ELCA Blogs

Ryan P. Cumming

“If you hold your hand out clenched, you can’t give or receive. But if your hand is open, you can give and receive.” Pebbles Phillips, a vocalist and musician who has performed with top acts, lives by this motto. As a single mother, she not only takes care of her daughter but also helps her daughter’s father, her neighbors and people she meets in food lines. Pebbles teaches her daughter to be grateful for what they have, even though both of them depend on food pantries and government assistance to keep food on the table.

Pebbles and Azure3 Pebbles’ daughter receives SNAP benefits each month, but Pebbles herself does not because she receives a small amount of Social Security which “barely pays rent.” Getting benefits for her daughter is a burdensome process that requires “a lot of patience.” Still, she says, “I have to do it.” Without help from other family members, her daughter depends on SNAP to eat, though even with the meager benefit she receives, both Pebbles and her daughter were going hungry by the last week of each month. SNAP helped a lot, but it didn’t keep them from going hungry.

To make it through the month Pebbles “never misses the food line,” sometimes waiting three to four hours in line to receive fresh food for herself and her daughter. Finding My Friend’s House, a ministry supported by ELCA World Hunger, was a “blessing.” In line there, she joined folks who would sleep on the porch or arrive in the wee hours of the morning to get food. When her daughter’s benefits were reduced November 1, 2013, she relied even more on My Friend’s House and other food programs.

Still, Pebbles makes the best of her situation. “Even if all we have is beans and potatoes, we make it into a feast.” Together she and her daughter served other folks at My Friend’s House dinner on Thanksgiving Day. Her positive attitude helps Pebbles face the grim reality of food insecurity: the laborious process of applying for and maintaining benefits, the long lines at food pantries, the anger and frustration of some of her friends and neighbors in similar situations, the uncertainty of having heat or power each month, and the pressing fear that SNAP, Section 8, Social Security or other programs might be threatened by cuts. Her family depends on the assistance they receive from both the church and the state. Without both, Pebbles and her daughter will join the millions of Americans who go hungry in a land of plenty. With them, Pebbles and her daughter not only feed themselves but are also able to contribute to their community in many ways.

Megan Brandsrud

HandinHandGarden

On Jan. 20, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s National Day of Service, Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey (LSMNJ) organized more than 50 volunteers who offered a helping hand to the many people in the area still dealing with impacts from Superstorm Sandy. Volunteers, ranging in age from 7 to 65 years old, hauled debris, prepared the community garden at the Visitation Relief Center in Brick, N.J., helped insulate pipes in a home impacted by the storm, tore out damaged flooring at an American Legion Hall, and assisted in several other projects.

Every month, LSMNJ Disaster Response organizes a “Hand in Hand” Sandy Service Day in coordination with area long-term recovery groups and other partnering recovery organizations.

Assistant Disaster Recovery Coordinator Alex Elefante is impressed by the selflessness of the volunteers that show up at the monthly events. “They amaze me each time,” Elefante says. “The positive impact they have on the lives of those still affected by Superstorm Sandy, even if for a little while, is tremendous.

The next “Hand in Hand” Sandy Service Day will be Feb. 15. To sign up or learn more about the volunteer event, visitwww.lsmnj.org.

Megan Brandsrud

January 27, 2014

CAR refugee camp

Approximately 2.2 million people in the Central African Republic are in need of humanitarian assistance due to insecurity and intense violence occurring in the country. The United Nations estimates that 935,000 of these people have been forced from their homes due to the severity of fighting in their area. Some of these people have found refuge in various locations, such as churches, and some of these people are living in the bush, running from fighting groups as they attack nearby villages.

For Fredd and his family, the violence in their area started on a late Friday morning. As the violence continued that night, he and his family decided to move into the bush away from the village to spend the night in a friend’s field about 10 kilometers away. As they traveled, they came across several other people who were also fleeing.

“A Muslim man came and told us that someone had informed the Seleka that all those who lived on the east side of the village were Christian and those to the west were Muslim, so the Seleka were planning to move into the east and search for people even in the bush,” Fredd says. “We decided to walk under the cover of darkness through the bush to the west side of town.”

