E-News, Educational, Event
Lin Carlson
Not-Your-Average Boundaries Training

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.

E-News, Educational, Special Announcement
Lin Carlson
NWIM Synod and Faith+Lead

The Northwest Intermountain Synod and Luther Seminary's Faith+Lead are joining together to provide our entire synod with free access to theological resources and training designed to equip disciples and leaders for today's ministry challenges.

Event, E-News
Lin Carlson
2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly

The ELCA Churchwide Assembly, the primary decision-making body of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is a process of communal spiritual discernment. When the ELCA Churchwide Assembly convenes, its voting members meet with confidence in God’s grace around word and water, wine and bread, to carry on their work on behalf of the entire church.

E-News, Event
Lin Carlson
College for Congregational Development

A 2-year program that focuses on (1) creating faithful, healthy & effective communities of faith, regardless of size, condition, or location (2) understanding & developing the congregation’s internal organizational life and leadership (3) the congregation’s relationship with the people and world outside of itself: potential visitors, the neighborhood, the broader world/culture (4) lay and clergy teams

E-News, Employment, Event
Lin Carlson
Volunteer & Register at Outdoor Ministries

You can still volunteer and register for outdoor ministries: Holden Village, Luther Heights, and Lutherhaven

God Has Given Us a Mission

Remember the Beatles? John, Paul, George, Ringo! I was into it. I had Beatle boots, love beads and granny glasses. My big brother gave me a model of Paul (the cute Beatle) for Christmas one year. It was one of those paint-it-yourself kits. I knew the lyrics to the Beatles’ hits better than I knew Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. The early hits were pop and upbeat: “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “A Hard Day’s Night.” Even later “Yellow Submarine” was still whimsical.

But then the Beatles got older, and the world changed. Vietnam, the Kennedy and King assassinations, the urban riots, the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention. Innocence—for those of us who had that luxury—was gone. Skepticism, even cynicism, was the lens through which the world was seen. A lot was broken, including trust in institutions and the church.

In 1971, John Lennon’s hit “Imagine” came out. It was evocative and, I’m sure, was meant to point us to the possibility of a better future. I found it disturbing. A world without religion. No heaven. No hell. No countries. No possessions. As if excising these things would cure humanity and the world would be as one.

Spokane Urban Ministries Affordable Housing - Invitation to Help

There are many trials in the affordable housing business, but SUM has been able to provide the best apartments we can in a very difficult market, in a challenging setting. Our waiting lists are very long since the demand is so high. The pandemic brought a new set of challenges our way, but we have been able to, not only make it through in good shape but have begun looking at expansion opportunities. After 14 years we feel that we have some expertise in the affordable housing arena and will be able to make a difference in a very tough housing market that does not favor our poorest or newest siblings in the Spokane area.

With this in mind I would invite any of you, who are interested in affordable housing, to get in touch with me. We need willing and compassionate folks to sit on the SUM board to help with some of the exciting changes to come! The board meets monthly, usually on a Thursday late in the month, but we have been flexible, especially during pandemic! We offer Zoom connection to meetings so anyone can participate!

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: