Sunday, September 27

Join the seven Seminaries of the ELCA to explore your sense of call, learn about your seminary options and consider what is next for your vocational journey.

One month away! On Sunday, Sept. 13, congregations of the ELCA will gather for our annual day of service, “God’s work. Our hands.” This day offers an opportunity to celebrate who we are as the ELCA — one church, freed in Christ to serve and love our neighbor.

Thursday, Aug. 27
4 pm PDT / 5 pm MDT

Just as ministry looks different in rural and small-town churches than in other settings, so does property stewardship. Join Partners for Sacred Places for a conversation that highlights successful strategies for rural and small-town congregations looking to use and manage their property in new and sustainable ways.

The task force has released a new study to foster conversation across this church and to generate feedback that will guide its work. The study, “Conscience and Conversation: A Study During the Reconsideration of the Social Statement Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust,” invites reflection on agreement and disagreement in a church called to pursue justice and peace together through “the unity of the Spirit” (Ephesians 4:3).
The survey is open until Sept. 30.

Bishop Manlove, together with the Synod Council, has convened a task group to help congregations within our Northwest Intermountain Synod (NWIMS) reach out to their county clerk or auditor, the person, along with their colleagues, responsible for ensuring that the lawful requirements for voting in county, state, and national elections are followed to the letter.

As a board member of Luther Heights Bible Camp, I'd like to ask you think about how valuable and memorable that time was for you and consider volunteering time at camp. Pastors, please consider this, too.

You’re invited to participate via YouTube in a Feast of Creation Prayer Service on September 1, offered by the EcoFaith Action Network of the Northwest Intermountain Synod. The service will premiere on their YouTube Channel at 9:00am PT/10:00am MT and will be available to view anytime afterward.

Sophia’s Table is an ecumenical campus ministry at Boise State University supported by the UMC, ELCA, and PCUSA. Sophia's Table is an open and affirming ministry where students build real relationships, honor lived experience, and grow together in faith, love, and community. Please refer your students.

ONMY is a summer day camp program where kids enjoy technology-free days of bike riding, exploring, and playing games. OMNY also ensures kids receive nutritious family-style meals around a table each day for breakfast and lunch.

An EcoFaith Conversation about Solar for the Good of the World
featuring Bishop Meggan Manlove and Bill McKibben
Thursday, September 3 on Zoom
3 pm Pacific - 4 pm Mountain

It has been a joy to connect with many of you at recent events. This month, the Church Property Resource Hub team has traveled widely, leading workshops, engaging with rostered ministers and gathering with colleagues across the church. Please read attached Newsletter.

The NWIM Synod has been in relationship with the Ulanga Kilombero Diocese (UKD) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania for 38 years now! We walk Bega kwa Bega (Swahili for Shoulder to Shoulder) with the people of the UKD. Yet, not everyone knows the life-giving value of our relationship with siblings in Christ so very far away.

We are excited to invite you to a special evening at New Day Lutheran Church as we welcome Ellie Krug for an engaging seminar on building a more inclusive community.

This is a chance to get to know the folks from other ELCA Lutheran churches in our area as well as those in communion partnership with Lutherans (The Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Methodist Church, United Church of Christ, Reformed Church in America, and The Moravian Church.) We are also inviting our neighboring churches in Genesee, the Catholic Church and Community Church, as we strive to serve this community alongside them. 

The right to vote is sacred, fought for over generations and defended throughout the years. In the current administration, we have seen a renewed effort to suppress and limit the right to vote of eligible groups, suppress voter turnout, and purposefully create confusion and mistrust in the electoral system. As trusted messengers, faith communities can share accurate, up-to-date information about voting and have the relational networks to encourage voter turnout through honest conversations and timely reminders.

Presiding Bishop Yehiel Curry issues his third in a series of monthly messages that continue through the end of this year, titled "All Together in One Place."  Each message will share a pastoral word, rooted in Scripture, that witnesses to God’s presence today, our rich theological tradition and the social teaching that connects us.

Why the 2027 ELCA National Youth Gathering

I am a huge fan of the ELCA Youth Gatherings. When I stood for the bishop’s election in our synod in 2023, I quoted Galatians 5:13-14 as a central verse for my life and ministry. Guess where I first really heard that verse—the 1991 Gathering in Dallas when the theme was “Called to Freedom.” I attended again in Atlanta.

Greetings from the road!

It has been a joy to connect with many of you at recent events. This month, the Church Property Resource Hub team has traveled widely, leading workshops, engaging with rostered ministers and gathering with colleagues across the church. Read our newsletter for a few highlights from our July travels.

United at the Font: Partnering for the Future 2026
Register now for October 10th in Ontario, OR.

Webinars for you!

Two of our three volunteer opportunities are now open — and this is your invitation to step into something meaningful. To serve. To lead. To help create a space where thousands of young people will encounter God, community and a faith that lasts.

From July 15 to September, order 10 or more Bibles and receive free shipping!

We’ve all heard the phrase, “inclusion”, but what does it actually mean to make an organization or even our personal lives more inclusive? How can we get beyond grouping and labeling of other humans according to the color of their skin, the religion they practice, their political views, or the country in which they were born? Can we really build a just and inclusive world, especially in this time of such division?

Sometimes it is easier to talk about a difficult subject by talking about what is happening somewhere else in the world or by talking about what happened during a different time period. For those of you who want to talk about reproductive healthcare, I recommend this book: The Cure for Women.

As noted in the April edition of the NWIM Synod Newsletter, our synod has pledged to provide 100% of the funding for a new SOLAR ELECTRIC COOKING SYSTEM at the Tumaini Lutheran Seminary, a secondary school in Malinyi, Tanzania, overseen by the Ulanga-Kilombero Diocese. Over 250 students and staff are fed from this kitchen three times daily when school is in session.

Recently, the Supreme Court issued a decision that will allow this administration to proceed with terminating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 330,000 people from Haiti and 3,800 from Syria, many of whom have lived in this country for decades. They are not strangers. They are part of the fabric of our whole society. The termination of TPS threatens to separate families, destabilize local economies and force people to return to countries where they may face severe humanitarian crises, violence and threats to their very lives.

Published on May 25, Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, addresses the ethical challenges of artificial intelligence and calls for the safeguarding of human dignity in a rapidly changing technological world. It teaches that though technology and AI can be powerful tools for good, they are never neutral and must be guided by moral responsibility, the common good and respect for the human person.