Fredd and his family continued to walk to the next village since they could hear heavy gunfire from behind them. Within the group, there were several children, including three babies all under five months old. “The older children, including my eight-year-old daughter, all walked, while we carried the smaller ones,” Fredd says.

After walking through the next day and night, they decided to stop for a half hour to rest. Fredd’s wife then caught a high fever and she couldn’t walk. “We wrapped her in thick cloth, but she was still trembling very hard and complaining of cold,” Fredd says. “We knew she had malaria.”

Fredd started to worry about what would happen to his wife if she died. Would he be able to bury her, or would he have to leave her body behind and follow the rest of the group? The group made a small fire and put her feet by it and prayed. After a couple of hours, Fredd’s wife felt better and she could walk again.

“This was a miracle for me,” Fredd says. “She had been treated with prayer and a small fire. We walked for 12 days and finally made it to the clinic. Had it not been for the Muslim man, I believe this story would be different. I might not be telling this story.”

The Seleka rebel group is a largely Muslim alliance that seized the capital in March 2013. The group is now referred to as ex-Seleka rebels because the alliance has officially, but not actively nor effectively, disbanded. A mostly-Christian alliance, known as the anti-Balaka, formed in response to the Seleka rebel group and has also played a large role in attacks in the country. While both of these groups tend to be labeled by their religious affiliation, the fighting in the Central African Republic is not bound by the lines of religious war. The conflict in the country is a result of political power and economic grievances. Fredd’s story illustrates the understanding that peace cannot be achieved alone—an inter-faith response is needed.

Lutheran Disaster Response – International is working with Lutheran World Federation and our companion church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Central African Republic (EELRCA), to provide food assistance to IDPs in the CAR. We are also working with our companion church to play a role in peace-building and reconciliation between Muslim and Christian communities in the country.

Your gifts allow us to continue to address the needs of the most vulnerable and walk with our brothers and sisters toward peace.

Ryan Cumming

Much ink has been spilled critiquing the difference between the simplistic act of donating to the poor and the more complex ministry of accompanying those in poverty. On the one hand, it seems a good thing to put coins in a panhandler’s cup, or donate toys to a gift drive, or pack meals to be shipped overseas. In fact, all of this has a long history within the religious tradition of almsgiving. On the other hand, a whole cadre of activists and advocates have called these acts paternalistic and tried to pull (or push) well-intentioned Christians into a ministry that is marked by interpersonal relationships rather than one-sided giving of time or treasure.

Bishop Wayne Miller (Metro Chicago Synod) attempted this in 2011, when he described a continuum of ways that the church encounters the poor. At one end is pity, which essentially views people in poverty as objects of sympathy or derision. At the other end is identification, in which we identify so closely with people in poverty that we experience their suffering as our own and seek to end it. Somewhere in the middle, we move from mere pity or charity to the beginnings of actual relationships with people in poverty, a move Bishop Miller urges the church to make.

But, really, who has time or energy for that? When our good intentions have brought us to the crossroads of service, we seem left with two choices: charity or relationships. Too often, Bishop Miller and Robert Lupton (whose Toxic Charity wasreviewed here earlier this month) remind us, we choose the former, since we don’t have the time or desire to form a relationship.

I will press Bishop Miller a bit here, though I agree with him otherwise. A relationship isn’t formed somewhere near the middle of the continuum; every interaction with the neighbor forms a relationship. The question isn’t, “Should I put money in the panhandler’s cup, or should I form a relationship with her?” The question is, “What kind of relationship am I forming in this action? How will this act shape how I view my neighbor and how my neighbor views me?” The point to consider here is not whether to form a relationship but what quality of relationship the church is forming in its service.

That the church is in the business of forming authentic relationships with people in poverty and working to end their suffering is central to who we are as people of God. There are those who disagree, claiming that active service and advocacy make the church too worldly, that the church should teach the word and sacraments and focus only on spiritual matters.

To put it bluntly, they are wrong. The Law, the prophets and the Gospel reveal that there is no greater evidence of alienation from God than unrepentant alienation from the neighbor. The two cannot be separated.

