Bishop's Message - Meggan Manlove
Caring for our Kids and Youth in this Chapter
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With the number of executive orders coming out of the new administration, state legislatures back in session, and the Season of Lent coming up, you may be scratching your head wondering why I picked this topic for my February 2025 column. Please stick with me.
In December I finished reading social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. In January I watched ELCA Lutherans from across the country descend on Louisville for the annual Youth Ministry Extravaganza. I have been thinking that with everything going on, we could easily lose sight of something so important: caring for the kids in our care.
I cannot think of a congregation in our synod that has no kids and teens in its sphere of care, whether in the form of preschools, childcare, Sunday School, or simply the myriads of church members who are parents, grandparents, neighbors, and friends helping raise children. What does love and passing on the faith look like in your context? How can the Lutheran Christian lens or ear inform this ministry?
Equip kids to talk with you, a caring adult. My hair stylist told me that she restricts what her ten-year old can watch on YouTube, but that the daughter was at a friend’s house, and they ended up watching something false and disturbing. The daughter confessed this to her mom and told her how the video made her feel. I told my stylist this was an affirmation of her parenting—her daughter could talk with her, name her feelings, and understood the boundaries her mom was setting. General wisdom is that, in order to thrive, every kid needs at least five adults in their lives who are pouring into them. We can all be part of this equation in the lives of the kids and youth we know.
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Teach kids how to talk with God. In addition to being able to have conversations with their parents and other caring adults, it is essential that we teach kids how to pray. The promises made in Holy Baptism include the promise to teach children the Lord’s Prayer, a guide for all other prayers, and to nurture them in faith and prayer. Try to remember the first time you realized you could bring everything to God. It is at once comforting, freeing, and awesome. Make sure the kids in your life know they can talk with God and tell them about your own prayer life.
Give Bibles to the kids in your life and read scripture with them. As with prayer, there is something life giving about knowing the whole biblical narrative and then realizing that the same God active in that story is the God who loves you! Start with the Spark Story Bible. Move onto the Action Bible. Pull out that old Good News Bible with its simple English, and finally give them an NRSV edition. If the first language of the kids in your life is not English, track down a Bible in their first language. Plus, the Bible is full of some pretty interesting stories!
Take kids into the great outdoors. Fortunately, in our synod there is no shortage of places to experience God’s grandeur, from the North Cascades and the Tetons to state and city parks to tossing a ball in your backyard. As I write this, youth and adults are headed to Lutherhaven for a Confirmation Retreat. Encourage kids to play freely and explore the wonders of the natural world.
Introduce kids to their neighbors. We believe all people are made in the image of God. There are many ways to introduce kids and teens to neighbors: block parties, community events, visual or musical arts, novels, movies, and travel. Just as learning our own family story and the story of God’s relationship with creation (through scripture), learning the stories of our neighbors, next door and across the globe, is part of the life of faith. It’s easier to follow the mandate to love our neighbor when we know them and have heard their stories.
Thank you for already caring for the kids and youth in your lives.
Bishop Meggan Manlove
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There are dozens of books out now on Christian nationalism. I know at least several of our congregations have done studies on the topic in the last few years. What I like about American Idolotry is that it truly is about the ideology and less about people. This also means the book made me a little uncomfortable at times, as I could see Christian nationalism sneaking into part of my childhood and adult life. I don’t agree with absolutely everything Whitehead writes, but I do commend this book for discussion. Baker Publishing created a STUDY GUIDE to use with the book.
From the publisher:
Power. Fear. Violence. These three idols of Christian nationalism are corrupting American Christianity.
Andrew Whitehead is a leading scholar on Christian nationalism in America and speaks widely on its effects within Christian communities. In this book, he shares his journey and reveals how Christian nationalism threatens the spiritual lives of American Christians and the church.
Whitehead shows how Christians harm their neighbors when they embrace the idols of power, fear, and violence. He uses two key examples--racism and xenophobia--to demonstrate that these idols violate core Christian beliefs. Through stories, he illuminates expressions of Christianity that confront Christian nationalism and offer a faithful path forward.
American Idolatry encourages further conversation about what Christian nationalism threatens, how to face it, and why it is vitally important to do so. It will help identify Christian nationalism and build a framework that makes sense of the relationship between faith and the current political and cultural context.
