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November Election and Evaluation

Dear people of the Northwest Intermountain Synod,

God’s peace be yours on these blustery days in late fall. On election day, I wrote the following reflection:

On this election day, I find myself thinking about Bishop Meggan Manlove’s question from the NWIM Synod E-News: What is grounding you?

One of the ways I am being grounded is tuning in once an hour (I set a timer on my phone) to the NWIM Synod’s YouTube Channel to listen to brief greetings, prayers, and reflections from across eastern Washington, all of Idaho, and parts of Oregon & Wyoming.

And I voted. Every person in line with me was courteous. The election workers were so kind.

The election looms large, and there are consequences no matter the outcome. And tomorrow will come.

I will wake up, grab a cup of coffee, prep lunches for my kids, wish them & Jamie the best as they head out the door, read & write out Psalm 46 (which I do every Wednesday), give the dogs and cat some breakfast, walk those dogs around the block, or maybe a bit more, greeting as many birds, trees, and people I meet as possible, and then go through the day with as much attention and graciousness as I can muster (which some days feels adequate and other days, not so much). That might mean checking in with folks both near and far. That will almost certainly mean checking my email. I hope it means saying “I love you” to the kids and spouse. This is to say, tend to the things and the ones around me.

What else is there to do?

What is grounding you?

This E-news will arrive in inboxes thirteen days following the election, and there remains much to tend to. One thing to tend to that synod staff get asked about is the tricky subject of a review or evaluation of a rostered leader. Two common reasons why this task is tricky are: 1) much of a pastor’s or deacon’s work is qualitative rather than quantitative, meaning the evaluation & review of such work is rather subjective; and 2) frequently people only ask about an evaluation when there is some discontent. Both of these (among other things) can make any review or evaluation of a rostered leader tricky. In my experience, establishing a review process when things are going relatively well at a ministry site eases some of the trickiness when challenges arise.

When considering a review or evaluation process, it is important to remember the whole of ministry is not carried by the rostered leader, but shared by all who are a part of the congregation or ministry site. As such, the process we encourage leadership to follow is a mutual reviewing and visioning for both rostered leaders and lay leaders (typically the council or board). It looks back over the previous year. And it looks ahead to what may lie in store. And remember, the first step listed is critical – ground this process and your conversations around it in prayer.

Please see the attached reviewing and visioning process, and don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you may have.

May God bless you as you tend to the things and ones around you,

Pastor Phil Misner

National Native American Heritage Month (November)

And the Lutherans of the NWIM Synod

In the NWIM Synod, we continue to engage in the ELCA Truth and Healing Movement nationally and, even more importantly, locally. Some Suggestions:

• Follow your local tribe’s social media and attend an event, start building relationships.
• Eat at an Indigenous owned restaurant or shop at an Indigenous owned business.
• Suggest a novel by an Indigenous author for your next book group.
• Plan a movie night and watch Killers of the Flower Moon: discussion guide.
• Revisit the Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery and put it in conversation with scripture and Lutheran theology.
• Catch up on the ELCA Truth and Healing Movement’s YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNDmVwhz-M37-KRPaf9R_DR4qjLICNm16

Deep Dive Into Climate Crisis Social Statement Feb 2025 

ELCA Social Message “Earth's Climate Crisis” with Deaconess Katrina Martich February 2025

Learning and Growing Opportunity – all are welcome!

Drawing from existing church teachings, ELCA social messages provide a theological framework and social perspective to foster discernment and engagement on a relatively narrow matter that impacts our life together. This social message was commissioned in light of our increased understanding of the harm done to all of us by the degradation of our global home and the need for fresh action on the part of the church. It draws its framing from several social statements, particularly Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice and was adopted by the ELCA Church Council on April 20, 2023.

Interpreting the ELCA’s Social Message on Earth’s Climate Crisis for Our Time and Place The Stewards of Creation team at St. Mark’s (Spokane) is happy to announce that Deaconess Katrina Martich from Salem Lutheran (Spokane) will facilitate a 4-week learning series on the recent ELCA social message about the climate crisis.

For the four Saturday mornings in February (1, 8 15, 22) from 10:30 to noon, we will take a deep dive into the following:

• Finding our Place in Creation
• Our Well-Being in a Warmer World
• Caring for Home and Community
• Active Hope

St. Mark’s is holding space for you! We are located at 316 E 24th Ave, Spokane, WA.

Please sign up here:

https://stmarkslutheranchurch.formstack.com/forms/climate_crisis

Mission Support Connects Us!

A story from the West Virginia-Western

Maryland Synod

Mission Support shared with the churchwide organization allows us to create partnerships with preferred vendors that make things like online giving and having a web presence easier and more affordable for congregations. These partnerships allow the churchwide organization to use some of your dollars to offer digital ministry grants to congregations. This year, 20 grants were awarded, boosting access to ministry in each context and across our church. We have been collecting stories from the grant recipients and want to share one of them, from Accident-Friendsville Md. Lutheran Parish, a three-point parish comprising two congregations in Accident (Accident St. John’s in the Cove and St. Paul Lutheran Church), and one in neighboring Friendsville (Grace Lutheran Church).

