the same days at 9:00 A.M. called “Let’s Just Pray.”  Each of these segments is on both Facebook Live and YouTube.

Interestingly, even though society has started to “open up” a bit since COVID-19 restrictions, our participation in these segments has not decreased.

My wife and I also took our men’s and women’s groups that were meeting in person and moved those to online, so that the spiritual feeding of these groups would not be cut off while we couldn’t gather. Both groups have grown from originally 10-20 that met in person to up to 250 in Facebook groups that are now getting daily devotionals and posts. Many of these were not previously affiliated with Firmly Rooted at all, but were searching for something positive and spiritual.

Please know that if you aren’t currently involved in live streaming and ministry in this way, it may seem easier on the face of it, but actually, my wife and I are working harder than ever before.

In order to do it well, we are working on this with our Minister of Outreach to better our software and our technology. It’s a continuous process, and something is tweaked almost daily as we continue to work towards excellence in this area.

What has been the outcome of being discerning, agile and flexible, along with a lot of hard work?  Our ministry, and we ourselves, have been blessed beyond measure these past few months!  Each Sunday we are involving more folks in Bible study, worship, and our other live event opportunities.  Every marker shows an increase.  God has used this technology to expand the Kingdom exceeding our hopes and dreams in every way!

We now have more involvement than ever before!  We often receive testimonials about families changed as one member live streamed something on the television where the rest of the family could hear it.  We have heard of more than a few conversions and folks seeking baptism soon! 

Giving has been a miracle!  Our giving was actually down below our budgeted needs in January and February.  In March, it started increasing, many donations coming from folks that we don’t know and still haven’t met.  They found us online.  In March, April and May, the giving exceeded our budgeted needs, to as much as our budget +50%!

This is all evidence of a God of abundance, not a God of scarcity.  While we weren’t able to gather together, He was working to multiply in each and every area!  All glory to Him!

We are so thankful that we are part of a ministry that is discerning, agile and flexible. If we hadn’t been nimble enough to do the things we thought we were being called to do, even though they were labor intensive, we don’t believe that we would be seeing the way He could show off for the Kingdom during a challenging time.

We always conclude our worship services with the phrase, “God is good,” and the congregants, in person or online, reply with, “All the time”.  We say, “And all the time,” and they reply, “God is good.”  We have never seen that phrase lived out before our eyes more clearly than these last several months! I t is our prayer that each of you is seeing it now, too.

If Firmly Rooted can ever be of service to you, please let us know.

"Getting To Know" is a regular column in BY THE WORD, the quarterly newsletter for LCMC.  For more information and to view past editions, click here. 

We will still be meeting at North Heights Lutheran Church in Arden Hills, Minnesota, but for one day only, on Monday, October 5th!  

Because of the restrictions placed on large group gatherings by the State of Minnesota, we must limit our gathering to 250 people.  Registration is first come first serve, limited to delegates to the convention only, and participants must register online. 

The gathering will be live streamed, and we are asking congregations, districts, fellowship groups, and networks who have the technology available, to host gatherings so people in their area can come together and participate via the internet. 

Plans are in the works to make the online event interactive so people who are tuning in via live stream can ask questions, make comments, and be a part of what is happening at North Heights.  We want to include as many people as possible! 

As the date draws closer, we will be sending out more information, but for now, please keep all of this in your prayers. 

This may be a very different gathering, but just like the printing press facilitated the Reformation, so also may technology and the internet facilitate even more people being a part of the Annual Gathering & Convention than ever before possible.

To learn more and register, click here. 

Get Updates:

If you'd like to be notified when new information becomes available, please download our moble app and subscribe to Annual Gathering push notifications in the app settings [here's how].  Alternatively, you can subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter, follow us on Facebook, or read blog articles about the Annual Gathering here.

To date, approximately 683 pastors out of 1,288 have responded.  We are still looking for more participation.

Thank you for helping us keep the information in our directory current! 

The Board of Trustees has worked diligently and faithfully to discern God’s calling for the next chapter in the life of LCMC. We have been calling this new season LCMC 3.0 and it will be led by a new Service Coordinator following the retirement of Mark Vander Tuig on August 31, 2020.

We are currently well into the process of identifying who the next leader will be, and by God’s grace we hope to bring an update very soon on how this process is coming together.

Our hope was to identify a new leader by July 1, 2020, while staying committed to keep searching until we have unity on the candidate, I am hopeful that we are going to achieve our goal on this timeline.
 
Whenever there is a turnover in leadership it is important to assess the broad spectrum of our strengths, weaknesses, and the opportunities to address the challenges we face as an association.

The Board of Trustees has made a renewed commitment to building on the part of our DNA that is summed as, “accountable to one another”. We believe that the most effective way to achieve this commitment to our DNA is to empower, train, and equip the pastors and leaders in our districts, fellowship groups, networks, and informal associations.

As a part of these initiatives, LCMC 3.0 will challenge the association to plant churches on a more regional basis through the ministries of districts, fellowship groups, and local churches. As a result of this decentralization of church planting, the position of Coordinator for Church Planting will end on May 31, 2020.

The Rev. Dan Clites, who has been our Coordinator for Church Planting for almost 8 years, has served our Association diligently and faithfully.  His passion, energy, and commitment to planting churches has benefited our association and its church planters in real and substantive ways.

Dan has helped to seek out and train church planters and trained many church planting teams. He has gone wherever needed to help people start churches all across the US and has consulted with our friends in Brazil regarding church planting and developing missional communities. Dan has also co-lead a video training opportunity twice a month called “2:47 Network” and has faithfully served this association with passion and given us a strong foundation upon which to build.
 
On behalf of the Board of Trustees I want to thank the Rev. Dan Clites for his hard work and selfless service to the members of this association. I am personally grateful for the contributions Dan has made in his nearly 8 years of service and we wish him God’s best as he begins a new chapter in his life.

I want to encourage all those who have been impacted by Dan’s ministry to reach out and thank him personally, you can reach Dan at dan@lcmc.net.
 
Please continue to pray for Dan in his transition and for the Board of Trustees as we continue the process of finding our next Service Coordinator.
 
God’s peace to you all,
 
Brodie Taphorn
Chair, LCMC Board of Trustees
and on behalf of the LCMC Board of Trustees

"The deadline for registration was today and as of 11 am CST we had only 77 people signed up and needed 200 to break even," said Mark Vander Tuig, service coordinator of LCMC.  "This is understandable for youth groups and youth leaders with the days ahead to be so uncertain and the current climate quite restrictive.  Groups can’t even meet to have a discussion, nor able to raise funds to make the trip.  Travel plans are constantly changing and we simply can’t make the necessary financial commitments without the numbers required."

Called 2: Love participants who have already registered for the event will be contacted by LCMC and issued a refund for any deposits that have already been paid. 

Going forward, the LCMC Staff and Board of Trustees will be working together to determine whether to move the event to 2021, or to try something completely diifferent. 

"I am disappointed to say the least.  This has been a great event and I think a real blessing for all of us who have been involved, both those who have made it happen and those who have attended.  But, I am convinced that God still holds the world and our lives and ministries in the palm of His almighty hand and the Lord will use even this for a greater good and for the Kingdom." Vander Tuig said. 

If you would like to be notified of future LCMC youth events, please opt-in for "Youth Event" notifications in our mobile app [here's how], "Like" and "Follow" us on Facebook, or subscribe to our e-newsletter. 

"There was a sense that people will be reticent to register and no one is sure at this point whether safe distancing will be at an end by July.  We also canceled the LCMC youth event which had been planned for later July," said Perry Fruhling, LCMC's coordinator for pastoral ministry. 

While the importance of social distancing during this time is being taken seriously, the need for intentional interim ministry training among our pastors has not gone away. 

"There had been a number of inquiries, so there is still interest in this important training." Fruhling said. 

If you would like to be notified of future intentional interim ministry workshops, please "Like" and "Follow" us on Facebook, subscribe to our e-newsletter, and/or follow our blog.

As we adapt to this time of social distancing in order to help prevent the spread of the virus, please consider sharing what your congregation is doing in response to COVID-19, and if applicable, links to any resources that you have available in the comments below our "COVID-19 Megathread" post. 

By containing this information to a single thread, we hope to create one centralized location where anyone in need of ideas, information, support, or home-based worship resources can find what they are looking for. 

We plan to keep this post pinned to the top of our page for the next few weeks to help make this information as easily accessible as possible for anyone who might need it. 

For more information on COVID-19, please visit www.cdc.gov.

Like and Follow LCMC on Facebook >>
 

COVID-19 Relief:

Please visit our Relief Efforts page for the most up-to-date information on current relief programs. 
 

Additional Resources:

The resources listed below are offered for your consideration.  Inclusion on the list does not imply an endorsement by the Board of Trustees, the Ministry Board or the staff of LCMC.

Blackbaud
Resources  |  Contact
 

Church Doctor Ministries
Website  |  Facebook
 

Elisa Ashley
Website
 

Jeannie Miller-Clarkson
Website

Life Together Churches
Home-Based Worship Videos

Riverside Bible Camp

• 1 Hour of Power LIVE (Every Weekday at 2:00 CST):  Facebook  |  YouTube
• LIVE Bible Study (Every Weekday at 3:00 CST): YouTube

TechSoup
Website  |  Resources

– Mark Vander Tuig, Service Coordinator, LCMC

Hello Friends, Pastors, Leaders, and Members of LCMC Congregations,
 
With a 24 hour news cycle and constant reporting about every movement of the corona virus and explicit and detailed ways of limiting its spread, you don’t really need one more person telling you what to do.  I would simply encourage you to follow through with the protocols that our federal, state, county and local governments and medical professionals are asking us to do.  This, however, is an invitation.
 
For the last 10 years I have been calling us in LCMC to become more and more a people of prayer.  We have a great opportunity to do so this coming Sunday, March 22.  I would like us to dedicate this coming Sunday to be a day of prayer and fasting.
 
Most of our churches will likely not be gathering for corporate worship, but as many have already said, the building is not the church, we are the church. 
 
Gather with a small group of people from your church or even your neighborhood for prayer.  Do so in homes around the kitchen table or sitting in the living room.  Some of us have probably never prayed with our spouse, our children, or as a family.  And not just reading prayers, but simply talking with God.  You don’t need fancy language.  Just bring every care to the throne of Grace. 
 
Some officials have suggested that wherever we go we gather in groups of no more than 10 people—what a perfect size group for a time of prayer.  View Current CDC Recommendations >>
 
What prayer concerns might you have?  I have many, here are just a few: 

• Pray for our government leaders (Romans).  Ask the Lord of Heaven and Earth that they would be able to come together to make wise and common sense decisions to protect the vulnerable and ease the financial burden on those affected by all the shutdowns.
• Pray for those families who will be challenged to both continue to work to provide an income and at the same time care for their children who will not be in school, pre-school or day care.
• Pray for the businesses in our communities who will be drastically affected by the mandatory shutdowns that they might survive, recover and thrive once again.
• Pray for those who are working in the health care fields, those who will have direct contact with folks who are showing symptoms of Covid-19.
• Pray for our congregations, leaders, and pastors that together we might be light in the darkness and salt to a world that still cries out in pain, hurt, confusion, and frustration.
• And for all, in every nation that are suffering illness now because of this pandemic.

And fasting?  There are many ways to fast.  Not all of us can avoid nutrition without causing some serious consequences.  You can fast from watching television—might be a good idea to not be bombarded with troubling news 24/7.  You can fast from sweets, from broccoli, from anything else that takes up time and spend that time in prayer.  You can fast from Facebook social media, and even video games.  You can fast from your usual TV viewing and watch a Christmas movie. 
 
Fasting is not an attempt to show God what a wonderful person you are or to gain any stars in your crown, but it is a good discipline that gives us more time for prayer and getting in to God’s Word.
 
Maybe what we need is a longer-term perspective.  A year from now, this will just be a memory.  5 years from now some will have troubling remembering what it was all about, 10 years from now, no one will know and no one will care!
 
Here are some words from the Scriptures that I hang on to in times of trouble:

• "Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares about you." – I Peter 5:8
• "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." – Matthew 6 (the whole chapter)
•  Let today’s trouble be enough for today (one day at a time).
• Romans 8:28: In all things, God works for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
• Psalm 23 
• And finally, the three most often said words in the Bible: Be not afraid.

Let’s remember that God is faithful.  He is still the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Our God is greater than any virus or anything else in this world!  We will get through this, and there is a better day coming!
 
Let’s dedicate this coming Sunday to a day of prayer and fasting.

Mark Vander Tuig
Service Coordinator, LCMC

Thank you for your interest in our planned youth event this coming summer.  Obviously, events of the last few weeks, and the weeks going forward are having an impact on everything! 

The last day to register for the youth event is April 1.  If you are planning to register, we encourage you to do so as soon as possible to give us the best indication of our numbers at the deadline.

We need 175 participants to break even—and in LCMC, our goal is for everything to “break even”.  If we don’t reach that number by April 1, we will be canceling the event.

Some have suggested because of the pandemic that has rocked our nation and our world, and has led to the cancellation of all kinds of events, that we should cancel this event now.  We are not ready to do that at this point, but come April 1, we will make that decision.

If you have not yet purchased plane tickets, hold off until after April 1.  If you have already purchased them, most airlines are making refunds available.  If you have your tickets, please check with the airline now to find out about their cancellation policy.

We apologize for any inconvenience.  We are simply hoping to be good stewards of your time and expense and respond appropriately to the concerns shared by medical and safety professionals.

Rev. Mark Vander Tuig

Service Coordinator, LCMC

To learn more and register for this event, click here.

The need has never been greater for trained intentional interim ministers who are called and equipped to assist congregations during times of change and transition. 

Intentional interim ministry is not just filling a void during a pastoral vacancy, but focusing on developmental tasks of the congregation and process tasks for the intentional interim pastor.  It is vital for intentional interim ministers to discover an increased awareness of self as part of a system in order to equip a congregation to define their present reality and to plan for their future.

A basic course on intentional interim ministry will be offered July 6-9, 2020 at Grand View University in Des Moines, IA.  It is for anyone who is new to interim ministry and has not yet received intentional interim ministry training through LCMC.

To register for the basic course, contact Cathy Nichol, LCMC Administrative Coordinator at cathy@lcmc.net or call (734) 788-7476. 

The cost for the training course is $275.  Housing is available through Grand View University.

We ask that those enrolled bring a serious commitment to learning and conscientious determination to healthy practice of intentional interim ministry. 

The basic course is not intended to be exhaustive, but the first introductory step in a continuous learning process. 

LCMC is committed to providing continuing education for those who have taken the basic course.  Future classes are being planned and will be announced at a later date.

The leadership and staff in LCMC have gone through a consultation process that aided the Board of Trustees in developing an opportunity profile for the incoming Service Coordinator. 

This document is included at the LCMC website within the open position (https://lcmc.net/open-position/1125).   A printable PDF version can also be obtained by clicking here. 

Interested candidates are asked to read the opportunity profile and prayerfully consider applying for the position.  The Board of Trustees will be accepting applications through March 15, 2020.  

The initial phase of the hiring process simply requiring a cover letter along with a resume or C.V. be submitted in pdf format to info@lcmc.net. 

Candidates that are selected to move further in the process will be notified shortly after the application deadline.

45% of followers who responded to our Facebook poll reported that this was their first time taking part in Three Days of Prayer with LCMC.

While everyone was invited to start off the new year by setting aside some intentional time to pray each day from January 7-9, participants were encouraged to organize each of the three days in any way that made sense for them.

While some congregations chose to organize prayer vigils, hold prayer services, or host other kinds of special events in order to help encourage others to pray, many LCMC-ers simply set aside some time during each of the three days to pray.

80% of people who took the poll said that they prayed on their own this year, while 20% told us that they attended an event organized by their congregation.

When asked whether they prefer praying individually or with a group of people, 70% of Facebook followers told us they most enjoy praying quietly on their own.

Our next annual Three Days of Prayer takes place January 5-7, 2021.

If you would like to follow along and pray with us during each of the three days, "Like" and follow our Facebook page or opt-in for Three Days of Prayer notifications in our mobile app. [Here's How]

To watch from our mobile app using your smartphone or tablet, simply tap on the "Media" tab, then select "2019 Annual Gathering" from the list of options.  The LCMC App is compatible with Apple TV and Chromecast, so you can use it to stream content directly to your TV screen. 

If you prefer to watch online, video content can also be found on our website under Events > Media. 

If you haven't already done so, be sure to mark your calendars for our next Annual Gathering, October 4-7, 2020 at North Heights Lutheran Church in Arden Hills, MN. 

In keeping with tradition, the focuses for each of the three days are as follows:

• January 7 - Confession
• January 8 - Petition
• January 9 - Vision

We will be sharing daily reflections on the themes for each of the three days, so be sure you're following our Facebook page and/or have "opted in" for Three Days of Prayer notifications in our mobile app [here's how] if you would like to follow along. 

Whether you're taking part in a prayer walk, attending a prayer service or vigil, or simply setting aside some intentional time to pray on your own, we love seeing how our congregations, pastors, and members chose to organize each of the three days. 

If you're following us on social media, please use the hashtag #LCMC3DOP2020 when sharing your photos, experiences, and reflections during each of the three days so others can find them. 

The event features worship, music, service projects, breakout sessions, and teachings on love, leadership, and what it takes to pursue a role in ministry.  

Participants will also have a chance to connect with other high school students and youth leaders in LCMC through mixers and activities, plus enjoy an ice cream social, games, and inflatables outside on the green.  

The event is designed for high school students completing grades 8-12, youth leaders, and adult chaperones.

Registration fees are $325 per person and are all-inclusive, so all you have to do is get there.

A $50 deposit for each registrant is due at the time of registration to secure your spot, and the deadline to sign up is April 1, 2020.

For more information and to register, CLICK HERE. 

As many as 40% of our congregations will experience conflict to the point of disrupting mission! 

During the past year, Rev. Perry Fruhling, Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry for LCMC, has been conducting Conflict Resolution Workshops around the country. 

The desire now is to take this training to the next level as we train coaches for various regions of the country. 

There will be a Conflict Coaches Training Event held at Hosanna! Lutheran Church in St. Charles, IL (near to O’Hare Airport), March 30 - April 1, 2020.  

The event will include training on the following:

• Basic information about anxiety in congregations – learning to identify the source of anxiety and management of it
• The process of conflict resolution – with hands on exercises
• Family Systems and congregational conflict
• Protocol for listening and discernment in congregational conflict
• Assessment and working with leadership on a plan for conflict resolution
• Reconciliation, restoration and healing in the congregation
• Referral and steps for long-term care

Registration for the event is $50, which includes materials, lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday, and other presentation costs. 

This LCMC event is open to LCMC pastors and lay leaders.  Attendance at one of the Conflict Workshops or having other background in conflict resolution would be beneficial but is not required.

If you are interested in attending, please contact Rev. Perry Fruhling at perry@lcmc.net for registration, hotel, and other additional information.

At our 19th Annual Gathering and Convention, held in Omaha, NE September 29 – October 2, 2019, our Service Coordinator, Rev. Mark Vander Tuig announced his retirement effective August 31, 2020.  Mark has done this so we, as a Board and as an association, can take this time to evaluate and assess both the state of LCMC and the position of Service Coordinator.

In order to prepare for the next chapter in the life of the association, we have engaged a consultant to help us.  Bob Logan of Logan Leadership will work with us through this process, which we expect will be complete by the end of 2019.  Bob met with the Board of Trustees and the Ministry Board for two days this summer.  He has scheduled one-on-one interviews with the staff, others and is organizing video conferences with groups within LCMC. His goal is to gain a broad perspective representing various groups and ministries all across our association.

The timeline for hiring the next Service Coordinator is as follows:

• December—January:  The Board of Trustees will review recommendations, make adjustments to the Service Coordinator job description, and set goals for the coming year.
• February—March:  The Board of Trustees will open the position to submit resumes and evaluate candidates.
• April—May:  Interview final candidates and move to fill the position.
• June:  Announce the selection of the next Service Coordinator.
• July—August:  New Service Coordinator will work with Mark Vander Tuig and staff.
• August 31, 2020:  Mark Vander Tuig completes his service to LCMC.
• October 4, 2020:  The next Service Coordinator will be installed at the next Annual Gathering held at North Heights Lutheran Church, Arden Hills, October 4-7, 2020.

Working with Mark these last few years has given me a front row seat to the way he pours his heart into this association of churches. Mark has served us with distinction for a decade; I hope you will join me and the board as we give thanks for Mark’s service and pray for him as he opens a new chapter. More details to come later this year on how you and your church can express your thanks for Mark and his service to LCMC.

God’s peace,

Rev. Brodie Taphorn

Chair, LCMC Board of Trustees

What Is Three Days of Prayer?

With the intention of encouraging the people of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ to become more and more a people of prayer, LCMC Service Coordinator Mark Vander Tuig organized the association's first ever Three Days of Prayer event in 2012. 

The event has since become an annual tradition within LCMC and a way to help change our views about what it really means to pray. 

"Our attitude toward prayer has often been characterized by saying, 'well, all we can do now is pray!'.  Prayer is not the hopeless act of desperation.  Prayer is a gift that God has given to us as a means to approach the throne of grace with confidence—like that of a child coming to her parents sharing concerns, victories, defeats and every part of life.  It is an opportunity to express the deepest heartache and the greatest joy.  Prayer is a conversation between the Creator and the created…and the conversation began with God, for us, in Christ Jesus," said Vander Tuig. 

After a busy holiday season, so many of us look forward to setting intentions for the new year.  We create goals, try new diet and fitness plans, track our habits, and make lists of things we want to accomplish in the year ahead. 

Setting aside time to pray might seem like adding one more item to an already full plate, but that isn't the objective. 

Consider this time of prayer as an opportunity to confess the sins that have been weighing us down, to bring up any worries or concerns we may have, and to pray that our hearts and minds of the people in our congregations are renewed and revitalized so we may carry out God's vision for His Church. 

How Do I Participate?

Every congregation, member, and pastor within LCMC is invited to join together from January 7-9, 2020 to start off the new year with an intentional time of prayer. 

The themes for each day are as follows:

• January 7: Confession
• January 8: Petition
• January 9: Vision

Since every congregation is different, structure this time of prayer in any way that works for you and the people in your congregation. 

In past years, some congregations have organized special events such as prayer walks, services, and vigils, some have utilized print or digital media to create resources for their congregation members, others have prayed on their own or at home with friends and family, and some have simply asked everyone in their congregation to set aside some time to pray during each of the three days. 

All who take part in this intentional time of prayer are invited to share their thoughts, reflections, stories, and photos from the event on social media using the hashtag #LCMC3DOP2020. 

More information on Three Days of Prayer, as well as downloadable resources submitted by LCMC pastors and congregations, can be found on our website. 

The total number of participants included 440 delegates, 190 church members, 24 seminarians, 49 vendors, 2 speakers, 8 members of the Board of Trustees, 6 LCMC staff members, and 44 guests who were non-members of LCMC.  

The event kicked off with dinner on Sunday evening, followed by an opening worship service preached by Andrea Paulson, Associate Pastor of First St. Paul's Lutheran Church (Hastings, NE).  

Greg Finke, Executive Director of dwelling114.org, and Grace Johnson, Education Administrator at The Master's Institute Seminary, keynoted this year’s event, which focused on inspiring our congregations to “Listen Up!” to God’s calling on our lives, His calling on the people around us, and the callings and challenges that face us across generations.

Bible studies were led each morning by Jim Cords, who serves at Desert Hope Lutheran Church (Tucson, AZ) and on the LCMC Ministry Board.  

Over the course of the four day event, participants also took part in fellowship meet-ups, and breakout sessions, networked, plus had the chance to connect with dozens of the mission and ministry organizations who participated as vendors.

In his Service Coordinator Report on Monday afternoon, Mark Vander Tuig announced his retirement in 2020, as well as new working relationships with people in Brazil and Norway.  

Also announced were three upcoming events for 2020:

• Three Days of Prayer - January 7-9 in Your Congregation
• Youth Event - July 21-24 in Des Moines, IA
• 20th Annual Gathering - October 4-7 in Arden Hills, MN

You can download and view the slides from the Service Coordinator Report by clicking here.  

LCMC staff members Dan Clites and Perry Fruhling recognized those who were celebrating significant anniversaries of ordination, new congregations and pastors, military chaplains, seminarians, and church planters on Tuesday afternoon. 

On Tuesday evening, a concert was offered featuring Rachel Scott, a singer, songwriter, and worship leader from Omaha.  For more information on Rachel and to view a copy of the music she recently wrote for LCMC, click here.  

On Wednesday morning, the assembly joined Mark Vander Tuig in thanking Julie Smith and Steve Hagler for their service on the LCMC Board of Trustees and welcoming two newly elected members, Jonathan Anderson (Area 2) and Randy Freund (Area 3).  

