By Joel Egge   Tue, Feb 23, 2010

We are called to worship God with everything we are in Christ, serve one another in Christian love and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all people. This mission1 is a response to God's person and grace.

I am grateful that the Church of the Lutheran Brethren (CLB) convention delegates stated our mission personally, that is, in language that speaks to us individually, to our congregations and to each cluster of churches.2

We Worship God

The CLB that I am praying to see would be communions of people worshiping the Lord in all we do. What if our cultivation of the earth, faithfully and carefully, produces beautiful gardens and fields for the Lord and our neighbors to enjoy? What if our studying, diligently and honestly, testifies to God and our peers that we want to know and live in truth? What if our leading of our homes, offices and ministries, sacrificially and purposefully, demonstrates that we know and serve the God who owns all things? What if we come to worship, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, receptive to God's grace given us in God's Word through his servants, both up-front and around us?

Is there a higher calling than worshiping God? "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."3 Scripture says that's worship.

How will we grow into this calling we affirm - a denomination that worships God in all we do and say? It will occur as congregations see themselves primarily as worshiping communities composed of forgiven sinners gathered in Christ to receive God's message. His grace elicits our gratitude and service. I pray God will give us grateful hearts and serving hands through his pardoning, restoring and commissioning grace.

We Serve Others

Second, I pray to see God working in us to serve one another in Christian love.

Scripture says love is patient, kind, always protecting, trusting, hopeful and persevering. Love is not boastful, rude, self-seeking, searching for evil, recording wrongs or proud. Love rejoices with the truth.4

In Life Together,5 Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer says listening, caring, bearing, praying and speaking are some of the ways Christians are called to love. He warns us of the deceptiveness of idealizing the relationships between believers because we are forgiven sinners, not sinless people. Having come to the truth about our condition and conduct, Bonhoeffer describes the strong bond Christians have in Christ and the ministry that is motivated by love.

I believe paying attention to people is an important ministry. Bonhoeffer says, "Just as love to God begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them."6

A carpenter told of an insight he received while constructing a house near San Clemente, California. A man out for a walk stopped and asked if he could look inside. The contractor recognized him and showed him around answering the visitor's questions. Soon several people were in the house because they were curious about Dr. Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State, whom they had been watching. As the builder and the Secretary were talking, the carpenter said he realized why Kissinger was an effective negotiator. He said that, in spite of the cameras flashing and other distractions, Kissinger never shifted his eyes or attention away from him as they talked. "He listened to me," said the carpenter, "as if I was the only person in the place."

Do you suppose Jesus listened like that to Nicodemus, the woman at the well and Simeon the Pharisee? Do you think he gave his full attention to his followers when talking with them? I think he did. I'm sure Jesus listened to them, and listens to us, on a far deeper level. He listens with his heart!

We are blessed when someone listens to us. Our international missionaries tell us how they must listen, long and carefully, to understand the culture, to show value for the people and to earn an opportunity to speak.

So must we. North Americans are lonely in spite of our exhausting schedules. Our neighbors are often indifferent, if not skeptical, toward the Church. So our listening, caring and praying are critically important in the Lord's preparing them to hear our witness of Jesus Christ.

First we must receive God's love. We can't love and serve others unless we ourselves live in his blessings. For even if we give everything to the poor, speak like angels and give our lives in ministry, but do it without love, we gain nothing, communicate nothing and die for nothing.7

We will have opportunities to speak the words of Jesus Christ to our sisters and brothers. The Lord instructs, corrects, rebukes, pardons, and encourages us through his Word. He often speaks to us through his own children telling God's message.

But Christ's love opens opportunities to speak. Peter instructed believers to be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks the reason for their hope. Peter had been asked about his hope, his assurance of eternal peace with God, many times and ways.

I envision us serving each other with a sincere love which is the love God gives.8

We Share Good News

Third, and not least, In response to God's person and grace, we... share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all people.

Our Vision Statement, also adopted by CLB Convention delegates, expands on this third phrase, saying: We see God stirring in our church a fresh passion to reach beyond our own comfort to all people among whom God places us. We embrace God's mission to bring the life changing Gospel to unreached people in Asia and Africa, and we sense God convicting us to more intentionally reach out to people who live in our midst in North America as well.

I pray we will be strengthened in this evangelism and missionary calling, an emphasis that has been repeatedly stirred within us by the Lord Jesus since the birth of our Church.

The words convicting, intentionally, reach out and beyond our comfort strike me.