Read more...

Church Council Members Monthly Check-in

One way we hope to live into being Synod together is gathering those who serve on councils or boards of ministries for a monthly check-in with each other. We will meet over Zoom on the 4th Tuesday of each month at 6:30pm PT/7:30pm MT. The hope and plan is that these check-ins will be an opportunity for members of councils/boards to connect, pray together, share best practices, and more. Depending upon the size of the group, breakout rooms may be used so that people can have more time to share and be heard by others.

Council Members Monthly Check-In will take place on the fourth Tuesday. The Zoom information, which will remain the same for each check-in, is below.

November Topic: Review and Envisioning Process with Pr. Phil Misner

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89176429941?pwd=OENTWS9HdEVKZ2pBOEI5eHRPbzZpUT09

Meeting ID: 891 7642 9941

Passcode: 881268

One tap mobile

+16694449171,,89176429941#,,,,*881268# US

+16699006833,,89176429941#,,,,*881268# US (San Jose)

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/knWnic4b1

Before we get to the Advent Conspiracy, here is a year-old blog post about using the hymnal All Creation Sings during Advent, Christmas, and the Time after Epiphany.

Many of you may know about the Advent Conspiracy already as it’s been around a while. We explored it at Trinity, Nampa my last four years there. What I appreciate about it is that you can use different pieces each year and I never felt guilty about not using all of it because that simply was not possible. So one year we did bulletin inserts (could do slide projection). Another year we put things in the newsletter. Another time we had Zoom discussion groups.

Their four tenets are: Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, and Love All.

They seem to have more items to purchase this year but there are still plenty of free downloadable resources: discussion guides, activity worksheets, and coloring sheets.

Go to: https://adventconspiracy.org.

God’s Love Made Real

I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

Now that the Living Lutheran is no longer delivered to our mailboxes, it’s a bit of a challenge to keep up with happenings in the ELCA. The “God’s Love Made Real” initiative is one of those things. God’s Love Made Real grew out of a churchwide concern that the ELCA was not effectively being inclusive and is easily stuck in traditional ways of seeing and doing. The ELCA is in a process of identifying how to reinvent our denomination to be more inclusive. Meanwhile, we are already living into God’s Love Made Real.

The tagline is to bring about “a world experiencing the difference God’s grace and love in Christ make for all people and all creation.” The goal is to reach out to younger and more diverse people, who may not voluntarily enter the doors of a church or relate to scriptures and hymns for hope and comfort in the same ways we do. How to do this? To encourage lay people to get outside the doors of the church and step up as the priesthood of all believers to offer hope and a message of God’s grace for all.

Here are three priorities for this initiative:

1. A Welcoming Church: Engaging new, younger, and more diverse people. “Your

 young…shall see visions, and your old…shall dream dreams.” Acts 2:17

 2. A Thriving Church: Rooted in tradition and radically relevant. “You are the salt of the

 earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?...You are the light of

 the world.” Matthew 5:13-14

 3. A Connected, Sustainable Church: Raising the bar together. “I am the vine, you are

 the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from

 me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

On November 7, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton was part of a live discussion for our Region One synods, hosted by Bishop Shelley Brian Wee of the Northwest Washington Synod. Bishop Eaton spoke to how we need to find new ways to live out the old, old story. When asked for examples, Bishop Eaton shared how Trinity Lutheran, in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, stepped up with others in the community to establish a Human Rights Task Force. This action was in response to a leader of the KKK announcing a move to the area. This task force continues to this day, and Trinity Lutheran is a safe place for people who feel marginalized by society. Bishop Wee then shared the example of a church in Whatcom County, Washington who planned a “Queer Youth Poetry Open Mic Night”. Event organizers started receiving threats ahead of the event. The organizers asked area pastors to step up and stand watch at the event which the pastors did. The night was one of sacred space and a very real example of God’s Love Made Real. 

What are the ways that our congregations live into God’s Love Made Real? What other creative ways can we be present and engage with our community?   What can we do as individuals to proclaim God’s grace? How can we be invitational? Come and see and taste how good God is…

To learn more, go to Love Made Real ELCA

To sign up for the Living Lutheran delivered to your inbox, go to  Sign up for our e-digest - Living Lutheran

Written by Lisa Therrell, Vice President

Northwest Intermountain Synod

God's Love Made Real -

Town Hall Event Recording with Bishop Eaton

Click here to view

Advent 2024 Pilgrimage in Palestine

As the Gospels recount, innkeepers told Mary and Joseph there was no room for them or their expected child. God’s self-revelation through a baby whose mother made room for him in the humblest of accommodation, a manger, invites Christians today to ask ourselves; who does not have room in the empire? How did Jesus make room for all, and how can we do the same?

Read more...