Campus Ministry - Connecting

Most congregations have graduating seniors heading off to college this fall. As they get ready for college over the summer, be sure to have them sign up at The Name Gathering Project!

ELCA Lutheran campus ministries all across the country need the names of your new and returning college students. This is essential for our Lutheran outreach to them and support of them.  Click here for more information. 

While there is not a guarantee that your college student(s) will get involved in Lutheran campus ministry, be assured: they will be invited to "Come and see!" at least once.

Synod Minister Search and Changes

+Bishop Jon V. Anderson

We will soon share the job description for the Synod Minister position that Pr. Joyce Piper has held. Next week we will have the Executive Committee finalize the job description and timeline. I invite you to begin praying with me and our governance system that God will guide our upcoming work.

When the position is posted, please share it with people who you could imagine serving in this office. Share with us their name.

As we move forward, I want you to notice that your synod's staff is smaller in size than when I began as bishop twelve years ago, in both synod minister and support staff roles. We have added Conference Ministers to some conferences and will add some other part-time positions. Overall, your staff's size is smaller. We often say we need to do more with less. That is true in some ways but former Synod Treasurer, Bill Fenske, has challenged us to also acknowledge that we will have to do less with less. We will have places of strategic disengagement as well as places where we engage in new ways in the days ahead.

What has been done by synod staff, in some cases, will need to be done by synod members. We need to remember that our mission statement concludes with the words, "Together, by God's Grace, we have everything that we need."  We will share more in the days to come about shifts.

Confronting Racism

Join ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and William B. Horne II, an ELCA member from Clearwater, Fla., for a live webcast conversation on the complexity and implications of racism Aug. 6 at 8 p.m (CDT).

Through its social statement - "Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture" - ELCA members have expressed this church's calling to confront racism and advocate for justice and fairness for all people. The statement is grounded in the conviction that the church has been gathered together in the joyful freedom of the reign of God announced by and embodied in Jesus. That reign has not come in its fullness, but the message of God's "yes" to the world breaks down all dividing walls as we live into that promise.

"Talking about race and racism is hard work for most of us," says Horne. "Our Christian witness compels us to confront our sinfulness in all forms from within and outside of ourselves. It is more beneficial if we do it together." Click here to read more.