We confess the Lord Jesus is convicting us. What is the godly response to being convicted? It is not to try harder and certainly not to rationalize our irresponsibility. Rather it is to confess our sin to God and to our fellow believers.9 Having received forgiveness, the godly response is to ask God for enabling grace to obey him.

I rejoice over everyone who has been given the gift of evangelism and mission. However, we must not leave the task of sharing the gospel to them alone. All of us and each of us are called to witness of Jesus Christ and his salvation granting us eternal life.10 Whatever spiritual gifts each of us have been given, bringing the gospel to the lost is our joint calling.11 It is God's passion in which he has commissioned us to participate.

Ephesians is often described as a letter about the Church. In it the Lord reveals how the human body is a metaphor for his Church. The Church is individuals united to Jesus Christ and to one another. Like our bodies, the Church is designed for every member to fill his/her role in response to Christ, her head. Christ serves and speaks to people through his body. His mission is done through unified coordinated response[s] to God's person and grace. The witness given by any member has greater impact when supported by a body of people showing kindness, righteousness, discipline, mercy, love and hope.

I pray to see God stirring us to the most important things in life.

The Apostle Paul told the Philippian believers that he loved them and prayed that their "love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God." 12

I'm writing this as the world is seeing the overwhelming suffering and death in the earthquake-devastated areas of Haiti. Bodies are stacked in the streets and being buried in mass graves. Seriously injured children and adults are waiting for medical help. Multitudes thirst for water and long for food as they search, or grieve, for missing family members. While I'm watching reports coming in from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the TV station cuts to a commercial. Suddenly I'm shown pictures of neglected dogs and cats while a voice begs me to send money to care for homeless animals in the US. The contrast is shocking and the appeal sickens me because of the vast difference in importance between the feeding of a cat and the medical needs of an injured homeless child.

While Scripture calls us to do good to all people, we must do what is best. Sharing the Word of the Lord with our neighbors and nations is of the highest importance. We must go to them in the way Jesus said - to be making disciples as we are going (through the course of our days and weeks).

One of our retired pastors told me it was common, in his ministry experience, for unsaved people to be introduced and led to Jesus Christ before they started attending worship services. He and several in his congregation were regularly sharing Jesus Christ with people in their social, employment or neighborhood relationships. Sometimes it was through one-to-one conversations; sometimes the gospel was shared in small groups.

We rejoice when people hear the Word of God and are drawn to the Lord in worship but we must also reach out, that is, bring the message of sin and grace to people any time and place God opens the door.

Lord, we pray that - because of you and your grace - you grant us to gratefully and sincerely worship you, serve others and speak the gospel to our neighbors everywhere. Amen.

Rev. Joel Egge serves as President of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE BIENNIAL CONVENTION VIDEO MENTIONED IN
THE MAGAZINE IN THE "UPDATE FROM THE CONVENTION COMMITTEE" ARTICLE

Availalbe for purchase at the
Faith & Fellowship Bookstore website

(Endnotes)

1. The CLB Mission Statement was adopted by the 2007 CLB Annual Convention.
2. We confess our faith in The Apostles' Creed together but do it in the first person: "I believe..."
3. Colossians 3:17.
4. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. The next line is: "Love never fails."
5. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Life Together, Harper and Row, Publishers, c. 1954, chapter 4.
6. ibid, p. 97.
7. See 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.
8. Romans 12:9.
9. James 5:16, "Confess your faults one to each other and pray for each other, that you may be healed [made whole]."
10. I also ask those so gifted to assist and encourage those who have been given other primary gifts.
11. Question 257 of the Explanation to Luther's Small Catechism, Fergus Falls, MN, Faith and Fellowship Press, states the following regarding fulfilling the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ: "Christ's mission is to be carried out by Christians who use the gifts the Holy Spirit has given to members of the body of Christ."
12. Philippians 1:9-11. Notice also that Paul prays that their love would be informed by knowledge and insight. It is critical that our love energy is focused on God's priorities which we are given in Scripture.

