Northern Texas - Northern Louisiana Synod, ELCA

Parish Lay Ministry Academy, Fall 2023, Course 2
2023-10-14
To register and for full details: https://www.ntnl.org/ministries/plma/

Cultivating Compassion Session 10: A People's History of the United States
2023-10-26 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Online
The NT-NL Public Witness Team for Peace & Justice are partnering with the United States Christian Leadership Organization (USCLO), Charter for Compassion Social Justice Sector, and Kairos + Collaborative to offer this set of FREE online episodes and practice sessions to help Make This Your Year to Cultivate Compassion!
“You’re invited to spend 2023 growing compassion for yourself, your friends, and even those who today you might describe as enemies. We’ll interrogate our emotions, reasoning, decision-making, and more as we work to join the infinite game of building peace.”
Access the full list of episodes and sessions here.

Specifically about this October 26 session:
We love a good story, with its protagonists and antagonists, plot twists and conflicts. As we read narratives of fact or fiction, it’s natural to identify with the hero and despise the villian. In his 1889 biography of Charles George Gordon, William Francis Butler observed, “…it is the victor who writes the history and counts the dead, and to the vanquished in such a struggle there only remains the dull memory of an unnumbered and unwritten sorrow.” We know that for every happening, there are at least as many stories as there are observers, often more. Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” attempts to give voice to those stories often unrepresented in our discussion of history. The result is devastating, but its goal is hope. Zinn says, “I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past’s fugitive moments compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare.”
Full details about this session (including registration) can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cultivating-compassion-session-10-a-peoples-history-of-the-united-states-tickets-502917910007

Parish Lay Ministry Academy, Fall 2023, Course 3
2023-11-11

Cultivating Compassion Session 11: Practice - Reparations
2023-11-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Online
The NT-NL Public Witness Team for Peace & Justice are partnering with the United States Christian Leadership Organization (USCLO), Charter for Compassion Social Justice Sector, and Kairos + Collaborative to offer this set of FREE online episodes and practice sessions to help Make This Your Year to Cultivate Compassion!
“You’re invited to spend 2023 growing compassion for yourself, your friends, and even those who today you might describe as enemies. We’ll interrogate our emotions, reasoning, decision-making, and more as we work to join the infinite game of building peace.”
Access the full list of episodes and sessions here.

Specifically about this November 30 session:
We’ve built skills for feeling and thinking and hearing. In this practice session, we apply those skills to discuss affirmative action and reparations. We reflect on our experiences with See No Stranger, Unsettling Truths, and A People’s History to ask, “What can we do to right the wrongs of the past? And whether we can right them, do we want to?” These are hard questions and the path to a world where everyone thrives lies in working on them.
Full details about this session (including registration) can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cultivating-compassion-session-11-virtual-practice-reparations-tickets-502994007617

Upper Elementary Retreat
2023-12-02 09:00 - 17:00 | Abiding Grace Luthern Church, 1060 E Highland St, Southlake, Texas, 76092
DECEMBER 2, 2023
9AM-5PM
ABIDING GRACE LUTHERAN CHURCH
1060 E Highland St, Southlake, TX 76092
LUNCH & SNACKS PROVIDED
PLEASE BRING A REFILLABLE WATER BOTTLE
Cost: $20 Early Bird Registration (before Nov. 1)
**THANK YOU BRIARWOOD LEGACY FOUNDATION**
$50 Regular Registration (after Nov. 1)
Register here
For questions please email NTNL Synod Youth Connector, Pastor Adam Stockton at adam@rejoicefrisco.com or Janelle Miller at janellemiller@yahoo.com

Cultivating Compassion Session 12: Finite and Infinite Games
2024-01-04 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
The NT-NL Public Witness Team for Peace & Justice are partnering with the United States Christian Leadership Organization (USCLO), Charter for Compassion Social Justice Sector, and Kairos + Collaborative to offer this set of FREE online episodes and practice sessions to help Make This Your Year to Cultivate Compassion!
“You’re invited to spend 2023 growing compassion for yourself, your friends, and even those who today you might describe as enemies. We’ll interrogate our emotions, reasoning, decision-making, and more as we work to join the infinite game of building peace.”
Access the full list of episodes and sessions here.

