Northern Texas - Northern Louisiana Synod, ELCA

Parish Lay Ministry Academy, Spring 1, Course 2
2023-04-15 09:00 - 15:30 (America/Chicago)
To register and for full details: https://www.ntnl.org/ministries/plma/

LAST DAY to register for Synod Assembly
2023-04-16
Details are confirmed for our 2023 NT-NL Synod Assembly! You can find all pertinent information here: https://www.ntnl.org/event/2023-nt-nl-synod-assembly/. We will update this event webpage as we confirm additional details.
Please note the registration deadlines below, and NO REGISTRATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED ON-SITE. Here is the direct link to register: https://tithe.ly/event-registration/#/6520048
2023 Synod Assembly Fee Schedule:
Voting Member Early Bird (until March 1) = $175
Voting Member Regular (March 2 – April 16) = $225
Retired Rostered Voting Member Early Bird (until March 1) = $125
Retired Rostered Voting Member Regular (March 2 – April 16) = $150
Visitor Early Bird (until March 1) = $75
Visitor Regular (March 2 – April 16) = $100
Meals provided with registration = 3 (three) – Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast and lunch
Sponsor display space, along with coffee, water, and snacks, will be in an adjoining room from our meeting and plenary space.
Vendor = $250 for full 8-foot table OR $125 for half 8-foot table shared with another vendor / displayer
Displayer = $150 for full 8-foot table OR $75 for half 8-foot table shared with another vendor / displayer

Today is also the last day to book your hotel room:
Location: Bally’s Shreveport Casino & Hotel (formerly named Eldorado), 451 Clyde Fant Parkway, Shreveport, LA 71101
Book your hotel room here by April 16: https://ballysshreveport.reztrip.com/ext/promoRate?property=2437&mode=b&pm=true&sr=804983&vr=3
Please use this link in order for your room to count toward our contracted room block, which also allows for reduced costs for all of us for the meeting space and meals.
The synod has negotiated a significantly-reduced room rate for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights of Assembly.
You may notice that part of the negotiated room rate includes a resort fee. This provides parking access and wifi in your room at no additional charge.
(It may be possible to check in early. You can make that request directly with the hotel. This is not guaranteed. | Check out is at 11am. It may be possible to get a one-hour extension to check out by 12noon. You can make that request directly with the hotel. This is not guaranteed.)

LAST DAY to book Synod Assembly hotel room
2023-04-16
Details are starting to be confirmed for our 2023 NT-NL Synod Assembly! You can find all pertinent information here: https://www.ntnl.org/event/2023-nt-nl-synod-assembly/. We will update this event webpage as we confirm additional details.
Location: Bally’s Shreveport Casino & Hotel (formerly named Eldorado), 451 Clyde Fant Parkway, Shreveport, LA 71101
Book your hotel room here by April 16: https://ballysshreveport.reztrip.com/ext/promoRate?property=2437&mode=b&pm=true&sr=804983&vr=3
Please use this link in order for your room to count toward our contracted room block, which also allows for reduced costs for all of us for the meeting space and meals.
The synod has negotiated a significantly-reduced room rate for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights of Assembly.
You may notice that part of the negotiated room rate includes a resort fee. This provides parking access and wifi in your room at no additional charge.
(It may be possible to check in early. You can make that request directly with the hotel. This is not guaranteed. | Check out is at 11am. It may be possible to get a one-hour extension to check out by 12noon. You can make that request directly with the hotel. This is not guaranteed.)