By   Wed, Feb 24, 2010

What do a musician, doctor, camp staffer, social worker, pastor, and graphic artist have in common? They are planning the BC. The Breakfast Club? Well, they meet at that time of the day - but they are actually planning the Biennial Convention. This year, in June, the Church of the Lutheran Brethren (CLB) will experience its first Biennial Convention. Future conventions will meet every two years, with the Regional meetings in between. (Follow convention news and updates at the > Biennial Convention blog)

The committee has been meeting since September to brainstorm and plan for the first convention of its kind. They have been in prayer and discussion around how to encourage more than pastors and delegates to attend the Convention. The ideas have been creative and all over the board: from starting the convention earlier to lasting longer, having an assortment of seminar tracks, offering more for youth and young families, incorporating community events, offering service opportunities, and the list goes on.

With the dates and location having been announced at the last Annual Convention, some parameters were already in place this year, but the brainstorming opened up fresh new ideas and it has been exciting to see how God is shaping the plans. The desire of the committee is to have the CLB truly come together as one body - to learn, be encouraged, grow, and return to their congregations and communities stronger and united.

As the discussions got rolling, a theme began to surface. With changes taking effect since the last convention, the committee felt that it was a good time to refocus the Church's attention on the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. We talked about the importance of sharing the good news with our children, our congregations, our neighbors and the world. The good news is for all people and for all generations. The theme is going to be: Telling His Story: The Good News for All Generations.
(Article continues below video)

Promoting the 2010 Biennial Convention of the Lutheran Brethren.
DOWNLOAD this video for your church HERE (see "About this Video" section)

How could the convention portray that theme? It could be developed with a sense of storytelling, such as building the worship services off of stories in Scripture. The committee discussed many different Bible stories from the Old and New Testaments. While it would have been great to touch on everything, there clearly needed to be a focus that would ground the theme of the convention. What better place to "Tell His Story" than in the Gospel of John? The book starts out with "In the beginning was the Word..." and chapter 20 ends with "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." We wanted the convention to cover more than the life of Jesus since it's not the only part of God's story for us, though it's an essential part, and focusing in on the Gospel of John seems to allow us to do that in a beautiful way.

The next step was to find the speakers. CLB President Joel Egge will be the opening speaker on Sunday evening, and Dr. Eugene Boe of Lutheran Brethren Seminary has agreed to speak on Monday evening. We are excited to have Pastor Shawn Bowman of Jamestown, North Dakota as the Tuesday evening speaker. The committee is still working on the morning Bible Hour speakers.

The convention schedule and the seminar topics are next on the committee's list. Many ideas have already been discussed.

This is an exciting time in our churches and we encourage pastors and delegates to bring new people to the Biennial Convention who are interested in the mission and vision of the CLB. The convention is much more than business sessions. It is a time to come together as a unified body looking to God for guidance and wisdom. Our family of churches seeks to effectively reach out to our surrounding communities, yet at the same time disciple those who are already part of our congregations. How do we reach out to an ever-changing culture? How do we pass the good news of Christ on to the next generations? Let's come together as a family of churches and ask God to reveal himself again as we live in "His Story" this coming June.

Barb Walswick serves as the Executive Secretary for the President of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren.
Follow news and updates about the convention at biennialconvention.blogspot.com

BIENNIAL CONVENTION INFORMATION

Telling His Story
The Good News for All Generations

June 20-23, 2010
Fergus Falls, MN

www.biennialconvention.blogspot.com

Also:
Saturday, June 19th

• Pastor's In-Service Seminars
• Women's Ministries Annual Convention (more information> wmclb.com)
• Inspiration Point Bible Camp 50th Anniversary Celebration
  (more information> ipoint.org)

By Tim Mathiesen   Tue, Feb 23, 2010

When the Biennial Convention planning committee decided on the theme, "Telling His Story: The Good News for All Generations," the idea of depicting Genesis-through-Revelation in the image for this year's Convention was important. God's Story does not begin and end with the cross. It continues today and we, as his Church, are part of his story. We do not live our lives as individuals alone. We live as part of a much larger body, God's family. In it, we live purposeful lives because God wants to use us, individually and as a family of churches.

How can an image communicate the broad span of God's Story? It includes teaching the good news to our children, sharing it with our neighbors and reaching the community through our churches and organizations. God uses all of us in so many different ways, so "Telling His Story" is a much larger concept than witnessing to our neighbors. The idea of a storybook was talked about by our planning committee - kind of like the one in the beginning of Disney films. This, however, would only relate to the practical story-telling aspect of the theme and would not communicate the deeper purpose.

The real inspiration for telling God's Story to those around us is that it is our privilege to be part of God's overall mission that began in the Old Testament and continues today. What an honor! God not only desires a personal relationship with each one of us but he also wants to use us to accomplish his mission! That is when the idea of a timeline with several images highlighting events along the way came to me.