The current LCMC Board of Trustees consists of Brodie Taphorn (Area 5 - Chair), Jason Eliot (Area 7 - Vice Chair), Darrin Vick (Area 6 - Secretary), Jeff Wold (At Large - Treasurer), Jonathan Anderson (Area 2), Randy Freund (Area 3), Susan Gunderson (Area 4), and Jeremey King (Area 1).  

After the election results were announced, a panel discussion on ministry was held featuring Becky Hand (Pastor at Life in Grace Lutheran Church, Odessa, TX), Jody Skogen (Pastor at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, Cedar Rapids, IA), Aaron Thompson (Seminarian from Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, Columbus, OH), and John Waak (Pastor at Martin Luther Lutheran Church, Giddings, TX).

The event wrapped up on Wednesday morning with a closing worship service preached by Jonathan Haseley, East Campus Pastor of Lutheran Church of the Master (Omaha, NE).  

Just in case you were not able to catch the live stream of this year’s event, LCMC plans to have videos of this year’s speakers available in our mobile app and on our website (under Events > Media > Videos & Podcasts) after the new year.  

If you would like to be notified when videos become available, please opt-in for “General” notifications in our mobile app [here’s how] and/or subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter.

For a digital edition of this year's book, check out our mobile app or find it on our website under Events > Media > Annual Gathering Books.  

Our next Annual Gathering and Convention will be held October 4-7, 2020 at North Heights Lutheran Church in Arden Hills, MN.  For updates, be sure to subscribe to our e-newsletter, follow our blog, or download our moble app and subscribe to Annual Gathering push notifications in the app settings [here's how].

WATCH LIVE:

If you were not able to attend this year, you can still catch a live webcast on our website (www.lcmc.net/live) beginning Sunday, September 29 at 7:00 P.M. CDT and ending Wednesday, October 2 at 11:00 A.M. CDT. 

For a copy of this year's schedule, click here. 

ANNUAL GATHERING BOOKS:

A downloadable PDF copy of this year's Annual Gathering book can be found on our website under Events > Media > Annual Gathering Books or by clicking here.  The book can also be accessed from our mobile app. 

EVENT HASHTAGS:

If you're following us on social media, tag your Annual Gathering related photos, videos, and other posts using the hashtags #LCMC19AG and #LCMClistenup. 

ANNUAL GATHERING VIDEOS:

Videos of our speakers will be available for streaming in our mobile app and on our website under Events > Media > Videos & Podcasts in winter 2020. 

We will make an announcement once all videos have been posted, so be sure to subscribe to our e-newsletter, or sign up to receive "General" notifications in our mobile app [here's how] if you'd like to be directly notified when all videos are available. 

NOTE:  The LCMC app is compatible with GoogleCast and Apple TV. 

NEWS UPDATES:

While the LCMC Annual Gathering & Convention serves as a time to join together for the purposes of fellowship, networking, worship, learning, and recognition, it is also a time to share what we've been up to over the past year, our plans for the future, and to make announcements that are relevant to our association. 

For news updates, be sure you're following the LCMC blog online or in our app, and/or subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter. 

LCMC STORE:

For 19th Annual Gathering logo merchandise, check out our online store at: https://lcmc.threadless.com. 

• Hotel Accommodations:  If you plan on booking a room under the LCMC hotel block at the Hilton Omaha and haven't done so already, the deadline to book is September 6!  Book Now >>
   
• Event Registration:  If you haven't already registered, we recommend signing up by September 15 to beat the price increase.  Fellowship dinner tickets can be purchased at the time of registration if you are interested.  Register Online >>
   
• On Site Notifications:  On site notifications for the Annual Gathering are available in our mobile app.  If you would like to be notified of any announcements that have been made during the event, including meeting room assignments, be sure you've opted in.  Here's How >>

On site registration and packet pickup opens at 4:00 P.M. on Sunday, September 29 at the convention center.  To view the full schedule of events, click here. 

Once the event is underway, a digital version of our Annual Gathering book will be made available on our website under Events  >  Media  >  Annual Gathering Books as well as in our mobile app.  Our staff is also planning to once again live stream the main session of the event from www.lcmc.net/live.  We will make an announcement when our live stream is underway, so be sure to follow us on social media or check out our blog. 

Finally, if you're a church planter (or interested in church planting), be sure to check out the 2:47 Network Planter's Retreat during the Annual Gathering.  There is no cost to attend, however participants MUST register for the Annual Gathering and contact Dan Clites to sign up for the retreast. 

We can't wait to see you there! 

Tickets are still available for this year's fellowship dinner, so if you're interested in connecting with other LCMC-ers over dinner or joining a specific fellowship group, be sure to "opt in" for this activity when you register for the Annual Gathering.  Available group options include:

• 20-30 Somethings / Young Adults
• Clergy Spouses
• CrossAlone Fellowship Group
• Illinois Fellowship Group
• Lake Superior Fellowship Group
• Mid-Atlantic Fellowship Group
• Greater Twin Cities Fellowship
• The Southeast LCMC Conference
• WI/UP-MI Fellowship Group

Greg Finke and Grace Johnson will take the stage as our keynote speakers this year to help us better understand how we can “Listen Up!” to God’s calling on our lives, his calling on the people around us, and the callings and challenges that face us across generations.

Participants at the this year's will also have the opportunity to explore topics of their interest during one of three different breakout sessions, connect with dozens of mission and ministry organizations in our vendor area, enjoy music, worship and pray together with other people in LCMC, connect with an LCMC district, and network with other pastors, ministry leaders, and congregation members. 

It all takes place September 29 - October 2, 2019  at the CHI Health Center Omaha in Omaha, NE. 

For more information and to register online, click here. 

Led by LCMC Coordinator for Church Planting Development Dan Clites, this workshop is designed to engage, empower and successfully deploy those who are wired and called to consider starting up a church plant. 

Church planters, planters to be, planters in discernment, and spouses, and church leaders are invited. 

There is no cost to attend, however those who are interested in taking part in the boot camp must register by contacting Dan Clites by  November 1.  Meals and housing will be provided by Hosanna! Lutheran Church.  

The event takes place November 6-8, 2019 at Hosanna! Lutheran Church in St. Charles, IL.  For more information, click here. 

Next year's theme is Called 2: Love and features teachings on love, leadership, and ministry.  The event also includes worship, service projects, breakout sessions, music, and a chance to connect with other high school students and youth leaders in LCMC. 

Our goal?  To empower youth ministry in the local church, provide leadership development for students and youth leaders, and encourage students to consider the vocation of ministry. 

It all takes place July 21-24, 2020 at Grand View University in Des Moines, IA and is open to the first 243 high school students, youth leaders, and adult chaperones who register.  More Info >>

If you'd like to be notified when registration opens, please download our mobile app and opt in for "Youth Event" notifications.  [Here's How]

For more detailed information on the church planting retreat, click here. 
 

Available merchandise includes:

• Men's Tees
• Women's Tees
• Hoodies
• Sweatshirts
• Mugs
• Bags
• Stickers
• Notebooks

Annual Gathering logo items will only be available for a limited time, so check out our store ASAP to see what's available! 

Shop Now >>

The Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ 19th Annual Gathering & Convention takes place September 29 - October 2 in Omaha, NE and features speakers, worship, breakout sessions, vendors, news updates, and opportunities to get connected with LCMC pastors and congregation members. 

Early bird registration ends August 15th!

Click here to view a summary of the court's decision, by the Church Alliance.

Greg Finke and Grace Johnson will serve as our keynote speakers this year as we "Listen Up!" to God's calling on our lives, His calling on the people around us, and the callings and challenges that we are faced with across generations.

Andrea Paulsen and Jonathan Haseley will preach our opening and closing worship services.  Jim Cords will lead prayer and Bible study each morning.  

It all takes place September 29 through October 2 at the CHI Health Center Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska.

For more detailed information and to register, click here or find "Annual Gathering" listed under the events section of our mobile app.  

Early bird registration ends August 15th, so be sure to sign up before then in order to beat the price increase! 

You might also be interested in:  Photo Contest  |  Church Planting Retreat

Entry Form

How has your congregation “Listened Up” to the needs of others on a local, national, or international level over the past year?  Enter the 2019 Annual Gathering Photo Contest and share your stories with us!  

The LCMC staff is once again welcoming photo submissions from LCMC pastors, leaders, and church members that depict how their congregation has been "in Mission for Christ" over the past year.  

We especially love to see photos from service projects, outreach events/activities/programs, mission trips, creative/artistic projects, disaster relief, and church planting efforts from any and all age groups within your congregation!

HERE'S HOW TO ENTER:

1. Go to www.lcmc.net/2019-photocontest and review the photo guidelines
2. Upload a photo, fill out the entry form, and click “submit"
3. You will receive a confirmation message once your photo has been submitted.  

You may enter as many photos as you’d like, however to ensure that we are able to communicate the story behind your photo, the entry form must accompany each submission.  

Photos will be selected based on subject matter (how closely they fit the theme), quality of the photo (not squished, blurry, or overlapped by text or clip art), and the story behind the photo (the photo description explaining how your congregation is making a difference).

Due to printing requirements, time restraints, and the high volume of photos we receive each year we are unable to guarantee the publication of each and every photo submitted, however all eligible photos received by Monday, July 15th will be considered for publication in our 2019 Annual Gathering books.  

Hard copy books will be available at the Annual Gathering in October, and a digital edition of the book will be available on our website and in our mobile app once the Annual Gathering begins.

The LCMC 19th Annual Gathering and Convention takes place September 29 - October 2, 2019 at the CHI Health Center Omaha in Omaha, NE. 

Your church plant has a vision.  It is biblical and even ambitious.  But if you want to see people living in the reality of that vision some day, you will need to carefully craft a discipling process to that end. 

With that in mind, the 2:47 Network is once again hosting a church planters retreat within the LCMC Annual Gathering, going deeper with our guest and keynote speaker, Rev. Greg Finke (Executive Director of Dwelling114).

Current church planters, spouses, and anyone interested in planting are welcome! 

There is no additional cost to attend the retreat, however interested persons must be registered for the Annual Gathering.

To sign up for the retreat, email Dan Clites at dan@lcmc.net after you have registered for the Annual Gathering. 

For more detailed information on this event, click here. 

Our theme this year is “Listen Up!”  We will spend our time together considering the challenges that come in our attempts to hear clearly.  How do we listen for God’s  callings in our lives?  How do we listen to the needs of our neighbors?  How do we listen across generational and cultural divides?

If you’re a regular at the Gathering, we look forward to seeing you again.  For many, the Annual Gathering is more like a family reunion than a church meeting.  We are supported and encouraged by reconnecting with old friends and making new ones.

If your congregation has never sent delegates to the Annual Gathering, we’d love to see you there next fall.  Along with the official gathering activities, it’s a great opportunity to get to know other members of our association.  It can sometimes feel like you’re out there on your own in LCMC, and the Annual Gathering will help you meet some of your neighbors. It also provides opportunities to meet our staff and board members, as well as the many ministry organizations that serve within and alongside LCMC. You will quickly find that you are not on your own, but are part of a widespread family of faith.

If you'd like to be notified when registration opens for this event, please download our moble app and subscribe to Annual Gathering push notifications in the app settings (here's how), subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter, and/or follow us on Facebook. 

That’s why eight years ago, LCMC Service Coordinator Mark Vander Tuig started the tradition of inviting everyone to set aside some intentional time for prayer at the start of each new year. 

He once wrote, “ Our attitude toward prayer has often been characterized by saying, ‘Well, all we can do now is pray!’. Prayer is not the hopeless act of desperation. Prayer is a gift that God has given to us as a means to approach the throne of grace with confidence—like that of a child coming to her parents sharing concerns, victories, defeats and every part of life. It is an opportunity to express the deepest heartache and the greatest joy.” 

Over the years, congregations have chosen to participate in this event in a variety of ways, including organizing events, creating resources, and utilizing technology. Some have simply asked each of the people in their congregation to set aside some time for prayer for each of the three days. 

Join us from January 7-9, 2020, as we lift up our congregations, our country, and the nations in prayer for the eighth consecutive year. 

If you haven’t already done so, be sure to follow us at facebook.com/lcmc.net or sign up for Three Days of Prayer notifications in the LCMC app so you can follow along with us during each of the three days.

Detailed information on this event, plus resources submitted by other LCMC congregations, can be found online at www.lcmc.net/ three-days-of-prayer.

Because of what was given, we have now fully funded our budget!  Again, thank you! 

LCMC relies solely on the offerings of its member congregations and what is given allows this association to continue support the DNA of our body: Free In Christ, Accountable to one another, Rooted in the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions, all in order to fulfill the Great Commission in our generation!

LCMC is offering an intentional interim ministry basic training class for interested LCMC pastors July 8 through July 10 at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa.  This course will be taught again by Pastor Steve Lien, Intentional Interim Pastor Steve Abend, and Intentional Interim Pastor Tim Hummel.

This year we will also be offering an intentional interim ministry advanced training course with practical skills for intentional interim pastors.  This training is for pastors who have taken the basic course and would like additional training.  Topics covered are self-care, preaching during the interim period, best practices of educating and entering the intentional interim congregation, using the lectionary and seasons during the interim time, and more.  The advanced course will be offered July 10 through July 12 at Grand View University in Des Moines, IA.  This course will be taught by Pastor Steve Lien; Intentional Interim Pastor Steve Abend; Intentional Interim Pastor Tim Hummel; and Intentional Interim Pastor Dawn Spies.

Upon registration, a syllabus will be provided.  There is required reading to be completed before class.

Cost is $175 for each training course.  Housing is available through Grand View University.

For more information and to register contact Cathy Nichol at cathy@lcmc.net or (734) 788-7476.

1. Go to www.lcmc.net/congregations and www.lcmc.net/pastors to review the profiles.  
2. If the profiles need to be updated, click on the red "Update Info" button in the upper right hand corner. 
3. Complete the update form, then click on the "Submit" button down at the bottom. 

If you have any questions, please contact Cathy Nichol at cathy@lcmc.net or (734) 788-7476. 

Thank you for helping us keep the profiles up to date.

Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church

Pastor Cindy comes to Salem Lutheran through our Church’s Pastoral Call after serving as Associate Pastor at Salem Lutheran Church in Fremont, NE. She earned her Master’s of Divinity degree from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN and has been ordained 21 years. Pastor Cindy has been rostered with Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ since 2009. The presiding minister at the installation was Rev. Thomas Sahl, the District Pastor for Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, the Heartland District, and resident Pastor for St. Paul Lutheran Church, Palmer, KS.  

She and her husband, Ron, have two adult children whose families live in Missouri and Texas. Pastor Cindy has a unique skill set and a diverse theological background that she brings to this ministry. She grew up in the Kansas City, MO area and is working in her second career as a Called Pastor. She has served Churches in Nebraska, Iowa, Arizona and now in Kansas.

This year’s Leadership Conference events will focus on Conflict Resolution.  Pastor Perry Fruhling, LCMC Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry, will work with members of the Ministry Board to present information on emotional systems as it relates to congregational health.  Pastor Fruhling is a trained facilitator for Peter Steinke’s Healthy Congregations organization.

Please look for more information soon regarding dates and locations of 2019 Leadership Conference events in your area.

If you would like to be personally notified of news updates regarding this event, please download our moble app and subscribe to Leadership Conference push notifications in the app settings [here's how].

If your congregation has not already begun to start planning, now is a good time! 

The themes for each of the three days are as follows:

• Tuesday, January 1: This is a day focused on confession. We have made our lives, our relationships, and even the church in our own image. We confess that the church belongs to Jesus and not to us. We gather to lay down our pride, our sin and our agenda and ask the Lord of the church for forgiveness, which He gives freely and with mercy. 
• Wednesday, January 2: This is a day of petition. Pray for your congregation, for the pastor, for the leaders, for those who carry out ministries, for the Sunday School teachers, for the Confirmation leaders, for those leading adult Bible studies and for those leading small groups. Pray for those in hospital and nursing home ministries. Pray for all those connected to your church that they might know God’s redeeming love for all in Christ.
• Thursday, January 3: This is a day for vision. Pray that the Holy Spirit will again move through the hearts and minds of leaders and pastors that God’s vision for His church might be revealed and fulfilled. This is a time of prayer for renewal, revival and encouragement. Pray for God’s vision.

Structure this type of prayer in any way that makes sense in your congregation.  In past years, some congregations have organized special prayer services while others chose to host a prayer vigil, take part in a prayer walk, or simply ask members of the congregation to set aside some time during each of the three days to pray. 

If you'd like to receive a notification reflecting on the themes during each of the three days, be sure to download our app and opt-in for "Three Days of Prayer" notifications.  [Here's How]

In past years, a few of our congregations have submitted sample documents as a resource for others who are planning on participating in the event for the first time.  If your congregation is interested in using these downloadable resources as a guide to create your own, you can find them on our website under Events > Three Days of Prayer > Resources. 

If you would like to share any photos, thoughts, or reflections on social media during the Three Days of Prayer, please use the hashtag #LCMC3DOP19 so we can find them! 

Whether your congregation is organizing a special activity or you're simply setting aside some time on each of the three days to pray, let's come together as an association to lift one another up in prayer from January 1-3!

For more information, visit www.lcmc.net/three-days-of-prayer.

To watch from our mobile app using your smartphone or tablet, simply tap on the "Media" tab, then select "2018 Annual Gathering" from the list of options.  As a reminder, the LCMC App is compatible with Apple TV and Google Chromecast, allowing you to use it to stream content directly to your TV screen. 

If you prefer to watch online, video content can also be found on our website under Events > Media. 

If you haven't already done so, be sure to mark your calendars for our next Annual Gathering, September 29 - October 2, 2019 in Omaha, Nebraska. 

Dear Pastors, Leaders and Members of LCMC Congregations,

Our association needs your financial support.  At this point we are about 9% behind of our budgeted goals.  Please consider how you might support our association.

We believe that the congregation is the front line of ministry.  Your financial contributions make possible the training and equipping of people in the local church by our staff who come out to the congregations of LCMC at no cost.  Travel, food and lodging is covered by our annual budget.

Our staff offers resources and workshops for pastors, leaders and members of the local church in the local church and for the local church!  Call committee coaching, conflict resolution, planting churches, developing missional thinking, discipleship, evangelism and stewardship are just some of the workshops that we offer.  And every person on our staff is always ready to respond to the thousands of phone calls, emails, and texts that pour in each year!

Our boards meet five times each year, and they are elected from all across the US and even beyond.  They are all volunteers!  LCMC provides for their travel, food and lodging.  Their agendas are always packed and they take their work very seriously.

Your financial contributions help us to fulfill our commitments:  to our staff, for travel, and to maintain and develop our administrative resources:  webpage, computers, print costs and more.

Please consider how you might support our association with your financial gifts to LCMC.

Sincerely In Christ on behalf of the Board of Trustees,

Rev. Mark Vander Tuig
Service Coordinator, LCMC

*** For more information or to make a donation, click here. ***

Choose from two designs (our "official" logo, or a graphic only version), four different sizes (2 inch, 3 inch, 4 inch, and 6 inch), and two different background colors (white or clear). 

Stickers will also be available as part of our 2018 Annual Gathering collection from now through the end of the year. 

The LCMC Store also offers casual clothing items, mugs, notebooks, bags, art prints, and more. 

Shop Now  >>

The total included 474 delegates, 275 church members, 22 seminarians, 11 guests, and 11 members of the LCMC staff and Board of Trustees.  

The event kicked off Sunday evening with dinner followed by an opening worship service preached by LCMC Service Coordinator Mark Vander Tuig.  

Dr. Kent Hunter from Church Doctor Ministries took the stage as this year’s keynote speaker.  Bible studies were led by Jo Kinnard each morning.  

Throughout the four day event, participants also took part in table discussions, fellowship meet-ups, and breakout sessions, plus had the chance to network with one another and to connect with dozens of the mission and ministry vendors present.

Also announced were three upcoming events:  

• Our next Three Days of Prayer, January 1-3, 2019
• Our 19th Annual Gathering, September 29-October 2, 2019 in Omaha, NE
• Our next youth event, Called 2: Love, July 21-24, 2020 at Grand View University in Des Moines, IA

During the business session, Jason Eliot (Area 7), Steve Hagler (Area 2), and Jeremey King (Area 1) were newly elected to the LCMC Board of Trustees.  Jeff Wold was elected treasurer at large.  

Other current board members include Brodie Taphorn (Chair, Area 5), Julie Smith (Vice Chair, Area 3), Darrin Vick (Secretary, Area 6), and Sue Gunderson (Area 4).  

The board thanked former board members Laurel Swanson, Enrique Estrada, and Sean Kelly for their service.  

The event concluded on Wednesday with a closing worship service preached by Perry Fruhling, LCMC’s Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry.  

Just in case you missed the live stream during this year’s event, the LCMC staff plans to have videos of the speakers available in the LCMC App and on our website (under Events > Media) after the new year, so stay tuned!  If you’d like to be notified when videos become available, please opt-in for “General” notifications in our mobile app [here’s how] and/or subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter [here’s how]. 

For a digital edition of this year's book, check out our mobile app or find it on our website under Events > Media. 

Just for Fun...

We asked our Facebook followers their favorite thing about attending the Annual Gathering.  Here are just a few of the responses: 

• "Connecting with friends old and new.  Supporting and encouraging one another." – Mona Johnson Glesne 
   
• "I loved the morning Bible studies last year, but I also loved the young adult fellowship table at dinner the second night." – Molly Shofner 
   
• "Seeing old friends and making new ones.  Love the new information that motivates your mission back home." – Lisa Wilcox McCormick 
   
• "The building of relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ is foremost for me. The worship music, Bible study, keynote speaker and break-outs are also great. And what about that Mark Vander Tuig?  Huge shout-out for always making it fun!" – Deanna Fischer Thaut
   
• "Worship! Fellowship!!!" – Pablo N. Aymat 

For those who are tuning in from home this year, a live webcast of the event will be available on our website (www.lcmc.net/live) beginning October 7, 2018 at 7:00 P.M. (Central Time) and ending at noon on Wednesday, October 10. 

Downloadable copies of this year's Annual Gathering Book can be found on our website under Events > Media as well as in our mobile app.  Our book contains a copy of the event schedule, details on this year's speakers, photos submitted by LCMC congregations, and more. 

Videos of our speakers will be available in our mobile app and on our website under Events > Media in winter 2019.  We will make an announcement once all videos have been posted, so be sure to subscribe to our e-newsletter, or sign up to receive "General" notifications in our mobile app [here's how] if you'd like to be directly notified. 

For those attending the Annual Gathering this year, be sure to tag your posts on Twitter with #LCMC18AG and/or #LCMCgrowingup for a chance for your photos to be featured on our screens. 

Check them out on our resources page (under Church Life > Resource Links) or visit their website at: www.brotherhoodmutual.com.

Join other LCMC youth and leaders for a week of service, learning, fellowship, fun and devotion on mission for Christ.

July 14-19, 2019 we will be serving the Lakota people of Pine Ridge, South Dakota with our ministry partner Nextstep Ministries providing much needed support in improving their community infrastructure.

This trip includes construction, relational, and community opportunities for ministry.  

In addition to the work we will be doing together, we will be grounded in the Word of the Lord and in conversation throughout the day with morning and lunch devotions as well as worship each evening.

For more information and to register, go to http://nextstepministries.com/pine-ridge-south-dakota-2/.

Our Nextstep contact is Beth Crocker: beth.crocker@nextstepministries.com.

For any questions, please contact Scott Strachan from Faith Lutheran Church at sstrachan@faithabq.org. 

This is unlike any other youth event with which people may be familiar.  We are not trying to gather thousands, entertain them, wow them, or make them question everything they may have learned in Sunday School.  This is discipleship, leadership development, and a commitment to strengthen the mission and ministry of the local church!

When this idea was first presented it was about ministry, not so much at the event, but after.  We wanted to challenge the students to consider God’s call on their life and how they might be useful to God as His ambassadors for the ministry given to God’s people—the ministry of reconciliation (see II Corinthians 5: 16-21).  We had to do more than just tell them they are ministers though, we needed to find ways to equip them for ministry.  Everything we intended to do was to help them to be effective as Jesus’ ambassadors in their own school, church, community, and family.

There was also a second priority.  We wanted to challenge these students to consider the vocation of ministry as well.  In my experience, pastors come out of the mission and ministry of the local church.  That’s what happened to me.  As I participated in the ministry of my local church, I just knew there had to be a better way to draw people into a relationship with Jesus.  I have dedicated the past 40+ years to that idea, including being a charter member of this association.

Would there be a way to help students see that the vocation of ministry can be meaningful, exciting, encouraging, miraculous and worth giving a life to doing?  We invited pastors to share their stories of both the good days and bad.  But always pointing to Jesus who is the Lord of the church and Lord of our lives.  There is no greater life than following Jesus, and for some of us to follow him into the vocation of ministry.

