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Featured Blog Post

Dear NT-NL Leaders:

Happy New Year! Indeed I know it is December 1st and not January 1st, but for us in the church it is indeed a new year. A new opportunity and season to lead and proclaim the good news of God to our neighbors in word and deed. The season of Advent is upon us and invites us into anticipation and reflection on what is to come. To do Advent with intentionality. As I reflected in my blog this past Tuesday during this season this is a time to lift your heads and look for Joy. To know that Christ is coming, God is faithful to God’s promises.

I invite you in this Advent season to take advantage of the many resources in this Leader News issue as well as our weekly news. These are provided to aid you in this work that we do together. Especially I lift up for you the congregational council trainings hosted by Briarwood Leadership Center that resume on Thursday Dec 2nd and 9th. Registration is here and past sessions are also available on our YouTube site. Those who attended our leadership convocation in October received an email earlier this week with links to videos of the sessions. They also received this document outlining equipment and learnings from this time prepared for you by our team who put together this very successful hybrid event. We learned a great deal in this experimental project and hope you can benefit from this work. Finally we have partnered with the Lutheran Foundation of the Southwest and the Southwestern Texas synod to create a video resource for congregations discerning their future. How as hope filled Joyful people we can look at the possibility of Holy Closure as a way to seed new ministry and honor the past.

December is a busy season for you as lay and rostered readers. So it is important that you again take time to lift your heads and be intentional about seeking Joy. Not as more law to be accomplished but a gospel message that sets you free from being overwhelmed by the expectations and the busyness of the season. The gospel message of salvation come down without your effort. That while your work is important and we want to support you in it we are claimed by a God who chose to make Advent among us. As you do your Advent know you are in my prayers and those of many.

In Joy:

Bishop Gronberg

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Congregational Council Series Will Resume

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LIRS Seeking Co-Sponsoring Congregations

Dear Partners in Ministry,

Newly arrived Afghan refugees and allies desperately need the help of Lutheran congregations throughout the country.

Lutheran mobilization bore witness to Christ’s call to radical hospitality when Saigon fell in 1975 and Vietnamese siblings arrived needing welcome. With the recent fall of Kabul and flight of Afghan allies, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) and its network of national agencies are calling on ELCA congregations to again open their doors and their hearts in resettlement welcome.

The ELCA and LIRS believe in the Long Welcome. After the initial resettlement of our 50,000+ Afghan neighbors, we will need communities to continue to offer financial support and welcome for up to a year (congregational co-sponsorship). We expect volunteer opportunities (community sponsorship) and needs to continue for months, even years – because the work we are doing is about more than simply getting our allies out of Afghanistan. The work of welcome is providing the support, compassion, and community that our allies need once they arrive to the United States.

Our work is just beginning. We ask for your congregation’s help.

To assist with your congregational discernment, two websites have been created:

Help Our Afghan Allies – https://www.lirs.org/help-our-afghan-allies/

This page provides prayers, videos, a donation link and ways to get involved

The Circle of Welcome for Afghan Allies

https://www.lirs.org/circle-of-welcome/

This page provides registration for congregations to have their information sent to their local affiliate as well as:

• • Co-Sponsorship Info Session Video for church councils
  • Talking Points, a Flier and Bulletin Insert
  • Emmaus: Congregational Discernment Prayer Toolkit

We are calling on Lutheran congregations to again bear witness to the gospel during this crisis by welcoming the stranger in our midst. We invite you to discern, register on the LIRS page, and join in this humanitarian movement.

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2022 NT-NL Synod Assembly Updates

As announced in our synod news on October 26, 2021, the NT-NL Synod Assembly will be held April 29-30, 2022, at Paul Quinn College, Dallas, TX. As of December 1, 2021, the plan continues for this assembly to be in-person. Registration will open in January 2022. There will be several elections at the assembly including synod treasurer and synod bishop. Bishop Gronberg has indicated his discernment to stand for this election. Following synod practice, when the current bishop has indicated they will stand for election, there will be no official pre-nomination process. An elections team independent of the bishop’s office has been authorized by the synod council. Nominations are requested for synod treasurer. Please refer those to jason@ntnl.org.

For registration rates (currently posted) and full details (with updates made as we confirm them), watch the event page on the NT-NL website: https://www.ntnl.org/event/2022-ntnl-synod-assembly/

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Courageous Leadership Series with ELCA Coaching

Dear ELCA Leaders,

You are invited to join ELCA Coaching at 1pm Central on the First and Third Wednesday of December to learn some possibly surprising, and some definitely humorous, things about COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP. We are inviting you to bring a spirit of curiosity and openness to discerning how and where Spirit might be calling you forward as a leader in your life, family, work, ministry, community, and the world. There will also be time for small groups in breakout rooms so that leaders across the church can continue to learn from each other and leave each gathering with at least one action step.

Login information can be found on the ELCA Coaching website: https://www.elcacoaching.org/events/courageous-leadership

Recordings from past months can be found here: https://www.elcacoaching.org/podcasts/media/series/courageous-leadership