Starting on the left we see "the tree" (the Fall). The timeline continues through the Ten Commandments (the law) and the cross (the gospel). Following the cross, we see a flame (the Holy Spirit) and then a man and a woman, who represent all of us today as God's Church. The timeline, as we all know, starts with creation and ends with the end times, which will be fleshed out later as we develop the image further.

We hope that this image will provide a simple visual image of how we all fit into God's Story. We ask you to think about how you and your congregation, along with the Church of the Lutheran Brethren, fit into his Story. Just think about that. God actually has a plan for us, and wants to use us in accomplishing his mission!

Tim Mathiesen serves as the Director of Communications and Prayer for the Church of the Lutheran Brethren.

By   Tue, Feb 23, 2010

Minnesotans cringed a few years ago when their colorful former governor declared that organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people - a typical stereotype from skeptics in our day. Not a very flattering picture, but if you really think about it, there's not much about human nature as we know it that is very flattering. It makes you wonder at times why God bothers with us at all. Thankfully, he does. In fact, just after Jesus blessed those who are poor and meek, he called his gathered disciples into his most important work on earth, with words recorded in Matthew 5:13-16: "You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world."

I doubt that Jesus' Jewish peasant disciples felt like "the light of the world." And who ever said they wanted to grow up to be salt? What was Jesus saying?

I recently asked a group of church leaders and their spouses about their understanding of these words of Jesus. If Jesus said this is what we are, it's probably important that we know what he meant. Here's what I heard from the group: We think of salt as arresting decay, preserving, and flavoring. Salt also makes one thirsty. Light banishes darkness, revealing what we previously did not see. As you think about it, these are effects that Jesus said his poor and meek followers would have on their surroundings.

John Stott, in his book The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, asked, "What possible influence could the people described in the beatitudes exert in this hard, tough world... What can they accomplish whose only weapon is purity of heart? Are not such people too feeble to achieve anything, especially if they are a small minority in the world?" (Stott, John R.W. Downers Grove, Ill: Inter-Varsity Press, 1978. Page 57).

But Stott also pointed out that Jesus did not share in this skepticism; instead he gave his Church a double role: (1) to arrest, or at least hinder, the process of social decay, and (2) to dispel the darkness.

Of course, by his grace God has established other institutions to curb our fallen tendencies, such as the state and the family. But he has willed that his most powerful influence in this fallen world be his own redeemed and righteous people (Stott, page 59). This powerful influence comes not through our launching yet another program, but through our being a contrast community, born out of the cross of Christ, that publicly lives out God's will for the world. ("Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.")

So how did Jesus instruct us to carry out our double role? He continued by saying, "...let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16b). We are not to hide our light, or lose our saltiness. We must not lose the distinction between the Church and the world; salt can be polluted, and light can be hidden away where it does no good.

For believers to be effective in our calling we must be radically different from the environment to which we are applied as salt. Dr. Lloyd-Jones said it well, "The glory of the gospel is that when the Church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen to her message, though it may hate it at first" (Stott, page 60).

Notice here how the message of our life and the message of our words go together, as our shining light must certainly include spoken testimony. (Stott, page 61). God calls us to be a contrast community, where our good deeds serve him in witness, never at the expense of our words, but always in harmony with them. Words and deeds were not in conflict in the mind of Jesus, and they must not be in conflict in our minds either. According to Jesus, our words and our deeds point the unbelieving world to him. "Let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

Gaylan Mathiesen is Professor of Missions at Lutheran Brethren Seminary, Fergus Falls, MN.

Availalbe for purchase at the
Faith & Fellowship Bookstore website

By Cheryl Olsen   Tue, Feb 23, 2010

I knew there was a chance we'd be a little late. But twenty minutes - that was a little embarrassing!

It was Friday night. I had left my newly-adopted home of Everett, Washington to drive north to Bellingham to pick up my daughter Rachel, so we could turn around and drive south to Seattle for the District Dessert Night at Rock of Ages Lutheran Brethren Church. We were both looking forward to attending this event together even if it meant walking in a few minutes late together!

I thought driving from Everett to Bellingham would be similar to the trip I had often made from Fergus Falls, Minnesota to Fargo, North Dakota - about an hour in length, depending on how slippery the roads might be in January. Hmmm. Not quite the same, I found out. I had to go through Everett rush-hour traffic first before heading north, and hadn't counted on most of the highway speed limits being sixty mph rather than the Minnesota limits of seventy.