Did we accomplish the goal?  I don’t know, we’ll see in the years to come.  What I do know is this.  We had such a tremendous response to this summer’s event, that we are going to do it again. 

The next “Called 2:___” national youth event will be held on the campus of Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa from July 21-24, 2020!

For updates on this event, download our mobile app and sign up to receive "Youth Event" notifications. [Here's How]

Photos by Laura Gardner. 

18th Annual Gathering and Convention  |  October 7-10, 2018  |  Des Moines, IA

We are getting ready for our 18th get together in Des Moines, Iowa!  I like to think of our gathering as more of a family reunion than anything else.  It is a time for us to connect, network, renew old friendships and make new ones.  But why would you bother to go?  Why would you make the commitment of time and money to attend?  There are some very good reasons, I want to share a few of them with you.

You Joined.

At some point in the history of your congregation you made a decision to join our association.  You had congregational meetings, you had discussions and finally took a vote.  We don’t ask for much, because we believe that the congregation is the front line of ministry, but what we do ask is this: be a part of God is doing in LCMC.  You will not know what the Lord is up to in this church body unless you pay attention and participate.  In our congregations we all have people who rarely if ever attend and yet they are on our “membership list”, for many of us, this is confusing.  Why would you join something and not participate?

This is Different. 

Our annual gathering is not like any other church body meeting you have ever been to.  We don’t have long, drawn out business meetings.  We don’t have one committee report after another telling us about things that really don’t matter to the life of the local church.  We don’t have endless greetings from people who are not part of LCMC and who we will never see again.

We have some business to do, yes, but what we do applies only to the association, not to the congregation.  We have elections to the Board of Trustees and we vote.  We have keynote speakers who challenge and inspire us to carry out the work of the church.  We have breakout sessions, each one designed to strengthen the ministry of the local church.  We have times for prayer, worship, and singing.  We have fun.

You Are Not Alone. 

There are times when we feel isolated, disconnected and tired, both as congregations, as pastors and leaders, and as individuals.  Our gatherings are meant to be encouraging to each other as we try to follow Jesus into our communities and around the world.  Just as individuals, we are baptized into a family of faith, and are now part of the Kingdom, we are bound together in our association.  We need each other.  Attending the gatherings of our association help you to see that you are a part of something, you belong and you are not alone.

You can find all the information to register for this next gathering here.  Come along, be an active participant in what the Spirit of God is doing in LCMC!  We are in this together, we need each other and now is the time to join us October 7-10 at HyVee Hall and Convention Center in Des Moines, Iowa!

Early bird registration ends September 1st, so be sure to sign up soon in order to attend for the best rate! 

Following the trend of past years, the theme for each day is as follows:

• January 1 is a day focused on confession
• January 2 is a day for petition
• January 3 is a day for vision

There's no right or wrong way to structure this event, so do what works best for your congregation.  In past years some of our congregations have held special prayer services, some have had prayer vigils, others organized special activities like prayer walks, and others simply asked people to set aside some time for prayer each day. 

If you've never taken part in this event before, it's a great way to join together with LCMC-ers everywhere for a focused and intentional time of prayer.  Here are some tips for first time participants that were submitted to us in the past:

• "Get the word out early!!!" – Rev. Alsen Wenzel (Yoakum, TX)
   
• "Just do it.  Even if it only gets one or two to pray, that's better than none." – Laurel Bobb (Stow, OH)
   
• "Start small and personally invite people to participate. If you have a prayer chain or a Bible study focused on prayer, encourage them to spend this extra time in prayer." – Julie Wood (Alpena, MI)
   
• Tell the congregation ahead of time so they can prepare.  Handouts seemed to be helpful for the folks that couldn't come to church." – Paula Mann (Lasntana, FL)

If you're looking for resources to help in your planning, we've got you covered!  Check out our Three Days of Prayer Resources page for documents that have been submitted by other LCMC congregations. 

Also, we'll be sending out notifications through our mobile app during each of the three days reflecting on the theme for that day.  Whether you're a pastor, a congregation member, or just a random person who wants to pray, if you're interested in receiving these notifications, all you'll need to do is opt-in for Three Days of Prayer notifications in your mobile app settings.  [Here's How]

We look forward to kicking off another year by joining together in prayer with LCMC-ers from across the nation and around the globe! 

To date, we have only received just over $11,000 of our $80,000 fundraising goal for this project.

We are grateful for everyone who has already contributed.  All of the funds donated, as well as any future contributions, will be given directly to Meals from the Heartland for their ongoing packaging events and they will be exceedingly grateful for our support. 

If you are still interested in making a donation, you may do so online by clicking here, or by mailing a check made payable to LCMC with an indication that your payment is intended for our "Meals from the Heartland Service Project" to the LCMC office at following address:

LCMC
7000 North Sheldon Road
Canton, MI 48187

In lieu of the packaging event scheduled for Tuesday evening of the Annual Gathering, the Board is working on an alternative option.  Stay tuned! 

Our 18th Annual Gathering takes place October 7-10, 2018 in Des Moines, IA and features keynote speakers, opportunities for fellowship and networking, breakout sessions, dozens of vendors to explore, and more. 

If you plan on attending, early bird registration ends soon, so be sure to register by September 1 to secure the best possible rate.

As you're making your travel plans this summer (if you haven't done so already), please don't forget to register for any events you may be planning to attend.  Not only will registering in advance help to ensure our staff can provide the best possible experience for everyone, it can also help you save some cash!

We hope to see you there!
 

18th Annual Gathering

Register by September 1 to Beat the Price Increase!

The LCMC Annual Gathering and Convention is a four day event featuring keynote speakers, worship and Bible study, breakout sessions, and vendors, and is great opportunity to get connected with other people in LCMC. 

Our theme this year is "Growing Up", and we've invited Dr. Kent Hunter of Church Doctor Ministries to help us to consider how congregations of any size can be focused on the Great Commission and develop a kingdom mindset.  Jo Kinnard will be returning this year to serve as our Bible study leader as we reflect on the text of Ephesians 4.  It is time for our churches to “grow up” and become mature, hearing the call for every member to carry out the work of ministry as God has designed His Church to do.

The event takes place October 7-10, 2018 in Des Moines, IA.  For more information and to register, visit www.lcmc.net/annual-gathering.
 

Seminarian Retreat

Registration Deadline: September 23

Learn more about yourself and your calling, network with pastors and other seminary students in LCMC, and ask any questions you may have about the LCMC call process at our 2018 Seminarian Retreat.  The retreat is open to seminary students and their spouses and is subsidized by LCMC, so the cost to attend is only $50 per person with meals and lodging included. 

The event takes place October 5-7 (the weekend before the Annual Gathering) at Riverside Bible Camp in Story City, IA.  For further details and to register, go to www.lcmc.net/seminarian-retreat. 
 

24:7 Network Leaders Retreat

Registration Deadline: October 2

Church planters and missional-types are invited to take part in a retreat immediately following this year's Annual Gathering.  There is no cost to attend, but meals and lodging are on your own.

The retreat takes place October 10-11 at Lutheran Church of the Cross in nearby Altoona, IA.  For more information and to register, visit the247network.com/retreats.
 

For more upcoming events, check out our calendar.

“The Next Generation” discussion starts at 2:00 pm on October 10th, and wraps-up by noon on the 11th. 

There is no charge to attend, but lodging and meals are on your own. 

For greater details and to register, see The247Network.com/Retreats, or contact Dan Clites, LCMC Coordinator for Church Planting Development, at dan@lcmc.net.

Plans are starting to shape for another great LCMC mission trip for the Summer of 2019. 

For details and information, please contact Scott Strachan from Faith Lutheran Church of Albuquerque NM via email at  sstrachan@faithabq.org or call 505-296-0762. 

The theme of our 2018 Annual Gathering is "Growing Up", and to help illustrate this concept throughout our book, we would love to see photos of service projects, outreach events/activities/programs, mission trips, creative/artistic projects, disaster relief, or church planting efforts from any and all age groups within your congregation!

To submit a photo:

1. Photos must be submitted by a congregation member, pastor, or church staff member who is part of an LCMC congregation.
2. Go to www.lcmc.net/2018-photocontest and review the photo guidelines.
3. Upload a photo, fill out the entry form, and click "submit". 

All eligible entries submitted by Monday, July 16th will be considered for publication in this year's Annual Gathering book and on our website. 

SUBMIT A PHOTO >>

To learn more or make an online donation towards this project, CLICK HERE. 

To donate via snail mail, please make all checks payable to LCMC and be sure to indicate that your donation is for the "MFTH Service Project".  Checks should be mailed to the LCMC office at:

LCMC
7000 North Sheldon Road
Canton, MI 48187

100% of donations received will be used to purchase supplies for this project.

If you're interested in volunteering to help assemble meal kits, be sure to check off the appropriate box on your form when you register for the Annual Gathering. 

(By the way, if you're planning on attending our 18th Annual Gathering and haven't already registered, be sure to do so by September 1st to beat the price increase!) 

Held the weekend before the Annual Gathering, the event serves as an opportunity for seminary students to get connected with one another, network, learn more about yourself and your calling, and ask any questions you may have about the LCMC call process.

The retreat takes place October 5-7, 2018 at Riverside Bible Camp in Story City, IA. 

Registration is $50 per person and includes accommodations, plus Friday dinner through Sunday breakfast.  The deadline to register is September 23.

Click Here to Register

Jo Kinnard will be returning this year to serve as our Bible study leader as we reflect on the text of Ephesians 4. 

Mark Vander Tuig and Perry Fruhling will preach the opening and closing worship services respectively. 

For our service project this year, we will again be teaming up with Meals from the Heartland to help feed people in need.  Our goal for 2018 is to raise $100,000 for supplies and package 400,000 meals between the Annual Gathering and our Called 2 Follow youth event in July.  Participants can sign up to help assemble meal kits by checking off the apporpriate box on their registration form. 

For those who would like a chance to connect with other people in LCMC, we will again be offering a fellowship dinner in addition to several other fellowship meet-ups. 

New for 2018, participants at this year's event have the option to sing in a combined choir duing the closing worship service.  To sign up, simply check off the appropriate box on your registration form. 

The event also includes breakout sessions, vendors, and worship, plus time for fellowship, networking, and discussion. 

Registration is now open!  For the best rate, be sure to sign up by September 1. 

The LCMC 18th Annual Gathering takes place October 7-10 in Des Moines, IA. 

Click Here to Register

Called 2 Follow takes place July 17-20 at Grand View University in Des Moines, IA and all information including speakers, breakouts, service projects, the agenda, and more can be found under "Events" our website.

Click Here to Register Now >>

Get your cameras ready! 

Each year, the people who make up our association are invited to submit photos depicting how their congregation has been "in Mission for Christ" over the past year to be considered for publication in our Annual Gathering book. 

If your congregation has taken part in any projects, organized any events, or participated in any mission or ministry activities over the past year that exemplify what it means to be "in Mission for Christ", we're inviting YOU to submit photos for this year's Annual Gathering Photo Contest!

Here's How:

1. Photos must be submitted by a congregation member, pastor, or church staff member who is part of an LCMC congregation
2. Go to www.lcmc.net/2018-photocontest and review the photo guidelines
3. Upload a photo, fill out the entry form, and click "submit"

All eligible photos received by Monday, July 16th will be considered for publication in the 2018 Annual Gathering Book.  Hard copy books will be available at the Annual Gathering in October, and a digital edition will be available on our website and in our mobile app once the Annual Gathering begins. 

Photos will be selected based on subject matter (how closely they fit the theme), quality of the photo (not squished, blurry, or overlapped by text or clip art), and the story behind the photo (the photo description explaining how your congregation is making a difference).

To help illustrate the theme of "Growing Up"  throughout our book, we would love to see photos of service projects, outreach events/activities/programs, mission trips, creative/artistic projects, disaster relief, or church planting efforts from any and all age groups within your congregation!

"Growing Up" is the theme of this year's Annual Gathering, which will be held October 7-10, 2018 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Those of us serving on the LCMC staff believe those serving in this capacity need training. Some of the best training is through the Interim Ministry Network (IMN) or the National Association of Lutheran Interim Pastors (NALIP).  These courses require significant time and money, so we are providing a lower cost alternative, even while continuing to suggest pastors consider the more thorough training.

Our LCMC Intentional Interim Ministry Training will be taught by Pastors Steve Lien and Steve Abend, who have completed training with IMN and NALIP respectively.  

The event takes place from Tuesday, July 10, 2018 at 1:00 p.m. through Thursday, July 12, 2018 at 12:00 p.m. in the Principal Financial Group Conference Rooms A & B of the Grand View University Student Center (located at 2811 East 14th Street, Des Moines, IA 50316).

The cost to attend is $150.00 for the course, which must be paid in full to hold your place, plus housing and transportation.  Housing is available for a very reasonable rate at Grand View University.  MORE INFO >>

Registration details and a list of pre-reading books required before class will be provided by contacting Cathy Nichol, Administrative Coordinator, at cathy@lcmc.net or (734) 788-7476. 

Pastor Perry Fruhling
LCMC Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry

Participants will gain practical life advice through interactive keynote presentations and breakout sessions, make a real difference in the local community by taking part in service projects, and connect with other people in LCMC while enjoying games, music, inflatables, and ice cream.

For groups wishing to stay an extra day, we have made arrangements with Adventureland Resort & Amusement Park in Altoona, IA to make discounted tickets available for Called 2 Follow participants.  Tickets are $38 each and can be purchased by selecting the appropriate option on your registration form. 

The event takes place July 17-20 at Grand View University in Des Moines, IA and is open to high school students completing grades 8-12, youth leaders, and chaperones.  To register online, click here. 

For updates on this and other LCMC events, be sure to sign up to receive event notifications in our mobile app.

When we hosted our 2014 Annual Gathering in Des Moines, we raised over $90,000 and packaged almost 300,000 meals with Meals from The Heartland.  (Watch a video of the experience here!)

In 2016, we worked with Meals from the Heartland at our Called 2 Serve youth event, raising $48,000 and packaging 80,000 meals. 

Our goal for 2018 is to raise $100,000 for supplies and package 400,000 meals between the two events. 

Whether or not you are planning to attend either event, please consider how you might be able to help contribute to this goal (but please consider attending one or both events — it is the best way to be a part of what the Spirit is doing in LCMC)!

If you'd like to volunteer to help out with this project at either event, you may sign-up by checking off the appropriate checkbox on your registration form for either event.  (If you'd like to be notified when Annual Gathering registration is officially open, be sure to opt-in for Annual Gathering notifications in our mobile app [here's how].)

If you'd like to make a donation towards this project, you may do so online by clicking here, or by mailing a check to the LCMC office. 

Please make all checks payable to LCMC and be sure to indicate that your payment is intended for the "Meals from the Heartland Service Project".  All donations received with this notation will go towards purchasing supplies for this project. Mail checks to:

LCMC
7000 North Sheldon Road
Canton, MI 48187

We'll be making updates on our progress for this project periodically via our blog and Facebook page, so stay tuned!

We traveled first to Cambodia, where we discovered that our mission developer there, Pastor Samuel Chim (an LCMC pastor) is doing great work for us. 

We have received another 15 congregations and pastors as a result of the church planting efforts of the congregations there. 

We now have 35 pastors and churches in Cambodia and Pastor Chim is doing a great job mentoring, training and equipping the pastors. 

LCMC, and LCMC Cambodia are both recognized church bodies by the government of Cambodia.

The method of churches planting churches is something we could learn much from our brothers and sisters there. 

Each congregation numbers between 40-70 people and are led by a bi-vocational pastor whose primary work is to train and equip leaders in the congregation for the work of ministry, following the instruction of Ephesians 4: 11-14.

In Vietnam we met with pastors and leaders of two new congregations in the northern part of the country.  These are new ministries and our visit with them included 5 adult baptisms! 

We were so grateful for their efforts to plant and now establish these two new churches in a part of the world that is still cautious about the Gospel, fearing that these believers may try to subvert the government.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The church exists to proclaim the Good News of Life in the name of Jesus and to offer the freedom that comes in His name.

The churches connected with LCMC are connected to Lutheran Asian Ministries (LAM), a mission partner with LCMC and housed within the ministry of Morningside Lutheran Church in Sioux City, Iowa, an LCMC congregation. 

The executive director of LAM is Pastor Tom LoVan, on the pastoral team at Morningside and an LCMC pastor as well.

In the time since, our association has turned Three Days of Prayer into an annual tradition with many congregations choosing to organize prayer walks, host special services and vigils, or distribute resources to congregation members for each of the three days.

Mark your calendars now for New Year's Day, because our next annual Three Days of Prayer will take place January 1-3, 2019.  

For updates on this event, be sure to follow our blog, or download our mobile app and opt-in for Three Days of Prayer push notifications in your app settings.  App users who have selected this option will receive a reminder before the event and a message reflecting on the themes during each of the three days.  

As always, resources such as sample brochures submitted by other LCMC congregations can be found here.

General Notifications:

Select this option if you’d like to be notified ONLY of announcements that aren’t related to attending a specific event.  Examples:

• New videos/podcasts
• Service projects
• Contests
• Major news updates from the LCMC Staff and Boards

Event Specific Notifications:

We use this feature to notify you when registration opens for your favorite events, when a deadline related to an event you’ve selected is approaching, and when any major new details get announced for that event.  (For Three Days of Prayer, you’ll receive a message reflecting on the themes during each of the three days.)  App users who sign up for these types of notifications will only receive announcements for the specific events they’ve opted in for.  

On Site Notifications:  

While attending a larger LCMC event such as the Annual Gathering, opting-in for on site notifications will allow you to receive any announcements or updates that are made during the event, such as meeting room assignments and service project information.  You will only receive these types of messages for the duration of the event you’re attending.

Don’t worry, if you sign up for our notification system we won’t spam you with constant daily messages. We’re just using this feature as a way to help make it easier to receive news updates in the most timely manner possible.  

Here’s How:

1. If you haven't already, download our app on your phone or tablet. 
2. Open the app and click on the icon in the top left corner to access your inbox, notes, and app settings. 
3. Select "Settings", then "Notifications". 
4. On the Notifications page, simply toggle on anything you'd like to get updates about. 

That's it! 

This is affordable weekend retreat for seminary students is held every other year on the Friday evening through Sunday morning immediately preceding the Annual Gathering.  Spouses are also welcome to attend. 

This event is subsidized by LCMC, so registration will be only $50 per person.  Lodging, plus Friday dinner through Sunday breakfast are included. 

Stay tuned for further details, and be sure to sign up for Seminarian retreat push notification in our mobile app if you'd like to be notified when registration opens! 

For more information, go to www.lcmc.net/seminarian-retreat.

• Tuesday, January 2: This is a day focused on confession. We have made our lives, our relationships, and even the church in our own image. We confess that the church belongs to Jesus and not to us. We gather to lay down our pride, our sin and our agenda and ask the Lord of the church for forgiveness, which He gives freely and with mercy. 
• Wednesday, January 3: This is a day of petition. Pray for your congregation, for the pastor, for the leaders, for those who carry out ministries, for the Sunday School teachers, for the Confirmation leaders, for those leading adult Bible studies and for those leading small groups. Pray for those in hospital and nursing home ministries. Pray for all those connected to your church that they might know God’s redeeming love for all in Christ.
• Thursday, January 4: This is a day for vision. Pray that the Holy Spirit will again move through the hearts and minds of leaders and pastors that God’s vision for His church might be revealed and fulfilled. This is a time of prayer for renewal, revival and encouragement. Pray for God’s vision.

Whether your congregation is organizing a special activity or you're simply setting aside some time for each of the three days to pray, let's come together as an association to lift one another up in prayer!  Sample documents and resources submitted by LCMC congregations from previous years can be found here.  
 

Submit Photos & Share Your Thoughts:

Once the event has ended, let us know how your congregation celebrated Three Days of Prayer, share photos, and let us know what you thought about the experience by taking our online survey.  All responses and photos submitted by Friday, January 19th through the survey linked here will be considered for publication in an upcoming LCMC news article.  

Take Our Survey >>
 

Get Notified:

Be sure to sign up for Three Days of Prayer push notifications in our mobile app if you'd like to receive a message reflecting on the themes during each of the three days.  (We won't use it to spam you, we promise!)

Get the App >>

Mobile App:

The LCMC Mobile App allows users to stream video content from a mobile device.  It is also fully integrated with Apple AirPlay and Google Cast, so you can also watch videos from your TV screen.  To learn more and get the app, click here. 

Watch Online:

Videos from past LCMC events can also be found online.  Our "Videos & Podcasts" page can be found under Events > Media on the LCMC website, or by clicking here. 
 

For updates on this and other LCMC events, be sure to sign up for push notifications in our mobile app and/or subscribe to our e-newsletter. 

The theme for each of the three days is as follows:

• Day One: A day focused on confession 
• Day Two: A day of petition 
• Day Three: A day for vision

In anticipation of the event, we're polling readers to find out how congregations plan to celebrate. 

In past years, many of our congregations have put together prayer vigils, organized a prayer walks, or offered a prayer service at a set hour each day.  Others have simply asked each person to pray each day.  Organize these three days in any way that you'd like...whatever works best in your congregation is the right way to go!

Let us know what your congregation is doing by taking our survey, and we'll share the results in an upcoming e-newsletter!  Click Here for Survey >>

You can learn more about Three Days of Prayer here.  Also, be sure to sign up for Three Days of Prayer push notifications in our mobile app to receive a message with each day's theme!

Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."

Our youth event next summer will focus on these words of Jesus that call us out of ourselves and into something much greater!  In the summer of 2016, we gathered over 300 youth and adults from 15 different states; next summer we hope to have even more.

We will be staying in the air-conditioned dormitories on the campus of Grand View University with full access to all their amenities:  gymnasium, food service, internet, student center and more.  The registration per person remains the same as last summer, and it's all-inclusive, so people just need to get here!  Food, lodging, bedding, internet, convention costs and materials for Tuesday through Friday is only $325.  

Our keynote speakers are Andrea Paulson, a pastor from First St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Hastings, Nebraska and Kyle Fever, Ph.D., the Executive Director of the Nexus Institute, on the campus of Grand View University.

Our breakout session leaders and topics are:

• Sex, Lies and Identity Theft (Jennifer Roush)
• Human = Addict, Hijacked From Our Creator (Kendra Diehl)
• Handling Anxiety and Stress (Paul Peterson)
• Followership/Discipleship in Daily Life (Jonathan Hunter)
• Preparing for What Comes Next (Russ Lackey)

Music and worship will be provided by Lutheran Church of the Cross in Altoona, Iowa.  Music for the event will be available on our website beforehand so that participants can download and become familiar with it before the event begins.

Our emcees next summer are Noah Ruppert, a pastor at Lutheran Church of the Cross, Altoona, Iowa and Chip Reynolds, a pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Braunfels, Texas.  They will both also be participating in leading music and worship.

We begin Tuesday evening with an opening worship service that sets the stage and theme for our time together.  Wednesday is filled with breakouts and large group sessions, music and more.  Thursday, we start with the keynote presentation, then a panel discussion called, “Ask the Pastors”.  We spend the afternoon in service projects:  Meals from the Heartland, working at Riverside Bible Camp and performing Random Acts of Kindness.  Thursday evening is time to play on “the Green” outdoors with games, inflatables, music and ice cream.  On Friday we will close our time together to be sent off to serve in our own communities and congregations.

Registration opens December 1, 2017 for the first 350 participants.   

Click here to learn more >>

Pastor Perry Fruhling has accepted the position and begins January 15, 2018. 

Perry has served congregations in Texas (Zion Lutheran in Fredericksburg) and in Iowa (Bethany Lutheran, Thompson; Immanuel Lutheran in Independence; and St. Mark’s Lutheran, Marion).  

Perry has additional training and interest in conflict resolution practices and community organizing for service in crisis.  Perry brings his experience with congregations of many different sizes to this position, as well as his training, background, and passion for the Church of Jesus Christ.

In his current call, with Perry’s leadership and other members of the congregation, St. Mark’s created and manages the Lutheran Disaster Assistance fund (LDA).  This fund has been extremely helpful to LCMC congregations in the aftermath of natural disasters, the most recent of which were the hurricanes and forest fires that have affected millions of people.

Perry’s work will focus on continuing the development of call committee coaching, call committee workshops, and the certification process.  Perry will also continue the on-going training of pastors involved with certifying those who wish to be on LCMC’s list of pastors.  He will work with the Ministry Board to develop leadership events and oversee our list of pastors serving in many different capacities.  Perry also hopes to train and equip pastors and others for effective conflict resolution and helping our pastors to equip members for ministry.

Perry is married to Marlys and they live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  They have three children: Chantal, 26, in Cedar Rapids; Ashley, 23, in Atlanta, GA; and Caleb, 20, attending the University of Iowa.

