A decision was made in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals last month to uphold the constitutionality of housing allowances for ministers. Click here to view a summary of the court's decision, by the Church Alliance. [...]
Registration is officially open for our 19th Annual Gathering and Convention, a four day event featuring keynote speakers, updates about LCMC, worship, vendors, Bible study, and breakout sessions, plus plenty of opportunities to connect and network with other pastors, leaders, and congregation members throughout our association. Greg Finke and Grace Johnson will serve as our keynote speakers this year as we "Listen Up!" to ... [...]
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 ye [...]
Discipling: Beginning with the End in Mind 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, ... [...]
The LCMC Ministry Board is announcing in place of a leadership conference, conflict resolution workshops will be held regionally throughout the United States. Workshops will be led by LCMC Coordinator for Pastoral Ministry Perry Fruhling, a trained facilitator for Peter Steinke’s Healthy Congregations and has a variety of training in conflict resolution and family systems. As we continue to grow as an ... [...]
The LCMC staff is putting together a public list of all pastors serving LCMC congregations to be available on our website. We have been developing the forms and creating the systems on our website that will allow our pastors, both those in a contract call and on our list of certified pastors, to give us their contact information, ministry training credentials, and a profile photo. Letters and emails will be sent out to all ... [...]
Plans are well under way for the 2019 Annual Gathering and Convention, September 29 - October 2 in Omaha, Nebraska. 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 ... [...]
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 resour [...]
In November we sent out a request for funds. We were running about 9% (which comes to about $90,000) behind our budgeted goals—and you responded! Thank you for your faithful and generous support. 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 ... [...]
LCMC is constantly encountering congregations and pastors in transition. With so many baby boomer pastors retiring in the next few years, the need for trained, intentional interim pastors has never been greater. 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 ... [...]
We need your help to keep your congregation and clergy profiles up to date! If you notice any information in your congregational or clergy profile (listed under "Directories") that needs to be updated, please click on the "Update Info" button in the upper right hand corner of your profile page to notify our staff of any changes. Thank you! [...]
Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church, Axtell, KS, a Lutheran Congregation in Mission for Christ, installed its pastor, the Rev. Cynthia Cone, at a special worship service on Saturday, August 25th, 2018 at 2 p.m. 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 ... [...]
The LCMC Ministry Board has announced that our 2019 Leadership Conference will be done regionally throughout the United States. We hope to offer several events at times and dates to be announced soon. Some of these regional events will coincide with LCMC district gatherings in order to optimize travel efforts. This year’s Leadership Conference events will focus on Conflict Resolution. Pastor Perry Fruhling, LCMC ... [...]
You're invited to join together in prayer with people across our association for three days at the start of the new year. Our 7th Annual Three Days of Prayer takes place January 1-3, 2019. 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 ... [...]
Videos from our 18th Annual Gathering and Convention, which took place October 7-10, 2018 in Des Moines, IA, are now available for streaming! 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 ... [...]
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. Tra [...]
Due to popular demand, we now have stickers available in the LCMC store, and they're on sale now for a limited time! 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 ... [...]
A total of 792 members of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ joined together October 7-10 in Des Moines, Iowa for the association’s 18th Annual Gathering and Convention. 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 ... [...]
Our 18th Annual Gathering and Convention is officially underway! 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 ... [...]
LCMC has a new ministry partner that provides high-quality insurance protection for congregations. 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 a group will be serving the Lakota people of Pine Ridge, South Dakota. This trip includes construction, relational, and community opportunities for ministry. For details email sstrachan@faithabq.org. [...]
Just a few weeks ago we completed the second “Called 2:” youth event. It was once again held at the campus of Grand View University and was led by pastors, leaders and teachers from our association. 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 ... [...]
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 [...]
If you haven't already begun to do so, it's time to start planning for our next annual Three Days of Prayer event, which takes place January 1-3 2019! 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 ... [...]
At their last meeting, the LCMC Board of Trustees decided to cancel the meal packaging event scheduled for the Tuesday night of our upcoming Annual Gathering and Convention in Des Moines. 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 ... [...]