Today is also the last day to register for Assembly:
Please note the registration deadlines below, and NO REGISTRATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED ON-SITE. Here is the direct link to register: https://tithe.ly/event-registration/#/6520048
2023 Synod Assembly Fee Schedule:
Voting Member Early Bird (until March 1) = $175
Voting Member Regular (March 2 – April 16) = $225
Retired Rostered Voting Member Early Bird (until March 1) = $125
Retired Rostered Voting Member Regular (March 2 – April 16) = $150
Visitor Early Bird (until March 1) = $75
Visitor Regular (March 2 – April 16) = $100
Meals provided with registration = 3 (three) – Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast and lunch
Sponsor display space, along with coffee, water, and snacks, will be in an adjoining room from our meeting and plenary space.
Vendor (until sold out or April 16, whichever occurs first) = $250 for full 8-foot table OR $125 for half 8-foot table shared with another vendor / displayer
Displayer (until sold out or April 16, whichever occurs first) = $150 for full 8-foot table OR $75 for half 8-foot table shared with another vendor / displayer

Briarwood Service of Thanksgiving and Transition
2023-04-16 15:00 - 17:00 | Briarwood Leadership Center, 670 Copper Canyon Rd., Argyle, TX, 76226, United States
As Briarwood transitions, it will continue to fulfill its mission. And it is important to take time to give thanks for all the years and memories on the property at 670 Copper Canyon Rd, Argyle, TX 76226.
Sunday, April 16 – Worship begins at 3pm
Rain or Shine. Bishop Erik Gronberg preaching. Aaron Colwick and others providing music.
Please RSVP by April 10 so that we can prepare refreshments.
#InMissionTogether
Bishop Erik Gronberg

Women's Retreat
2023-04-22 08:30 - 15:00 | St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, 1210 W. Belt Line Rd, Richardson, TX, 75080, United States
The Dallas Area Metroplex North Conference of the NT-NL Synodical Women’s Organization (part of Women of the ELCA) is holding their annual Women’s Retreat on April 22, 2023, with guest speaker Rev Erin Swenson-Reinhold.
Full details can be found here on the registration form.

Cultivating Compassion Session 4: Think Again
2023-04-27 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 April 27 session:
“What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.” That observation is often attributed to Mark Twain but, ironically, one thing we don’t actually know is who first said it. Adam Grant invites us to explore ways in which “knowing” and “certainty” keep us from learning and growing. As we work to cultivate compassion, approaching ourselves and others with curiosity primes us to learn. Even more importantly, this intellectual humility positions us to to connect with others more effectively.
Full details about this session (including registration) can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cultivating-compassion-session-4-think-again-tickets-502785032567

2023 NT-NL Synod Assembly
2023-04-28 - 2023-04-29
Tentative timeframe: Starting Friday, April 28, at 1pm, and ending Saturday, April 29, by 3pm (Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast and lunch included).
The Assembly Refence Materials (including the tentative agenda) can be found here: https://www.ntnl.org/2023-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.
Synod Council will meet Friday morning at 9am (specific location will be communicated to Synod Council members the week of Assembly).

Location: Bally’s Shreveport Casino & Hotel (formerly named Eldorado), 451 Clyde Fant Parkway, Shreveport, LA 71101
Book your hotel room online here by April 16 for our guaranteed reduced rate: https://ballysshreveport.reztrip.com/ext/promoRate?property=2437&mode=b&pm=true&sr=804983&vr=3
Please use this link in order for your room to count toward our contracted room block, which also allows for reduced costs for all of us for the meeting space and meals.
The synod has negotiated a significantly-reduced room rate for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights of Assembly.
You may notice that part of the negotiated room rate includes a resort fee. This provides parking access and wifi in your room at no additional charge.
(It may be possible to check in early. You can make that request directly with the hotel. This is not guaranteed. | Check out is at 11am. It may be possible to get a one-hour extension to check out by 12noon. You can make that request directly with the hotel. This is not guaranteed.)

Keynote speakers: Pastor Joe and Deacon Jess Liles
Topics: Holy experimentation, growing a church through a global pandemic, all kinds of ways to connect with all kinds of people, and more!

