All ELCA-Primary Health Plan options are changing for 2026. Before Annual Enrollment begins, you’ll want to understand how the new plans will work, what factors you should consider to determine what’s best for you, and how to navigate the new tools we’re creating to help your decision process.
CHICAGO (July 14, 2025) — Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will gather for the 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, July 28–Aug. 2 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Ariz. Meeting under the theme “For the Life of the World,” the assembly will participate in plenary discussions to make decisions about the work of this church.
LeaderWise’s online boundaries training workshop is lively and interactive, full of reflection and conversation. Attendees have given us feedback that our boundaries training was a great experience, AND caused them to re-evaluate some of their own practices.
Since preachers following both the Revised Common Lectionary and Narrative Lectionary were in Mark this year, it seems appropriate to revisit these all-important words near the beginning of the gospel. July 1, 2024, also marks one year of me serving as bishop of the Northwest Intermountain Synod and I have been reflecting on the many ways I have seen the reign of God coming near all across our synod.
Pride. It’s not a simple thing. Listed among the seven deadly sins. Noted for coming before a fall. Rarely praised as a virtue except in the case of school spirit. And the collective noun for a group of lions. But in the old song Deb led us in as we walked the streets of Spokane with our supportive signs and smiling faces, we came to a stanza that sings, “and we’ll guard each one’s dignity and save each one’s pride.” Pride!
Why do we gather for worship, for Bible Study, for prayer? Why do we care about what is read and preached in our assemblies? We worship so we can collectively communicate with the Triune God. We also hope that we will be nourished for the time when, at the end of worship, we are sent forth into the world.
Find ways to celebrate how you and others in your congregation are being salt and light wherever you are.