Specifically about this January 4 session:
Across disciplines as diverse as marketing, education, health, and management, “gamification” draws on our capacity to play to help us move ourselves and others toward a goal. Books like Burlingham and Stack’s “The Great Game of Business” and Boller and Kapp’s “Play to Learn” provide examples of how to apply this concept. With computers or consoles, balls or marbles, cards or boards, humans love games. The subtitle of this month’s book is “a vision of life as play and possibility.” In it, Carse invites us to frame our lives, at work, at home, in society, as play and to choose what kind of game it will be. He says there are at least two kinds of games: “A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.” When we play a finite game with an opponent playing an infinite game, we’re destined to lose. The forces in our world that oppose peace and justice, as well as the empathy and compassion that leads to peace and justice, are playing an infinite game. We close this series with Carse’s work to inspire infinite strategies in which we might bring to life our role in bending “the arc of the moral universe … toward justice.”
Full details about this session (including registration) can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cultivating-compassion-session-12-finite-and-infinite-games-tickets-502953426237

Peer Ministry Leadership Training
2024-01-05 20:00 - 2024-01-07 14:00 | Calvary Lutheran Church – Richland Hills, 7620 Baker Blvd, Richland Hills, TX, 76118, United States
JANUARY 5-7, 2024
AT
CALVARY LUTHERAN CHURCH
7620 Baker Blvd, Richland Hills, TX 76118
$50 DEPOSIT HOLDS YOUR SPACE
8pm Friday – 2pm Sunday
WHAT IS PEER MINISTRY? It is the story of the good Samaritan. Only instead of preaching and teaching it, you get the skills necessary to live it!
Three Peer Ministry Tracks offered:
PEER MINISTRY I
You will enhance your skills of listening, helping peers and communication. You will discover how caring relationships are a vital ministry.
PEER MINISTRY II
For those who have completed PM I. You will learn more skills for sharing your faith, addressing sensitive issues and dealing with difficult people.
PEER MINISTRY III
For those who have completed PM I & PMII. They will apply their skills in real world scenarios, will help lead worship and will have discussions on “now what?” this group will put the skills they have learned into practice at their schools, churches and post graduation.
WHAT WE WILL BE DOING THIS WEEKEND…
**Attending peer ministry sessions
**Worship
**Service project
**Social event in the community
**Great food and fellowship
WHAT YOUR REGISTRATION INCLUDES…
**2 nights lodging (hotel)
**Saturday meals (3), Sunday breakfast & lunch
**Materials
**Saturday night social event
REGISTRATION
**Cost is $70 if registered & paid by November 1
**THANK YOU BRIARWOOD LEGACY FOUNDATION GRANT**
**Cost is $130 if registered after November 1
**Registration includes quad occupancy at the hotel — your own bed is available for an extra fee
**This Leadership Event allows students to attend without an adult from their church
**A pastor or youth leader must invite a young person to be a part of this event.
For questions please email NTNL Synod Youth Connector, Pastor Adam Stockton at adam@rejoicefrisco.com or Janelle Miller at janellemiller@yahoo.com

2024 PLMA Graduation
2024-01-27 | Good Shepherd, 2620 W Grauwyler Road, 75061, United States
Good Shepherd, Irving (2620 W Grauwyler Road, Irving TX 75061)
Beginning at 2pm

Synod Council Meetings
2024-02-03
These meetings will be held online only. Since the last two years we had to move online due to weather, it seems wise to simply plan for that now.
Synod Council (and Deans) will be meeting TBD
More details forthcoming.