Invitations to district, regional and congregational events are always welcome!  As soon as we have contact information for Perry Fruhling, it will be made available on the staff page of our website January 15, 2018. 

Sale items include t-shirts, hoodies, coffee mugs, bags, decor items and more!  

We've also added water bottles, mounted aluminum prints, mounted acrylic prints, and more mug options to our shop.  

You can find a link to our online store under "Resources" on our website, or by clicking here.  

*** Ends Friday, December 15th at 12:00 P.M. EST. ***

This year for the first time we sat around tables so that participants could discuss the information presented and it was genuinely appreciated. 

To recognize the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, we considered three of the fundamental themes of the Reformation: Justification, The Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms, and the Priesthood of All Believers.  We also had a dramatic portrayal of Martin Luther and Katie by Johan and Sonja Hinderlie, and we showed the movie: Martin Luther, the Idea that Changed the World.

At this gathering we had two resolutions come from the floor for consideration by the convention.  Our constitution and by-laws allow for resolutions to come during the convention without advance notice or preparation.  They did not come from either of the Boards and therefore could not be disseminated in advance to give people time to consider or even understand the issues being presented.  Ultimately, no action on the resolutions were taken as the floor voted to table the discussion. The Board of Trustees is meeting in late November and will discuss and evaluate the content of the resolutions along with the discussion from the floor.

Thank you to all who took the time to submit evaluations of this year’s gathering. Critical points of feedback often expressed about our gatherings generally focus on cost and food.  

This year, there was the added element regarding the lack of preparation specific to the resolutions presented from the floor—which is addressed above. 

Cost is real.  When we gather 900-1100 people we look for facilities that can accommodate space for the general sessions, the vendor areas, any service project that might be included, breakout sessions, and the ability to feed that many people in one setting.  There is no LCMC congregation that can do all of that.  They may be able to handle 2 or 3 of the needs but not all five.  Holding our gatherings in smaller markets help keep costs down, but cost is real.

Food?  The convention food and beverage divisions do their best to provide good, healthy and tasty meals, but how many of our children ever liked the same foods? 

In spite of the concerns expressed, we had a great time together.  We laughed, prayed, sang, worshipped and encouraged one another.  We re-connected with friends, and made new ones.  There were great conversations about what makes us Lutheran and what makes us people of LCMC. 

To be honest, I am already looking forward to coming together again in Des Moines, October 7-10, 2018!  Mark it down on your calendars, its going to be great!

Johan has graciously provided a video on the 95 Thesis that we have linked here.  It is available for download so you will be able to share it with you congregation as you wish. 

They have also ishared with us an ebook resource titled What Drove Luther's Hammer to accompany the video, which can be downloaded by clicking here. 

For more information about their ministry, check out section 5 of this year’s Annual Gathering book. 

The theme of this year’s event was “We Confess Our Faith” and featured keynote presentations focusing on three of the fundamental teachings of the Reformation: Justification, The Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms, and the Priesthood of All Believers.

The gathering kicked off with dinner and an opening worship service preached by Pastor Julie Samuelson on Sunday morning.  Our worship leader this year was Mr. Eric McIntyre of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fridley, MN.  

Seminarians and church planters had an opportunity to meet up on Sunday evening for dessert and fellowship.  

Monday’s program began with worship, prayer, and Bible study, followed by a keynote panel featuring Pastor Steve Turnbull, Rev. Enrique Estrada, Rev. Tom LoVan, and Pastor Ingrid Aderhold.  

After table discussions, a networking session, and lunch, LCMC Service Coordinator Rev. Mark Vander Tuig gave an update on the association.  

The day wrapped up with a fellowship dinner, where participants had the option to get connected with a fellowship group in LCMC or simply join a general group of people for dinner at the convention center, followed by meetings for the various geographic and non-geographic districts within the association.  

Tuesday opened with worship, prayer, and Bible study followed by a dramatic portrayal of Martin Luther and his wife Katarina performed by Rev. Johan and Sonja Hinderlie.  (For more information about their ministry, check out section 5 of this year’s Annual Gathering book).  

Tuesday morning also included a keynote panel on the concept of two kingdoms featuring Dr. Ken Jones, Pastor John Kline, Rev. Dr. Pêri Rasolondraibe, and Pastor Siimon Haamer, followed by a table discussion.

On Tuesday afternoon, LCMC staff members Mark Vander Tuig and Dan Clites recognized district leaders, certifiers, new congregations, pastors, seminarians, military chaplains, and those who were celebrating significant anniversaries of ordination.  

Throughout the day, LCMC partnered with Days for Girls to learn about their ministry and help assemble sustainable and reusable hygiene kits for women and girls in need around the globe.  

In the evening, attendees had the option of attending a global worship service at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Minneapolis, viewing the movie commissioned by Thrivent Martin Luther, The Idea That Changed the World, taking part in a pop-up worship session, or taking part in one of several different meet and greet sessions.  

After worship, prayer, and Bible study on Wednesday morning, LCMC Board of Trustees Chair Rev. Sean Kelly thanked pastors Martha Uecker Nelson and Christopher Miller for their service on the board and announced that pastors Sue Gunderson (Area 4) and John Fauerbach (Area 2) were newly elected.  

Current Board of Trustees officers for LCMC consist of pastors Sean Kelly (Chair), Brodie Taphorn (Vice Chair), Darrin Vick (Secretary), and Mrs. Laurel Swanson (Treasurer).  

The event concluded with a keynote panel featuring Rev. Julie Smith, Mrs. Jennifer Desarmo, Rev. Bill Moberly, and Dr. Kyle Fever, followed by a closing worship service preached by Rev. Dave Wollan.  

Videos of the speakers from this year’s event will be available on our website and in our mobile app in winter 2018.  We will make an announcement via e-newsletter, blog, and mobile app when our videos have been posted, so stay tuned! 

Our next Annual Gathering will take place October 7-10, 2018 in Des Moines, IA.

Preaching for tonight's service is Pastor Julie Samuelson from Hands for Pine City in Pine City, MN.  Our worship leader is Mr. Eric McIntyre, who serves at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fridley, MN.

We will be updating our blog and Facebook page regularly over the next few days, so stay tuned for updates!

Video Streaming

If you're tuning in from home, you can catch a live stream of the main session for each day of the event here.

After the event has ended, videos of this year's speakers will be available for streaming here and in our mobile app during winter 2018.  We will make an announcement once the videos have been posted. 

Mobile App Features

The LCMC Mobile App gives Annual Gathering participants the chance to view event information from a smartphone or tablet.  Use the app to access a digital copy of our book, look up meeting room locations, submit feedback on this year's event, and more!  Be sure to opt in for "On Site Notifications" if you'd like to receive updates while at the event.  (You can also choose to sign up for general news updates, or to only receive updates on your favorite events.)

Annual Gathering Books

For a digital copy of this year's book, check out our app or go to www.lcmc.net/ag-books/summaries. 

A native of Minnesota, Pastor Brian is a graduate of St. Olaf College (1991, BA), Fuller Seminary (1998, MA), and Luther Seminary (2007, Master of Divinity). After serving as a missionary in Thailand and Cameroon (1990s), he served in youth ministry at Gethsemane Lutheran in Hopkins, MN (1998-2001), and Prince of Peace Lutheran in Burnsville, MN (2001-2007). Before joining and serving alongside us in July of 2017, Pastor Brian served as an Associate Pastor at Redeemer Lutheran in Atlanta, GA (2007-2012) and Senior Pastor at St. John's Lutheran in Bloomington, IL (2012-2017).

He has been happily married for 24 years to Cindy, an elementary school teacher. They have four children: Mikelah, Logan, Quinten, and Zoe. They also share their home with three dogs, two birds, one cat, a leopard gecko, and about a dozen fish (depending on the day).

Conflict occurs wherever humans gather because our needs differ. The church is no exception. In one church I served, tension arose over whether to build a rose garden as a memorial to the many members who served the church or to invest in a program for youth to draw new families into the church. In one church, tension escalated in a worship committee meeting when members were deciding whether it was okay for acolytes to wear tennis shoes in church. In another church, angry words characterized meetings about whether contemporary music or traditional music should be used in the church’s worship services. Each situation generated tension and hurt feelings.

I propose that a model for healing tensions that grow in our families and churches involves four principles. They involve allowing a grace period, demonstrating compassion, expressing forgiveness, and creating sacred spaces. Each of these factors affects and builds on the others.

Grace Period

Every relationship can occasionally benefit from a grace period. This is a time when, to minimize tension, we filter what we say to others. Instead of expressing anger, we leave some things unsaid. A truce does not mean that we avoid others or give them the silent treatment. It means we create a period of time when we choose kindness and patience over harsh words. It may mean that we table hot topics in council meetings until we can get more information, or, when someone differs with us on an issue, we do not instinctively react but give ourselves more time to think about the issue. One church member said to me, “I decided to create a period of grace. After a few weeks, I forgot about what annoyed me so much.” Though it’s hard to do, slowing down allows us more time to find constructive ways to approach a problem.

Compassion

Our willingness to create a grace period is sometimes linked to our ability to live in a spirit of compassion for others. Compassion is demonstrating caring with grace. Compassion is listening with a goal of understanding what another may be experiencing or empathizing with what another is feeling. Matthew connects Jesus’ healing of people with compassion. Luke begins his account of Jesus feeding 5000 with a preface explaining that Jesus felt compassion for the crowd. In Colossians, Paul connects compassion to having patience and kindness toward others. Compassion enables a nurse to care about a difficult patient, a pastor to visit an unhappy parishioner, or a mother to work with an angry child. Compassion in the form of kind words and smiles encourages healing. A professor of mine once said to me, “When you begin to feel tension with another person, do something nice for them. Show them kindness. It’s hard to stay mad at someone you are doing something nice for.”

Forgiveness

Compassion can generate a third principle, forgiveness. Forgiveness occurs when we can let go of our harsh judgments about people and situations and give them to God. We pray that God might free us of ill feelings we have toward others. Forgiveness does not mean we forget how we’ve been harmed or accept that a harm was okay. It means that we turn a problem over to a higher power and trust that he will make all things new in his time. We choose to let go of anger and resentment and live with grace. We admit that we don’t know everything and that we might even be wrong once in a while. Living with a spirit of forgiveness means that we give others a second chance, including ourselves. Bernard Meltzer once said that when you forgive, you do not change the past, but you sure do change the future.

Sacred Space

During a time of grace, in which we express compassion and forgiveness, we can create a sacred space in which we talk constructively with others. You can tell from the many stories that we have about Jesus’ ministry that his presence created safe places where people knew that they were cared for an listened to.

As a pastor, I believed that every person I encountered deserved a safe time with me in church he or she could express sadness, doubts, and sometimes even anger. As a university professor, I kept a large stuffed green chair beside my desk in which students, staff, and faculty would come in frequently to sit and talk about life. It was a safe space where I listened with compassion and prayed about their pain. Jesus encourages us to create sacred places where our spouses, children, neighbors, and church friends can talk to us and receive support, not judgment.

Mike Spangle, Ph.D. is a Lutheran pastor and university professor in the field of communication. He is the author of several books including his newest book, Forgiving Others, Forgiving Ourselves.

According to the New York Times, the Category 4 hurricaine reached the the U.S in Texas, bringing with it winds reaching 130 miles per hour and heavy rain, causing severe amounts of damage to the area.

Three groups within LCMC are coordinating efforts to help with disaster relief for victims of the tropical storm. 

Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, an LCMC congregation in Victoria, TX is setting up a center to assist those in that area and welcome donations. 

The LCMC Texas District has a Facebook page set up to coordinate efforts as well.  Please visit  www.facebook.com/groups/LCMCHurricaneHarvey to learn more. 

Finally, Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ also has established a Lutheran Disaster Assistance Fund (LDA Fund) to responsibly handle the administration of donations in response to natural disasters.  Your funds can be sent directly to LDA for Hurricane Harvey Relief efforts. 

If you would like to contribute to the LDA Fund, please notate that your donation is intended for Hurricane Harvey Relief and mail all contributions to:
 
Lutheran Disaster Assistance Fund
c/o St. Mark's Lutheran Church
8300 C Avenue NE
Marion, IA 52302

If you are interested in applying please submit the following to info@lcmc.net:

1)  A letter of interest
2). Résumé
3). Brief answers to the following three questions:

• How would you describe the distinctives of LCMC?
• How would you describe your relationship/interaction with other LCMC pastors?
• Tell us how you see the role of the Coordinator of Pastoral Ministry.

The current job description is available on our website at www.lcmc.net/jobs.  

Final candidates will be interviewed at the October meeting of the Board of Trustees, which immediately follows the Annual Gathering and Convention.

Please keep this process in prayer as we seek the Lord’s direction.

The format of this year's event will be a bit different from that of previous years in the interest of offering people in LCMC more opportunities to connect with one another than ever before.  After a brief introduction of each topic from a theological perspective, followed by a panel discussion focusing on application to daily life in both domestic and international contexts, participants will have the ability to form discussion groups at their tables after each presentation has ended.  

Be sure to sign up for our annual Fellowship Dinner on Monday evening for a chance to reunite with old friends and colleagues, meet new ones, or get connected with a fellowship group of your choice.  Reserved seating will be available for young adults (20-30 somethings), clergy spouses, the Cross Alone, Mid-Atlantic, and Twin Cities fellowship groups, and various districts within LCMC.  Select this activity on your registration form to sign up.

Once again, we will also be offering meetups for seminary students and church planters, district gatherings, and a "meet and greet" breakout session to help match up pastors who are available for call with congregations who are seeking a new pastor.  

The event takes place October 8-11 in downtown Minneapolis.

Learn More & Register >>

If you are interested in applying please submit the following to info@lcmc.net:

1)  A letter of interest
2). Résumé
3). Brief answers to the following three questions:

• How would you describe the distinctives of LCMC?
• How would you describe your relationship/interaction with other LCMC pastors?
• Tell us how you see the role of the Coordinator of Pastoral Ministry.

Applications will be received until August 31st, 2017.  Final candidates will be interviewed at the October meeting of the Board of Trustees, which immediately follows the Annual Gathering and Convention.

Please keep this process in prayer as we seek the Lord’s direction.

Attending our 17th Annual Gathering in style while sipping coffee from a brand new LCMC-themed travel mug, of course! 

Select t-shirts and coffee mugs are on sale in the LCMC Store now through August 9th, so if you haven't had a chance to nab any items from our limited time 17th Annual Gathering Collection yet, now's your chance!  Visit Our Store >>

And if you haven't already, be sure to register for the Annual Gathering by September 1st to get the Early Bird discount (you'll attend for $100 less than you'd pay at-the-door)! 

This year's Annual Gathering will offer more fellowship and networking opportunities than ever before including table discussions, fellowship meet-ups, a fellowship dinner, district meetings, and even a breakout session to help connect pastors who may be seeking a call with congregations in search of a new pastor.

Participants will also have the option to take part in a Global Worship Experience with the people of St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, or view the documentary commissioned by Thrivent: Martin Luther, The Idea That Changed the World.

To read more about the Annual Gathering, click here. 

Dear Members of the Board of Trustees,

Victory Lutheran Church, Mesa, Arizona, has recently voted to extend a call to me to serve as Pastor of Growth Ministries. This opportunity came knocking, without my looking, and I have accepted; I begin at Victory on September 1, 2017. This letter, therefore, will serve as my official letter of resignation, which will be effective August 31, 2017. 

I have been honored to serve with, and on behalf of the Board of Trustees, the Ministry Board, and the people and constituencies of LCMC. I have been blessed to meet hundreds of God’s faithful people and visit dozens of pastors and congregations in the United States and around the world. It has been a delight to watch God call hundreds of pastors to serve LCMC during my tenure. Mark Vander Tuig has been a faithful and competent supervisor, friend and advisor. I have also enjoyed the incredibly faithful staff of LCMC and the amazing people who serve on the Ministry Board.

I leave this post and the Midwest closeness to our family with mixed and bitter-sweet feelings, but trust in God’s faithfulness for me and for LCMC.

God’s great blessing and joy to you as you serve our Lord in this part of His Kingdom Vineyard!

Sincerely Yours in Christ,

Rev. Stephen C. Lien
LCMC Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry

The Board of Trustees has accepted Rev. Steve Lien’s resignation with deeply mixed feelings. Steve has been a tremendous addition to our staff team and to our association.  His passion for ministry and insight has helped us in ways that will be appreciated for years to come. He will be missed by those of us who work for LCMC and by many, many pastors and leaders whose lives he has touched, prayed with, prayed for, and counseled.

The Board of Trustees meets in July, in just a few days, to finalize the process of finding the next Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry. They will first review the position description and then establish a team to receive resumes, review the applications, and bring 3-5 finalists for the Board to interview. The team will include members of the Board, representatives of the Ministry Board, and a member at large. They will also then establish a timeline for this process. This is a critical position for our association and we ask all to commit this process to prayer.

More details will be announced after the Board meets this July.

There's still time to enter our 2017 Annual Gathering photo contest before the Monday, July 17th deadline date! 

If your congregation has taken part in any projects, organized any events, or participated in any mission or ministry activities that exemplify what it means to be "in Mission for Christ" at a local, national, or international/global level over the past year, we're inviting YOU to submit photos to be considered for publication in our 2017 Annual Gathering Book.

To learn more and submit your favorite photos, click here. 

Click on this link to read the Billings Gazette article: http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/husband-and-wife-team-called-as-joy-lutheran-church-pastors/article_f88f1437-a4a6-5030-baa3-99bd7fe6c822.html

Available items include t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, tank tops, mugs, bags, notebooks, and art prints. 

Check out what's available by clicking on the link below.

View the LCMC Store

For more information on this year's Annual Gathering, and to register, click here or go to "Events", then "Annual Gathering". 

Here's how it works:

1. Photos must be submitted by a member, pastor, or staff member of an LCMC congregation
2. Go to www.lcmc.net/17-ag-photocontest and review the photo guidelines
3. Fill out the entry form, upload a photo, and click "submit"

Photos will be selected for publication based on subject matter (how closely they fit the theme), quality of the photo (photos should not appear "squished", "fuzzy" or contain clip art), and the story behind the photo (how your congregation is making a difference on the local, national, or global level).

All eligible photos received by Monday, July 17th will be considered for publication in The 2017 Annual Gathering Book.  Hard copy books will be available at the Annual Gathering in October, and a digital edition will be available on our website and in our mobile app once the Annual Gathering begins. 

Click Here to Submit a Photo

The theme of this year's event is “We Confess Our Faith”.  Our format will be a bit different this year, hoping to engage those attending in the conversation of three of the fundamental teachings of the Reformation:

• Justification
• The Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms
• The Priesthood of All Believers

The format will start with a brief introduction of the topic from a theological perspective, a panel discussion focusing on application to daily life—both domestic and international contexts – and discussion at tables by those attending the gathering.

This year we also celebrate the 500th anniversary of the nailing of the 95 theses of Martin Luther to the church door in Wittenburg, the beginning of the Reformation.  We will be screening documentary commissioned by Thrivent, “Martin Luther, The Idea That Changed the World”.

Once again, this year's event will include service projects, vendors, breakout sessions, and great worship opportunities. 

Early bird registration ends September 1st, so be sure to sign up before the price increases! 

For future updates on this and other events, be sure to download our mobile app and enable push notifications. 

Learn More  |  Register Now!

LCMC has never intended to be a denomination or organization.  Rather, from day one, we’ve been a movement of God’s spirit.  A movement focused on working together to fulfill Christ’s great commission to go and make disciples of all nations.   That’s never been easy, but it’s been on the front burner of our energy and passion since we began as an association seventeen years ago.

So the Ministry Board of LCMC gladly embraced the theme of discipleship when planning the last three annual Leadership Conferences.

Three years ago we gathered under the theme iFollow:  Life Together in the Way of Jesus, and heard incredible insights and challenges from Reggie McNeal, author of Get Off Your Donkey and other best-selling books on discipleship.  Reggie was joined by several of our own LCMC pastor-practitioners who added their real-world perspective.

Last year, recognizing the incredibly challenging and changing environment in which we’re making disciples, we focused on Shift: Re-tooling Church for the 21st Century.

This year 185 people gathered in Omaha as we rounded out a three-year cycle on discipleship with the theme Discipling by Design and a concentration on four areas of ministry in which every church is already engaged:  worship, community, mission and leadership.  The intent was to assist those present in making these things more intentionally disciple-making.  Presenters were all LCMC pastors and lay team-mates who shared real-life challenges and real-life ideas about being more effective disciple-makers. 

This year’s conference evaluations reflected deep appreciation for the emphasis on prayer, which was offered throughout the conference, solid and stimulating content, provocative ideas, and great connections and mutual support.  They also loved the break-out processing time that followed each presentation, andmany left with specific action steps to operationalize better disciple-making!

The Ministry Board thanks all who worked so tirelessly on this conference:  our planning and prayer teams, speakers, worship leaders, logistics masters and hosts at Lutheran Church of the Master in Omaha: thank you for your faithful partnership in the Gospel and in making disciples of Jesus Christ!

Though we love being together for this conference, the Ministry Board and Board of Trustees have decided to offer our Leadership Conference on an every-other-year basis.  Stay tuned for details for our next conference tentatively scheduled for February, 2019.

On behalf of the LCMC Ministry Board,

Yours in Christ,

Steve Lien

Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry

The staff of LCMC has received an update from Lutheran World Relief that the kits we packaged have been shipped to Angola on March 28, 2017 and should be arriving within the next four months. 

Lutheran World Relief will be working with Hope for Angola to ensure that the resources will be distributed to people in need once they arrive.  The organization is a partnership between several Christian denominations in Angola serving a population who lives on an estimated $1/day (US dollars) per family.

From Lutheran World Relief:

Dear Friends at Lutheran Congregations in  Mission for Christ,

Greetings from Lutheran World Relief! We're so thankful for your partnership, and for your energy and enthusiasm for this ministry.

I'm excited to be able to share some details about where some of your items traveled in the last year. You may already have spotted in your online Tracker record that your Personal Care Kits have gone to Angola. Your donations departed our warehouse on March 28, 2017.

LWR's partner in Angola is Hope for Angola {HFA}. Founded in 2006 by Angolans living in the United States, the organization seeks to advocate and support sustainable community based development for the vulnerable people of Angola to ensure that all have equal access to basic human needs. This distribution of Mission Quilts, Personal Care Kits, School Kits, Baby Care Kits and Fabric Kits will reach an estimated 20,147 people in Luanda, the capital city of Angola.
These precious gifts will support refugee, asylum-seeking and internally displaced families as they work to establish sustainable lives in Luanda.

To learn more about this shipment, visit quiltmap.lwr.org and click on the country to view a report. We will provide updates as we receive information from our partner. Thank you so much for your partner ship 'in bringing hope to our neighbors in around the world. We thank God for you!

Continued blessings on your ministry!

Melanie W. Gibbons
Quilt & Kit Ministry Manager

After receiving dozens of requests from LCMC-ers everywhere for clothing items featuring our new logo to be available online, the staff of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ is happy to announce the official launch of our brand new online store.

The LCMC Store offers an assortment of casual clothing items in sizes ranging from XS through 3XL as well as bags, mugs, decor items and more!  Available items include:

• T-Shirts
• Hoodies
• Sweatshirts
• Tank Tops
• Sweatpants
• Wall Art
• Mugs
• Bags
• Notebooks
• Phone Cases
• Throw Pillows
• Rugs

We will be updating our shop regularly as new items become available, so be sure to check back often to see what’s currently in stock!  

For the convenience of our members, we also plan to continue offering our traditional items including polo shirts, button-ups, t-shirts, and jackets at our Annual Gatherings.  

You can access our shop from our website anytime by clicking on "Resources", then "Online Store" in the main menu of our website, or by visiting lcmc.threadless.com.  

Through Saturday, March 25, LCMC-ers can also get free shipping on orders of $45+ using the promo code SPRNG17800be4. 

Customer support is available via email at shop.support@threadless.com should you have any ordering-related questions or experience any problems.  

By introducing our online shop, we hope to make it easier for our pastors and congregation members to access much-requested LCMC logo items, and to further embody who we are as an association: a first century church for the twenty first century.

The color scheme and design of our updated logo represents our hope as an association of congregations: bringing Jesus to a dark and broken world. The red in the globe represents the blood of Jesus bringing light into the world, and the red “M” of LCMC emphasizes our focus on mission. 

By creating a cleaner, more contemporary layout for our newsletter and website, as well as incorporating the colors and design elements from our logo, we hope to embody the mission and vision of our association and to clearly communicate who we are: a first century church for the twenty first century.

Speaking of the twenty first century, if you haven’t already, be sure to check out our mobile app, and to share it with your congregations as well.

