Six-Year Plan
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Talking about God
Theology—the study of God—is the lofty name for the practice that all faithful people undertake whenever we try to figure out what it is we think about God and how that determines how we live. Theology is easy to “do” but hard to do in-depth because it requires a comprehensive understanding of the Bible, faith traditions, Christian history, spirituality and human nature. Professional theologians guide us in reaching new insights about God and how to live as God’s people. We can learn from what they say and how they do their craft.
Your download includes four pages of exercises and discussion questions, plus a copy of the article from The Lutheran.
Exercise 1: Your theology
Exercise 2: Your theologians
Exercise 3: Your favorite Scriptures
Exercise 4: Your faith crises
Exercise 5: Lutheran theology
Exercise 6: The creed
Exercise 7: 'Hard' theology
Exercise 8: 'My way or the highway'
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Even prophets gets the blues
If Elijah—one of God’s boldest and mightiest Old Testament prophets—can become depressed, you know it can happen to anybody. His experience shows that the presence of God in your life doesn’t inoculate you from the debilitating symptoms of
depression. But as with any medical condition, God is with us in our suffering and recovery.
Your download includes four pages of exercises and discussion questions, plus a copy of the article from The Lutheran.
Exercise 1: Experience of depression
Exercise 2: Blues vs. depression
Exercise 3: Who is depressed?
Exercise 4: Elijah's depression
Exercise 5: All are susceptible
Exercise 6: The depression stigma
Exercise 7: A helping place
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The shrinking church
ELCA congregations are following the national trend of decreasing attendance and cash flow. The reasons are complex, but it’s pushing Lutherans to search for new ways to stay relevant and reach the people who most need the light of Christ and are least likely to come to church to find it: the unchurched, the fallen-away and the young.
Your download includes three pages of exercises and discussion questions, plus a copy of the article from The Lutheran.
Exercise 1: Your congregation
Exercise 2: Congregational mix
Exercise 3: Show me the money
Exercise 4: Asset assessment
Exercise 5: Congregational mood
Exercise 6: Community change
Exercise 7: Mission-driven?
Exercise 8: Hopes and prayers
Exercise 9: Out of the ruts
Exercise 10: Congregational cooperation
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Wholly and holy different
We are all on a journey, and it has the same destination. It’s the journey from wherever we are now—school-age, young adult or at retirement—to the end of our lives. For many of us, the last phases of the journey will be the hardest, with diminished physical abilities, fewer friends and loved ones around, fading memory and intellectual capacity. In other words, we will be just like many of the current senior residents of our congregations. In the article “Wholly and holy different,” Rich Melheim suggests how we can treat these valuable community members with compassion, dignity, strength and life—the very ways we ourselves would likely
want to be treated.
Your download includes four pages of exercises and discussion questions, plus a copy of the article from The Lutheran.
Exercise 1: Being human
Exercise 2: What's a disability?
Exercise 3: Treasured or disrespected?
Exercise 4: Losing your mind
Exercise 5: Do unto others
Exercise 6: Needs and wants
Exercise 7: Ministry to elders
Exercise 8: Attitudes on aging
Exercise 9: Honor your parents
Exercise 10: Wholly and holy different?
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Cluttered lives
Clutter seems a fact of American life—we accumulate more and more material goods and then buy bigger houses to put them into. When the attic, garage and basement are full, we turn to selfstorage units for the overflow. Is this the life of abundance that Jesus promised us in John 10:10?
Your download includes four pages of exercises and discussion questions, plus a copy of the article from The Lutheran.
Exercise 1: Treasures on earth
Exercise 2: Cluttered homes, lives
Exercise 3: Your house, your church
Exercise 4: Growing clutter
Exercise 5: Bigger homes
Exercise 6: More, newer, bigger!
Exercise 7: Christmas clutter
Exercise 8: True ownership
Exercise 9: Martha or Mary?
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Why don't people come to church?
Every church has stories like these: Some longtime members drift away and nobody knows why. Visitors will come for a couple of services, but no more. The revolving door of people leaves the pastor and church leaders scratching their heads and focusing on programs and techniques. But could the problem be the people themselves?
Your download includes three pages of exercises and discussion questions, plus a copy of the article from The Lutheran.
Exercise 1: Love one another
Exercise 2: Why have you left?
Exercise 3: How are the people in your church?
Exercise 4: Friendliness reality check
Exercise 5: Love your neighbor
Exercise 6: 'Nones' on the rise
Exercise 7: The top problem?
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The power of Lutheran words
For 500 years Lutherans have championed the freeing power of God’s love and grace over and against theologies that place Jesus’ followers in bondage to guilt, despair, hopelessness, obligation and fear. Our witness remains as strong — and necessary — today as it did in 1521 when Martin Luther refused to recant his theology at his heresy trial, saying: “I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.”
Your download includes four pages of exercises and discussion questions, plus a copy of the article from The Lutheran.
Exercise 1: Lutheran words
Exercise 2: No guilt or shame
Exercise 3: Freedom for holiness
Exercise 4: Free, but responsible
Exercise 5: Justification
Exercise 6: Perfect faith?
Exercise 7: G.R.A.C.E.
Exercise 8: Christian vocation
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Having cancer, talking cancer
Cancer is a fact of life, affecting millions of our family members, neighbors, friends and co-workers. In the U.S., men face a 44 percent lifetime chance of developing cancer, and women a 38 percent chance, according to the American Cancer Society. Because it is a fact of life, we all can learn how best to talk sensitively to our friends and loved ones who are living with cancer.
Your download includes four pages of exercises and discussion questions, plus a copy of the article from The Lutheran.
Exercise 1: Awkward talk
Exercise 2: Avoidance avoidance
Exercise 3: God's role
Exercise 4: Growth in suffering
Exercise 5: A 'gift'?
Exercise 6: Caring touches
For further exploration
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Lutherans & politics
Because of the way God has structured how we live, Christians hold dual citizenship. We are always first and foremost under the authority of God, but also of the civil governments of the country where we live. We give God and country our allegiance in separate and distinct ways. For Lutherans in an election year, this offers some opportunities and cautions.
Your download includes four pages of exercises and discussion questions, plus a copy of the article from The Lutheran.
Exercise 1: Render unto Caesar
Exercise 2: Obey civil authority
Exercise 3: Thou shall not lie
Exercise 4: Love your neighbor
Exercise 5: Let righteousness roll down
Exercise 6: Tone it down
Exercise 7: The common good
Exercise 8: For God so loved the world
Exercise 9: Pray for 'the other side'
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