Junior High & Senior High Youth Gathering
2024-02-16 - 2024-02-18 | King of Glory Lutheran Church – Dallas, 6411 LBJ Freeway ·, Dallas, TX, 75240, United States
This event is for NTNL junior high and senior high youth!
The event includes Small Group Activities, Songs, Games, Worship, Service Projects , & Social Event!
Registration includes programs, lodging (quad occupancy), and meals.
FEBRUARY 16-18, 2024
King of Glory Lutheran Church, Dallas
6411 Lyndon B Johnson Fwy, Dallas, TX 75240
beginning at 8pm Friday night
REGISTRATION COSTS:
$99 Special Early Bird Registration (by December 1 )
**thank you to Briarwood Legacy Foundation Grant””
$150 Regular Registration (after December 1)
*Additional $60 for your own bed
This is an individual registration form. Youth Leaders/Pastors will submit housing forms.
For questions please email NTNL Synod Youth Connector, Pastor Adam Stockton at adam@rejoicefrisco.com or Janelle Miller at janellemiller@yahoo.com

Parish Lay Ministry Academy, Spring 2024, Course 1
2024-03-09

Parish Lay Ministry Academy, Spring 2024, Course 2
2024-04-13

Public Witness Team meeting
2024-04-13 10:00 - 12:30, 2024-05-11 10:00 - 12:30, 2024-06-08 10:00 - 12:30, 2024-07-13 10:00 - 12:30, 2024-08-10 10:00 - 12:30, 2024-09-14 10:00 - 12:30 | Shepherd of Life Lutheran Church, 715 E. Lamar Blvd., Arlington, TX, 76011, United States
Welcome! We are the Public Witness Team for Peace and Justice of the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana (NT-NL) Synod of the ELCA. We meet on the second Saturday of most months. Our mission is to give public witness to issues of justice and peace in the synod and in the community, and this includes both education and advocacy. One of our goals is to assist congregations in the NT-NL Synod in their efforts to be a public church within their own communities.
For our 2023 meetings, the plan is to host a hybrid meeting in-person at Shepherd of Life Lutheran Church in Arlington, TX, with Zoom connection available for those who would prefer that.

Anyone is welcome to join us!
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88956792219?pwd=[REDACTED] ID: 889 5679 2219Passcode: [REDACTED]
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2024 NT-NL Synod Assembly
2024-04-19 - 2024-04-20 | Iglesia Luterana Santa María, 2601 S. MacArthur Blvd., Irving, TX, 75060, United States
Registration is now closed. Registration closed on April 16th.

Timeframe: Starting Friday, April 19, at 1pm, and ending Saturday, April 20, by 2:30pm. See the Reference Materials for a current agenda.
The Assembly Refence Materials (including the tentative agenda) can be found here: https://www.ntnl.org/2024-assembly-reference-materials/. Updates will likely be made up to the week of Assembly as additional details are confirmed, reports are received, and more. If current documents change, that will be noted so that you can be sure you have the latest version of everything.
For information on our Assembly Theme and Keynote Speaker read our blog post.
Dr. Hopper has created this Connections Worksheet for attendees to follow along with his keynote sessions. There will be hard copies available but you can download this version if you’d prefer a digital copy.
Synod Council will meet Friday morning at 9am (specific location will be communicated to Synod Council members prior to Assembly).
Location: Iglesia Luterana Santa Maria, Irving, 2601 S MacArthur Blvd, Irving, TX 75060
The Synod will not be coordinating a room block at a specific hotel. There are many hotel options around Santa Maria at various price points that attendees can arrange to best meet their needs.
2024 Synod Assembly Fee Schedule

Voting Member Early Bird (until March 1) = $125
Voting Member Regular (March 2 – April 16) = $175
Retired Rostered Voting Member Early Bird (until March 1) = $50
Retired Rostered Voting Member Regular (March 2 – April 16) = $100
Visitor Early Bird (until March 1) = $50
Visitor Regular (March 2 – April 16) = $75
Meals provided with registration = 2 (two) – Friday dinner, Saturday lunch
2024 Synod Assembly Offering Designation
NT-NL Conferencia Latina 50%
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sierra Leone 50%
Additional details will be posted here as they are confirmed.

