---

Featured Blog Post

Dear NT-NL Leaders:

When you receive this letter, it will have been 117 days since my first communication and guidance sent to you related to Covid-19. In that time you have received many communications from me, our staff, the leadership at Briarwood, as we have worked to equip you and support you in this adaptive leadership challenge.

You have learned a great deal about how to worship online, do pastoral care, weddings and funerals in physically distant ways, read epidemiological charts, interpret guidelines from local, state, and national public officials, all while managing congregational expectations. The cracks in our society this crisis has revealed and widened also created social movements that have called upon us as a nation and a church to listen more closely to our siblings of color and examine the realities of systemic and institutional racism in our midst.

This has been a significant challenge, and you have been equal to the task thus far. On April 26th, I gave a state of the synod address, and I am just as convinced now as then that our synod is strong, adaptable, faithful, and recognizing even more our interdependence. We are, you are, #InMissionTogether.

So my word to you on this 117th day is please take time to rest. Sabbath is an essential part of our spiritual life. It is not a suggestion from God but a command, an expectation, that God’s people would find time for themselves, and for the earth, to rest. As I stated months ago, we are in a marathon, not a sprint, and this crisis and the challenges it creates are going to be with us for an as-yet-undetermined length of time.

Continue reading this message from Bishop Gronberg with links to a number of resources.

---

July 5 Sermon Recording Options

May God bless you this week in your work and in your life. Here is my sermon for July 5th and is available for your use this weekend. We received requests for more options in addition to YouTube, so we pray these are helpful.

Vimeo (download): https://vimeo.com/user118660328/download/433817457/6676b63db8

Vimeo (watch): https://vimeo.com/433817457

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKSG_XYtS9I

Each week in July, your synod staff will be providing a sermon for the use of our congregations. We pray this can be a blessing and potentially a respite for our pastors and leaders who have been so faithful and adaptive in this time. A Spanish translation text is offered here.

In Christ,
Bishop Gronberg

P.S. My updated guidance for worship, including the use of masks, is available in English and Spanish here: https://www.ntnl.org/from-bishop-gronberg-covid-19-and-texas-guidance-on-gathering-june-26/.

---

Promoting Diversity, Creating Inclusion

Interested in creating a community of equity and justice? Whether you’re looking to understand your own blind spots, foster conversation in your congregation, or build a culture where all can belong, a new Being Academy course Promoting Diversity, Creating Inclusion, featuring educator Aparna Rae, offers practical exercises and thought-provoking questions that can help. Though some of the course is directed at developing a diverse workplace, Portico believes the tools and topics are of value for church leaders in this important time.

Portico members with ELCA-Primary health coverage can access the course here or via myPortico. If you waive health coverage or have ELCA Medicare-Primary coverage, The Big Know (Portico’s partner and Being content developer) has made the course available at no charge to everyone for a limited time to support learning and promote equity. Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page – you will be asked to sign up before you can begin the courses.

---

Join the LEAD Journey Online for FREE

NT-NL congregations are being subsidized in the LEAD Journey through our DLA Endowment Fund. There is still space for 2 or 3 more congregations to join this cohort on the LEAD Journey. If you are interested, please email Bishop Gronberg at BpGronberg@ntnl.org ASAP. Click here for a full overview.

---

New LFSW Regional Gift Planner for NT-NL

Lutheran Foundation of the Southwest (LFSW) makes it possible for faithful people to share legacy gifts with loved ones and the ministries that have shaped and blessed their lives. The foundation helps bridge the gap between generations of the church to help ensure that Christ’s ministry continues. Comprehensive legacy planning for family and ministry, personalized to your goals and your unique family and financial situation, is available through your synod gift planner, Morgan Schmidlin. Contact Morgan Schmidlin at mschmidlin@lfsw.org or 440-785-3363 to set a confidential and no-obligation appointment.

---

Generosity 365 Resources

The Ecumenical Stewardship Center (ESC) has released Generosity 365 for 2019. Developed by a team of practitioners and writers from several denominations, this annual collection of resources provides congregations and synods with a year-round approach, theme materials for a financial response and access to a digital library of past stewardship publications and resources. Congregations can access a limited number of Generosity 365 resources available from the ELCA at no cost.

---

Congregational Giving Research

Most research on charitable giving, particularly faith-based giving, has focused on individuals (the givers) rather than institutions (the recipients of the giving). Thanks to the National Study of Congregations’ Economic Practices (NSCEP), we can now provide an overview of how congregations receive, manage, and spend their financial resources. Delving underneath the numbers, we begin to show how congregations regard financial resources: how their theological, cultural, and practical orientations toward money relate to finances and economic practices. Download this new research here.

---

HeartPaths DFW Information Gathering

HeartPaths DFW invites you to attend a free “In-Formation” session over Zoom with a peaceful prayer experience and news about HeartPaths DFW training in contemplative prayer and spiritual direction. Drink from the well of God’s love.

July 9, 7pm OR July 10, 10am

HeartPaths’ weekly contemplative prayer groups begin in September, either online or in person (once it is safe).

RSVP to heartpathstraining@gmail.com to receive a Zoom meeting link.

---

ELCA Growing Young Train the Trainer

The ELCA Faith Formation Team and The Fuller Youth Institute invite you to the 2020 ELCA Growing Young Train the Trainer Online Gathering.

August 10-11

11am-5:30pm Central

Registration link: https://forms.gle/hVDeK12aJQVMaDgYA (closes August 1)

Cost: Thanks to a grant from the ELCA Always Being Made New Campaign, they can offer this leadership training at NO COST for all who attend.

Prework: Please read Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church written by Kara Powell, Jake Mulder, and Brad Griffin BEFORE the training! If you cannot afford the book, mark the box on the registration form, and they will send one to you.

Click here for full details.

For questions, contact Rachel Alley, ELCA Program Director for Youth Ministries: rachel.alley@elca.org.

---

MEF Relief Funds

Dear Partners in Mission:

The COVID-19 crisis continues to challenge and change our lives together. Many congregations have suspended in-person worship for over a month. In addition, daycares and other church ministries have been deeply impacted. Our leaders have proven themselves resilient, adaptable, and faithful to the work that we do together. While this crisis has brought challenge, it has also brought innovation and opportunity for our communities.

We are, however, only now beginning to get a fuller picture of the impact these changes are having on our congregations and their financial sustainability. Each congregation and ministry is, just like the people who make up the church, experiencing this differently. For some of our communities, the move to online worship and giving has been fairly seamless. Others are more dependent on weekly offerings from in-person worship. And within the communities, there are uneven experiences of job and income loss and stability.

Throughout this process, we have shared resources with you about how you might take advantage of governmental programs, as well as work with creditors to change loans or other obligations. Again, the experience across the synod has been uneven as each community and ministry works with their various financial institutions.

Recognizing that emergency cash flow problems might threaten benefits for employees or other vital bills, the board of the Mission Endowment Fund (MEF) of the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod has responded with an emergency loan program. Utilizing unrestricted funds and in concert with their financial advisors, they have available some funds to help communities in an emergency situation. I am grateful for their clarity of mission in that these funds are a gift for us to steward for mission and that carrying out mission and Word and Sacrament ministry in this time is critical. Information about applying for these funds are available on our website: https://www.ntnl.org/ministries/mef/.

A host of resources, including some guidelines on how communities might make decisions about coming back together, are available at https://www.ntnl.org/resources/covid-19/. I encourage you to make use of those.

In Mission Together,

Bishop Erik K. J. Gronberg