Bio: Pastor Joe and Deacon Jess Liles planted The Neighborhood Church (ELCA) in Bentonville, Arkansas, in 2012. The Neighborhood Church has a unique vision to “Change Church. Create Relationship.” Changing Church is a reality that moved The Neighborhood from a school cafeteria to a store front in between a Gym and a Mexican restaurant to a horse arena, stable, and barn. The Neighborhood has also embraced change in ministry with Pastor Joe and Deacon Jess establishing relationships with seminaries to create courses and pilot programs for LIFEgroups, church leadership, and bible studies. Currently, they are working on launching The Neighborhood Church University, a collaborative effort to lead and learn alongside the local church through conferences, courses, and curriculum for children’s ministry. Pastor Joe and Deacon Jess are surrounded by their two children: Caylee (12), an aspiring singer and volleyball player, and Landen (10), a future YouTube star. Their favorite time together outside their church work involves bringing the kids out in the camper to National Parks across the US and taking hikes to secluded waterfalls.
Check out their recent Courageous Leadership presentation via ELCA Coaching: Leadership Challenges in a Digital Ministry Presence.
Offering: Half of the offering will go to the NT-NL Eastern Conference for hosting us, and the other half of the offering will go to the NT-NL Synod for transition support for congregations.

Churchwide representative: Javier Goitia
Important note regarding Voting Members: Congregations shall be allotted additional voting members as follows: up to 500 baptized members, two voting members; 501 – 750 baptized members, 3 voting members; 751 – 1000 baptized members, 4 voting members; 1001 or more baptized members, 5 voting members. Selection of the voting members by the congregation shall be on the basis of the most recently submitted annual parochial report and shall adhere to male – female formula outlined in +S7.21.c. Any congregation allotted an additional youth voting member under S7.21.01 need not consider such additional youth voting member as one of their additional voting members under this resolution. (https://www.ntnl.org/resources/nt-nl-synodical-constitution/)
Registration closed April 16. NO REGISTRATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED ON-SITE. You may contact jason@ntnl.org with questions.

2023 Synod Assembly Fee Schedule:
Voting Member Early Bird (until March 1) = $175
Voting Member Regular (March 2 – April 16) = $225
Retired Rostered Voting Member Early Bird (until March 1) = $125
Retired Rostered Voting Member Regular (March 2 – April 16) = $150
Visitor Early Bird (until March 1) = $75
Visitor Regular (March 2 – April 16) = $100
Meals provided with registration = 3 (three) – Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast and lunch
Sponsor display space, along with coffee, water, and snacks, will be in an adjoining room from our meeting and plenary space. Vendor and Displayer costs include access to the same three meals offered to attendees.
WE HAVE SOLD OUT OF SPACES FOR DISPLAYERS AND VENDORS.
For travel planning purposes, Vendors and Displayers may set up on Thursday (this will need to be coordinated with us) or starting at 8am on Friday, and you will need to be out of the space within 2 hours after the closing of Assembly. Full details will be communicated to all registered sponsors closer to Assembly.
Additional details will be posted here as they are confirmed.

Parish Lay Ministry Academy, Spring 1, Course 3
2023-05-13 09:00 - 15:30

Cultivating Compassion Session 5: The Righteous Mind
2023-05-25 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 May 25 session:
Even when we work to separate our observations from judgements we make about them, the judgements remain. We still apply a moral framework, some way of prioritizing what’s important to us. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt invites us to examine the moral frameworks we use to tell right from wrong. As we explore these frameworks, we’ll be applying what we’ve learned about thinking, empathizing, and feeling to regard one another in a new way, opening ourselves to the humanity of the people we “other.”
Full details about this session (including registration) can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cultivating-compassion-session-5-the-righteous-mind-tickets-502828542707

Cultivating Compassion Session 6: Practice - Critical Race Theory
2023-06-22 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 June 22 session:
We’ve added an examination of our thinking to the exploration of how we experience, process, and express our emotion. We’ve learned about tools for how to practice empathy by connecting with emotions, as well as how to open our minds to new ideas and perspectives. Now we’ll practice combining those skills in this month’s practice session with Critical Race Theory as the topic.
Full details about this session (including registration) can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cultivating-compassion-session-3-virtual-practice-disproportionality-tickets-502967528417