Wartburg Choir Performing at Calvary, Richland Hills
2024-04-22 19:00 - 20:30 | Calvary Lutheran Church – Richland Hills, 7620 Baker Blvd, Richland Hills, TX, 76118, United States
Wartburg Choir is making a stop at Calvary, Richland Hills for a concert on April 22nd at 7pm. All are invited to attend.
Calvary is looking for local hosts to house the 80 choir members on Monday night. If you are interested in housing a student or two please reach out to Viktor Andersson, Director of Music Ministry at viktorandersson@hotmail.com

Parish Lay Ministry Academy, Spring 202, Course 3
2024-05-11

ELCA Young Adult Gathering
2024-07-16 - 2024-07-20
Due to the cancellation of the 2022 ELCA Youth Gathering, MYLE, and tAble, many young people were not able to participate in these life-changing faith formation events. In partnership with ELCA Young Adult Ministries, we are thrilled to open the first-ever ELCA Young Adult Gathering to individuals who will be 18 to 35 at the time of the Gathering. We recognize that 18-35 is a wide age range and anticipate that most of our programming will be geared toward those 18 to 25 years old.
The Young Adult Gathering will take place in New Orleans during the 2024 ELCA Youth Gathering (July 16-20, 2024). Programming and content are still being discerned.
For full details: https://elca.org/YouthGathering/Attend/Young-Adult-Gathering

Synod Council Meeting
2024-09-06 - 2024-09-07 | Good Shepherd, 2620 W Grauwyler Road, 75061, United States

Synod Council Worship and Installation of Pastor Kelsey Fitting-Snyder
2024-09-06 19:00 - 20:00 | Good Shepherd, 2620 W Grauwyler Road, 75061, United States
Join the NT-NL Synod Council on Friday September 6th for worship and the installation service of Pastor Kelsey Fitting-Snyder as our new Bishop’s Associate for Leadership Formation and Congregational Care.
Service time and other details will be announced via email

Parish Lay Ministry Academy, Fall 2024
2024-09-14 09:00 - 14:30, 2024-10-12 09:00 - 14:30

Poder Latinx Young Adult Worship
2024-09-22 17:00 - 19:00

NTNL Confirmation Retreat
2024-09-28 09:00 - 16:00 | Preston Meadow Lutheran Church, 6801 Coit Road, Plano, TX, 75024, United States
Join NTNL confirmation students for a day of camp songs, games, Bible studies, crafts, and activities centered around the sacraments!
This is being led by the Crosstails Ministry staff
Lunch and snacks provided. Please bring a refillable water bottle
Cost: $18 Early Bird Registration (before Sept. 15)
$45 Regular Registration (after Sept 16)
Registration and information here

The 12th Annual Herbener Lecture: Who is My Neighbor?
2024-10-10 | King of Glory Lutheran Church – Dallas, 6411 LBJ Freeway ·, Dallas, TX, 75240, United States
The 12th Annual Herbener Lecture: Who is My Neighbor?
Guest Lecturer: Rev. Khader El-Yateem
A Palestinian-American Lutheran Pastor born in Bethlehem and Executive Director for Service and Justice at the ELCA
The question of who my neighbor is very challenging in the context of the Israeli war on Gaza. It challenges the core of our theological understanding of this biblical story and the essence of our faith. How can I love my neighbor when my neighbor is my enemy? How do we move from political polarization to be the peacemakers? Rev. El-Yateem’s presentation will challenge our understanding of our discipleship in the context of war, migration, and displacement as we respond to our neighbor’s needs. It is a call to live as liberated people of faith to serve our neighbor freely.

October 10, 2024 – 7:00 pm
Lecture followed by question and answers
King of Glory Lutheran Church
6411 Lyndon B Johnson Fwy, Dallas, TX 75240
FREE ADMISSION: Free-will donations appreciated. Online donations accepted. See link below.
To reserve your seat and to find more information click here.

The NT-NL Synod Office is hosting a luncheon for rostered leaders. Find more information and register here.

NT-NL WELCA Fall Retreat
2024-10-11 15:30 - 2024-10-12 15:30 | King of Glory Lutheran Church – Dallas, 6411 LBJ Freeway ·, Dallas, TX, 75240, United States
October 11-12
Hosted by King of Glory Lutheran Church in Dallas
Click Here to Register!
Early Bird Registration: $70 for both days
After Sept 15 Registration: $75 for both days; $60 for Saturday only
Scholarships Available! Click here to apply.