Oops.

Nevertheless, the drive was beautiful, with the snow-covered peaks of the Cascade mountain range to the east reflecting back the rays of the setting sun in the west. My eyes kept straying to the northern horizon as the often cloud-shrouded heights of Mt. Baker kept looming large and white, first seeming to appear between city buildings, next peeking through the trees as I sped northward. I was totally amazed that I was really here in the Pacific Northwest! God's handiwork was so evident!

Rachel ended work at 5:30 and Dessert Night would begin at 7:00 pm. Theoretically, we could make it. Realistically, I felt like I was driving in a video game: blackness surrounding our car, headlight beams punctuating the space on both sides, red brake lights acting like strobe lights ahead as we went bobbing and weaving our way through the huge forested hills that hugged Bellingham Bay, up onto the plain between the Cascades and Puget Sound, and finally climbing the steep streets of Seattle.

We found an amazing spot in Rock of Ages' parking lot and were met by a nice gentleman who encouraged us to slip right in - "You're OK - the speaker just started!" I was so glad there were spots at a back corner table, where we were greeted with smiles and nods, not glares and frowns at our tardiness.

The speaker, Heather Emerson from Grace Beyond Reason Ministries, was quoting from Oswald Chambers' book, My Utmost for His Highest, as she described a major turning point in her life. A native of Australia, God moved her and her husband to a new continent, and later, to a new church, where the age of most of the congregation was closer to her children's age than to her own. She found herself thrust into the position of being a mentor, as she followed the path to which God called her - "more on fire, going higher," rather than the slow, lazy, and more useless life (though more comfortable!) that many of us gravitate toward as we get older.

Heather led us into the Scriptures to show us a mentoring relationship: Elizabeth and Mary. What can we learn from them? Both Zachariah and Elizabeth had absolutely given their best for God - "upright in the sight of God," a praying couple. "Your prayers have been heard," the angel had told Zachariah. Months later, after her own angelic visit, Mary was drawn to her older relative to share her amazing news with a kindred spirit.

Mentorship does not mean imposing one's thoughts, agenda, or superiority on another. We were encouraged to emulate Elizabeth's example. She was reverent, "real," relevant, and relational. We all live in different scenarios, but we're being watched. Do we live for God's glory all week long, or only on Sunday? Are we genuine? Would someone "get ready and hurry" to spend time with us, confident that we wouldn't blog or facebook their secrets? Are we interested more in truth than in trends? Though different in age and marital status, these two women found themselves inextricably bound together. Elizabeth didn't greet Mary by telling her own miraculous story - she focused on her younger relative. Mary, in turn, was "bursting with God-news" (The Message), and the relationship was a blessing to both.

Heather asked the question of herself, "Would God have prompted Mary to run to you, Heather?" She challenged us to think about whether we are real or wear a mask; whether our lives are lived in a holy huddle, or in relevance; if we display a demeanor of love, joy, and patience so that others can detect in us the sweet aroma of Christ.

I enjoyed the sweet fellowship of the various generations of women who gathered that evening. Ranging from early twenties on upward, we all enjoyed the sweet desserts prepared, and the rich conversations that began around the tables, and continued as women mingled far into the night.

As I drove down into the darkness, my mind ruminated, returning home. I had driven around ninety miles from Bellingham to Seattle - Mary walked about the same distance from Nazareth to the hill country of Judea. Were the stars her strobe lights as her mind whirled, trying to adjust to her life changes? What went through her mind as she returned home? God had drawn her and Elizabeth together, creating a "bond to braid their lives together."

Let us eagerly seek the relationships God is already preparing for our lives this year!

Cheryl Olsen is secretary of Women's Ministries of the CLB (www.wmclb.com).

WMCLB Annual Convention

Saturday, June 19, 2010
Bethel LB Church, Fergus Falls, MN

Inside Out - Living out the Life of Christ within

Presenter:
Carol Anderson
"Connection for Women" Ministry, Mt. Bethel, PA

www.wmclb.com

By   Mon, Feb 22, 2010

Lutheran Brethren Seminary held its J-Term titled "Ministry in a Romans 1 World" January 18-20. The topic was homosexuality. Speakers included Dr. David Glesne, Dr. Mark Yarhouse, Rev. Dan Borsheim and Dr. Kirk Militzer. Below are quotes from a couple of pastors who attended.

