“We are in a (new) Pentecost moment,” the Rev. Ruth Santana Grace, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, told more than 200 church leaders gathered at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia for Money Mission Media, a conversation about the challenges and opportunities for 21st Century digital ministry. In changing times, the church must collaborate. “This...
The Mission Assessment Profile (MAP) offered through the Synod’s Forward Together in Faith campaign “changed the way we do church here at University Lutheran,” says Pastor Fritz Fowler. Scroll down to watch video University Lutheran, the campus ministry serving Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania, was asked to participate shortly after Fowler was called...
As a visitor to a different congregation almost every Sunday since September 2002, Beth Lewis, President and CEO of Augsburg Fortress, the ministry of publishing of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), has developed a strong sense of what works and what doesn’t in terms of how congregations reach out to visitors and prospective members. In...
“Part of the reality for synods in the 21st century is they have to act and live differently,” Jeff Kjellberg of Kairos and Associates, consultant for Forward Together in Faith, told a gathering of congregations participating in the mission assessment process made possible by this campaign. “One way to start behaving differently is to do...
When he arrived at Reformation Lutheran Church in Media in 2013, Pastor Wayne Matthias-Long saw that the congregation had “a lot of energy, a commitment to outreach, to service, to mission.” Watch video, below. The feasibility study for a capital appeal, however, indicated that the congregation was not ready to move forward. So leaders accepted the...
The Synod’s vision reflects the development of the 1st Century church, yet requires 21st Century creativity and imagination, especially in the area of equipping leaders, Jeff Kjellberg, owner of Kairos and Associates, said at the campaign launch at the 2015 Assembly. He described the process experienced by more than two dozen congregations so far taking...
“Thanks to significant work by the people of the synod, God has cast a vision,” and now it is the time for the people of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to take on the work God is dreaming for them to do, said Jeff Kjellberg of Kairos Associates....
Equipping and releasing the power of Lutherans in Southeastern Pennsylvania will mean “empowering lay people to take leadership in ministry,” says Kat Steinly, a senior seminarian supported by our Synod. Congregational members “are called disciples with their own visions, and the church helps to inform that vision,” she says. It’s also important for pastors to...