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2025 NWIM Synod Assembly
May 3, 2025
Online via Zoom
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Region1 Bishops Statement on Immigration + Upcoming Webinar
ELCA Region 1 Bishops Statement on Immigration
Considering the new Trump Administration directives limiting congregational rights to offer sanctuary for our immigrant neighbors, and our position as a faith community rooted in biblical admonitions to accompany the stranger, we highly encourage you to participate in a Region 1 online forum discussing protections for churches, organizations and individuals and how we might know our rights and/or rise up to be sanctuaries for our most vulnerable.
We are delighted to be joined by immigration experts, including leaders from Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon and Lutheran Community Services NW. Please invite any other key leaders you know, of any denomination.
Registration required. Free. Spread the word!
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/azM5gsIyTZm79SjOnaVgbw
Peace,
Bishop Manlove
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Rural Ministry Conference - with ONLINE option for $50
The 44th Annual Rural Ministry Conference
March 9-11, 2025
Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa
Form Follows Mission:
Creative Ways STaR Congregations are Adapting for the Sake of Vitality and Sustainability in Mission and Ministry.
An Invitation from the Director of the Center for Theology and Land, Rev. Dr. Mark Yackel-Juleen:
In response to the on-going challenges of demographic, economic, and cultural change, small town and rural (STaR) congregations and small membership congregations in metropolitan contexts and their judicatories are creating and/or recreating a spectrum of innovative responses in leadership training and missional form to sustain and enhance the sustainability and vitality of mission and ministry. We will gather to learn what God is doing out there, cross-pollinate with ideas from one place which might work in another, and dream together (Acts 2:17) and perhaps perceive of a new thing (Isaiah 43:19).
Our Keynote Speakers and our Bible Study Leader will engage us in theological reflection, and our breakout sessions and workshops will inspire us with examples of how to faithfully engage this calling on behalf of creation and provide opportunities to dialogue, dream, and network in practical ways toward that goal.
Our Keynote Speakers and our Bible Study Leader will engage us in theological reflection, and our breakout sessions and workshops will inspire us with examples of how to faithfully engage this calling on behalf of creation and provide opportunities to dialogue, dream, and network in practical ways toward that goal.
The cost of full registration is $200 before Feb 16th and $225 after.
Registration closes on the 26th of February.
Full Registration for the conference includes:
Sunday Evening Meal
Monday Lunch
Monday Night Banquet
Tuesday Boxed Lunch
Monday only Registration (Workshop Registration) is $50.00 and includes:
Monday Lunch
Zoom Registration is $50.00 and will include all Bible Studies and Keynote/plenary Speakers.
Follow this LINK for more information and to register.
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The Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church: Myths and Facts
By Bishop Michael Rinehart, Gulf Coast Synod: ELCA
Nov. 2024
To be honest, I hesitated to write this. I hate giving any airtime to fake news, but the misinformation I’ve seen touted about the Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church (CRLC) is so bizarre, it requires address. People have asked me, “Where can I go to find the truth?” This article will hopefully answer that question.
At the last Churchwide Assembly in Columbus Ohio, a memorial was brought by several synods to take a look at the structure of the ELCA. Our current operating system was built in 1988 when the ELCA was formed. It was a bit of a hybrid of the polities of the LCA, the ALC, and the AELC, with a smidgeon of 1980’s corporate culture thrown in to boot. Many, including me, feel our structures were built for a former reality, one that no longer exists. Personally, I feel it was built to maintain what existed, rather than adapt to the mission context. Others suggested we should examine our governing documents for any systemic racism that might be built in. I voted for the motion, and the CRLC was created.
Read more...
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Unidad — Unity
A story out of our Metropolitan New York Synod for our ELCA stewardship ministry, in celebration of the Peterman Award
Have you ever met a person of faith who shines with the light of Christ even in the hardest of times and places?
After meeting the Rev. Leticia Alanis, pastor of Unidad y Fe Lutheran Mission in the Queens borough of New York City, I was in awe of her experiences, her challenges, her love for others and her profound mission of building community. Those qualities may explain why she won the Peterman Award for Stewardship of Time, Resources, and Advocacy.
Read more...
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