To receive free resources to celebrate LCMS “Armed Forces Sunday” May 20, all congregations must place new orders by Feb. 10. This year’s theme — “New Mission … New Orders … Move Out!” — is based on John 17:11-19. The website…

Delegates to the 56th LCMS North Dakota District convention, meeting Jan. 22-25 in Grand Forks, N.D., re-elected on the first ballot the Rev. Dr. James A. Baneck, 50, of Mandan to his second three-year term as district president.   North Dakota is…

By Kim Plummer Krull Hours after deadly storms ripped through the South early Jan. 23, the Rev. Ed Brashier already had organized a chainsaw team that was clearing fallen trees from the home of an LCMS member family in Centerpoint, Ala.  “We…

By Sarah Schafer WASHINGTON — Despite cold and rain, more than 120 Lutherans marched among more than 250,000 pro-life advocates in the 39th annual “March for Life” here Jan. 23.  Trying their best to avoid the mud, Lutherans from 12 states…

PARIS (RNS) — A decade ago, Rene Lebouvier requested that his local Catholic church erase his name from the baptismal register. The church noted his demands on the margins of its records and the chapter was closed. But the clergy abuse…

JERUSALEM (RNS/ENInews) — Christians have the lowest growth rate among the Israeli population, according to a recent report from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. According to the Jan. 6 report, the Christian growth rate of 0.9 percent lags behind the…

The fourth annual “Reaching Out Together” evangelism conference is planned for Feb. 11 on the campus of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. The conference is open to pastors, evangelism boards, church leaders and laypeople in the LCMS Missouri District and adjacent districts.…

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod will provide — at www.lcms.org/marchforlife — same-day, online Lutheran coverage of the “March for Life” on Monday, Jan. 23, in Washington, D.C. The march — which drew an estimated 400,000 people last year — is held annually to…

Synod President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison was guest preacher at the opening worship service of the North Dakota District convention — the first of 35 LCMS district conventions to be held this year through July. The convention, Jan. 22-25 in…

By Kim Plummer Krull With hundreds of thousands of people still living in squalid, makeshift camps, a first-time visitor to Haiti might assume that little has changed since the tragic earthquake devastated an already struggling nation two years ago this January.…

Bethesda Lutheran Communities scholarship applications for the 2012-13 academic year are now available for Lutheran high school, college and seminary students interested in pursuing careers in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities. Six scholarships will be awarded: two $3,000 awards…

(RNS) — At 87, the Rev. C.T. Vivian can still recall the moment, decades after the height of the civil rights movement. As he stood to conclude a meeting in his Atlanta home, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. joined his…

WASHINGTON (RNS) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 11 unanimously threw its support behind a church school that fired a teacher, using a widely watched church-state case to bolster a legal doctrine that exempts religious institutions from some civil…

MEMPHIS, N.Y. (RNS) — Brent Howard left his job as a home remodeler in Ohio in 2007, moved his young family into a trailer and began traveling to wherever he was needed. Over the past 4 1/2 years, he has helped…

(RNS) — Seven congregations that broke with the Episcopal Church in 2006 over its liberal policies on homosexuality are not entitled to keep parish property estimated to be worth millions, a Virginia judge ruled on Jan. 10. The ruling by Fairfax…