Many Lutherans are familiar with Martin Luther’s famous paradox in Freedom of the Christian: Christians are perfectly free, subject to none; Christians are perfect servants, subject to all. Understanding this contradiction requires understanding what salvation means for Lutherans. We believe that sin, in its most basic form, means being “curved inward,” so focused on our own needs and our own goodness that we can’t be there for other people. By grace, God has justified us; we don’t need to be so insular. We are “curved outward” by God’s saving action, freed to be there for the neighbor.

After all the theology, soteriology, Christology, harmatiology, and so on – after all those lofty doctrines and tenets, one thing is left: the neighbor. We are saved for the sake of the neighbor. Or, more appropriately, we are reconciled to God that we may be reconciled to the neighbor. To be in relationship with God is to be in relationship with the neighbor. To serve God is to serve the neighbor. We take joy in God by taking joy in the neighbor. We express hope in God by sharing in hope with the neighbor. We commune with God by communing with the neighbor. We neglect one relationship only at the cost of the other.

We learn what it means to be in relationships by looking closely at God’s relationship with us. The most basic shape this takes is the form of the covenant. Christian ethicist Stewart Herman contrasts covenants with contracts, another powerful image of human relationship. He notes that in a contract, we demand certain kinds of behavior from other people and leave room for penalties if the contract is violated. Once the contract term is ended, both parties walk away, hopefully satisfied. A contract is marked by calculated trust, protection against risk and impermanence.

A covenant, on the other hand, goes far beyond demanding specific behaviors. In a covenant, the hope is that each party learns to value the other. Rather than being forced or compelled to fulfill a contract, in a covenant, each party takes the risk of trusting the other and becomes vulnerable to the other. Rather than ending with a term, both covenant partners move toward a future of togetherness in which the relationship doesn’t end but is deepened and fulfilled.

God doesn’t force Israel to be faithful; God moves among the Israelites, accompanying them despite their unfaithfulness, and invites them to be part of this relationship. The people are called not merely to follow the Law but to “love God.” God doesn’t merely do things for them; God loves them and claims them (Jeremiah 30:22), in a move that Bishop Miller’s “identification” recalls. More than this, according to Herman, God and Israel are vulnerable to each other. God needs Israel to fulfill God’s plan; Israel needs God to bring the plan to full flower. They depend on one another.

So much charity seems like a contract. Those with resources share them with the expectation that those who receive charity will be deserving and grateful. One party receives resources, the other receives the rewarding feeling of having done some good. Not only is this often based on distrust (“How do we know they are really poor and not scammers?” so many ask), but in some ways it depends on there being a steady supply of people in poverty to serve as contract partners. Otherwise, how would people with resources feel the satisfaction of charity?

Seeing ministry as a covenant, though, means moving toward a future together. It means taking a risk, not only that we might be “scammed” – that’s the small risk – but that we might be called to change how we see the world and how we live within it. It means recognizing our vulnerability to each other. It means people with resources seeing themselves as equally needy and recognizing that God meets those needs through the neighbor. It means moving together toward a new future, one in which the suffering of poverty is ended and not merely “addressed.”

Above all else, it means recognizing that God has called us and claimed us for the sake of our relationship with one another. In a shared world of interdependence, we will be in relationship with each other. What has been given to us is to determine whether that relationship is a mutual, life-affirming covenant or a one-sided, termed contract. To which are we called as people of faith?

Henry Martinez

Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. (Acts 3:4-6)

In the follow up to his gospel, Luke goes to great lengths to show how the Holy Spirit is given to the apostles and what this gift means for their ministry and the life of the early believers. Implicit in the purpose of Acts, so it seems, is the apostles’ faithful witness to the person of Jesus and God’s gift of the Holy Spirit that enables their activity and mission. The ministry of Jesus is left in their hands. In other words, you can smell this healing story coming from a mile away. At the risk of simplifying the matter, the arc of a healing story can be understood as follows: problem—solution—proof.

The problem is realized as the scene opens on a man who is carried to church (I’m contextualizing here) by some faithful friends every day. As worshipers file past, the man at the gate collects whatever alms they can spare. The people go in to become the worshiping body, the man stays at the gate. Enter Peter and John.