Western States Youth Gathering 2023
2023-07-04 - 2023-07-09
The Western States Youth Gathering (WSYG) and Western States Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (WYLE) is back! Coming to California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, CA, July 4-9, 2023, the Western States Youth Gathering is open to high school aged youth in Regions 1-4 of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
WSYG and WYLE will gather around the theme, “Revive, Reunite, Rejoice”, grounded in Acts 2:1 “When the day [of WSYG] came, they were all together in one place.”
With nearly 35 years of history, WSYG is a multi-day youth gathering that gives high schoolers the opportunity to explore their faith, gather as a community through creative team-building activities and workshops, and enjoy endless summer fun all under the Southern California sunshine. In 2017, the WSYG planning team hosted the first ever Western States Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (WYLE). WYLE is a pre-gathering intended for students of color and/or youth groups that makes up at least 20% persons of color, taking place the few days leading up to WSYG.
This year’s event will feature an outdoor festival-style main stage, interactive and service learning opportunities, team-building activities with our lutheran outdoor ministries, creative worship elements, and exciting nightlife events.
After a cancelled 2020 event due to the COVID-19 pandemic and with a new core leadership team, this year’s WSYG and WYLE may look a bit different, but will still center the good news that Christ dwells among us and through us. With synodical sponsorship from the Southwest California Synod and Pacifica Synod, WSYG and WYLE hopes to bring together over 500 participants from as far east as Minnesota, down south to the Gulf-Coast, up north to Alaska, and out west to the islands of Hawai’i.
Registration for WSYG and WYLE opens Monday, Oct. 3, 2022, at $385 per person, with prices increasing Jan. 4, 2023. Registration spots can be reserved with an early bird registration deposit of $115 per person. https://www.wsyg.com/

Rostered Ministers Gathering
2023-07-17 - 2023-07-20
Rostered Ministers Gathering
July 17-20, 2023
Phoenix, AZ
All Rostered Ministers in the ELCA are invited to join colleagues under the theme of “Rekindle the gift within you” (2 Timothy 1:6).
Let this gathering be an opportunity for you to remember, reclaim, rekindle, and revive yourself. Gathering with colleagues from across the church for fellowship, renewal, continuing education, worship, bible study, and refreshment for your spirit.
Each day will begin in worship as we center ourselves around our theme. Each morning, we will offer bible studies and keynote speakers. The afternoon hours will offer a variety of individual options from activity in the Interaction Center to workshops and caucus times.
Full details and updates can be found here: https://www.elca.org/rmg
Registration is now open: https://www.elca.org/Rostered-Ministers-Gathering/Registration (reduced rate through March 31)

Cultivating Compassion Session 7: The Wild Edge of Sorrow
2023-07-27 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 July 27 session:
One of the great paradoxes of life in the United States is that while we all experience loss, we’re largely left on our own to process and integrate it. As we begin moving our attention from the interior world where we’ve spent the first half of this series, we look to Francis Weller for what he calls “an apprenticeship with sorrow.” This opportunity to face our own losses, whatever they may be, is a crucial step toward facing others’ loss. Even more importantly, it equips us to be present to the loss and suffering in the world without being overcome by it.
Full details about this session (including registration) can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cultivating-compassion-session-7-the-wild-edge-of-sorrow-tickets-502847770217

Cultivating Compassion Session 8: See No Stranger
2023-08-24 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 August 24 session:
“We can look upon the face of anyone or anything around us and say – as a moral declaration and a spiritual, cosmological, and biological fact: you are part of me I do not yet know.” (p. 11) These words encapsulate what Valarie Kaur means by “see no stranger.” Through personal stories, she shares her journey toward revolutionary love, a love that embraces self, others, and even those we oppose. This kind of love invites us to experience the depth of being human, embracing joy, grief, anger, and wonder as we learn to love each other.
Full details about this session (including registration) can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cultivating-compassion-session-8-see-no-stranger-tickets-502901430717