The LCMC Mobile App makes it easy to access calendars and event details, stream videos, and podcasts (it’s Apple TV and Chromecast compatible!), and connect with other people throughout the association.  The app’s built in blog reader makes it easy to stay up-to-date on recent news and announcements, and app users can also sign up to receive occasional notifications so you’ll never miss out on an important announcement or deadline again.  With easy access to the LCMC directories and the congregation search feature, you can contact people or find nearby congregations even when you’re on the go.

Read Our Newsletter

Be sure to check your mailboxes, as our 1st Quarter 2017 edition of BY THE WORD is on the way!  Alternatively, you may download a printer-friendly PDF version of the newsletter by clicking here. 

The InFaith Community Foundation Scholarship is a $5,000 scholarship available to high school seniors who are seeking a four-year undergraduate degree at an accredited college or university and are members of congregations that hold active organizational endowment funds at InFaith Community Foundation.

Eligible woman candidates are also invited to apply for the WomenLead Scholarship, a $3,000 dollar scholarship which will be awarded to two individuals; one student attending a graduate program or seminary, and one student attending a two-year community college or vocational/technical school.

The deadline to apply for either scholarship is April 30, 2017. 

To learn more, check out our Scholarships page, or visit their website at www.infaithfound.org/newsgrants/scholarships. 

For questions about the scholarships or the application process please contact Nikki Johnson, Donor Services Associate, at (800) 365-4172, or scholarships@InFaithfound.org.

Social media platforms can provide instant communication to large numbers of people and the capacity for messages to go “viral”, connecting with millions within a short period of time.  This is both an amazing opportunity for the gospel to spread and a deep responsibility, especially for Christ-followers who are called to be positive and winsome witnesses to our Lord. 

The members of the Ministry Board of LCMC often find ourselves discussing the challenges faced by pastors and congregations and the occasional conflict that arises.  In many of these situations, people take to social media to share or ventilate their feelings.  In a recent meeting we decided to share some of our thinking with the hope it may help each of us THINK more carefully about our use of social media.

When we talk with others, either privately or publicly, our expectation is that the people of faith will be above reproach in their communications in all forms.  In each of our online interactions we would do well to be mindful of James 1:19:

      be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry. 

All public or private confrontation should be guided by James 3, Matthew 18, along with Luther’s explanation of the 8th commandment to not bear false witness.

A helpful acronym for discerning appropriateness of our online interactions is T.H.I.N.K.:

      Is it True? 

      Is it Helpful? 

      Is it Inspiring?

      Is it Necessary?

      Is it Kind?

Below we’ve also provided some helpful and thoughtful links to online articles written especially for Pastors.

Yours in Christ,

The Ministry Board of LCMC 

Jeremey King, Ebassa Berhanu, Steve Lien, Linda Krei, Sandy Miller, Nathan Hanson, Steve Turnbull, Paul Owens

Resources:

https://catalystconference.com/read/5-warnings-for-pastors-on-social-media/ 

http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/november/five-mistakes-pastors-make-on-social-media.html 

http://thomrainer.com/2016/03/ten-commandments-for-pastors-politics-and-social-media/ 

If your congregation is currently carrying out an Hispanic ministry, mission, or agency in our association, and you would like to get connected, please click here and sign up.  If you are interested in learning more about developing an Hispanic ministry, feel free to sign up as well. 

As we get some folks on our list, we will assign a coordinator, put together a “mission statement” and see what the Lord might do with this.

We have a number of non-geographic districts, and LCMC grew out of one many years ago called “Word Alone Network”. 

The purpose of non-geographic districts is to give people who are separated by many miles, but united in interest, a chance to connect, support and encourage, and even offer insight and training for those who want to grow a ministry. 

I think this network could also be a tremendous resource for those who would like to initiate a ministry in this arena.

Click Here to Sign Up!

In addition to our 2016 Annual Gathering Series, which features presentations from our event speakers and staff members, we have also recently released two new video workshop series: Church Planting 101 and Pete the Planner. 

Designed for those who are interested in planting new congregations, Church Planting 101 is a three part introductory workshop led by LCMC's Coordinator for Church Planting Development, Rev. Dan Clites. 

Pete the Planner is a workshop series aimed at helping LCMC-ers explore the basics of financial planning. 

To access the LCMC video gallery from our website, click on the Events tab, then Media & Downloads, then Videos & Presentations. 

App users can stream video content directly from their smartphone or tablet, or play content on their TV screen using Apple TV or Google Chromecast.  (Learn More)

Our 17th Annual Gathering takes place October 8-11, 2017 in Minneapolis, MN.  Stay tuned for further details, and be sure to sign up for Annual Gathering push notifications in our mobile app to receive realtime updates when new information becomes available!

The event took place from January 3-5, 2017 and each day had its own theme.  Day one was a day for confession, day two a day of petition, and day three a day for vision.  Participants were able to structure each of the three days in any way that made sense for them. 

Based on the results of last month's Three Days of Prayer poll, 25% of this year's participants celebrated Three Days of Prayer for the first time.  Approximately 17% reported that they had participated on their own in the past, but that 2017 was the first time their congregation had organized somethig together. 

While 20% of people reported praying on their own, 27% told us that their congregation had organized some type of special event this year. 

Over half of the people surveyed reported having provided members of their congregations with prayer resources for the event, whether in print or online.  (To view sample resources submitted by fellow LCMC congregations, click here.)

This year, a handful of congregations opted to organize a prayer service or other special event this year while also providing take-home resources to congregation members. 

In addition to offering printed and online resources, Resurrection Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Western Reserve in Stow, OH used the event as an opportunity to connect with other congregations in the area.  "We partnered with a county-wide effort to hold a cross-cultural and cross-denominational event, Summit Ablaze, inviting people to eat with us before," said Laurel Bobb, the congregation's pastor.

"We sent out a booklet to all members and frequent visitors that explained prayer and had an outline to follow for people who wanted to pray at home," said Julie Wood of Resurrection Lutheran Church of Alpena, MI.  "We opened the church from 6:00 to 9:00 A.M. on each of the three days for people to come in and pray.  We held a prayer service on Wednesday night that incorporated all the themes into one event."

When asked if there was anything they would like to do differently for next year's Three Days of Prayer, most people agreed that they would like to start planning early and start promoting the event before the busy holiday season begins. 

One congregation told us that sending regular reminders, as well as mentioning Three Days of Prayer during regular church services, proved to be an effective way of getting the word out.

"We talked about the event on the Sunday preceding [and] I sent a reminder email each of the three days.  I used the event as a topic for a sermon on a Sunday following the event and we discussed God's vision for the church at large," said Pastor Jo Kinnard of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Inwood, IA.  "Our Savior's in Inwood is definitely a prayer warrior congregation! They loved the idea, and the reminders, and the opportunity to pray."

Our next Three Days of Prayer event will take place January 2-4, 2018, so be sure to mark your calendars and start planning early!

A total of 300 people attended our 2016 Called 2 Serve event, which featured workshops, service projects, keynote speakers, an ice cream social, and a concert by the Christian rock group Remedy Drive.  (You can read a full recap here, and check out photos from the event in our photo gallery, listed under the "Events" menu of our website.)

Additional details will be available here and in our mobile app at a later date, so stay tuned!  

.  

Each day from today through Thursday, every congregation, member, and pastor in LCMC is invited to set aside some time for prayer.  The themes for each day are as follows:

• January 3:  This is a day focused on confession. We have made our lives, our relationships—and even the church—in our own image. We confess that the church belongs to Jesus and not to us. We gather to lay down our pride, our sin and our agenda and ask the Lord of the church for forgiveness, which He gives freely and with mercy.
• January 4:  This is a day of petition. Pray for your congregation, for the pastor, for the leaders, for those who carry out ministries, for the Sunday School teachers, for the Confirmation leaders, for those leading adult Bible studies and for those leading small groups. Pray for those in hospital and nursing home ministries. Pray for all those connected to your church that they might know God’s redeeming love for all in Christ.
• January 5:  This is a day for vision. Pray that the Holy Spirit will again move through the hearts and minds of leaders and pastors that God’s vision for His church might be revealed and fulfilled. This is a time of prayer for renewal, revival and encouragement. Pray for God’s vision.  

No matter how you structure this time of prayer, let’s come together as an association of congregations across the U.S. and around the world to pray!  

"I believe that the church will never rise up until we first get down on our knees!" said Rev. Mark Vander Tuig, Service Coordinator for LCMC.  

Whether you've simply set aside some time to pray each day, or your congregation has organized a special event or service to celebrate, we would love to hear about it!  You can share your experiences with us by taking our Three Days of Prayer Survey for 2017.  We'll include some of the responses that we receive in an upcoming LCMC news article. 

Because of the need I’ve observed and the training I’ve received, I am offering a crash course in interim ministry for interested LCMC pastors, which will take place July 25-27, 2017 at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa.  

To register for the course, contact Cathy Nichol, LCMC Administrative Coordinator, at (734) 788-7476 or cathy@lcmc.net.  The cost of the course is $100 per person (payable via credit card or by check made payable to LCMC) and enrollment is limited to twenty-five people.  Advance registration and full payment are required before class begins .  

Travel, meals and housing are the responsibility of each participant.  Housing is available at Grand View for $27 per night, and reservations can be made directly with Grand View by contacting Nicholas Kavanaugh at nkavanaugh@grandview.edu or (515) 263-2894.

Pastor Steve Abend, an LCMC pastor who has been trained by the National Association of Lutheran Interim Pastors (NALIP) will be joining me in teaching the class.  The class will also include the pre-reading of several books identified in our syllabus after registration.  

My hope is that those who enroll will be motivated and conscientious learners willing to serve as intentional interim ministers in LCMC congregations.

If you are interested in attending, please register by contacting Cathy Nichol.  In addition, please share this information among your friends who you think might be interested.  

I welcome your questions and ask for your prayers.

Yours for the sake of the Kingdom,

Rev. Stephen Lien
Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry
Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC)

We participated in Faith in Action Day because, as a church, we believe that God has called us to be for our community; to care for it and seek its well being.  For us, Faith-in-Action Day is not just be an event to do one day a year, but an opportunity to reveal to our church the ways to care for Auburn.  We also have the goal of this being an ecumenical movement in our community, bringing churches together in serving Auburn, and were happy that Auburn First United Methodist church would partner with us in this.

The two churches broke into teams, each team a mixture of people from each church, to attack projects around town.  The projects included painting fences, serving nursing homes, cleaning buildings, removing invasive plants, sprucing up a cemetery, letters to veterans, care kits, and passing out baked goods and sewn items to local organizations!

What an amazing opportunity we had to serve our community, to bless Auburn with the love of Jesus Christ!  If you have any questions about having a Faith in Action Day in your church, we would love to talk with you about this!  Email pastordan@stmarksauburn.org with any questions.

Registration

Themed Discipling by Design, our 2017 Leadership Conference focuses on how we can become more and more disciple-making in our worship, community, mission, and leadership development.  

Participants will enjoy keynote speakers, worship, and interactive discussion groups after each presentation.  

Advance registration for this year's conference is $89 per person for all pastors, church leaders and church members and includes all programming, refreshments on Sunday, and lunches on Monday and Tuesday.  Early bird registrations must be received by April 29, 2017, and may be submitted online, by mail, or through our mobile app.  

The event takes place April 30 - May 2, 2017 at Lutheran Church of the Master in Elknorn, Nebraska.  

For more information, click here.  

The event kicked off on Sunday evening with an opening worship service preached by Pr. Ebassa Berhanu (Faith Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, CO), as well as the announcement that the association has a new logo as well as its first ever mobile app.  

Monday's program featured Keynote Speaker Dr. Ed Stetzer (Billy Graham Distinguished Endowed Chair for Church, Mission and Evangelism, Wheaton College), as well as reports given by LCMC Staff members Rev. Mark Vander Tuig (Service Coordinator) and Rev. Steve Lien (Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry).  Steve and the LCMC Ministry Board also recognized district leaders, certifiers, new congregations, pastors, seminarians, military chaplains, and those who were celebrating significant anniversaries of ordination.  

On Monday evening, participants had the option to take part in a fellowship dinner, providing them the opportunity to make new friends in LCMC, reunite with old ones, or get connected with one of several different fellowship groups.  

Tuesday's program featured Keynote Speaker Dr. Mark Granquist (Associate Professor of the History of Christianity, Luther Seminary), Dr. Jim Blessman (President and Founder, Blessman Ministries) as the international focus speaker, and a report by LCMC Staff member Rev. Dan Clites (Coordinator for Church Planting Development).  

Attendees also had the option to take part in breakout sessions, which fincluded topics such as church planting, engaging millennials, retirement plan options, and more.  

On Tuesday evening, many participants gathered together in the convention center to assemble personal care kits with Lutheran World Relief.  Through the generous donations given by LCMC congregations, as well as the muscle power of many volunteers at the Annual Gathering, the people of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ were able to donate 8,228 personal care kits and deliver 35 quilts to those whose lives have been affected by natural disasters and to people who are living in poverty around the world.  

Newly elected to the LCMC Board of Trustees were pastors Brodie Taphorn (Area 5) and Darrin Vick (Area 6).  Current members of the board are Sean Kelly (Chair), Martha Uecker Nelson (Vice Chair), Julie Smith (Secretary), Laurel Swanson (Treasurer), Brodie Taphorn, Darrin Vick, Enrique Estrada, and Christopher Miller.  

Wednesday morning's program featured "ministry vignettes" presented by Pr. Steven Broers (Emmanual Lutheran Church, Fontanelle, IA), Pr. Sandy Miller (First Lutheran Church, Hope, MN) and Rev. Jonathan Haseley (Barefoot Christian Community, Niagara Falls, NY).  The event concluded with a closing worship service preached by Rev. Michael R. Bonham (Peace Lutheran Church, Gulf Shores, AL).

Each day, attendees also enjoyed worship provided by Bethel Lutheran Church (Colorado Springs, CO), as well as Bible study led by Rev. Janine Rew-Werling (Hosanna Lutheran Church, Watertown, SD).  

Videos of this year's speakers will be available online on our videos page (you can find it under Events  >  Media & Downloads  >  Videos & Presentations) and in our mobile app in winter 2017.  For a downloadable copy of the 2016 Annual Gathering Book, click here or download our app.  

Our 17th Annual Gathering will take place October 8-11, 2017 at the Hilton Minneapolis in Minneapolis, MN.  Stay tuned for further details.  

To help make using our site a better experience for all, we have simplified our layout, made our site easier to navigate overall, and completely optimized it for use on your smartphone or tablet, so you can access the same resources and information as before in a more efficient way.  

In addition to simplifying our menu system, we’ve made it quicker for pastors and congregations to update their directory information, submit events for the LCMC calendar, and share their prayer requests and news stories.  (Just click on the red button at the top of the page you'd like us to update!)

Our "Find a Church" tool has also been updated, making it easier to search for nearby LCMC congregations in any area.  

We’ve also cleaned up the layout of our media library, making it easier to find and watch videos from past LCMC events. (You’ll find the same organization of videos and podcasts inside our mobile app, which enables its users to stream media to their TV using Apple TV or Google Chromecast.)

We hope you enjoy the new look and improved functionality of our website.  If you have any questions, you can always contact us.  

Tonight's service will also feature a first look at our brand new logo design as well as a special video presentation on a new resource we have put together for every congregation, member and pastor in LCMC.  You won't want to miss it! 

If you're tuning in from home, you can catch a live feed of the Annual Gathering online at www.lcmc.net/live. 

A schedule for each day of the event can be found here, or by downloading a copy of our 2016 Annual Gathering Book. 

The LCMC mobile app makes it easy to access videos and podcasts, receive news updates, and stay connected with other people throughout the association.

With the in app web player, you can catch live events, stream videos and podcasts, and even play content on your TV screen using Apple TV or Google Chromecast.  

You can also use the app to access calendars, register online for events, and view digital versions of event programs and handouts.  

The app’s built in blog reader makes it easy to stay up-to-date on recent news and announcements, and app users can also sign up to receive occasional notifications, so you'll never miss out on an important announcement or deadline again.  

You'll also have easy access to the LCMC directories as well as the congregation search feature, so you can contact people or find nearby congregations even when you're on the go. 

In conjunction with the launch of our mobile app, we have also released a cleaner, more contemporary version of our logo and branding.

The color scheme and design of our updated logo symbolizes our hope as an association of congregations: bringing Jesus to a dark and broken world.  The red represents the blood of Jesus bringing light to the world. The color red in the "m" of LCMC emphasizes our focus on mission. As Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, we are all working together to fulfill Christ's Great Commission in Matthew 28 to go and make disciples of all nations.   

A great deal of time, thought and effort has gone into creating a logo that embodies the mission and vision of our association, and we are confident that our new design will help communicate exactly who we are: a first century church for the twenty first century.  

Tomorrow (Monday) we will also be rolling out with a brand new, mobile friendly version of our website.  To help make using our site a better experience for all, our new design will be easier to navigate and completely optimized for use on your smartphone or tablet, while still providing the same information and resources that are available today. 

Stay tuned!

August 19, 2016

Dear Mark,

The team at Meals from the Heartland wants to thank you for your generous support regarding the LCMC National Youth Gathering packaging event held on July 21, 2016. With your financial gift of $48741 on 8/5/2016 and the help of 125 volunteers, a total of 80,784 meals were packaged during this event.

Please know that your support makes a difference in the lives of thousands. In 2015 Meals from the Heartland packaged over 15 million meals to distribute around the world to help feed people in need of nourishment. Also in 2015 over 1 million meals were distributed in Iowa as well as elsewhere in the United States.

We are thankful for the support that has allowed Meals from the Heartland to package and distribute over sixty-five million meals since its inception. The need continues and together with you we will carry on this critical work.

At Meals from the Heartland our vision is to alleviate life-threatening hunger. Thank you for supporting our mission to empower people to feed the starving. We look forward to working with you on future events!

With sincere thanks,

Susan Bunz
Executive Director

According to Cathy Nichol, LCMC’s administrative assistant, a total of 300 people from 32 different LCMC congregations attended the four day event, which was designed to help strengthen the ministry of the local church by giving students a better understanding of what is possible in their own church and local community. 

The event featured keynote speakers Culynn Curtis, Pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Maple Lake, MN, Alex Krumm, Director of Student Ministries at Grand View University in Des Moines, IA, Ken Jones, Professor of Theology and Religion at Grand View University, and Jody Skogen, Director of Youth and Family Ministries at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Marion, IA, who emceed the event.

Also speaking at the event were Kyle Fever, Pastor of Beyond Ministries and Director of Ingham Okoboji Lutheran Bible Camp, Jamie Strickler, Assistant Dean of Educational Ministry for North American Education at the Institute of Lutheran Theology, Wendy Berthelsen, Pastor of Hope Lutheran Church, and LCMC staff members Mark Vander Tuig, Steve Lien and Dan Clites. 

Throughout the week, students also had the chance to explore topics such as love, truth, their "call", the life that Jesus promises and how to follow Jesus during high school by taking part in interactive breakout sessions and enjoyed music performed by the worship band at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Altoona, IA. 

On Thursday, participants had the option to take part in one for four different service projects that were geared towards making a real difference in the local Des Moines community. 

Approximately one third of participants opted to help pack meals for the hungry with non-profit organization Meals from the Heartland.  After exceeding our goal of raising $10,000 in donations from LCMC congregations (enough to purchase enough supplies for 50,000 meal kits), volunteers were able to package a total of 80,784 meal kits in under three hours. 

Another group of volunteers chose to visit Riverside Lutheran Bible Camp, where they laid a gravel path, mulched the facility's low ropes course, cleaned and weeded any landscaped areas, mulched a whole trail and stained a large fence. 

A third group met up with the people at Hope Ministries, an organization who seeks to help meet the spiritual, physical and emotional needs of people who are homeless.  Participants volunteered at some of the various sites that Hope Ministries operates, performing tasks such as cleaning and organizing items at a local thrift store. 

A fourth group went out into the local community to perform random acts of kindness, such as cleaning up a local park, giving away cookies, cleaning up several areas on the Grand View University campus, and handing out bottled water to people with scripture verses attached. 

While there were plenty of opportunities for learning and serving at Called 2 Serve, the event also offered everyone a chance to get connected with others through small group discussions, games and mixers led by Chip Reynolds, Pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Braunfels, TX, 

Participants also enjoyed an ice cream social featuring Peanut Butter Belly Buster, Cake Batter, Knee Deep in Chocolate and Cookies & Cream flavors from Over the Top, followed by a live concert by christian rock group Remedy Drive. 

Overall, the event was well-received by those who attended.  Here are just a few of the comments our staff has received from participants' evaluation forms:

• "This was by far one of the best weeks I have ever had and I thank you all for it. God Bless."
• "Longer! I loved it and I wish it was longer! Breakout sessions more interactive and how it's applicable to life."
• "I loved how service project was incorporated with the event. This was an excellent event. I am looking forward to the next one."
• "Thank you for your hard work! God moved in some awesome ways!"
• "We had a wonderful time at the National Youth Gathering. Having attended two NYG in another denomination, I appreciated that there was no political agenda or ideological propaganda spewed forth at our kids. It was nice to be centered in the Word, what Jesus has done for us, and the privilege to share that message as those Called2Serve."
• "Our group of [people] were barely more than Sunday friends from multiple high schools and wound up growing personally and collectively in Christ. They're bonded with big ideas for God now! Two, who've attended church their entire lives and been confirmed, shared with me that it was the very first time they were truly feeling a personal connection to Jesus, prayer, and seeing how Christian support works. I'm so grateful! These ladies arrived home and were so on fire that our pastor is devoting an entire Sunday service/sermon in August for them to share the Called 2 Serve Bible message, music, and a takeaway activity to hopefully inform and inspire our congregation to sharing their gifts, loving one another and being called to service!"
• "God moved in many ways: - Students started sharing their stories of faith with one another in small groups during family time - Students started thinking about going into vocational ministry maybe for the first time - Student spent her first extended time away from home, successfully! - Student became more of her aware of her actions and asked for forgiveness from leaders. - Student left the week with an understanding that serving is more than something we do it’s about who we are as Christians - Student felt the presence of the Holy Spirit during the Thursday night worship gathering - Student felt her calling to be someone who is there for her friends during difficult times. That is just SOME of the cool things God did during the youth event!"

At this time, we will also be rolling out with an updated version of our logo and branding.  A great deal of time, thought and effort has gone in to creating a logo that embodies the mission and vision of our association, and we are confident that our new design will help communicate exactly who we are: a first century church for the twenty first century.  

Whether you’ll be joining us in person or tuning in online via live stream, we look forward to sharing these improvements with you in just a few short weeks.  

The LCMC 16th Annual Gathering, themed Back to the Future: First Century Principles for the Twenty First Century, takes place October 2-5, 2016 at the Crowne Plaza Denver Airport Convention Center in Denver, CO.  Early bird registration ends September 1, so be sure to sign up soon to receive the best rate!

The event, organized by LCMC Service Coordinator Rev. Mark Vander Tuig, was designed to help the people of LCMC become more and more a people of prayer and has since become an annual tradition in LCMC. 

During the first week of each new year, all of the people who make up LCMC (934 congregations as of today) are invited to join in prayer for three days.  Each day has a theme: day one is a day for confession, day two a day for petition, and day three a day for vision.  Congregations can organize the three days in any way they choose.

Over the past four years, our congregations have come up with a slew of creative ideas on how to organize each of the three days.  Here are just a few examples:

• Host a special prayer service or vigil during each of the three days
• Organize a prayer walk
• Use online tools, such as email, social media, or a mobile app to help engage your congregation during each of the three days
• Organize a special event or project during each of the three days
• Have the members of your congregation sign up for time slots to pray during the three days
• Design brochures, booklets or even prayer clocks and distribute them to the people in your congregation

January might seem like a long way off, but if you'd like to take part, it's best to mark your calendars and start planning early!  The number one piece of advice our staff has heard from congregations who are seasoned participants have given was to start planning a few months in advance, as January comes right after the busy holiday season.

Our 5th Annual Three Days of Prayer takes place January 3-5, 2017.  Additional information and resources can be found by clicking here. 

As of today, we have officially raised $43,750 in donations to help cover the cost of supplies for this project. 

If your congregation would like to learn more or make a donation, you may do so online or by mail by clicking here. 

If you will be attending the Annual Gathering and would like to sign up to help assemble the kits, you may do so by checking off the appropriate box on your registration form. 

The LCMC 16th Annual Gathering, themed Back to the Future: First Century Principles for the Twenty First Century, takes place October 2-5, 2016 at the Crowne Plaza Denver Airport Convention Center in Denver, CO.  Early bird registration ends September 1, so be sure to sign up soon to receive the best rate!

Pastor Samuel Chim, Service Coordinator for LCMC Cambodia, has led mission in Cambodia for 20 years, establishing 50 house Churches, 9 Congregations, and 5 major regional projects.  Some of his work includes establishing a floating school for 500 impoverished children, digging wells throughout the country to ensure clean water, and training pastors for mission work. 