After a stare from each of them (I wonder how awkward that was), the Spirit moves Peter and John to do something more than give money. If they did have silver or gold, Luke probably would have told us they gave that as well. The healing/solution works well for Luke’s purposes, but it leaves us with a question: “If we’ve been given the Holy Spirit, why can’t it be this easy for us?” Why aren’t lives healed or made new with a simple command? Why isn’t poverty solved with a job? Why isn’t more food, money, or help enough? The man walks – leaps for joy even – and praises God, but in a way he is getting ready for healing of another kind.

The final step of the healing is the proof, which we read in verse 10: “and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple…” This confirms the healing act of the apostles, but I almost wish Luke, the author of the gospel story where the dinner host orders the servant to invite the poor, crippled, blind and lame (Luke 14:21) would have emphasized the other drama that unfolds here. Something like: “and he recognized them as the ones who passed him by at the gate of the temple as they went on to pray.”

The healing story is the introduction to another chapter not written in the book of Acts. It is a chapter that begins as the crowd disperses from Solomon’s Portico and the man walks away for the first time. Just as he has to learn what it is like to walk, he also has to confront his feelings that come from knowing what it is like to be passed by your whole life. Meanwhile, the rest of the community has to come to terms with the likelihood that their response to the man’s previous condition affects any relationship with him from here on out. The man and the community have to learn how to walk together in a new relationship, one that requires a different kind of healing, though nonetheless guided by the spirit.

In one way it looks like Peter and John just went in and fixed the man (and this isn’t Luke’s fault). But in another way we begin to see that God’s healing spirit is also needed as we stumble through the relationships we have with one another. Only by the work of the spirit are we able to recognize the barriers in our midst that before looked as innocent as gates.

Henry Martinez is an education associate with ELCA World Hunger.

Megan Brandsrud

kitchen floor removal - POP volunteers

In June 2013, central New York was impacted by flooding. Trinity Lutheran Church, an ELCA congregation in Herkimer County, suffered severe damage. Through the efforts of Patsy Glista, the Lutheran Disaster Response Coordinator for Upstate New York, and several congregations from the Central Crossroads Conference of Upstate NY Synod, work has been well underway to clean out damage in Trinity and rebuild. Lutheran Disaster Response – U.S. invested in the recovery of this area by giving $25,000 for flood relief efforts.

Below, Pastor Ann Zimmerman shares updates on work being done at Trinity Lutheran Church and the story of other Lutheran congregations helping Trinity rebuild. Whenever Lutherans come together to respond in times of need, Lutheran Disaster Response is in action in its purest form.

“As I reflect on this last year, it has been challenging to say the least. Our village community of Herkimer was affected by localized creek flooding in June 2013. Never before had flood waters come down German St and engulf the church like an island. The water seeped into the foundation and an underground spring that was dormant for decades bubbled water for three weeks after the flooding ended. Our three Faith Formation rooms, nursery, fellowship hall, storage areas and kitchen were heavily damaged.

We knew that this would take some time to recover and rebuild. Calls were quickly made to Patsy Glista, Lutheran Disaster Response Coordinator for Upstate New York Synod and Jeff Spann, ELCA Building Consultant for their advice. Their prompt response started us on the road to recovery. Even though we never had standing water from prior heavy rains, we noted that there was water seeping behind the walls, causing mold and mildew in all of the ground level rooms. The sheetrock on all of the walls had to be cut up four feet on interior walls and six feet on exterior walls. The kitchen was gutted and appliances removed. The wooden flooring in the kitchen was removed, as well as the carpet in the fellowship hall. Next came the planning, visioning and rebuilding phase so Trinity could move “Forward in Faith.”

Initial cost estimates were more than $100,000, and our congregation, with a very small endowment fund and just meeting the mission needs of the budget, knew that this could be a time of trial and tribulation. Praise God from whom all blessings flow… just as the Good News of the Gospel is spread person to person, so was word of our flood issues. Other Lutheran and ecumenical congregations sent funds totaling more than $11,000. Our own congregation held a quick building fund match and raised more than $10,000 in two months. Donations from individuals who heard of our plight gave more than $8,000 from their abundance, and we received three grants totaling almost $5,000. We are well on our way to recovery.