Synod Council Worship
2023-09-08 19:30 - 20:30 | Good Shepherd, 2620 W Grauwyler Road, 75061, United States
Join our synod council and deans as they open their September meeting with worship.
Worship will begin at 7:30 at Good Shepherd – Irving (2620 W Grauwyler Road, Irving TX, 75061)

Parish Lay Ministry Academy, Fall 2023, Course 1
2023-09-09

MEF Sunday
2023-09-17
On Sunday, September 17, 2023, the NTNL’s Mission Endowment Fund will celebrate the annual MEF Sunday event!
In conjunction with North Texas Giving Day on Tuesday, September 19, 2023, our event continues to spread awareness of the Mission Endowment Fund.
As you already know, the MEF is the grant giving arm of the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod of the ELCA which provides needed and necessary money to our own congregations to start or to continue ministries which would not be funded otherwise.
We will provide our congregations with materials which will inform about the MEF in general, will provide exciting updates about our next Seeds that Change banquet, will celebrate current grant recipient’s progress, will outline the steps for the next grant application process, and will offer new avenues to assist with our Legacy Partner efforts.

Confirmation Fall Event
2023-09-19 09:00 - 17:00 | Christ Lutheran Church – Dallas, 3001 Lovers Lane, Dallas, TX, 75225, United States
3001 Lovers Ln, Dallas, TX 75225
LUNCH & SNACKS PROVIDED
PLEASE BRING A REFILLABLE WATER BOTTLE
Cost: $20 Early Bird Registration (before Oct. 25)
**THANK YOU BRIARWOOD LEGACY FOUNDATION**
$50 Regular Registration (after Oct. 26)
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 9: Unsettling Truths
2023-09-28 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 September 28 session:
“Columbus sailed the ocean blue; in fourteen hundredy ninety-two,” so says the song from 4th grade. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that in 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued a document titled “Inter Caetera” in which he grants possession of everything west of the 39°W meridian to whichever European Christians get there first, ignoring the reality that these lands were already possessed by the people who lived there. This writing, along with Pope Nicholas V’s 1455 “Romanus Pontifex,” laid the foundation for what we now call the “Doctrine of Discovery.” In the process, these men invoke God’s name to encourage dehumanizing, enslaving, and dispossessing humans, behavior diametrically opposed to the way of Christ. It’s also true that Pope Paul III declared in 1537 that “Indians [sic] and all other people who may later be discovered by Christians …should, freely and legitimately, enjoy their liberty and possession of their property; nor should they be in any way enslaved.” That didn’t keep US chief justice John Marshall from referencing “Inter Caetera” as part of the court’s 1823 decision in Johnson v. McIntosh, enshrining the Doctrine of Discovery in US law. In this month’s reading, we follow Christian pastors Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah through this complex maze to face “the ongoing, dehumanizing legacy of the doctrine of discovery.”
Full details about this session (including registration) can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cultivating-compassion-session-9-unsettling-truths-tickets-502916606107

Seeds That Change
2023-10-07 19:00 - 22:00 | Calvary Lutheran Church – Richland Hills, 7620 Baker Blvd, Richland Hills, TX, 76118, United States
The Mission Endowment Fund is thrilled to announce that the next Seeds That Change fundraising gala will take place on Saturday, October 7, 2023, at 7pm, at Calvary Lutheran Church in Richland Hills, Texas.
This year’s theme is “Red Carpet Celebration” which will provide ample opportunity for our recent and previous grant recipients to elaborate on their ministries. In addition to celebrating the grant recipients, we will auction off exciting items. The money raised will aid the next application awards.
More exciting details will be announced soon!

NT-NL WELCA Conference
2023-10-13 - 2023-10-14 | Grace Lutheran Church – Carrollton, 1200 East Hebron Pkwy, Carrollton, TX, 75010, United States
The 2023 NT-NL Synodical Women’s Organization Convention well be held on October 13-14 at Grace, Carrolton. More information can be found here or on the NT-NL SWO webpage.

Parish Lay Ministry Academy, Fall 2023, Course 2
2023-10-14

Cultivating Compassion Session 10: A People's History of the United States
2023-10-26 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 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.
