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December 2025: “Practicing Advent imagination: Matthew’s dreamers and Isaiah’s visions” by the Rev. Sara Olson-Smith
Download Advent devotional. We cannot build a new future that we cannot imagine. The long nights of Advent gift us with time to dream. This study will offer us ways of imagining God’s future for us and all creation through the dreams of Joseph, the Three Wise Men and...
December 2024 “In God’s garden: What fig trees teach us about Advent” by Hannah Hawkinson
View the video supplement. This Advent, we'll learn from some surprising teachers: fig trees. Astonishingly vibrant, fig trees have a zest for life. Their roots have even been known to bust through plumbing and climb walls like ivy! Yet fig trees also have a dormant...
Fall 2024 “Receiving grace: A study of Ephesians” Bible study video supplement Session 1
Session one: Is grace real? We often focus on how we fall short and deserve God’s judgment. What if, instead, we remember God’s continual gift of grace? God invites us to lead lives of love and wholeness. What is grace, exactly? Grace does not take away the sin and...
Winter 2026: “Embodied prayer” by the Rev. Liv Larson Andrews
Prayer is an important part of our relationship with God, and one of the ways we respond to God speaking in our lives. At the same time, we may carry all kinds of baggage or heavy questions about prayer: Am I doing it “right?” Do I pray enough? Is prayer always done...
Called to heal: The journey of Clara Maass
Late-nineteenth century New Jersey could be a difficult place for a young woman from a poor German-immigrant household to gain a foothold. Clara Maass was the eldest daughter of a large, economically struggling family. She needed to work hard from an early age....
Fall 2024 “Receiving grace: A study of Ephesians” by the Rev. Heidi Haverkamp
Session one: Is grace real? We often focus on how we fall short and deserve God's judgment. What if, instead, we remember God's continual gift of grace? God invites us to lead lives of love and wholeness. What is grace, exactly? Grace does not take away the sin and...
Spring 2026: “I AM: God’s holy name and promise,” a three-part Bible study by the Rev. Hannah Hawkinson
(March) Session one—Bread, vine and light: Abiding with us (John 6, 8 and 15) We begin this session by rooting and grounding ourselves in the story of Moses at the Burning Bush, learning about God’s holy name, I AM—a name that holds all of time and space, all that was...
Summer 2024 “After certainty: A biblical guide” Bible study video supplement Session 3
August 2024 After certainty: Compassion When certainty becomes judgmentalism, it contributes to divisions between people and within communities. The teachings of Jesus and the pastoral writings of the apostle Paul sometimes urge people to choose compassion over...
Summer 2024 “After certainty: A biblical guide” Bible study video supplement Session 2
July 2024 After certainty: Community When certainty in faith becomes the responsibility of the individual, this can isolate us from God and from community. The reformer Martin Luther’s own failures of certainty led him to return to passages in the gospels and epistles...
Summer 2024 “After certainty: A biblical guide” Bible study video supplement Session 1
After certainty: Curiosity Jesus’ ministry, during the uncertainty of the first century Roman occupation, often challenged the “certainties” of the status quo when it came to faith, power and relationships—both the relationships between people and God, and between...
Summer 2024 “After certainty: A biblical guide” by the Rev. Dr. Meghan Johnston Aelabouni
A global pandemic, political upheaval, a changing climate… these days, the future is more uncertain than it has ever been. Or is it? For the people of the Bible, life was often shaped by deep uncertainty. Encounters with God sparked awe, confusion or courage, but...
May 2024 Devotional on Mental Health and Wellness video supplement
As long as humans have existed, there has been mental illness. By some estimates, as many as 20% of all adults live with a mental health issue. In biblical times, mental illness was often misunderstood and thought to be caused by demonic possession. In modern times,...
May 2024 Devotional on Mental Health and Wellness by Elise Seyfried
As long as humans have existed, there has been mental illness. By some estimates, as many as 20% of all adults live with a mental health issue. In biblical times, mental illness was often misunderstood and thought to be caused by demonic possession. In modern times,...
(Bonus intergenerational Bible study session / devotional for May or another time): “Paul’s letters and yours,” by the Rev. Angela Shannon
Our world often moves at a head-spinning pace. Regardless of where you find yourself, the responsibilities of daily living may sometimes feel overwhelming. In this one-session Bible study/devotional, we will look at some of the ways Paul’s letters invite us to engage...
Resources for an election season
Summer 2024 “After certainty: A biblical guide” by the Rev. Dr. Meghan Johnston Aelabouni A global pandemic, political upheaval, a changing climate… these days, the future is more uncertain than it has ever been. Or is it? For the people of the Bible, life was often...
Winter/Spring 2024 “Scripture and nature: Teachers of faith” Bible study video supplement Session 4
Session Four: Food: Daily bread for the health of the world Most of us hunt, harvest and forage in grocery store aisles. We’ve forgotten the ways our food first comes to us—from fields, flocks, forests and farms. Considering our relationship with creation and our...
War impacts a Lutheran-run hospital in the Holy Land
The war in Gaza had been going on for six months. It was the week before Easter, and the third week of Ramadan. The Old City of Jerusalem, normally packed with pilgrims, seemed deserted. “Look around you; this is not like Easter,” Bishop Sani Ibrahim Azar of the...
Radical hospitality
I recently returned from a remote village in rural northwest Alaska. I’d been attending a regional Lutheran conference there. The highlight—aside from hours of singing gospel hymns and participating in business meetings—was visiting people in their homes and accepting...