God’s Work, Our Hands has a new meaning, as so many folks have rallied to help us in our time of need. Work teams from Lutheran churches in Clay, Liverpool, Syracuse, Utica and Clifton Park have come through our doors and many folks more than once. We still have a way to go, but we know that God is with us. We give thanks and are grateful to so many folks who share from the blessings God has given them. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. (Isaiah 43:2) Thanks be to God!”

Rev. Ann Zimmerman

Trinity Lutheran Church

Julie Rowe

processionweb Over 150 international companions from around the world and local Christians gathered for the dedication of the new Evangelical Lutheran Church at Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan, built on the Jordan side of the river, said to be the site of where John the Baptist baptized Jesus and crowds of others. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan gave land to 7 churches, including the ELCA’s companion the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, to build pilgrimage sites around the baptismal sites.

Rev. Rolf Pearson and his wife Kerstin were installed as aretakers of the new site. He will be developing worship services and spiritual practices and both Rev. Pearson and Kerstin will be working on creating a pilgrim center.

Click here to see more images of the dedication from Danae Hudson, Communications Assistant at the ELCJHL.

Issue 32 of Administration Matters

New Year’s benefit reminder
On the heels of Portico Benefit Services’ Open Enrollment in November, make sure your benefits are being delivered accurately. Confirm that your employee withholding is correct for 2014 and that Portico has accurate salary and payroll frequency on file. >more

Victim of embezzlement? Do you know how to proceed?
It is important to consider all your options and get proper legal and accounting advice as you deal with the monetary loss and the devastating impact this situation may create. >more

ELCA endorsed property and liability insurance
Did you know that the ELCA offers an endorsed insurance program for its synods and congregations? Forty-eight synods and over 3,900 congregations already participate. >more

Tips for employers who outsource payroll duties
Payroll service providers can help employers streamline their business operations. Here are some steps employers can take to protect themselves when using the services of third party payers. >more

Stay connected with stewardNet!
Subscribe to stewardNet for ideas, articles and resources to grow stewardship ministry in your congregation, delivered to your inbox four to six times per year. Sign-up here.

IRS Mileage Allowance Announced
Beginning on Jan. 1, 2014, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be:

56 cents per mile for business miles driven
23.5 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes
14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations

For more information, read news release.

Julie Rowe

The ELCA released a statement today urging increased financial support for Syrian refugees and internally-displaced persons as well as encouraging refugee resettlement in the US and other countries. The ELCA presented the statement to the hearing on the Syrian Refugee Crisis held by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. Read full statement.

The ELCA’s recent statement concluded:

As the Subcommittee considers how best the U.S. can help protect and support vulnerable Syrian refugees, the ELCA recommends the following:

• The U.S. Government should increase its financial support to the region as a necessary to means to meet the basic short-term needs of Syrian refugees. The ELCA recommends that the U.S. government further appropriate resources in order to keep up with the growing basic food and housing needs of refugees living in either camp or urban settings. An increase in financial support to help Syria’s neighbors meet the basic needs of its refugees is necessary. The U.S should also encourage its international partners to increase support for refugee-hosting countries through development assistance, bilateral aid, and increased funding of U.N. humanitarian appeals.

• The U.S. must help the international community to open all parts of Syria for humanitarian access. Any effort to ease the refugee situation in neighboring countries should take in to consideration measures that can alleviate the dire conditions of IDPs and IDDPs. Such measures require that the U.S. help the international community to open all parts of Syria for humanitarian access. NGO and church partners are prepared to further carry out these important humanitarian aims should additional resources be made available and should Syria be opened so that humanitarian help can reach those who need it.

• All vulnerable Syrian refugees should have access to the U.S. Resettlement Program. Supplementary resources need to be made available for Syrian refugees so that additional Syrian arrivals into the U.S. do not disrupt the regional allocations as outlined in the FY2014 Presidential Memorandum for Refugee Admissions. Syrian refugees should be welcomed in addition to the 70,000 already allocated for arrival in FY2014.

090613_Disaster_donate

Find out more about the ELCA Lutheran Disaster Response in Syria and how you can help support it.

Ryan P. Cumming January 9, 2014

Robert D. Lupton, Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help. New York: HarperOne, 2012.