Pastor Paul Larson, Eau Claire, WI
"I am grateful to our seminary and the presenters for offering this invaluable J-Term for churches and pastors who must not merely address an issue, but minister redemptive truth with uncompromising love and abiding hope to people precious to us and our Savior."

Pastor Bruce Hillman, Succasunna, NJ
"We were challenged to remember the gospel's declaration that we are more than what we do, we are what Christ has done. Without capitulating to the culture's pressures or ethics on this issue, we were able to practically and exegetically distinguish between behavior and personhood.  The struggles of ministry to homosexuals, their communities and families, is no more difficult than ministry to all unbelievers.  If we can avoid the temptation to make this issue a pariah in our congregations, we can begin the work of Law-Gospel proclamation and the development of lasting and loving Biblical koinonia."

Pastor Jon Overland, Okotoks, Alberta, Canada
"The J-Term sessions were well balanced and very informative dealing with a sensitive issue. I really appreciated a more comprehensive approach to one topic. I also appreciated how Scripture defined our understanding of this issue, along with our approach to ministry to those struggling with homosexuality."

Stream and Download MP3's of the seminars

Download a Zip file of all five available sessions here (134 MB).
They are listed below in order. Stream each one below the list.

1. "The Biblical Truth about Homosexuality" by Dr. David Glesne
   (Download > 20 MB)
2. "Loving Our Homosexual Neighbor by Dr. David Glesne
   (Download > 20 MB)
3. "The ‘Nature-Nurture' Question" by Dr. Mark Yarhouse
   (Download > 36 MB)
4. "The ‘Reparative Therapy' Question" by Dr. Mark Yarhouse
   (Download > 40 MB)
5. "Helping Our Teens and Young Adults to Respond Biblically to Homosexuality" by Dr. Kirk Militzer
   (Download > 20 MB)

By   Mon, Feb 22, 2010

Once again Victory LBC, Jamestown, ND will be hosting a Worldview Conference. Evening speakers include Peter Marshall (preacher, teacher, author) and John Njoroge (apologist with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries). Our Lutheran Brethren Church is the primary host church with all the other listed organizations getting on board. Last time we sold 1286 tickets. This time we will be in just one place that seats 700 people. If you want tickets please order them soon. Also Peter Marshal will be hosting an event for the youth Friday evening for free at the high school. Last time Hillcrest students came over in force and were very blessed. This would be a great event for your youth as well. If any youth groups want to sleep over at our church you are welcome.

Pastor Shawn Bowman, Victory LBC, Jamestown, ND
More information at www.findvictory.org
Download a poster (PDF)

Participating Ministries: Concordia Lutheran, First Church of the Nazarene, First Assembly of God, KFNW, ND Family Alliance, ND Home School Assoc., United Presbyterian.

For tickets call or email:
Jamestown College Box Office
6023 College Lane
Jamestown, ND 58405
(701) 252-3467
tickets@jc.edu

By Joel Egge   Mon, Feb 22, 2010

How important is the mission of Christ? How important is it to you? Would it be worth a coffee or two a week? The Church of the Lutheran Brethren's contribution goal is $2,300,000 and as of January 30th, we are 62% of the way to our goal.

So we ask you, how much would you spend to have ...

• a missionary family living among and sharing the gospel with unreached people in Chad,
• a missionary family taking advanced language training for translating God's Word into the native language of people who don't have the Bible,
• a missionary couple doing advanced theological study for in-service training of national pastors in Africa,
• three missionary couples planting new churches among a large minority population in Taiwan,
• missionaries planting churches and connecting with non-believers in Japan,
• partial support of a caring ministry for international missionaries,
• four pastors supporting North American pastors and congregational leaders,
• six people preparing pastors and missionaries for the church,
• financial assistance for two newer church planters,
• print and electronic communications,
• 12 executive and administrative people supporting these cooperative ministries,
• campus and expenses related to each of the above?

How much would you contribute a year for these cooperative ministries?

It may surprise you that our synodical contribution budget is equal to $5.65/week per adult member of a CLB congregation. This is 80 cents a day!

As we are doing our tax returns, I suggest checking if we are averaging $5.64 per week, or 24.50 per month or $295.00 per year for these ministries.

I realize some of us cannot afford that amount each month but others of us can. Since a few people have the resources and hearts to give several thousand each year, the rest of us can surely give a dollar a day in response to God's call to us.

Many of you have been giving but it is time for the rest of us to support this year's ministries by April 30. Let's do it together!

