E-News, Event
Lin Carlson
Seismic Shifts

Beginning September 3 through mid-November, the artwork of oblate Karla Neumann-Smiley will be featured in an exhibition titled, "Seismic Shifts," at the 1912 Center, 412 East 3rd Street, Moscow, Idaho.

E-News, Event
Lin Carlson
Lay Ministry Associate Program

  • Reading the Bible through a Lutheran Lens, Zoom: Sept. 10 at 6pm Mountain Time

  • Introduction to Preaching, Zoom: Sept. 23 and Oct. 7 from 6-8pm Mountain Time

  • Preach, Pray, Preside Retreat in Spokane: Oct. 26-28

  • Additional information click here.

E-News, Event
Lin Carlson
Executive Skills for Church Leaders

Monday through Friday, January 6-10, 2025

E-News, Event
Lin Carlson
Thriving Leadership Cohort Groups Now Forming

Are you looking for a new way to deepen your faith journey or for a deeper connection to God and others? Do you need something different to anchor you to your faith?
Discover a community that goes beyond surface connections.
Join a cohort grounded in spiritual practice—a different way to gather where there's nothing to do but show up.

E-News, Event
Lin Carlson
BONHOEFFER WEEKEND

Grace Lutheran Church, Wenatchee, Washington 
October 19–20, 2024 
We hope you extend an invitation to others, and that you would join us for an educational weekend which will certainly spark conversation among us as a community. Dr. Mark Brocker is a Bonhoeffer scholar and retired ELCA pastor living in Oregon. Grace Lutheran will be hosting Mark and his spouse Donna. To learn more, please check out our website. We’re excited to have this learning opportunity here at Grace!

Bishop's Message

,

Thank You for Your Faithfulness

,

The Northwest Intermountain Synod has come to the end of our fiscal year, and we are writing to thank you for your faithfulness in sharing mission support to enable our work.

It was a rough year for many of our congregations, which translates into a rough year for our synod—a reality that was not unexpected, but causes the Synod Council to take serious consideration to the synod budget, much like congregational councils are forced to take serious consideration to their budgets. In these days, it’s part of our life together.

This reality makes us even more grateful for your support. We know that hard conversations were had in Sunday School classrooms, fellowship halls, fireside rooms & Zoom gatherings as you struggled to make money go further. We know that every dollar of mission support you send on to the synod could have easily gone to many other ministries and still not have been enough to meet the needs that the last few years have brought to our communities.

Valuable Life-Giving Changes During a Pandemic

I’m getting really tired of writing to you about COVID, took a couple of months off to see if I was going to get to stop, and it appears that was a fruitless hope—we are still living daily with the impacts of the global pandemic.

And while the pandemic has been a burden to carry, there have also been valuable, life-giving changes that have taken place as a direct result of our time living with SARS-COVID19. Some of the changes that have taken place at the synod level:

We Gather

As I write this, we are in the process of preparing for our first-ever digital synod assembly! There are a lot of logistics to work out. In some respects, a digital assembly is easier than an in-person assembly. In others: there are added layers of complication. How do we allow for fair conversation when we don’t have numbered microphone & red, green, and white cards? Do we allow nominations from the floor? How do we make sure that any debate that takes place takes place fairly? What do we do in the event of technical difficulties?

It’s easy to lose track of the why in the midst of the how.

We come back around to March

We come back around to March.

March 2020 was when our worlds shifted dramatically, when horizons shrank, and much of our lives became ruled by something called “Zoom”.

I confess to you, people of God, I am tired. I am tired of Zoom. I am tired of my house. I’m even tired of only seeing my family face-to-face. As an introvert, I lasted longer than some. But the other day I found myself thinking longingly of airport security check lines, and that was when I knew that COVID had broken me.

We come back around to Lent.

The Sacrament of Holy Communion

I want to speak with you all today about the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Seven months ago, I asked congregations to fast from the Sacrament until I could get a liturgy pulled together for “virtual” communion, and I promised to have that available in time for Holy Week. I kept that promise, providing for the synod the resource “Spirit and Life Home Communion Document” designed to help support a home-based communion. Some congregations have made use of that document, some congregations continue to fast from the Sacrament—both are valid interpretations of our Lutheran Confessions.

Extending Grace

On our staff Zoom call the other day, we were remarking on the weirdness of time right now. It’s simultaneously stressful, boring, never-ending, and flies by. How is it possible that time can be all those conflicting things simultaneously?

We continue to live under the oppressive shadow of COVID-19.

I confess that I have felt like I have been spinning my wheels in sand. Early on—in March and April—there was a sense of urgency. Information to be distributed, guidance to be offered, congregations to be supported. But in more recent months, we’ve settled into what has become our new normal. Zoom or recorded worship. On-line committee and council and staff meetings. On-line bible study. Our computer and phone screens have become our access to the world as we use them to make contact with those who live outside our “COVID bubbles”. And I’ve wondered: what comes next? Why are we working so hard? What are we paddling this canoe toward? Anything?