Recently, a friend who does ministry in an urban area expressed his frustration with “mission trips”. “These groups call us all the time and they want to come down and do projects that don’t help us. We try to tell them about what we’re doing and how they can help, but they don’t listen. They just want to paint walls or pick up trash. Even worse, they tell us that we’re doing it wrong.”

Toxic Charity captures this divide in writing that is perceptive and prophetic, even if not always persuasive. Lupton tells of the church in Mexico that was painted six times by six groups one summer, the gift-giving program that left the fathers of children feeling emasculated and inadequate, and the tile floor in a Cuban seminary that was inexpertly laid by novice volunteers as skilled local laborers were left without work.

Lupton’s criticisms of the billion-dollar charity industry are important, and we should listen to them. His suggestions for transforming ministries are also thought-provoking, as is the “oath for compassionate service” he describes in later chapters. Its principles, in fact, coincide with the ELCA’s method of accompaniment and are vitally important for authentic and effective service.

Because of these high points, it is easy to mutter “amen” while reading. Lupton does a great job pointing out the problems of some forms of direct service of the poor. But for a church that also does public advocacy, his book has some remarkable shortcomings.

One criticism is that Lupton moves uncritically between uplifting the capacity and creativity of the poor and degrading them as lazy and dishonest. “Most [panhandlers] are scammers,” he states (45). Most poor people in the United States “assume that their subsistence is guaranteed” and so lack any kind of work ethic, he claims (121). I won’t dignify his words with the verb “argues” because Lupton doesn’t argue his points; he simply states them. I would be concerned that statements like this, when coupled with his criticisms of charity, would motivate more people to avoid service work in the first place than to engage in the community development he suggests.

His approach to the role of government is particularly troubling, again, given the lack of evidence he marshalls to defend his claims. “As a country,” he writes, “we understand that welfare creates unhealthy dependency [and] erodes the work ethic” (22). This indictment continues in his evaluation of international aid (given to the same people who, according to his own account, have the stronger work ethic that should make such aid effective).

The difficulty here is not his rejection or support of foreign aid or welfare. There are arguments to be made on both sides of the debate. The problem is that the only apparent research Lupton draws on is Dambisa Moyo’s controversial 2009 book Dead Aid. Outside of this, Lupton appears to draw on his own experience, which I admit is extensive, but this does not make for a well-defended argument. And this is vitally necessary when making statements about both the poor and government’s relationship to them that are far from self-evident.

For example, Lupton claims that “all our efforts to eliminate poverty have succeeded only in creating a permanent underclass, dismantling their family structures, and eroding their ethic of work” (3). Such a premise neglects the arguments that such programs have been woefully underfunded since the 1970s and so may be said to have been set up to fail. There may be structural and systemic reasons why poverty remains a problem. What is more, to blame poverty-elimination efforts for the “breakdown” of the family is a leap that requires defense and explanation. Such statements are common in political rhetoric, but if they are to influence churches (as Lupton desires) there at least should be some evidence demonstrating their truth.

That said, I still cautiously recommend the book. Clearly, Lupton touches a nerve when it comes to how the “haves” respond to the “have-nots.” And the similarities between his recommendations and the ELCA’s model of accompaniment create points of entry for talking and thinking about how we live faithfully in the midst of a complex world, where even our highest ideals fall short. Perhaps it may also be an occasion for drawing out some of these complexities in ways that Lupton ignores.

If your congregation or group is looking to do service on the frontlines or planning a mission trip, I strongly recommend Lupton’s book. But if your group is dealing with public policy issues or advocacy, I would suggest also looking at Sasha Abramsky’s The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives (reviewed here last month) or David Beckmann and Arthur Simon’s Grace at the Table: Ending Hunger in God’s World to balance Lupton’s claims.

My Friend’s House and Pebbles Phillips

New Jersey: Lutheran Disaster Response Affiliate Hosts a “Hand in Hand” Sandy Service Day

Central African Republic – Running from Violence

Contracts, Covenants and Charity

At the Gate: A look at accompaniment in Acts 3:1-10

Upstate New York Flooding- Lutheran Congregations Unite to Repair Church

Dedication of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan

Index of the January 2014 Issue

ELCA urges US Senate hearing to increase aid to Syrian refugees and IDDPs

Review of Robert Lupton’s Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help