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Daily
Devotions
(These
devotions are updated Monday through Thursday each week.)
January newsletter now available here!
Intercessory Prayers for Jan. 29 -
In response to many requests, Lutheran CORE is pleased to
provide suggested prayers for you. They are posted on our
website early each week for the following Sunday. Feel free
to download, edit, and adapt these to your local situation.
If you want to help write these prayers, please email Pr.
Steve Shipman, who is coordinating the project.
More Discipleship and Evangelization Events coming in
2012! The first will be in Orlando, FL on January
27-28. Download the
information sheet for the Florida event and check the
events
calendar for seven more events later in the year.
Pastor and author Mike Foss, from West Des Moines, Iowa will
be the major presenter at most events. Read the
vision for discipleship networking for the regional
discipleship events.
W. Stevens Shipman appointed director of Lutheran CORE - read more information about Pr. Shipman and his appointment.
Support relief effort for drought in East Africa - The worst drought in 60 years is creating severe food and water shortages for millions of impoverished people in the Horn of Africa. You can help by supporting Lutheran World Relief's East Africa Drought fund.
Election results for Steering Committee - Pr. Steve Dornbusch of Plymouth, MN, Pr. Cori Johnson of Iron Mountain, MI, Lynn Kickingbird of Edmond, OK and Pr. Dennis Nelson of Walnut, CA were elected to two-year terms on the Lutheran CORE Steering Committee by the Lutheran CORE Convocation on August 9th. The proposed constitutional amendments were also approved.
Approved ELCA 2011 constitutional amendments: Read Secretary Swartling's Feb. 14, 2011 memo to synodical bishops and secretaries with the ELCA Church Council's proposed constitutional amendments that make it more difficult for congregations to leave the ELCA. Those amendments are on pp. 20-22 and 30-32 of the attachment to Swartling's memo (pp. 22-24 and 32-34 in the PDF). The amendments were approved at the Churchwide Assembly on Aug. 15-19 and immediately went into effect.
Lutheran CORE on Facebook
Join your friends, family and colleagues in one place
for exchange of ideas, information and mutual consolation of
the saints! The new Lutheran CORE Official Facebook and
Lutheran CORE Group pages are a great place to meet new
friends and share information with one another across the
nation and world. Click on the blue Facebook logo at the top on the left to
go to the Lutheran CORE Facebook group.
New Paper by Benne: Read Robert Benne's paper published in First Things about the history of the conflict in the LCMS in the 1970s and now in the ELCA - "The Trials of American Lutheranism: The torments that the two major American Lutheran churches have visited on themselves."
Prayers and Relief Fund for Ethiopian Churches: Pray for peace in Ethiopia and for the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus in the aftermath of attacks by Muslim extremists in western Ethiopia. Donate online to the Ethiopian Church Relief Fund, a joint effort by Lutheran CORE, Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, and the North American Lutheran Church. Read the news release and download a bulletin insert with information about the situation in western Ethiopia and the relief fund.
Relief work in Japan: Support Lutheran World Relief's work to help Japan following the earthquake and tsunami. Learn how you can help on the LWR site.
Help with Scriptural authority crisis in the ELCA: Want help in dealing with the crisis in the ELCA concerning the authority of Scripture? Contact Pr. Mark Chavez and check out a timeline of key events in the ELCA's history that led to the crisis and a companion piece to the timeline, "Brief History of Scriptural Authority Crisis in the ELCA."
Order the Lutheran CORE Theological Conference book - Seeking New Directions for Lutheranism: Place your order on the ALPB website. The published papers are 20% longer than the oral presentations at the August conference. The book includes the seven papers, an introduction by Carl Braaten, a preface by Bp. Paull Spring and a glossary.
View the website
for the North American Lutheran Church.
Read the provisional NALC constitution in English
or Spanish.
Download an introductory brochure about the NALC - English or Spanish. Order a DVD that introduces
the NALC. See also the Vision and Plan for Lutheran CORE and
the NALC - HTML or PDF. Read talking points
about the vision. Read the Vision summary in Spanish.
Congregational Life & Pastoral Support Resources: Lutheran CORE has compiled this list of resources for Christian education, evangelism, discipleship and stewardship as a service to congregations and pastors.
Read Lutheran CORE Talking Points.
Research paper questions "bound conscience": Rev. Lauren Ley has written a paper that questions the ELCA's new understanding of the "bound conscience" that was approved at the 2009 churchwide assembly. He wrote the paper in response to ELCA's leaders' request for a discussion of "bound conscience" after the 2009 assembly. Rev. Ley's paper is in two parts: Table of contents and an abstract and the Chapters with footnotes. Additional papers on the "bound conscience" are in the ELCA's Journal of Lutheran Ethics - November 2010 and Winter 2011.
African Lutherans Oppose ELCA decisions: Lutheran leaders in Africa are speaking out in opposition to the ELCA's approval of sexual relationships outside of marriage. Read a news report about statements by the President of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus. Read a report about a significant statement from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania affirming Biblical teaching on homosexuality and rejecting the ELCA's actions and news report about remarks by its Presiding Bishop. Read also a message by African Lutheran leaders in preparation for the Lutheran World Federation assembly in Germany this summer.
Read: Theological Implications of the 2009 ELCA Decisions, commissioned and approved by Dr. Gerald B. Kieschnick, President, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Also available for download in PDF format.
Read two papers by Carl Braaten - "An Open Letter to Mr. Daniel J. Lehmann," editor of The Lutheran, and his "Random Thoughts on the Crisis of Authority in the ELCA."
Read: Read Paul Hinlicky's latest reflections on the situation in the ELCA, “In Statu Embarassmentionis”. . . . Here
Read: A new paper by Pastor Eddy Perez entitled, "A Time to Rebuild." According to the dictionary, a boundary is the point at which something ends or beyond which it becomes something else. . . .more. . . . Or, you can download this article in PDF format.
Read Text of videotaped greeting (PDF) by Roman Catholic Archbishop Wilton Gregory to the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.