Dear Partners in Ministry:

On May 6th members of the Eastern Conference and myself are holding a closing/decommissioning service at Good Shepherd Lutheran in Marshall. This is a service a long time in coming. Over the past decade+ the congregation at Good Shepherd became evermore dispersed and unable to maintain ministry. Covid only made things more challenging. So it has become time to say goodbye to this chapter of our ministry in Marshall.

Closing congregations is never done without great prayer and thought. Trusting that the Holy Spirit guides us and the church we remember that congregations have life cycles and this is expressed in scripture. The congregations that the Apostle Paul addressed his letters to do not exist today. The congregations John on Patmos addressed in Revelation no longer exist. But the church, the baptized, remains.

And so it is that we are committed to continue to being the church in the world. At our recent assembly a resolution was put forth charging the synod council to come with a plan at our next assembly to plant and fund 4 new congregations in NT-NL. It is a bold and challenging resolution. Many have asked how this is going to be done. The reality is, we don’t know. But we certainly can and will learn as we engage this process. And in doing so we will listen deeply to the Holy Spirits guidance.

Death and life. This is the gospel message. Happy Easter!!!

Bishop Gronberg