Current News
Registration is open for our three half-day events this summer and fall.
12:30-4:30pm each day
Please register ASAP to help our planners and facilitators.
Good Shepherd – Pocatello August 8
Worship, Conversations, Engaging Scripture, Prayer. We are centered on edifying leaders who will share the abundant hospitality and merciful love of the Risen Christ.
November 6-8 in Burley, Idaho at the Convention Center
The task force leading the ELCA in reconsideration of the social statement Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust is happy to share a new study: Conscience and Conversation.
We are excited to share that the 2026 ELCA Domestic Hunger Grant applications are open through July 7! Please share this opportunity with your local Lutheran congregations and hunger partners.
As I continue to make sure I get to every church on a Sunday morning, I also want to start being more intentional about joining your church council meetings in person or online.
Please have y our church Pastor or President reach out to me.
This self-paced course equips spiritual and religious leaders, to navigate the thresholds of ministry today.
Use this self-assessment tool from the Mission Investment Fund to reflect on how your facility is serving your current ministry. Identify areas of strength and potential improvement for capital planning. And sign up for webinar about MIF loans for church and ministry building projects, land purchases and refinancing.
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.
Not all memories come flooding back because of photographs. Sometimes they can be a song, a word or phrase, or even a smell. For me, it’s barbecue. One whiff and, in an instant, I’m transported back to my youthful summers with barbecues across the street in the park, with sights of fellowship, family reunions and church gatherings. That smell has a way of lingering. It settles into your clothes, into your skin. Even after the fire has died down, it stays with you. Fire does that often. It marks you, sticking with you longer than you expect.
A reflection about the ELCA's work for justice in Palestine and Israel through Sumud.
If you attended Synod Assembly in Kennewick you may have learned that our synod’s next project with the Ulanga Kilombero Diocese of Tanzania is a solar kitchen for Tumaini School. But have you ever wondered if ELCA World Hunger is working in Tanzania?
Thank you for supporting ELCA World Hunger. We invite you to watch "Intersections: Justice Ministry with ELCA Partners," a short documentary presented by ELCA World Hunger.
Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All conveys ELCA teaching that economic activity is a means through which God's will is served for the well-being of humankind and the care of the earth. It recognizes that even though sin distorts human activity, we are called to practice economic activity justly and with special concern for those who live in poverty
Get ready for a week of faith formation, excitement, and learning! The 2027 ELCA Youth Gathering is headed to Minneapolis, the city by nature, from June 28 - July 2, 2027, where thousands of young people and their adult leaders will gather.
It was timely to hear Kimmerer speak so close to Holy Trinity Sunday, when many of us will hear the beautiful creation story, or song, from Genesis 1. As we consider the relationship with the Holy Trinity, our relationship to other humans, our relationship with our siblings—human, plant, and animals--consider the deep wonder and joy with which Kimmerer the botanist writes.
United at the Font: Partnering for the Future 2026
REGISTRATION OPEN FOR
Sandpoint ID - June 27
I have been interested in life-giving ways for ELCA Lutherans to share their stories about Jesus’ transformative love and grace for a long time. So much of this new resource from the ELCA is basic but also essential! I suspect it will address many of your fears and queasiness around the very word evangelism, but it will also point to skills and tools you already possess.
“Bega Kwa Bega” is the Swahili term for mutual support between partners, and describes our relationship with our sister-synod, the Ulanga Kilombero Diocese in Tanzania, a partnership going back 35 years. This year, a delegation of 12 individuals from the NWIM Synod will travel to Tanzania, leaving June 5th.
First Lutheran Church – Ellensburg, WA is seeking a Youth and Family Director
The Director of Youth and Family Ministry is responsible for development, implementation, and coordination of youth and family ministry in support of or on behalf of First Lutheran Church.
Rev. Dennis Hickman and family at the death of his mother.
Rev. David Kappus at the death of his father.
Rev. Steve Myers (retired) at his death.
I am looking forward to spending time around my home and with family. I am looking forward to engaging in some local educational opportunities. And I am looking forward to spending time exploring some of the mountains and lakes and rivers in the Pacific Northwest. In short, I am looking forward to this truly being a sabbatical, “a break or change from a normal routine (as of employment)” as Merriam-Webster defines the term.
Four leaders from ministries across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) share how their faith journeys intersect with their commitment to creation care in the seven-part short film series “Caring for the Earth: Stories From Faith Communities.” The free-to-access series premieres online April 25 as part of this year’s National Faith + Climate Forum.
This two-semester program will begin September 2026 and end May 2027. A 100% online curriculum allows students from around the world to build relationships through bi-monthy small group meetings on Zoom.
What does it mean to be Christian — not just in belief, but in practice — in a complicated world
Sundays at 2:00 pm (75 minutes) PST/3:00 pm MST
May 31; June 7, 14, 22, 28; July 5
NWIM Synod Council has authorized the Companion Synod Team to raise funds towards the purchase of a Solar Electric Cooking System (SECS) to replace the hazardous combustion system. In addition to producing on-site electricity for stove-top and oven cooking, the SECS would power a water pumping system and water purification system. A reputable supplier and trustworthy installation contractor have already been identified, and preliminary discussions with them are underway.
It was so good to be together with many of you at Kennewick First Lutheran Church for the 2026 NWIM Synod Assembly last weekend. I left Kennewick with a deep sense of gratitude. Gratitude for all the ways the Holy Spirit is at work through the ministry sites & leaders across the Synod. Gratitude for all the ways these people and communities are wellsprings of God’s love.
This letter - 1 Peter - is one of the most hope-filled books in the New Testament. Its purpose is to encourage Christian converts living in the midst of a hostile society. Like most of the letters, there are a few passages that I would rather ignore; I have to remember that the letter was written in a very different time and place. Still, there is enough life-giving in the letter to hold our attention. The author names “a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1:3). That living hope is ours as well, even as the world around us groans. We hope that the God who created life out death on Easter morning will continue to create life from death. We hope that transformation is possible. And finally, like those disciples in the Emmaus Road story, we might say “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road?” (Luke 24:32).
Ministry, in all the ways we live it—parish, hospital, campus, new/old projects, organizing, public service and public witness—has its seasons just like a river does. It’s up; it’s down. It bends unexpectedly. It has snags. It dwindles to a trickle or rages in a torrent of energy. When we are so focused on navigating the moment-to-moment challenges, we easily miss the glorious sunset. Too homed in on that potential snag we know is coming, or worried about our own lack of knowledge (gosh…never floated this section before…), we fail to look up from our wheel, our desk, our phone, our whatever and just see. Oh, my goodness: the play of the twilight sun on the water!