LCMC Cambodia is partnering with ALWM to create mission experiences for groups and congregations in the west and to raise awareness and support for the needs of Cambodian Christians and the Christian communities there.  ALWM, founded in 2007 by Pastor Bill Moberly, works to call, mobilize, equip, and network congregations for effective global outreach.

LCMC Cambodia is joining together with ALWM, ILT, and Lutheran Asian Ministries (LAM) to establish a new model for seminary training throughout Southeast Asia, including Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam.  School for Asian Lutheran Theology, or S.A.L.T., is a project of ILT to establish training centers throughout Asia for the training of pastors and church leaders.  

The 5 Year Challenge is a call to individual Christians as well as Christian Churches and Organizations in LCMC United States to strengthen their resolve to support Global Missions and to be part of pushing LCMC Cambodia into a new era of mission and evangelism. 

To learn more about the 5 Year Challenge, visit www.alwm.org, Awakening Lives to World Mission. 

To find out more about S.A.L.T., visit www.ilt.org, the Institute of Lutheran Theology. 

To see an informational video about LCMC Cambodia and the 5 Year Challenge, go to www.vimeo.com/168483946. 

To find out how you or your congregation can support LCMC Cambodia in the 5 Year Challenge, contact Pastor Chris Conner, S.E. Asia Coordinator for Awakening Lives to World Mission, at revcjconner@gmail.com or 620-225-4812.

• Community Outreach
• Service Projects
• Mission Trips
• Creative/Artistic Projects
• Disaster Relief
• Church Planting Efforts

Photos must be submitted via our online photo submission form and will be selected based on the following criteria:

• Theme:  The subject matter of the photo must be relevent to the topic. 
• Quality:  We are unable to use photos that are blurry, distorted, very small or have text over them. 
• Story:  Each photo must be submitted with a caption explaining what's going on in the photo and the event or project that it was taken during. 

The deadline to submit photos for this year's book is Friday, July 1. 

More Info:  Submit a Photo  |  FAQs  |  Past AG Books

Lutheran World Relief Project

Our goal for this year's Annual Gathering in Denver is to assemble 10,000 personal care kits for those whose lives have been affected by natural disasters.  To date, we have raised $17,119.52 of the $50,000 needed for supplies.  

If your congregation would like to make a donation to this project, click here.  All donations must be received by July 1, 2016 so that we can acquire all necessary supplies. 

If you plan on attending the Annual Gathering this fall and are interested in helping assemble the kits, simply check off the "Service Project" box on your registration form. 

Meals from the Heartland Project

This summer, one of the service projects high schoolers attending Called 2 Serve will be taking part in is packaging meals kits for the hungry.  

Thanks to the generosity of our congregations, the staff of LCMC is pleased to announce that we have not only met our fundraising goal of $10,000 for the Meals from the Heartland service project, but have exceeded it with a total of $15,743.15!  

Thank you so much for helping make this project possible! 

Annual Gathering

The theme of our 2016 Annual Gathering is Back to the Future: First Century Principles for the Twenty First Century.  Held October 2-5 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Convention Center in Denver, the event features plenty of opportunities to get inspired, connect with other people in LCMC and get the latest news updates on our association. 

This year, we'll be teaming up with Lutheran World Relief for a special service project, where we plan to assemble 10,000 personal care kits for people whose lives have been affected by natural disasters.  We will also be hosting a fellowship dinner on Monday evening, giving participants an opportunity to make new friends, reunite with old friends, or get connected with a fellowship group of their choice.  

The event also features keynote speakers, worship services, more than 30 breakout sessions and the ability to connect with various mission and ministry organizations in our vendor area. 

All pastors, leaders, church members, delegates and visitors who register for the Annual Gathering by Thursday, September 1 will receive $60.00 off the cost of registration!  

Register Now!  >>

Seminarian Retreat

Hosted at the Ponderosa Camp and Conference Center in Larkspur, CO the weekend before the Annual Gathering, the Seminarian Retreat gives seminary students a chance to connect with one another, connect with seasoned pastors in LCMC, and ask questions about the seminary process. 

Registration is $60 per person with meals and accommodations included.  Spouses are also invited to attend.  Advance registration is required.

Register Now!  >>

“Service” is becoming a central part of our gatherings!

This year for our Called 2 Serve youth event, which takes place July 19-22 at Grand View University in Des Moines, one of the service projects is again working with Meals from the Heartland.

In order to reach our goal, we need about $10,000 to have 140 young people package meals for two hours, which would amount to about 50,000 meals. 

At our Annual Gathering this year, we are working with Lutheran World Relief (LWR), one of the most efficient and effective relief agencies in the world. 

Our goal is to have Annual Gathering participants (we normally get between 750 -1,100 people in attendance) assemble 10,000 personal care kits. To make this happen, we need to receive about $50,000 in special offerings from the congregations of LCMC. The people with LWR believe that we can easily assemble that many kits in Denver!

The people of our congregations have been extremely generous for these projects in the past, and I am hoping we can be once again.

If your church would like to participate, please send checks, made payable to to LCMC and earmarked for "Meals from the Heartland" or "Lutheran World Relief" to the LCMC office at:

LCMC
7000 N Sheldon Road
Canton, MI 48187

You can also make a donation online by clicking one (or both!) of the following links:

• Meals from the Heartland Service Project - Called 2 Serve
• Lutheran World Relief Service Project - Annual Gathering

All funds need to be received by July 1, 2016 so we can purchase needed supplies.

Sincerely In Christ,

Mark Vander Tuig
LCMC Service Coordinator

Called 2 Serve is open to high schoolers completing grades 8-12 and takes place July 19-22, 2016 at Grand View University. 

To learn more and register, click here. 

We apologize for any confusion this email may have caused our readers. 

For clarification purposes, our 16th Annual Gathering will in fact be held from October 2-5, 2016 in Denver, CO. 

Our latest e-newsletter, titled "Scholarships, Discounts & Training Opportunities for Current & Future Leaders", is scheduled to be sent out this afternoon. 

Here's what you need to know for February 2016:

• Scholarship Opportunity for Seminary Students
• Why an LCMC Youth Event?
• 2016 Event Registration Deadlines
• Upcoming Events

A wonderful gift was given to St. Paul Lutheran Church in Kodiak, Alaska.  So, we have established a new scholarship, The Wheeler Family Scholarship!

This scholarship was established from a gift given by Gary and Annette Wheeler, long time members of St. Paul Lutheran Church who hoped to encourage people to consider a call into the ordained ministry of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC).  The intent was to give financial help to any Lutheran Seminarian.

More information can be found at www.lcmc.net/scholarships.  You can also call Pastor Elden Simonson at St. Paul Lutheran Church of Kodiak, Alaska at (907) 486-3632. 

The best people to witness to other youth are the youth that we already have.  The local church must do what they are able to train and equip youth to be disciples to their own generation.  One of the best ways to do that is to build mentor relationships with mature Christian adults who can mentor youth in the development of their relationship with Jesus.

Second, Youth Are the Near Future.  

One of the things that we have not done very well is prepare our youth for the next chapter.  Many of our youth after leaving high school tend to struggle with their faith in a culture that pulls them in a hundred different directions.  University campuses are not always friendly places for Christians and are we helping them figure out how to navigate that new setting?  But almost no place in the culture: work, military, vocational tech, etc. is welcoming to young adults who also want to remain faithful to Jesus.

Third, Youth Are the Further Future.  

One of the biggest issues we face is finding leaders for the local church who love Jesus, love the church and love the people the Holy Spirit brings.  Raising local leaders for the local church must become a priority for each congregation.

Fourth, Youth Are the Future Pastors.  

The vocation of ministry requires the brightest and the best that our congregations have to offer.  People forget that pastors come from congregations...and so we need to find ways to help youth catch the vision that serving Jesus happens in every vocation, but the vocation of ministry is one of them. Being a pastor/leader of a congregation has been a great life for many and has been a great blessing to those families.  We need more and more youth to ask the question: could God be calling me to consider pastoral ministry as my vocation?

Our 2016 “Called 2 Serve” youth event is July 19-22, and registration closes March 1st.  If you are planning to attend, please register!

While congregations were encouraged to structure each of the three days in any way that made sense to the congregation, there was a theme set for each day.  Day one was a day for confession, day two a day for petition and day three a day for vision.  

Over the past four years, LCMC congregations came up with creative ways of organizing the three days including prayer walks, prayer clocks, designing brochures and planning special events.  

For 2016, the majority of congregations reported hosting special events and/or distributing brochures to members of the congregation who wanted to participate at home.  

While congregations generally focus on inviting their members to take part in the event, one congregation had the experience of an interested non-member joining them.  

“We had info on our front sign and it was exciting that someone actually read it, turned around and came in to pray,” said Paula Mann, the congregational president of Living Word Lutheran Church in Lantana, FL.  

Each year, the number one piece of advice that LCMC-ers have given to others who may be taking part in Three Days of Prayer for the first time is to start planning in advance, then get the word out early and often.

“Trust God,” advises Karen Mason of Faith Lutheran Church in Monticello, MN.  “A basic format is a good idea, and likely reassuring to many participants, but just show up, praise God, then see what He does.”

After participating in Three Days of Prayer for the first time, Karen’s congregation plans to continue offering weekly prayer meetings, which will be open to anyone in the local community who would like to attend.  

There are still eleven months left to plan for our next Three Days of Prayer, which will take place January 3-5, 2017.   

To learn more about Three Days of Prayer and download resources to help you plan for next year, visit www.lcmc.net/three-days-of-prayer. 

2016 Youth Event

The registration deadline for Called 2 Serve is Tuesday, March 1.  The event is open to students completing grades 8-12 and takes place July 19-22, 2016 at Grand View University in Des Moines, IA.  Chaperones are required. 

2016 Leadership Conference

The early bird deadline for our 2016 Leadership Conference is fast approaching!  Pastors, church leaders and church members who register for the conference by Monday, February 29 will save $30 per person on the cost of registration.  Seminarians who register in advance will also receive discounted admission. 

The event, themed Shift: Retooling Church, takes place April 10-12, 2016 at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Altoona, IA and features keynote speakers, worship, and a chance to connect with fellow LCMC-ers through interactive discussion groups. 

As I prepared my Call Committee Workshop I came across a very helpful article by Lavern Brown on the advisability of interim pastors. I have found that many congregations neglect the essential work of dealing with the transitional issues that arise after the resignation and departure of their pastor. I offer Brown’s article as grist for the mill and perhaps for some needed conversations around the Council table.

There are certainly many situations where an interim pastor is not necessary or advisable.  However, considering this possibility and entertaining this conversation often engages congregational leadership in weighing mission-critical questions about their own identity, present circumstances and resources, and where God is calling them in the future.

There is a big difference between a retired pastor or one available for call, and a well trained interim pastor, which are in short supply.  I hope to address this shortage among our association in the coming years by offering a training class for interim pastors. 

In the meantime, I'm happy to discuss these matters with those interested, and I also cover these issues briefly in my call committee workshop, which I'm offering at various locations throughout the year. 

God's blessings as you prayerfully discern God's direction in the life and ministry of your congregations.

Available videos include:

• Keynote Speakers:  Rev. Dr. W. Bruce Wilder, Rev. Dr. Paul M. Cross, Dr. Steve Paulson, Rev. William Bohline, and a panel discussion with Rev. Mark Vander Tuig, Mrs. Sharon MacFadyen and Rev. Bill Sullivan. 
• International Focus:  Rev. Dr. Ove Sander. 
• Staff Reports:  Rev. Mark Vander Tuig, Rev. Dan Clites and Rev. Steve Lien. 
• Worship:  Pr. Becky Hand and Rev. John Waak.
• Bible Study:  Rev. Steven E. King
• Breakout Sessions:  Rev. William Moberly, "Growing a Missions Sending Culture in Your Congregation"; Rev. David Rispoli, "Traditional Values, Contemporary Lives" and Rev. Dr. David Glesne, "Why Your Church Needs Apologetics".

Downloadable copies of the 2015 Annual Gathering Book are also available, and can be found by clicking here. 

Structuring Each Day

For us together, Day One is a prayer of Confession, recognizing that we have sinned against God, against one another and even against ourselves.  I believe the church will never rise up until we first get to our knees. 

Day Two is a day of petition, bringing every prayer and concern to the foot of the Cross.  There are so many in our congregations who are hurting—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  But we also pray for our congregations, the people of God to again humble ourselves before an Almighty God. 

Day Three is a day of prayer for direction, seeking God’s will and hope for the days to come.  How is it that we will be ambassadors for Christ in this generation and cultural context.

Poll & Newsletter Article

We've created a short survey for anyone who has taken part in Three Days of Prayer this year.  Those who fill it out will have the chance to answer poll questions, share their experiences with Three Days of Prayer, upload (optional) photos and offer advice and ideas to congregations who may be taking part in it for the first time.  Responses to the survey will be used in consideration for a future article in our newsletter and website and must be submitted by January 22, 2016. 

Take the Survey >>

Learn More

For more information on Three Days of Prayer, as well as resources, click here or go to Events > Annual Events > Three Days of Prayer. 

Rev. Warren Baker officiated, and council presidents from each congregation in the Conrad Lutheran Parish took part in the ceremony. Pastor Julie is a graduate of Beyond the River Academy.

For example:

• Do you have an effective global missions team/committee?
• What countries are you working in, and with which mission agencies?
• Do you take organize your own short term mission trips? Do you sometimes and have space for a few people from other congregations?
• Do you work with any mission agencies who organize short term mission trips? Would you recommend the organization to others? 
• How do you fund global missions?
• How do you inform your congregation about your mission efforts?
• And more…

Currently, the only way to find information like this even from a neighboring church is through personal conversation, a church website, or a congregational newsletter.  But with more than 1100 congregations just in LCMC and NALC alone, that is a lot of newsletters and websites to search for information!

“MissionsLink”, the new Mission Networking Database developed by Bill Moberly and ALWM will meet that strategic need! “MissionsLink” provides a simple way for mission engaged congregations to share the resources you have AND find the resources you need to be more meaningfully, strategically and effectively engaged in completing the Great Commission.

MissionsLink is also for mission agencies: another place for congregations to learn more about your ministry with one visit to the ALWM website. The vision for MissionsLink is imply to encourage networking and relationship between congregations, and also mission agency to congregation.

We are starting to work on STMTripsLink, which will be a searchable database of effective, well planned short term mission trips, too. MissionsLink already includes info on short term mission trips, with a place to upload brochures and info about space available on trips you are sponsoring.  Rolling out in 2017, STMTripsLink will be easier to use and search for available short term mission trips.

The effectiveness of MissionsLink will grow as more agencies and churches join. The profile itself only takes about 15 minutes to fill out, but we do not plan on hiring a gecko or creating any humorous commercials. Stepping from wherever you are in your global missions journey into a new season of increased partnership and cooperation is worth the effort. There are more than 3 billion unreached peoples and many unevangelized who we cannot reach by walking out the door and across the street!

If you are interested in creating a profile, or learning more about MissionsLink, go to www.alwm.org/missionslink, email pastorbill@alwm.org or call 505-803-5271.

Through the use of keynote speakers, skits and small group discussions, this year's conference will bring to light three major shifts that the Holy Spirit is inviting us to make in order to be retooled for His mission to a plugged-in and over-booked world:

• From congregational-focused to kingdom-focused
• From pastor-dependant to pastor-equipped
• From consumer-making to disciple-making

Speakers for the event include Rev. Jo Saxton, Rev. Dan Clites, Rev. Steve Turnbull, Mrs. Laurel Swanson, Rev. Jeremey King, Rev. Nathan Anenson and Rev. Per Nilson. 

Pastors, church leaders and church members who register for the conference by Monday, February 29 will receive a discounted registration rate!   Register Now! >>

Available Items: 

• Women’s Long Sleeve Shirts
• Women’s Polo Shirts
• Men’s Long Sleeve Shirts
• Men’s Short Sleeve Shirts
• Men’s Polo Shirts
• T-Shirts
• Pullover Jackets
• Full Zip Jackets.

These items are available to all who are interested on a first come, first served basis.  

Contact Cathy Nichol, LCMC Administrative Assistant at cathy@lcmc.net or (734) 788-7476 for sizes and colors of items as well as prices.

For us together, Day One is a prayer of Confession, recognizing that we have sinned against God, against one another and even against ourselves.  I believe the church will never rise up until we first get to our knees. 

Day Two is a day of petition, bringing every prayer and concern to the foot of the Cross.  There are so many in our congregations who are hurting—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  But we also pray for our congregations, the people of God to again humble ourselves before an Almighty God. 

Day Three is a day of prayer for direction, seeking God’s will and hope for the days to come.  How is it that we will be ambassadors for Christ in this generation and cultural context.

You can find out more about Three Days of Prayer under Events  >  Annual Events (or by clicking here), and you can find downloadable resources here. 

You are invited to participate in a brief survey.  Please click here to take the survey and give us your thoughts.  This survey should only take 10 minutes or so and we would appreciate your investment!

The deadline to submit your survey is Wednesday, November 25, 2015. 

– The Assessment Team

The event is designed to help strengthen the ministry of the local church by giving high schoolers a vision of what is possible in their own church and local community.  Participants will have a chance to meet other high schoolers from all over the country, lend a hand to people in need, and gain a better understanding of what God might be calling each person to do within his or her local comunity. 

Students attending the event will have the ability to choose from three of five different breakout session topics, as well as one of four service projects.  Participants also have the option to purchase discounted tickets to Adventureland Theme Park and Adventure Bay Water Park.

The event is open to high school students completing grades 8-12.  For the safety of the students, a minimum of 2 chaperones is required per group, with 1 adult for every 5 youth attending.

The cost to register is $325.00 per person, which includes housing and all meals listed on the conference schedule.  Priority will be given to pre-registrants for air-conditioned housing.

Called 2 Serve takes place July 19-22, 2016 on the campus of Grand View University in Des Moines, IA.  For more information, click here. 

Valparaiso University is offering two scholarships to high school seniors for outstanding leadership .

The deadline to nominate a student is Friday, October 23, 2015.  The application process, if selected, would be later.

For further information, contact Rev. Martha Nelson at marthaunelson@yahoo.com. 

The day opened with worship led by Living Word Lutheran Church in of Grapevine, TX and Bible study led by Rev. Steven E. King, Managing Editor of Sola Publishing.  

Rev. Dr. Paul Cross, Senior Pastor at Atonement Lutheran Church in Fargo, ND and Rev. Dr. Steve Paulson, Professor at Luther Seminary, were Tuesday’s keynote speakers.  The assembly was also joined by Rev. Dr. Ove Sander, who currently serves as President of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church.  

During the afternoon session, Rev. Dan Clites, LCMC Coordinator for New Ministry Development, introduced the new ministry leaders from LCMC who were present and encouraged the audience to start planting more new churches.  

The blood drive wrapped up on Tuesday evening.  64 pints of blood were donated over the course of Monday and Tuesday afternoons, resulting in 192 lives saved from LCMC donors.

During the Tuesday business session, voting delegates at the gathering voted on the winners for the Thrivent Financial Foundation Reformation Anniversary Grant Program. 

Wednesday morning began with a morning worship service led by Trinity Lutheran Church of Stonewall, TX and Bible study led by Managing Editor of Sola Publishing Rev. Steven E. King.  

Following the worship and Bible study segment, Rev. Mark Vander Tuig announced that the association’s 2016 Annual Gathering would be held in Denver, CO.  

Also on Wednesday morning, LCMC Board of Trustees Chair Rev. Kip Tyler updated the assembly on the new officer positions for the Board of Trustees.  Rev. Sean Kelly (Area 1) was named Chair and Rev. Julie Smith (Area 3) Vice Chair.  Laurel Swanson was re-elected as Treasurer and Rev. Martha Uecker Nelson was re-elected as Secretary.  

Sharon MacFadyen, LCMC’s Director of Operations, then announced the winners of the Thrivent Financial Foundation Reformation Anniversary Grant Program.  They are:

1. Falls Community Church, Sioux Falls, SD
2. Holly Cross Lutheran Church, Nairobi, Kenya
3. St. Paul Lutheran Church, Kodiak, AK
4. Living Waters Lutheran Church, Peoria, IL
5. The Anchor Church, Phoenix, AZ
6. Christ The Servant, Norfolk, NE
7. Bethel Lutheran Church (Grant Proposal #1), Colorado Springs, CO
8. Zion Lutheran Church, Des Moines, IA
9. Zion Lutheran Church, Clear Lake, IA
10. First St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Hastings, NE
11. Peace Lutheran Church, Holbrook, AZ
12. St. Michael Lutheran Church (Grant Proposal #2), Canton, MI
13. Christ Lutheran Church, Maple Plain, MN
14. Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Lead, SD
15. Trinity Lutheran Church, Titusville, FL

To read full grant proposals from these and other LCMC congregations, click here.  

The Annual Gathering then concluded with a keynote presentation by Rev. Bill Bohline of Hosanna! Lutheran Church in Lakeville, MN and a closing worship service led by Zion Lutheran Church in Priddy, TX and preached by Rev. John Waak from Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church of VIctoria, TX.

For videos, books and other media downloads, go to "Events", then "Media and Downloads" or click here.  

The event kicked off on Sunday night with dinner and an opening worship service featuring Pr. Becky Hand from Life in Grace Lutheran Church of Odessa, TX and the worship team from Martin Luther Lutheran Church of Giddings, TX.  

Dessert and a reunion for all church planters within the association followed the service.  

Monday morning opened with worship led by Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church of Victoria, TX and Bible study with Rev. Steven E. King, Managing Editor of Sola Publishing.

Rev. Dr. W. Bruce Wilder, Senior Pastor of First Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM took the stage as our first keynote speaker, followed by a panel discussion featuring LCMC Service Coordinator Rev. Mark Vander Tuig, Rev. Bill Sullivan (Lead Pastor of New Life Lutheran Church and former Service Coordinator of LCMC) and LCMC Director of Operations Sharon MacFadyen.  

During the afternoon session, LCMC Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry Rev. Steve Lien announced the association's 2016 Leadership Conference, which will take place April 10-12, 2016 at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Altoona, IA.  The theme for next year’s conference is Shift: Retooling Church.  He extended a special invitation to young pastors and church leaders for the event.

Steve then invited district leaders, certification interviewers, new congregations, new pastors seminarians and military chaplains to stand and be recognized.  Pastors who are currently celebrating ordination anniversaries of 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50+ years were also recognized.  

During the Service Coordinator’s report, Rev. Mark Vander Tuig announced two events for 2016, Called 2 Serve and Three Days of Prayer.  

Called 2 Serve is an LCMC youth event for high school students, which will take place at Grand View University in Des Moines, IA from July 19-22, 2016.  Registration for this event will open soon.  

Mark also stated that every congregation, church member and pastor is invited to take part in our 4th Annual Three Days of Prayer from January 5-7, 2016.  Each congregation can organize the three days in any way that makes sense.  The focuses of each day are:

• January 5:  Confession
• January 6:  Petition
• January 7:  Direction

During the opening business session, Pastors Sean Kelly (Area 1) and Enrique Estrada (Area 7) were re-elected to the Board of Trustees.  Laurel Swanson was re-elected as Treasurer.  

The afternoon concluded with a fellowship dinner, giving LCMC-ers a chance to connect with a fellowship group or district of their choice. 

Registration rates for visitors, church leaders, church members and voting delegates are as follows:

• 9/1 & Before:  $200
• 9/2 – 9/25:  $225
• After 9/25:  $250

The event, to be held October 4-7 in Frisco, TX (a suburb of Dallas), features keynote speakers, worship and Bible study, breakout sessions, LCMC news updates, vendors and plenty of time for fellowship.  We'll also be hosting a blood drive as our service project for 2015.

We hope to see you there!

Volunteer sign-up is being handled separately from Annual Gathering registration.  To schedule an appointment, click on one of the links below and select your preferred time slot:

• Donate on Monday - Click Here!
• Donate on Tuesday - Click Here!

For more information on donating blood, check out the Carter Blood Care website at www.carterbloodcare.org.

Blood Drive Info  |  Annual Gathering Info  |  Annual Gathering Registration

AG Photo Deadline

Has your congregation been in Mission for Christ over the past year?  There's still time to submit your photos for our 2015 Annual Gathering Book!  All eligible photos submitted by July 31, 2015 will be considered for publication in the book that will be distributed at the Annual Gathering and on our website.  Special consideration will be given to all eligible photos submitted by June 30th. 

Learn More & Submit Photos >>

Grant Program

The last day to submit grant proposals for the Reformation Anniversary Grant Program is August 15, 2015.  All eligible proposals will be voted on at the Annual Gathering this fall. 

Learn More & Submit a Grant Proposal >>

Early Bird Annual Gathering Registration

Church leaders, church members, voting delegates and visitors who register for the Annual Gathering by September 1, 2015 will save $50.00 on the cost of registration! 

