LCMS World Relief/Human Care wants to make 2007 the year of mercy. The ministry will host the first LCMS Conference on Mercy April 30-May 2 in St. Louis as a national platform to equip and energize caring Christians for what…

Growing stewardship is a growing interest, judging from the response to the November Reporter story about the new Consecrated Stewards emphasis developed by the Lutheran Church Extension Fund’s (LCEF) Capital Funding Services. Pastors seeking more Consecrated Stewards information can directly…

By Karen Boettcher This commentary is in response to the “Statement Regarding Immigration Concerns” issued June 2 by Dr. Gerald Kieschnick, LCMS president, and Rev. Matthew Harrison, executive director of LCMS World Relief/Human Care.  The commentary — written from the…

Lutherans For Life (LFL) and LCMS Life Ministries are offering an array of resources to help congregations and other groups observe “Sanctity of Human Life Sunday” on Jan. 21.  The materials also are suitable to use any time of the…

As the son of a pastor and a church worker himself, Dr. Kurt Krueger says serving God as a pastor, teacher, or other professional church worker can be extremely fulfilling. “It’s a great life for those of us who’ve been…

By Paula Schlueter Ross “Fan Into Flame” — the Synodwide campaign to raise $100 million by 2010 to support the worldwide evangelism effort known as Ablaze! — is officially off and running. Rolled out early this year as a pilot…

By Paula Schlueter Ross Thank God for graduate programs, which are continuing to draw ever-increasing numbers of students to the Synod’s universities with each passing year. This fall’s total undergraduate and graduate enrollment of 20,091 for the 10 Concordia University…

Concordia Plan Services (CPS) says it will introduce several new health and wellness programs as part of the Concordia Health Plan (CHP), starting March 1. Free to all CHP members, those programs will consist of Health Risk Assessment (HRA), Health Advisors…

Funeral liturgies and prayers for the dead were among topics discussed during the recent session of the U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue, which met Oct. 12-15 in Baltimore.  The theme for this round of discussions is “The Hope of Eternal Life.” Regarding…

Almost two dozen presentations from the “In the Image of God” love and marriage conference — held this fall on the campus of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne — are now available on compact disk. The conference was sponsored by…

The Institute on Lay Vocation at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, is offering audio files from its Nov. 3-4 forum, “Called to Engage the Postmodern World: The Lutheran Voice in Contemporary America.” The audio files in MP3 format are available free…

Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, has scheduled its 15th Annual “Schola Cantorum: An Adult Choir Member Workshop” for Saturday, Jan. 20. The daylong workshop is open to all choir members, choir directors, and ministers of music. Dr. Timothy Peter, professor of…

Robert J. Ziegler, principal of St. Michael Lutheran School, Fort Myers, Fla., has been named a “National Distinguished Principal” for 2006.  He received the award along with 64 other principals at an Oct. 27 ceremony in Washington, D.C. Ziegler is the…

Dr. Carlos Walter Winterle, former president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil, is now serving as a missionary in Kenya, East Africa. Winterle was installed Nov. 5 as English-speaking pastor of Uhuru Highway Lutheran Cathedral in downtown Nairobi, Kenya. …

Three schools operated by LCMS congregations — one in Minnesota and two in Texas — are among 50 private “No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools” named by the U.S. Department of Education for this year.  They are Trinity Lone Oak Lutheran…

Seven Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod churches are among 29 Lutheran congregations that received a total of $48,318 in the latest round of Wheat Ridge Ministries’ Congregation Health and Hope Grants. Open to all Lutheran congregations — individually or in partnerships — the grants…