Rev. Joel Egge serves as President of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren

> GIVE ONLINE to THE CHURCH OF THE LUTHERAN BRETHREN

By   Tue, Feb 23, 2010

> GIVE ONLINE to THE CHURCH OF THE LUTHERAN BRETHREN

By   Mon, Feb 22, 2010

Part-time position as Children's Ministry Coordinator open at Oak Hill Church. Looking for a stable, mature Christian with good organizational, leadership and creativity skills. Must have a passion for reaching, teaching and nurturing people in the Christian faith through Children's ministry.

Contact:
Oak Hill Church Office / (952) 881-9486
office@myoakhillchurch.org
Address: 8901 France Ave S, Bloomington, MN 55431

Download job description at
www.clba.org/about-us/employment

By Randy Mortenson   Wed, Feb 24, 2010

Both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Church of the Lutheran Brethren voted on "big-ticket" items at their respective conventions last year. Each had been involved for years with task forces and meetings and discussions and studies and preliminary statements leading up to the vote.

In the ELCA the question was: Should the Church ordain persons who are in a committed relationship with another person of the same sex? In other words, should the Church call practicing gays and lesbians to be pastors?

The majority voted yes.

Two months earlier, delegates to the CLB convention met in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. The main topic for debate here was: Should the CLB change Article III of its Constitution? That is, should we change the way our synod is structured and adopt a new paradigm to fulfill our God-given mission as his Church?

At the CLB convention, I listened intently to the discussions. To consider changing an organization's constitution is a serious matter. The usual afternoon seminars were cleared to allow extra time for debate. When the votes were finally counted and the results were read, I was unexpectedly overwhelmed. I felt "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit" saturate the room (2 Corinthians 13:14). We sensed God's presence with us, and we felt his unifying peace.

The proposed change to the CLB Constitution passed by over two-thirds.

The ELCA assembly took a vote to determine a moral question. The result of that vote wasn't just a step backward; it was a headlong dive from the truth of God's law and the authority of his Word into the dark, shifting quagmire of the world.

At the CLB convention, our mission was to determine how we can better care for God's people and reach out to the lost with the message of Jesus Christ. Article III has been changed. A new structure is being implemented. But the real results of the vote are still yet to be seen.

Isn't that what vision is, though? Seeking God for the yet-to-be-seen? "Go to the land I will show you," the Lord said to Abraham. Go. Step out in faith. And I will show you.

We are a body. Jesus Christ is our head. The gospel is our heart. Our Statement of Faith (Article II of our Constitution) is our backbone. People in our local churches make up our skin. The vote cast last June was a stretching of our muscles. A limbering up, if you will. Now, with our eyes on God, we're taking a step. Heading out to somewhere God will show us. God is moving, and so we ought to be. Forward. Onward. Upward. We are authorized to go.

Randy Mortenson serves as pastor of Ebenezer LBC, Mayville, ND.

By   Tue, Feb 23, 2010

The generally accepted Christian consensus provided this country's cultural foundation for many years, but more recently it has eroded under the weight of pluralism and an increasingly antagonistic attitude toward the Christian faith. This change is actually kind of exciting, because the spiritual climate of today is much like that in which the Church was born. Christ's call in Matthew 28:18-20 to go into all nations and make disciples is as all-encompassing for our congregations today as it was for the original disciples who heard his Great Commission with their own ears. For Community of Joy Lutheran Brethren Church of Eagan, Minnesota, this means that our Lord Jesus has called us to lives of active discipleship.

The role of the Adult Discipleship Team (formerly the Adult Education Board) of Community of Joy is to help our congregation think in terms of discipleship. This is to be the key emphasis in all that Community of Joy is and does. A major task confronting the congregation is to equip disciples of Jesus Christ to engage a culture that is no longer grounded in a biblical worldview and is therefore either apathetic or even hostile to the message of Christ. The question is, "Where do we begin?"

There's been a stirring in the hearts of our people in recent months to become more mission-focused in showing love to our neighbors. Our children's ministry and women's ministry have recently adopted Dakota Woodlands, a shelter in Eagan for homeless women and their children. Volunteers conduct our Kids Club for the children of Dakota Woodlands one Wednesday night each month and our Women of Joy prepare and serve lunch there once a month as well. In addition, we are partnering with the Eagan Resource Center, our local food shelf, and Amnion, our area crisis pregnancy center.