Register Now! >>

Seminarian Retreat

Registration for the all seminarian retreat ends September 25, 2015.  Space is limited, so register today to secure your spot!

Learn More & Register >>

Did you know that Thanksgiving sometimes comes in October?

Well, not the official Thanksgiving, but elements of thanksgiving have found their way into October in many congregations, because the second Sunday in October has been designated as Clergy Appreciation Day, and some congregations observe this spirit of Thanksgiving all month long!

The Apostle Paul may have been the first to express the sense of Clergy Appreciation Day in the church.  In 1 Timothy, he wrote, "The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching" (1 Tim. 5:17). And, in 1 Thessalonians, he said, "Respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work" (1 Thess. 5:12-13).

Focus on the Family named and began emphasizing October as Clergy Appreciation Month in 1994. It was established with the mission of uplifting and encouraging pastors, missionaries and religious workers.  

My work as Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry has reinforced my perception that pastors and congregations absolutely need Clergy Appreciation Day or Month.  Not all, but many, of the pastors and church staff members that I encounter are overworked, underpaid, and exhausted. They shoulder many responsibilities, and feel the weight of great burdens.  Nationally, pastors experience a very high rate of burnout and marital and financial stress.  Leadership Magazine (Spring, 2014), published these sobering statistics:

• 80% of pastors are discouraged in their role as pastors
• 40% of pastors seriously considered leaving the pastorate in the past three months
• 50% of pastors say they are unable to meet the demands of their job and are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living
• For every 20 pastors who go into ministry, only one retires from the ministry
• 25% of pastors have been forced out or fired from their ministry at least once
• 45% of pastors say they've experienced depression or burnout to the extent that they need to take a leave of absence
• 70% of pastors say they do not have a single close friend, and the same percentage say they have lower self-esteem than when they entered the ministry.

—Statistics from Fail: Finding Hope and Failure in the Midst of Ministry Failure (IVP, 2014).

Thrivingpastor.com offers this information:

Clergy Appreciation Month is a special time that congregations set aside each year to honor their pastors and pastoral families for the hard work, sacrificial dedication and multiple blessings provided by these special people . . . .  

The nature of the service provided by pastors and their families is unique. God has entrusted to them one of the most precious of assignments — the spiritual well-being of His flock. When a pastor becomes ineffective, the very souls of his or her parishioners are endangered. When eternity is in the balance, we should all be concerned.

Hosanna! Lutheran Church in St. Charles, Illinois, has observed Clergy Appreciation Month for years, and the smile on Pastor John Nelson’s face is testimony to the love that has been shown and showered over the many years he’s been pastor there!  When I visited Hosanna! earlier this year and he asked how they might support our larger Association, I said, "why don’t you figure out a way to share Hosanna!’s great way of showing appreciation?"  So, when I saw him a few months later, he had compiled a sample brochure that congregations could consider adapting and using to publicize their own pastor and staff appreciation emphasis.

When discussing this possibility with the LCMC Ministry Board, members recognized that many pastors are underappreciated while many already feel deeply appreciated; others wanted to be sure the congregations consider the entire church staff when showing appreciation.  Well, rather than doing nothing, we’re forwarding a few suggestions.

There are literally dozens of resources available online (just search “Pastor Appreciation”).  Check out ThrivingPastor.Com, Focusonthefamily.com, or Biblegateway.com.  You can even find FaceBook and Pinterest pages devoted to pastor/staff appreciation. There’s even a blog post on what not to get your pastor for pastor appreciation month! 

Finally, thanks to Pastor John Nelson, Hosanna! Lutheran Church, and Kristy Thomas, LCMC’s Communications and Public Relations Specialist, here’s a link to a downloadable brochure for your consideration. 

If you want to be creative, use your own imagination or find out when your pastor was ordained (you might find an ordination certification on the wall of her/his office), and celebrate on their anniversary of ordination.

However, whenever, if ever you choose to show your appreciation to your pastor and staff, whether individually or collectively, be sure to pray for them and all of those who serve Christ, making your prayer with joy, thankful for their partnership with you in the Gospel from the first day until now (loose paraphrase of Philippians 1:5).

Your Partner in the Gospel,

Pastor Steve Lien

Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry

Last year we began what we hope will be an annual event when we recognized significant ordination anniversaries. 

Leadership Magazine recently reported that of every twenty pastors who begin ministry, only one retires from ministry, so we want to celebrate those who’ve made it to twenty-five years, and every five years thereafter.  So, if you’ve been ordained twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty years (you get the idea), be sure to be in Dallas for our Annual Gathering when we’ll once again be acknowledging ordination anniversaries and giving away anniversary pins.

One year ago, the AD sent a 12 person fact finding team to visit with the Tabor congregation in Ethiopia. Out of that meeting came a partnership where the AD committed to supporting in various ways the tremendous mission outreach that the Tabor congregation already had in place, but wanted to expand even further into their neighboring Muslim areas.

In 2014, the AD raised over $100,000 and distributed $85,000 to the Tabor congregation for designated projects, or a 50/50 split of financial support to related mission projects of their choosing. Some of these mission projects included training and sending 39 evangelists to minister to the local people at 50 local community gathering mission centers, and beginning an agricultural mission to reach out and partner with local farmers in heavily Muslim regions.

Today's AD mission update newsletter reports that during the first quarter of 2015, an additional $15,000 was distributed to grow the number of evangelists to 46, add 5 farmers to the agricultural program, help purchase land to construct two more outreach centers, and more gathering mission sites in Muslim areas.

In addition, during the month of June, an additional $17,000 will be sent for continuing 50/50 support of the evangelists and farmers, as well as additional purchases of motorcycles and bicycles to assist the evangelists in reaching out to their local communities. The cost to support each evangelist is $600 per year.

The chairman of the AD Board of World Missions, Pastor Paul Knudson, reports, "The experience of the AD with the Tabor Partnership has been and continues to be a blessing beyond anyone's imagination. The Board wishes to extend its profound gratitude for all of your generosity."

Linked here is a page from last quarter's newsletter which gives a general summary of this positive partnership that is bearing much fruit for Christ's Kingdom.  (Click Here for Article)

Your in Christ,

Jim Dix

This year's Annual Gathering is all about exploring and celebrating the very thing that makes us, as an association, who we are: our DNA. 

Whether you’re new to LCMC, just checking us out for the first time, or a long-time member looking to make new friends and reunite with old ones, our 15th Annual Gathering is the perfect place to get inspired, get informed, get equipped and get connected. 

Highlights of this year's event:

• Find out more about what it really means for us, as an association to truly be Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ by hearing from some of the founding members of LCMC.  

• Enjoy Worship and Bible Study with LCMC-ers from all over the world.

• Learn more about what we have accomplished as an association over the past year, our vision for the future, and be the first to find out about news and upcoming LCMC events!

• Get to know some of our international members, church planters, new ministry leaders, seminarians, chaplains, pastors, staff members and more!

• Connect with other LCMC-ers at our Monday Night Fellowship Dinner and/or at one of our scheduled fellowship meet-ups.  (Click here to learn more!)

• Get in touch with dozens of LCMC’s mission and ministry partners, as well as other vendors, by exploring our vendor area.

The event takes place October 4-7, 2015 at the Embassy Suites Dallas - Frisco Hotel, Convention Center & Spa in Frisco, TX (near Dallas). 

Here’s how it works: 

1. The leader/pastor/member of a congregation goes to our website and signs up for Churches Connect. 
2. Some basic demographic and congregational information is entered into an online profile.  Some congregations will be listing the strengths they think might help other congregations; some congregations will be looking for resources for an area of ministry they want to develop. 
3. The database will match congregations who are looking for help or resources with other congregations that can offer experience and resources for that same area of ministry.

The profile information is needed so that real help can be offered that makes sense for the size of the congregation, the community in which they are planted and the resources they have available.  As participation in Churches Connect grows, the database, categories and resources will grow right along with it.

LCMC is all about horizontal and partnership-based relationships in ministry.  After traveling around our association for the last 5 years, I am aware of some great things that are happening, and I am also of some great needs that others have. 

The benefit will be very limited unless our congregations actually sign up and fill out the profile.  Those of us who work for this association are limited as well, both in time and information.  We are not all going to be here forever, but I hope that what the Lord has begun in our association will last long after all of us.  Churches Connect can hold information and create relationships well into the rest of the 21st Century!

Peter Churness, the person who has designed this program and administers it, has posted a video tutorial that is available on our website.  He will walk through each step with you in order to make sure that if you are interested, you will be able to have access to this developing resource for mission and ministry!

Churches Connect is a way that we can continue to be an association that is built on relationships that are mutual, relational, congregational and horizontal!

You can find churches connect under Networking > Churches Connect or by clicking on the link below. 

Go To Churches Connect  |  Get Started!

• Theme:  Called 2 Serve
• Purpose:  To strengthen the ministry of the local church
• Location:  Grand View University, Des Moines, Iowa
• Dates:  July 19-22, 2016
• Participants:  Youth going into 9th grade through 12th
• Cost:  $325 per person, which includes meals, lodging, wi-fi, facilities and costs (all you have to do is get there!)
• Registration:  Goal—811 participants

There will be more detailed information to follow, but I wanted you to know: it’s going to happen!

Head to Events  >  Media & Downloads  >  Video & Presentations (or click here) to find presentations from each of our keynote speakers, including: Rev. TJ Anderson, Rev. Jeremey King, Rev. Steve Turnbull and Rev. Dr. Reggie McNeal. 

• Called a new pastor?
• Posted an item to our Resource Sharing page?
• Had changes to its statistical data?
• Changed its address, phone number, website URL, or email address?

If so, please take a moment to review our website and let us know if there are any changes to your information.  To ensure that your updated information is received by our staff, please follow the instructions listed below. 

Church Staffing & Resource Center

If your congregation has submitted a Church Staffing Position or a Resource Item via the LCMC website, and the position or item is no longer available, please let us know.  Church Staffing and Resource Center items can be deleted in one of the following ways:

If you posted the position or item:

• Login to your myLCMC Account.  On your myAccount page, use the "My Staff Openings" and/or "My Item Listings" tabs to view and delete your postings.
• If you forgot your password or have trouble logging in to your account, click here.

If someone else posted the position or item:

• Church Staffing Positions:  Click here to notify our staff that the position needs to be removed. 
• Resource Items:  Click here to notify our staff that the item needs to be removed.

E-Newsletter Mailing List

If you have signed up to receive the LCMC E-Newsletter, but need to update your email address, please follow the steps below.  For more information on our E-Newsletter, visit Community  >  Newsletters  >  E-Newsletter (or click here).

1. Visit the homepage of our website at www.lcmc.net, then scroll to the bottom of the page. 
2. In the bottom left corner, you will see a section that says "Newsletter Sign Up". 
3. Enter your new email address into the white text box. 
4. Click on the red "subscribe" button. 
5. Enter your old email address into the white text box. 
6. Click on the "unsubscribe" link. 
7. Your email address has now been updated. 

LCMC Directory

If your Congregation, District, or Clergy profile needs to be updated, please let us know.  Go to Documents  >  Applications & Forms  >  Update Contact Information (or click here) to notify us of any updates to contact information, statistics, or pastoral status. 

Guided Fellowship Activities at the Leadership Conference include:

• Columbus Clippers Baseball Game:  Enjoy an evening of Columbus Clippers Minor League Baseball at Huntington Park, conveniently located in downtown Columbus.  Watch the AAA Affiliate of the Cleveland Indians take on the Chicago White Sox AAA affiliate, the Charlotte Knights in a recently built and award-winning Minor League ballpark.   Be on the lookout for foul balls and a special scoreboard shout out to the LCMC attendees.  Adults $10; Youth (12 & under) and Seniors  (60+) $7.  Location:  330 Huntington Park Lane, Columbus, OH 43215, (614) 462-5250.  Approximately 9 miles from the Church at Mill Run.  Advance registration is required.

• North Market Tour/Dinner:  Embark on an Amazing Tastes Tour of downtown Columbus’ largest public food market.  During the one hour tour you will meet some of the North Market merchants first-hand, sample some fabulous local foods and then enjoy a $5 voucher to purchase a delicious dinner.  Relish your meal in the balcony eating area while taking in the sights, sounds and smells of an international array of foods.  $15 per person, 4:30pm.  Location:  59 Spruce Street, Columbus, OH 43215, 614-463-9664.  Approximately 10 miles from the Church at Mill Run.  Advance registration is required.

• SON Ministries:  Observe one of the most comprehensive English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs in the country.  Learn how the Church at Mill Run hosts a program to support ESOL families with children from infancy to teens by providing both professionally-taught English classes as well as infant, preschool and school-aged reading, tutoring and extra-curricular programs for the children of the attendees.  Tour and view the different aspects of the ESOL program, and then enjoy time talking with the staff to exchange ideas.  Location:  The Church at Mill Run, 6:30pm.

If you are interested in the Columbus Clippers Baseball Game, North Market Tour/Dinner or SON Ministries, we must have your paid, advance registration NO LATER than Friday, April 24th.

Contact Cathy Nichol at (734) 788-7476 for reservations.

Self-Guided Fellowship Activities, which do not require advance registration, will also be offered.  To learn more, click here. 

• We’re free in Christ
• We’re accountable to one another
• We’re rooted in the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions
• We’re all working together to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations

In accordance with this year’s theme, we’re inviting all “LCMC-ers” out there to show us, in a photograph, how their congregation exemplifies what it means to be an LCMC congregation. 

More detailed information, including a list of photo guidelines, can be found here. 

Special consideration will be given to all photos submitted on or before Tuesday, June 30th, however all photos received by Friday, July 31st will be considered for publication in our 2015 Annual Gathering Book and on our website.

Available items include:  

• Women's Long Sleeve Shirts (Kelly Green) 
• Women's Polo Shirts (Wine, Black) 
• Men's Long Sleeve Shirts (Blue, Black)
• Men's Short Sleeve Shirts (Blue, Black)
• Men's Polo Shirts (Wine, Black)
• Unisex T-Shirts (Yellow, Dark Green, Blue, Black)
• Pullover Jackets (Red & Black)
• Full Zip Jackets (Blue)  

These items are available to all who are interested on a first come, first serve basis.  

If interested, please contact Cathy Nichol, LCMC Administrative Assistant at cathy@lcmc.net or 734-788-7476 for sizes and prices.
 

Held the weekend leading up to our 15th Annual Gathering, this retreat gives fellow LCMC seminarians the opportunity to connect with each other, connect with members of the ministry board, and connect with a few seasoned pastors.  

Participants will learn about the DNA of LCMC, the seminary process, how to arrange an internship, and the certification process.  We will share meals, prayer, worship and question and answer time.

Space is limited and advance registration is required, so reserve your spot today! 

Click here to learn more and register.

The Mission Outreach Ministry team prays for God's discernment when we meet to decide how to distribute the contributions we receive from the church through our members.

Eleven percent of the congregation's offerings are distributed by this team.  Ten percent is given away according to our guidelines; one percent is used for actual mission trips (adults, middle school, high school).  We strive for a balance between international, national and local projects.

We also encourage actual volunteer work through load-out days at The Midwest Food Bank and distribution days at the Real Life Mobile Food Pantry and other occasions that call for helping hands. Many of our members volunteer at the Real Life Center in other ways such as warehouse organization, data entry and fruit picking at their orchard. Several members helped with packing shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child.

We all like the idea of getting our congregation members involved too, and you seem to enjoy that as well. We have had projects like the caring baskets for foster parents or the hospital wish list in Honduras where we ask members to bring items. The baby bottles filled with change is an annual event for Coweta Pregnancy Services. We also have projects like the Lutheran World Relief Baby Kits and the Real Life Christmas Dinners where the team brings in the items and the congregation assembles them. This seems to be very popular. We are also thankful to our shoppers who pitch in for these bigger assembly projects to wisely spend our money on the items going into the kits or dinners.

We try to be very judicious with our resources. We like to purchase products and give the actual material rather than a check when we are able to do that. We buy diapers and wipes for the Coweta Pregnancy Services in Newnan and detergent for The Real Life Center. However, sometimes a check is the most welcome way to give. We send money to "Faith Comes by Hearing" so they, in turn, can supply our service members with Bible sticks that are specially designed to be taken into combat and listened to when possible. We also support our missionary, Christine Bell, in Honduras with monetary donations to her sending agency. Our donations to The Midwest Food Bank have enabled them to add several more agencies to their list of receivers. We also send monetary help to Global Hope to help with two orphanages in India.

We also encourage actual volunteer work through load-out days at The Midwest Food Bank and distribution days at the Real Life Mobile Food Pantry and other occasions that call for helping hands. Many of our members volunteer at the Real Life Center in other ways such as warehouse organization, data entry and fruit picking at their orchard. Several members helped with packing shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. There are many ways to get involved.

Here is a list of the projects Word of God Lutheran Church helped in 2014:

• Healing Bridge Clinic (local)
• Midwest Food Bank (local)
• Real Life Center (local)
• Infectious Disease (Christine Bell - international)
• LWR Baby Kits (international)
• Benton House Easter Baskets (local)
• Coweta Pregnancy Services (local)
• Faith Comes by Hearing (national)
• Summer Lunch Program (local)
• Global Hope (international)
• Operation Christmas Child (international)

The M.O.M. team is always open to suggestions for new projects. Our guidelines do call for a project to be in existence for at least 3 years so we can research their track record. They also need to be Christian based, so that excludes organizations such as The Red Cross and United Way which are secular. We do not contribute more than 15% of our budget to any one project to keep things balanced.

If you would like to join the Mission Outreach Ministry Team please let one of us know: Carolyn Lystig, Holly Bowler, Jennifer Griffin, Joe Bowler, Lauren Simmonds, Nancy Ruck and Pam Davis.

As tickets for the Columbus Clippers Baseball Game and North Market Tour/Dinner must be purchased in advance, all Leadership Conference attendees who would like to take part in either fellowship activity should register for the conference by Wednesday, March 11, 2015. 

The conference, themed iFollow: Life Together in the Way of Jesus, takes place at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, near Columbus OH, from May 3-6, 2015 and features four keynote speakers, live music, learning labs, and more. 

To learn more, click here. 

From January 6-8, 2015, congregations, members and pastors of LCMC came together for the association’s Third Annual Three Days of Prayer.

Based on a brief online survey that was conducted in January, about 46% of the congregations who reported taking part in the event this year were first-timers.  

While many LCMC congregations organized prayer services, meetings, walks and other special events to celebrate Three Days of Prayer, many congregations also reported distributing printed and online resources, allowing people to participate individually, as well.  

“Our prayer ministry team organized the event and attended to welcome people who came to pray.  Prayers with scripture passages, the daily themes, and Bibles were made available to all who came,” said Amy Williams, a member of Zion Lutheran Church in Kerrville, TX.  “Some folks reported praying at home if they could not come to the sanctuary.”

In fact, nearly 50% of people who responded to the survey reported having prayed individually on at least one of the three days.  

According to Rev. Donna Lou Zipp, the people of First Lutheran Church in El Campo, TX prayed individually, as well as in small groups.  Her favorite part of Three Days of Prayer this year was coming together with others from her congregation on the Day for Petition.

“It is amazing that during the precise time of the Three Days (this year and last) we witnessed God answering our requests right then and there. I was called to serve this congregation last year, and this year the exact ages of children needed to fill slots at our school enrolled and a very surprising, yet sizable contribution was given to our congregation. We are a struggling congregation who is in what I would refer to as a "recovery phase". The Three Days of Prayer is amazing...as you know, great things happen on the Third Day! We witnessed miracles.  We look forward to expanding and enhancing our participation next year,” Rev. Zipp said.  

Many of this year’s participants cited the themes for each day, as well as the sense of togetherness that they felt, as their favorite things about this year’s event.  

“It's good to know that your prayers are joining those of a larger community, and to have a specific focus for the community.” said Karen Mason of Faith Lutheran Church in Monticello, MN.  

LCMC’s 4th Annual Three Days of Prayer is scheduled to take place from January 5-7, 2016, so mark your calendars, because the number one piece of advice that was given by this year’s participants was to start planning early.

“Start talking about it with the planners in September to decide how to celebrate the event in your own particular congregation. December is too busy to be planning it,” advised Marda Kirkwood, a member of First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Idaho Falls, ID. 

Photo courtesy of Karen Mason of Faith Lutheran Church in Monticello, MN.

At our last Annual Gathering, I made an invitation to sign up for a prayer ministry team, and we now have over 50 people who are praying each week for LCMC congregations. 

Cheryl Coffman is the leader of this team and she is looking for others who may also be interested joining.

Each Monday, Cheryl contacts five congregations from our list that are selected at random by a computer program.  She then sends those out to the prayer team and contacts the congregation to let them know and invite any specific prayer concerns.  If there are specific things about which to pray, those are communicated to the team.  At the end of the week, she follows up with the five congregations and the whole process starts again the next week.

Any other prayer concerns from congregations may also be submitted to Cheryl at any time.

If you would like to be a part of praying for our congregations and any specific concerns they might have, please contact Cheryl or click here to sign up online and she will get you on the list!

“We need to become more and more a people of prayer!”

iFollow: Life Together in the Way of Jesus will be held at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, near Columbus, Ohio, May 3-6, 2015. 

The Ministry Board of LCMC has been hard at work preparing this event, eager to gather leaders from across our association for dynamic worship, study, conversation, fellowship and even a little rest and relaxation in beautiful Columbus, Ohio!  It’s all about life-on-life discipleship, helping us learn to make a trip to the grocery store a mission trip. 

Keynote speakers include Reggie McNeal, Steve Turnbull, and Jeremey King.  They’ll be joined by worship leader Jen Alexander who will help shape this once a year learning opportunity. 

Hotel space is filling up, and your mother always said “don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today!”  So, click here to register. 

See you in Ohio!

It has always been important for the body of Christ to be connected... connected to Jesus and to one another. One of the most practical ways for LCMC seminarians to connect is to make sure that their name is on our list of seminarians. If you are an LCMC seminarian and would like to be on our list of seminarians, contact me at pastorpaul@splchurch.org.

If you are not enrolled in seminary but the Holy Spirit and trustworthy Christians are poking at you to consider being a pastor, here are some simple steps for you to follow:

1. Get on your knees and ask God for guidance and to give you ears to hear.
2. Check with faithful, veteran Christians in your congregation and talk with your pastor. Ask them honestly if they think you should be a pastor or if they think the kingdom of God would be better served if you live out your vocation as a barber, school teacher, or in another way.
3. If you’ve gone through the first two steps above and the Holy Spirit and God’s people are still poking at you to be a pastor, and you'd like to talk about going to seminary, please feel free to contact me.

Your Brother in Christ,

Rev. Paul Owens
Seminarian Liaison, LCMC Ministry Board

Take a moment to review your congregation profile and your clergy profile on our website.  If there are changes that need to be made, please click here to update your information.  There is a Statistical Update Form for Congregations and Information Update Form for Clergy. 

If you have any questions, contact Cathy Nichol at cathy@lcmc.net or (734) 788-7476. 

To apply, congregations must complete an online application, available at our website, which includes a short essay describing how the congregation would use a $5,000 grant.  The program begins January 1, 2015 and ends August 15, 2015. 

All eligible applications received by the deadline date will be voted on at our 15th Annual Gathering in Dallas, TX in October.  Recipients of the grant will be announced at the end of the Annual Gathering, and the results will be posted at our website after the gathering commences. 

To read the complete details and view our online application form, click here.

Steve Lien will continue to offer workshops on call committee coaching, Dan Clites will continue to offer workshops on the development of new ministries, and I will continue to offer workshops for congregational leadership. 

One of the things that we hope to be is a resource to our congregations.  Other models for staffing in church bodies looks to do the work for the congregation; we want only to help, encourage, strengthen, challenge and empower the congregation to do the work that the Lord of the Church has entrusted to her!

To strengthen the churches we have and to plant the ones we don’t is what I am committed to doing for as long as I am able and allowed to. 

The Board of Trustees understands that this is a good use of our time (the staff of LCMC) and the resources of our association, and all it takes is an invitation. 

We are not forming boards, commissions, study committees to develop positions papers, and all the rest of the “institutional” structures that tend only to perpetuate themselves.  In LCMC, from the beginning, we have had a desire to help congregations do what the Lord has called them to do:  “Go, make disciples of all nations!”

2015: Still in the hands of Almighty God.  We know that God is at work.  We just want to be a part of what God is doing.  “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.  May his kingdom come also to us, and his will be done among us!

