This month’s story: Jesus, Justice and Jazz

2009 ELCA Youth Gathering--Jesus, Justice and Jazz!

Dear Partners in Mission in the Minneapolis Area Synod:

This past week, July 22-26, we in the ELCA experienced one of those regularly recurring miracles in our lives together as 37,000 young people, chaperones, and other leaders headed to the Lutheran Youth Gathering.  But this year was different.

Before Hurricane Katrina, the Gathering was scheduled to be in New Orleans.  After Katrina, Gathering planners met and prayed and decided that the city needed the Gathering as much as the Gathering needed the city.  This 37,000-strong convention is the largest post-Katrina gathering to hit New Orleans.

But what was different? Service.  Every youth and chaperon from this Gathering went out to do a day of service.  Remarkable projects were involved.  Some cleaned city parks, some read stories to school age children, some rode boats forty-five minutes in order to replant wetlands.  What were their instructions you ask? Watch out for red ants, alligators and snakes (true story)!  Another group went to a pauper’s cemetery and cleaned out brush and debris.  They found themselves also reburying bones, grateful that they were able to pray for God’s blessing on the individuals and families represented there. The mayor of New Orleans, C. Ray Nagin, issued a proclamation declaring July 24 “A Special Day of Honor” on the ELCA and the gathering’s volunteers for contributing to the city’s recovery.

Many congregations from the Minneapolis Area Synod have youth and youth workers and volunteers at this historic event. As they return, we hope you will listen—over and over again—to their stories and will share in their excitement.  The verse in Matthew 5 comes to mind “No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.” Let us then all listen, together, to these stories of faith in action and put these stories front and center in our synod and congregations lives. Will you share these stories with us so we can share them with others who were not able to go? Please call or email us if you can (**details below).

This is one of those things that we do as a whole church that makes a difference in a huge number of lives.  There are many more, and you’ll continue to hear about them in these letters. We also have many more stories and resources for mission support and stewardship always available, updated, and waiting for your use at http://makingchristknown.wordpress.com. Please check these resources regularly!

We, like you, are experiencing a significant slump in our income over the summer.  I ask you to look at your budgets and consider an additional gift to your synod at this time.  Thank you for your faithfulness to this ministry we share. May the generosity of grace and the excitement of service fill you with joy!

Faithfully,

Glenndy Ose, Bishop’s Associate

Minneapolis Area Synod of the ELCA

**We would LOVE to highlight and share some reflections, stories and highlights from youth who attended the 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering: Jesus, Justice and Jazz. Does your youth, volunteer, youth worker or congregation have a story you would be willing to share with the whole synod? Call or email Rachel Swan at 612-230-3311 or r.swan@mpls-synod.org for details.

Let those who have ears, hear.

From Stewardship for the 21st Century:

The Culture of Scarcity
By George Haynes

2 Kings 4:42-44
John 6:1-13
Numbers 11

We learn in the first reading that, “They all ate—and we’re talking about 100 people—”They all ate and had some left.”

Similarly, in the second reading we learn that, “They ate until they were full.” All 5,000, every single one, ate until they could eat no more.

In both stories God abundantly provides for the two groups of people.  The first reading makes it very clear that there wasn’t just enough food but an abundance: “They all ate and had some left.” In the second story even after all 5,000 of them ate until they were “stuffed” (which is the exact meaning of the Greek word used in that sentence), there were still 12 baskets full of food that hadn’t even been touched.

Let me give you another example of God’s abundance. When 600,000 Hebrew people begin to complain about not having meat, Moses, their God-appointed leader, comes before the Lord, crying, “Where am I to get meat to give all this people? I am not able to carry this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. For they come weeping to me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat.’”

“Gather the people,” Moses is instructed, “[and] tell the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow and you shall eat meat, for you have wailed in the hearing of the Lord … Therefore, the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat … You’re going to eat quail until it comes out of your nostrils!’”

But Moses said, “The people I am with number 600,000 … Are there enough flocks and herds to slaughter for them? Are there enough fish in the sea to catch for them?”

The Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”

Hang on, here it comes! “Then a wind went out from the Lord and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, about three feet deep on the ground.”

A truth of these three stories is that no one who comes to the Lord ever goes away hungry; no one who enters into the presence of the Lord ever goes away empty—no one.

How can this be?  The answer lies in a second truth of the stories: our God is a God of abundance.

What we have been seeing and hearing is absolutely typical of God’s behavior. You would be terribly mistaken if you think this kind of abundance is a thing of the past, limited to the pages of Holy Scripture or biblical times.

Whoever has ears, let them listen: our God is a God of abundance.

To access the entire sermon click on The Culture of Scarcity.

A quote and a question

From Stewardship for the 21st Century:

Question for the Week:

How do you invite others to join you in the journey towards being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to you? —Aaron Werner

Quote:

“Leadership begins with modeling faithful and cheerful stewardship practices and continues immediately with inviting people into that life of participating in God’s mission.”

Our Story :: Immigrant Stories

Pre-Assembly Event from the Saint Paul Area Synod

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Immigrant Stories, Our Story May 28, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., Christ on Capitol Hill, 105 University Avenue West, St. Paul. Join us for an evening of conversation with recent immigrants to the United States and Stephen Bouman, Executive Director of Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission, ELCA and co-author of They Are Us: Lutherans and Immigration. Call or email Paul Erickson (651.224.4313) for more information. Co-sponsored by Southeast Asian Ministry and the Saint Paul Area Synod.

from the Cafe

A really great post from the Cafe site (a resource of WELCA and Thrivent).

Can you afford to be generous? By Susan Greeley

Small children know what to do when they touch a hot stove—they jump back and jerk their hands away. The response is automatic and sensible. That’s the image that comes to mind when I think about being generous in times like these.

Whether the economic downturn has touched us directly or not, we all seem to feel the need to pull back, be cautious, and prepare for the worst. In short, we think we need to protect what we have. Times like these don’t inspire us to generosity.

But living a generous life is not an option for Christians; it is a requirement. This was the commandment Christ gave to us on Maundy Thursday: that we love one another. And loving one another leads to generosity.

For those people of faith who have already adopted a lifestyle of generosity, giving is an expression of love and gratitude; it is a natural response. But for many of us, a deep-seated love of giving is not automatic. It is more logical to believe that we will have more if we keep to ourselves whatever money or things we have gained. We think that we can give later—when we have “enough,” or maybe when we’re older, or better yet, in our wills.

Continued …