Even as we reach beyond the walls of our church in these ways, we want to be grounded in the Word of God and motivated by God's love for the world as expressed in the Gospel. Our Adult Sunday School curriculum has been reorganized to better equip our people to address the current culture from a biblical viewpoint. For example, we've just completed two Sundays on life issues, and we are currently studying World Religions. Last year we enlisted the services of Tentmakers which conducted a two-day course called "Bridge Builders," in which participants from Community of Joy and Gethsemane Lutheran Brethren in Rochester received training in how to converse with people we had never met before. This past fall we introduced our Sunday night Discipleship Training Course called S.A.L.T. (Simply a Life Transformed). This is in-depth training to ground participants in the Word with a view toward providing both content and confidence in sharing our faith with others in culturally relevant ways.

When Jesus sent his first disciples out to reach their world with the Gospel, he entrusted the most important task in the entire world to that group of humble men and women. He empowered them with his Holy Spirit. Beyond that he had no alternative plan, no "Plan B." The same word he gave to them resonates in our ears and pounds in our hearts today: "Go, make disciples of all the nations."

Mark Jarvinen serves as pastor of Community of Joy Lutheran Brethren Church, Eagan, MN.

By   Tue, Feb 23, 2010

Zam-Zam grew up as a member of a local religion. Her grandfather was a sheik of an important clan in central Chad. In those days very few in their religion allowed their children to attend school. But Zam-Zam was given that opportunity. Members of a Bible distribution organization called the Gideons came one day and gave New Testaments to Zam-Zam and her classmates. Most of them threw theirs away, but she kept hers. It was years, though, before she opened it.

Her religion gave her no help when a period of deep depression hit her in her teen years. She was then taking secretarial studies in Chad.

And then... In her own words: "One day, during the night, I had a dream... There was a man dressed in white and in a very brilliant light. He said to me, ‘I am Jesus, see my hands. It was for you that my hands were pierced. I have taken your suffering, your problems and your sicknesses. Get up and follow me.' In the morning when I got up, something made me go and look in my belongings. I found my New Testament; I opened it and was directed to the verse in Mark 10:27 which says what is impossible for man is possible for God. I rejoiced in this verse and continued to read. The Spirit opened my mind to understand the Word. I had just an inexpressible joy, and I didn't want to be separated from the Word..."

A week later, another dream - similar to the story of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. She found the pastor of a church that she had started attending, and he recounted to her the biblical counterpart. Then he said, "Zam-Zam, like the people of Israel, you have been delivered - Satan no longer has power over you. Keep reading and obeying the Bible and God will use you..."

Her family saw that Zam-Zam had changed, but for two years she didn't dare tell them why. She began working in a Christian reading library. It was a place where students often came. And it was there my son Jonathan met her. He had prayed for years that God would lead him to marry a Christian Chadian girl. God did.

Zam-Zam had another dream - with her eyes wide open! She wanted to do something for the many children in the village. She began praying.... Could she start a school for them? But they are generally wary of western-style education for their children, out of fear they might leave the faith.

An American Christian doctor had founded a hospital in a city in Cameroon years before. Its good reputation reached deep into Chad. The chief of a village near Jonathan and Zam-Zam invited the doctor to start a hospital like that in his village. Negotiations were made and construction soon started. But the chief wanted more - a good school for the children in the area. Could the doctor include that in the plan? And would he agree to have Zam-Zam direct it? The doctor did and Zam-Zam was approached. She laid down one condition: It must be run as a Christian school with Bible teaching included in its curriculum. The chief accepted!

In January 2009, classes began in one of the hospital buildings, with no furniture except blackboards. There were 200 students from three different tribes (tribes not always friendly toward each other), but only four teachers - it was challenging! Yes, Bible stories were taught. And within a few days parents started coming to Zam-Zam with remarks like this: "Zam-Zam, what you have done, we have never seen before. May God bless you! We are behind you. Teach our kids! We accept all that you want to teach them."

In December 2009, the school had a Christmas party for the 200 students and their parents, plus 120 friends the students had invited! It took four hours for the showing of the Jesus film and God's Story, then a pageant on Jesus' birth. Around 3:00 pm they shared a meal. Finally, the event concluded with Christian and Arab music. About 25 parents requested CD copies of the films and some even asked for Bibles in Arabic. God is at work in this place to which many have recently moved from the desert. Pray for them!

Don and his wife Orpha served as CLB missionaries in Africa for many years.