The Results:

Learn More:

To learn more about Three Days of Prayer, check out these links:

• Watch Video
• Three Days of Prayer Info
• Resources & Downloads
• Share Photos

Videos of individual speakers, as well as manuscripts from our keynote speakers, can be found in our Video Blog.  This includes:

• Keynote Speakers: Rev. Dr. Walter Sundberg, Rev. Margaret Manning & Rev. Dr. Mark Mattes
• Preachers (Opening & Closing Worship): Rev. Julie Smith & Rev. Randy Freund
• Bible Study Leaders: Rev. Destaye Crawford, Pr. Sean Tyler & Rev. Jonathan Haseley
• Reports from Rev. Mark Vander Tuig, Rev. Dan Clites & Rev. Steve Lien
• Video of our service project with Meals From the Heartland

Photo galleries and downloadable copies of our Annual Gathering Book are also available, and can be found here. 

Steve has already conducted the workshop in Georgia, and has upcoming workshops in Medesto, California (January 12), Rancho Palos Verdes, California (January 17), and Farmersville, Ohio (February 9).   

To RSVP or inquire further, email Cathy Nichol, Administrative Assistant, at cathy@lcmc.net.

This article was written by Jess Christiansen and published in the Oct. 20 edition of the Hawley Herald.

June 2014 brought a unique opportunity of mission and ministry to twelve members of Hawley Lutheran Church in Hawley, Minnesota as they embarked on a spirit enriching mission trip to Nicaragua June 14th-25th 2014.

Hawley Lutheran members attending the trip were: Pastor Jeff & Kris Teeples; Nate & Mark Haugen; Jon Hinrichs; Dan, Jenny & Jessy Noreen; Jessica Laddusaw; Andrew & Aaron Regnier; & Cheryl Wicker.

Nate Haugen served as a translator for the group.

Hawley Lutheran Pastor, Jeff Teeples said, “We had the perfect mix of young adults and adults to connect with every member of the communities we visited from the youngest to the oldest. Our youngest member turned 18 on the trip.”

This is the first time Hawley Lutheran has sent a group to this part of the world. 

The group went as guests of the Lutheran Churches in Mission for Christ in Nicaragua (LCMC), and while there various congregations hosted the group by feeding and putting together the group’s schedule.

Teeples commented saying, “This mission trip was an organic, grass roots trip; we were the first group that the churches in Nicaragua hosted in this way. We were the first US Citizens that many of the people had ever met.”

The connection between Hawley Lutheran and the Lutheran Ministry in Nicaragua began almost two years ago.

At that time Pastor Juan Benito and Pastor Nestor Baltodano visited Hawley Lutheran as representatives of the churches in Nicaragua.

These pastors were in the US in search of churches that would consider partnering with Lutheran churches from Nicaragua to foster a relationship and cultivate an impactful cross cultural learning and mission support partnership.

Teeples said, “They didn’t want churches that would come and do things for them.  They wanted churches that would come and do things with them. They wanted us to pray for them and they wanted to pray for us. This relationship of mutual learning and reciprocation was very appealing to our congregation and over the course of eighteen months the dream became a reality.”

This trip is the first major step in creating this strong connection between Hawley and Nicaragua.

While there the Hawley Lutheran group spent time in a community of about 400 people in the State of Chinandega, which is 10 miles from Somotillo near the Honduras border.

A quarter of the communities’ population attends the Lutheran church in their community, half of which are children.

The Hawley group worked on the beginning stages of construction for a church/community center for the residents who will benefit greatly from this new facility.

Currently most of the churches meet in the home of a member or outside when the weather permits.

When these church structures are built they not only become a worship center, but also a community center that will become a central hub of activity and gathering spaces in these communities.

Teeples said, “We thought the main purpose of our trip was going to be to build a church, and we did participate in the dedication and laying the groundwork for a church in the village of Rodieto. But, as we were there we discovered our main purpose was to share our lives with the beautiful people of Nicaragua and to get to know them.”

“A beautiful thing about the people we met is that it was more important for them to get to know us and for us to get to know them than it was for us to do things for them or give them money. We thought we were going to work with one church and realized that we had really come to enter into a relationship with every LCMC congregation in Nicaragua,” continued Teeples.

The Lutheran Churches in Nicaragua began after Lutheran Relief workers from Germany came to clean up after the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

Although the churches are distinctively Lutheran in their understanding of the scriptures none of the pastors have had any exposure to essential Lutheran confessional writings, so a need for some pastoral instruction was also something the pastors in Nicaragua identified as something they would like to experience.

Pastor Jeff Teeples taught lessons on Luther’s Large Catechism to the pastors to share the finer points of theology for themselves and their congregations.

Teeples commented, “I don’t speak Spanish, yet, so I taught with the help of a gifted Nicaraguan translator José Manuel. Everything I said, José translated. It was comical at times trying to explain things through a translator, but because we had two common texts we could reference, the Bible and the Large Catechism in Spanish and English we could really communicate and learn even with the language barrier.”

“The teaching experience brought me closer to the pastors and helped me better understand the challenges they face in their congregations,” continued Teeples.

Teeples said on the last day in Ojoche where they stayed all the pastors and board members of the LCMC church in Nicaragua met with them to evaluate how the experience was for both groups.

Teeples said, “I was incredibly humbled to hear how the smallest things made a big difference in the impact of our mission. One pastor said how honored he felt that we would share our purified water with them, eat their food and work alongside them.”

One evening Teeples said one of the pastors who is also the local woodworking artisan brought him a cross he had made as gift for Teeples.

Teeples told the man via a translator how much he liked the item and offered to pay for it.

The artisan said, “If you pay me for it, it is not a gift.”

The next day Teeples realized that the man had given him the cross on the one-year anniversary of his dad’s death.

Teeples said,” My dad was also an artisan with wood. It was a very touching moment, and I felt that my dad was close to me on this mission to Nicaragua.”

Teeples is excited to continue building the cross-cultural connection of Hawley Lutheran and the LCMC churches in Nicaragua and they are planning a follow up trip to Nicaragua in January 2015 and are currently accepting applications.

He commented that the best way to experience life in another culture is to go there and dive in.

Teeples noted that all that participated had a positive experience and said, “Every person who went with us came back with a deeper appreciation for their life here as well as a heart of compassion for people they had previously not known.”

“It was also extremely valuable to share our experience with our congregation so that those who are not able to go to Nicaragua can learn about the people and their lives and be affirmed for their ability to send others to go. When it comes to mission we are either “goers” or “senders” and it is a great blessing to be both,” continued Teeples.

Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America with borders touching Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south.

It is among the most impoverished countries in Central America.

Since the Hawley Lutheran group has returned from Nicaragua, the country has experienced a severe drought.

Because the people there live so close to the land, fluctuations in the price of essential food like rice, beans, and corn are devastating for them.

There are no government assistance programs in Nicaragua; so the churches do what they can to help the people.

Teeples said, “The LCMC churches in Nicaragua want to purchase essential food items in bulk to distribute them to the people at a reasonable cost and are asking us if we could help them with the initial purchase. After the initial purchase the program would sustain itself.”

If anyone would like to help this cause monetary donations can be brought to Hawley Lutheran Church where 100% of the funds raised for this effort will go directly to Drought Relief Nicaragua.

We currently rent space from the Billings Seventh-Day Adventist Church, a large facility which offered us a chapel setting, and encouraged us to “arrange it to our liking.”

We began our ministry with the Inerrant Word of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Our Cross and Baptismal font were chiseled from old bridge planking. Green Hymnals were given to us from various congregations and we purchased With One Voice and several Lutheran Bibles.

Recently we found seventeen pews on Craig’s List from Living Water United Methodist Church in Belgrade, MT. They generously gifted these pews to Joy.

Having had success through Craig’s List, we found Hjerdal Lutheran Church in Voltaire, ND was for sale. Our pastor, Bud Veis, contacted them via email and asked if they had the altar. Indeed, a gorgeous oak altar built in 1929, candle holders, offering plates, Bible holder, paraments and flags remained. The altar painting was an oil of Jesus praying in Gethsemane, done by artist Marie Hauge Gjelstand, would be gifted to Joy as well. When we arrived to transport the altar an engraved plague adorned the front of the altar “To our friends in Christ at Joy Lutheran Church, we rejoice with you in our risen Lord and Savior, August 2014.”  

The generosity of a Montana rancher’s donation enabled Joy Lutheran to cover transportation expenses and incidentals for the pews and altar. A dedication on Sunday September 14, 2014 for the pews and altar was followed by a traditional Lutheran potluck.

Experiencing the fulfillment of our needs has been a blessing beyond words. We have offers of another gift; a key board/organ. God’s gracious ways may someday provide a communion rail, pulpit, hymn board and banners.  

The conference will take place May 3-6, 2015 at the Mill Run campus of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church and aims to focus on overcoming the challenges of following Jesus in our 21st Century world of selfies, Tweets and Facebook. 

Keynote speakers will include:

• Rev. TJ Anderson - Senior Pastor of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church in Columbus, OH
• Rev. Steve Turnbull - LCMC Ministry Board; Senior Pastor of First Lutheran Church in White Bear Lake, MN
• Rev. Jeremey King - LCMC Ministry Board; Founding Pastor of Radiant Church in Huntington Beach, CA
• Rev. Reggie McNeal - Author; Missional Leadership Specialist for Leadership Network

The event will also feature live music by Jenn Alexander, Worship Leader at Hosanna Lutheran Church in Lakeville, MN, six exciting Fellowship Activities to choose from, and an optional Workshop and Luncheon with Rev. Reggie McNeal. 

Participants will also have the opportunity to take part in specialized Learning Labs, or facilitated discussion groups for pastors and church leaders of similar sized and geographically-located congregations. 

To learn more about the Leadership Conference, and to register, click on the links below. 

Learn More  |  Register Now!  |  Frequently Asked Questions  |  Hotels

Let us know how your congregation plans to organize each of the three days. 

Click Here to Take our Poll! 

Next month, we'll share the results here in our Blog, as well as in our E-Newsletter!

Throughout the year, the 833 congregations that make up LCMC came together to raise a total of $91,005.40 for our service project with Meals from the Heartland (13.75% more than our goal of $80,000).  On the evening of Tuesday, October 7th, many of the people who attended the gathering met up at the convention center and assembled a total of 291,168 meals.  [Watch Video]

During the Business Session of the gathering, Pastors Christopher Miller (Area 2) and Kenneth “Corky” Spitler (Area 5) were elected to the LCMC Board of Trustees.  Pastors Nathan Hanson and Stephan Turnbull were appointed to serve on the Ministry Board.  

Rev. Mark Vander Tuig announced the launch of the LCMC Prayer Chain, an opportunity for people to sign up to pray for all of the congregations in LCMC on a weekly basis.  Click Here to learn more and sign up.

It was also announced that our 15th Annual Gathering will take place from October 4-7, 2015 at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center in Frisco, TX. 

Photo galleries from the Annual Gathering, downloadable copies of our 2014 Book, and presentation notes from our Keynote Speakers are now available at our website.  To view any of these materials, Click Here. 

Videos of our speakers will not be available until later this winter.  We will announce via E-Newsletter, blog, Facebook and Twitter when these videos have been posted.  

This new feature enables site users to find information and documents on the LCMC website by typing in what they're looking for, as opposed to using the menu at the side of our homepage.  

For those who may be new to using the internet, or have limited computer skills, a brief tutorial on how to use this feature to find information on the LCMC website is included below.  

Day One, Tuesday, January 6, 2015 is a day of confession, recognizing that we have sinned against God, against each other and ourselves.  We have been caught up in big arguments about small things when there are those we love who do not know Jesus, and not connected to His church. 

Day Two, Wednesday, January 7, 2015 is a day of petition.  There are so many things, people and issues to pray for and about, this day is committed to bringing our petitions to God.  We know that He hears our prayers and is at work in ways that we can see, and ways that we will never know.

Day Three, Thursday, January 8, 2015 is a day of seeking God’s vision for your church, and for our association.  The church belongs to Jesus and we simply ask the Lord of the church to lead, guide and direct our mission and ministry.

Prayer is the most effective tool in our toolbox and the most powerful weapon in the arsenal.  The church of Jesus Christ will not rise up until we first get to our knees.

Learn More  |  Resources  |  Facebook Event

Over 1,000 LCMC-ers from around the globe will come together this week for a chance to connect with one another and to explore 1 Peter 3:15 as it relates to our culture today.  The event also features two worship services, live music, morning Bible studies, breakout sessions and vendors. 

Our official hashtag for this year is #LCMC14.  Attendees are also invited to tweet their favorite photos from the event to @lcmcupdates. 

For those who are unable to attend the gathering this year, we are once again streaming the event live at www.lcmc.net/live beginning with Opening Worship tonight at 7:00 P.M. 

Videos from each of our speakers this year will be available in our Video & Media blog this winter.  Our staff will announce once they've been posted via E-Newsletter, Facebook and Twitter pages. 

100% of the donations that we have received will be used to purchase enough food, packaging supplies and shipping to feed 400,000 people in need, both in the U.S. and abroad. 

The food packages will be assembled on Tuesday, October 7th from 5:00 to 7:00 P.M. by LCMC-ers from around the globe. 

The process of assembling and packaging the meals will require the help of about 1,000 people, so if you plan to attend the Annual Gathering this year, we need your help!  If you haven't already, please consider signing up to help package meals for an hour or two.  All you've got to do is check off one or both of the "Meal Packaging Project" boxes when you Register for the Annual Gathering. 

If you have already registered for the Annual Gathering, but did not sign up to package meals and would like to, you can also notify our staff that you are interested via email at cathy@lcmc.net. 

See you in Des Moines! 

The registration rates for Annual Gathering visitors, church leaders, church members and voting delegates are as follows:

• September 1 & Before:  $180.00
• September 2-25:  $200.00
• September 26 & After:  $225.00

As most of you know, one of our goals for this year's Annual Gathering is to package 400,000 meals for the hungry with nonprofit organization Meals from the Heartland on Tuesday, October 7th.  In order to make this happen, we are still very much in need of volunteers to help package meals!  If you plan to join us in Des Moines this year, please consider signing up to help out.  Volunteer sign-up is handled with Annual Gathering registration; simply check off one or both of the "Meal Packaging Project" checkboxes on your registration form. 

To learn more about the project, or to make a donation, click here. 

Pastors in ceremony attendance were as follows: Rev. Alsen Wenzel, St. John's Lutheran of Winters, TX, Rev. John Rasmussen and Rev. Timothy J. Swenson of the Institute of Lutheran Theology, Brookings, SD, Rev. Mark Schimmel, Zion Lutheran of Priddy, TX, and retired Lutheran pastor Jerry Kaskela of Lubbock, TX.

The Grace of our Lord was overflowing from early morning church service to Pastor Becky's special afternoon service with family, friends and other Lutheran churches of the community! We all know and believe that she will spread the Gospel of the "Good News" to everyone, for God has called her to do so and she will deliver his Word!

• Texas District: Friday, August 1, 2:00-4:00 P.M. (Seguin, TX)
• Heartland District: Friday, August 15, 2:00-4:00 P.M. (Fremont, NE)
• Iowa District: Saturday, November 15, 3:30-5:30 P.M. (Story City, IA) - TENTATIVE
• Greater Atlanta Area: Saturday, November 8, 10:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M.

Email steve@lcmc.net to register or ask questions.

For your convenience, the Holiday Inn Downtown at Mercy Campus and the Des Moines Marriot Downtown are also offering reduced rates to LCMC-ers who are traveling to Des Moines for the Annual Gathering.  Be sure to mention that you are part of the LCMC group while making your hotel reservations to receive the discount. 

Of course, there are other hotels located in the Des Moines area that you are welcome to check with, as well. 

More detailed information on lodging and transportation for the Annual Gathering can be found by clicking here. 

Tom Luing of Capital Management Associates, will be available at the Annual Gathering to meet one-on-one with you about your retirement readiness. 

Contact Tom Luing by phone at (952) 746-1111 or via email at toml@tomluing.com to schedule a time and find out what to bring with you. 

Space is limited, so sign up soon! 

Tom will also be conducting three Breakout Sessions on retirement on Monday and Tuesday of the Annual Gathering. 

See you in Des Moines! 

Not attending the annual gathering?  If you are not attending the annual gathering, feel free to contact Tom to discuss your financial situation and/or the LCMC 403b Retirement plan any time. Click here for more info.

Top row (L to R): Pastor Jeff Stoopes, Pastor Bob Coughlin, Pastor Gordon Buckentin
Bottom Row (L to R) Pastor Bill Duffey, Pastor Jeff Redlin, Pastor Alan Daugherty.

1. Pastors/Parents need to contact your local School Superintendent and set up a meeting to talk to him/her about changing the policy of having activities on Sundays before noon.  .
2. Parents should get involved with the PTA and challenge anyone anytime a function is being scheduled on a Sunday morning beforenoon.
3. Gather other like- minded parents to join your cause.
4. Run for offices in the PTA to get this passed. 
   

In addition to our annual District Dinner Night, an opportunity for members of the various geographic and non-geographic districts of LCMC to come together for dinner, we will be hosting the following fellowship meet-ups:

• Seminarians:  Join other seminary students for a dessert fellowship on Sunday evening after Opening Worship.  (See Also: Seminarian Retreat)
• Young Adults:  Get to know other young adults in LCMC during a breakout session titled "20-30 Somethings" on Monday afternoon.  (See Also: LCMC: The Next Generation)
• Church Planters:  Pr. Dan Clites will host a fellowship meet-up for church planters on Monday evening.  (See Also: New Ministry Workshop)

To learn more, click here.  

In this case it’s best not to start from the beginning… of the church that is. In 1964, or 50 years ago from last Sunday, the Lutheran congregation of St. Paul’s had to move. They didn’t have to move for any particularly complex, theological or abstract reason; they had to move because I94 was being built: cutting a physical scar between downtown and south Minneapolis. Their building was to be part of that scar and so they marched.

Changing buildings had been part of the congregation’s history since its founding in the 1860s (Minneapolis was quite small then); in the 1920s the congregation moved from what is now a vacant spot somewhere near the Mixed Blood Theater area to a larger building on 18th Street and 14th Avenue South (now a grassy slope on the right hand side as you go east on I94 and start your exit to go south on Hiawatha).

The originally Norwegian immigrant congregation has weathered a turbulent fifty years since. It survived being in the heart of the Phillips neighborhood during the 1990s, it both joined and left the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, it held on as whites (including those ethnic Norwegians) moved en masse to the suburbs and now stands firm as the near south side of Minneapolis is filled with new languages and cultures from across the globe.

How? This past Palm Sunday went a long way in telling the “how” part of the story. In a police-escorted march from the site taken by I94 to their current home on Portland most of the songs heard were not in English or Norwegian, but rather in Afaan Oromo (one of the common languages of Ethiopia). You see though the congregation of St. Paul’s only speaks English, its three partner congregations (who also use the same building) do not; Rev. Roland J Wells, Jr. (Senior Pastor at St. Paul’s) explained his take on the situation:

There are a few places where God is doing things like this, but very, very few congregations have shown the ability to share their building like St. Paul’s has.  Because the congregation has always taken over somebody else’s “used” church, we have more freedom to share, not “our” church, but the church we are entrusted with at this time.

 
For the next several weeks, our staff is inviting all "LCMC-ers" to send us photos of themselves (or fellow members of their congregation) "in Mission for Christ".  All photographs received by Thursday, July 31st will be considered by the LCMC Staff for possible inclusion in the design of the book that will be distributed at the Annual Gathering this October, and on our website!

From 5k races to beauty treatments to English as a Second Language programs, we've seen all kinds of interesting photos and creative ideas in the past.  We are very much excited to see what is going on within the congregations of our association, and to incorporate these stories into the artwork of this year's Annual Gathering book.

Before you get started, please read through the requirements and instructions below.

What we're looking for:  Photos of you (or people in your congregation) in action!  For examples of photos we've used in the past, check out some of our previous books here. 

What we're not looking for:  Pictures of buildings, but no people. 
 

Here are a photo guidelines, terms & conditions:

1. Our staff welcomes photo submissions from now through Thursday, July 31st, with special consideration being given to photos received by Monday, June 30th.  Due to early printer deadlines, any photos submitted after this date will be ineligible for consideration.
2. Please do not place text or clip art on photos, as these things can be difficult to read should we need to re-size your photo. 
3. Because chosen images will be used in a printed publication, please send only high resolution/print quality images.  Very small and/or distorted images will not print clearly.
4. Acceptable file types are: JPG (preferred), GIF, TIFF and PNG.  (No PDFs or Word documents, please!)
5. Any photo submitted must be an original work (owned by the individual or the congregation), and not the intellectual property of another party.  
6. By submitting any photo(s), you agree that any images (and likeness or subject matter within) submitted may be used without compensation for the purposes described above.
7. Photos must be submitted by pastors, congregation members/staff or associate members of LCMC.  
8. Photo content must be relevant and in accordance with who we are and what we believe.
9. Each photo submission must be accompanied by your name, the name and location of your congregation, and a brief description of the photograph (see below for more info).  
10. Please note:  Due to space, time and other constraints, we are unable to guarantee the publication of each and every photograph submitted to us.
     

How to Submit Photos:

Please be sure that we receive your photo entries no later than Wednesday, July 31.  All photos submitted to LCMC must be accompanied by the following information:

1. A brief description of the photo(s) 
   • Who is in the photo?
   • When and where does it take place? 
   • What's going on in the photo?
   • How has your congregation been "in Mission for Christ" over the past year?
2. The name of the person submitting the photograph and/or the photographer's name
3. The name of the congregation, and the city and state in which it's located. 

Photo entries and all accompanying information may be submitted to us in one of the following ways:

1. Online:  Click here for an online form, which will allow you to upload a photo.
2. Email:  Attach the photos to an email and include all description information in the body of the email.  Photo entries should be sent to Kristy Thomas, Communications and Public Relations Specialist for LCMC, at kristy@lcmc.net. 
3. Flickr Users:  If you have a Flickr account and would like to submit your photos by sharing an album, please email a link to the album, along with the requested information, to kristy@lcmc.net.  If you are submitting multiple photos this year, we highly encourage you to submit your photos using this method. 
4. Instagram:  Photos uploaded to Instagram will be considered for submission when accompanied by the hashtags #lcmc and #2014agbook. 

• Rev. Dr. Walter Sundburg, Professor of Church History, Luther Seminary
• Rev. Margaret Manning, Speaker/Writer, RZIM
• Rev. Dr. Mark Mattes, Professor of Theology, Grand View University

About Youth Encounter

For more info:

Calling all Certification Interviewers:

• Keynote Speakers: Rev. Kyle Idleman, Mr. Chuck Bentley & Rev. Enrique Estrada
• Preachers (Opening & Closing Worship): Rev. Derek Johnson & Rev. Greg Wallace
• Bible Study Leaders: Rev. Sue Gunderson, Rev. David Gran & Rev. John Lewis
• Reports from Rev. Mark Vander Tuig, Rev. Dan Clites & Rev. Dr. Paul Spaulding
• All Breakout Sessions that were offered on the main stage

Three Days of Prayer 

How is Lutheran World Relief Responding?

• Shelter: LWR will provide shelter repair kits to families whose homes were damaged in the typhoon.
• Cash programs: LWR will employ residents of three municipalities in Northern Cebu in short-term work assignments removing debris from public spaces, helping to get cash into the hands of those who need it.
• Household supplies: LWR will provide families who have lost their belongings with essential household supplies such as cooking utensils and plates.
• Quilts and Kits: LWR is shipping Personal Care Kits, Baby Care Kits, School Kits and Quilts, which will be distributed to more than 26,000 families.

How Can I Get Involved?

• Please pray for those affected by Super Typhoon Haiyan and for all who are working to respond in the aftermath of the storm.
• Give to the Philippines Typhoon fund. Your cash donations help LWR respond quickly to emerging needs on the ground. LWR accepts gifts online, by phone at (800) 597-5972 or by mail at Lutheran World Relief, P.O Box 17061, Baltimore MD 21297-1061.
• Please consider assembling Quilts and Kits so that we have stock to respond to this and other emerging situations around the world.

Click Here for congregational resources including text for bulletins/e-news/newsletter, a video of LWR's VP for International Programs providing an update on our response, and bulletin inserts.  Also available: a Powerpoint, prayers/petitions, sermon starters, and a children’s sermon.

Board of Trustees & Ministry Board

New Online Discussion Groups

Three Days of Prayer

2014 Annual Gathering

Videos & Photos

Number of Congregations in LCMC

Packaging Meals in Des Moines

Neuberger Berman Socially Responsive Fund — Description of Social Policy 

• Environmental issues
• Employment practices and diversity policies
• Community relations
• Supply chain issues
• Product integrity (safety, quality)
• Disclosure and sustainability reporting

• tobacco
• alcohol
• weapons or
• nuclear power

• Here’s what is happening.
• Here’s where we are going. 
  
• How can we get there together? 
  

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• BY THE WORD - Our quarterly print newsletter.
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• Update Form for LCMC Congregations
• Update Form for Certified LCMC Clergy
• Update Form for Districts

• Website: www.stmarksjeffersonwi.org
• Phone: (920) 674-2370
• Email: st.marks.jefferson@sbcglobal.net