Less Than a Week to Register
The 2021 Tri-Theological Conference with Professor Michael DeJonge
January 25-26
Co-sponsored by the Southwestern Texas Synod, Gulf Coast Synod, Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, and Briarwood Leadership Center
This is an online event.
OPEN TO ALL. Pre-registration required.
Cost: $75
Registration closes at 10am Central on January 25
REGISTER HERE.
Download a flyer here to share.
Full details can be found here: https://www.ntnl.org/event/2021-theological-conference/
Resources for Lent
Lutheran World Relief needs your help to bring real, tangible hope to our poorest neighbors. This Lent, your congregation can help by gathering and assembling Personal Care Kits. LWR has also created an accompanying full suite of Lenten resources called “Sensing Hope,” including a 5-week sermon series and small group study guide – all of which can be used digitally or in-person to nurture hope and action in your congregation. Everything you need to get started can be found at lwr.org/lent. Join LWR in spreading Christ’s love and ushering in a new season: A SEASON OF HOPE.
Over the last year, as the world has reeled from the effects of a deadly pandemic, we have seen the number of hungry people around the world rise, watched as food pantries and soup kitchens expanded to serve an ever-growing number of guests, and longed for the time when we “will hunger no more, and thirst no more … and God will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes” (Revelation 7:16-17). Thank you for all you are doing in your congregation and community to continue God’s work and to share the grace and love of Christ. We invite you to continue your work by connecting your congregation to the church’s global work to end hunger and poverty during ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of Giving, which begins on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17. To prepare, visit ELCA.org/40Days and download or order resources today. Your leadership is crucial to our work together. Thank you for partnering with ELCA World Hunger during this important season in the church year. If our team can support you in any way, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at hunger@elca.org.
Items from Lord of Life, Glenn Heights
For all items, contact Becky Johnson (bjohn942@aol.com).
FREE: Approximately 50 ELW hymnals, communion cups and trays, other communion ware.
This piano (almost new), asking price of $1800.
This organ, asking price of $500.
This baptismal font, name your price.
Featured Resources for January | Recursos Destacados de Enero
Congregational Communications Tools for Easter
Herramientas de comunicación congregacional para Pascua
The ELCA Network for Children, Youth & Family Ministry
Extravaganza 2021: Holding Loosely
February 4-6
The Extravaganza is the annual gathering of children, youth, and family ministry leaders from across the ELCA. It is so much more than a conference: it’s space to be stretched, it’s worship, it’s inspiring speakers, it’s learning from colleagues across the country, it’s sharing your insights with others, it’s informative and transformative. The Extravaganza is renewing, educational, and connects you with others…then sends you home strengthened for the ministry to which you have been called.
The Extravaganza is for the professional and the volunteer. It is for the old and the young. It is for the urban, the suburban, and the rural. It is for pastors, it is for lay people. It is for all adult leaders who share in the adventure we call children, youth, and family ministry!
For 2021:
The scriptures are full of stories of God’s people holding loosely to their plans and learning to trust in the grace and the mission of God.
And so, as God’s people, we are reminded that grace is a gift of God, and trust follows grace. God calls on God’s people to trust in God’s abundance, love and promise. Too often, we try and maintain our own sense of control. But if ministry in 2020 has taught us anything, it has taught us that we are not in control. The world is a broken, turbulent place and we cannot navigate these troubled waters by ourselves.
And so, obediently, we trust in the work of the Holy Spirit in the midst of turbulent times. And we partner with God, serving as God’s hands doing God’s work in a world that is in need of hope.
We hold loosely, letting go of our need to control, creating space for the Spirit to work, and trusting in God, who has a vision for the world.
Extravaganza 2021 will explore God’s call to hold loosely to our own plans, and our need to control, and to trust in the one who comes to create, to redeem and to sustain. God’s call for us to “Hold Loosely” and trust is more important now than ever, as we live and do ministry in a time of pandemic, of racial injustice and unrest, of social division and political turmoil.
Our conversations at #ext21 will center around five questions:
- How do we help those we work with navigate the grief of losing “normal?” How do we navigate that same grief for ourselves?
- How do we care for ourselves in the midst of accompanying others in their pain?
- How do we navigate change?
- What should we do next?
- How do we find hope in the midst of chaos?
It is in the words of Ephesians 2:8 that we are reminded that we place our trust in God’s grace, which provides guidance and direction during these hard days. And that this grace is a gift that we discover when we hold loosely.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” – Ephesians 2:8
Recent Blog Posts
Bishop Gronberg:
(https://www.ntnl.org/2021-payroll-protection-program-funds/ – published Jan. 14)
(https://www.ntnl.org/how-to-record-ppp-loans-for-elca-reports/ – published Jan. 15)
Where in the world is?
Due to the rising cases of COVID-19 across our territory since November 2020, the bishop and staff will be engaging in no non-essential travel or in-person meetings through at least the beginning of 2021. For previously scheduled and essential meetings, the staff will wear masks anytime they are near people, either inside or outside a facility. All synod business will continue to be conducted online.
Bishop Gronberg, Pastor Totzke, and Pastora Bañales – Jan. 25-26: 2021 Tri-Theological Conference (open to all; pre-registration required)
Upcoming Events
With the ever-changing guidelines and recommendations in our world right now, as we maintain physical distance in social solidarity, please keep in mind these events may be moved online, postponed, or cancelled:
- Jan. 20: Weekly Online Gathering for ELCA Leaders – Holding Space Together, Zoom
- Jan. 20-23: 2021 ELCA World Hunger Leadership Gathering, Online
- Jan. 21: Weekly NT-NL Leadership Prayer, Check-in, Zoom
- Jan. 23: Living Connected Workshop on Creation’s Gift of Waste, Online
- Jan. 25-26: 2021 Tri-Theological Conference, Online
- Jan. 26: Living Connected Workshop on Creation’s Gift of Waste, Online
- Jan. 27: Weekly Online Gathering for ELCA Leaders – Showing of Welcome Strangers documentary, Q&A with Sarah Jackson (Casa de Paz) and others, Zoom
- Jan. 28: Weekly NT-NL Leadership Prayer, Check-in, Zoom
- Feb. 3: Weekly Online Gathering for ELCA Leaders – The Sacred Work of Grief, Part 6: The Places That Have Not Known Love with Rev. Solveig Goodin-Nilsen, Zoom
- Feb. 4: Weekly NT-NL Leadership Prayer, Check-in, Zoom
- Feb. 4-6: ELCA Extravaganza 2021, Online
- Feb. 5-6: Synod Council and Deans Meetings, Online
- Feb. 10: Weekly Online Gathering for ELCA Leaders – Counterstory: The Writing and Rhetoric of Critical Race Theory with Aja Martinez (UNT), Zoom
- Feb. 11: Weekly NT-NL Leadership Prayer, Check-in, Zoom
- Feb. 13: Public Witness Team meeting, Online
- Feb. 17: Weekly Online Gathering for ELCA Leaders – Growing Young: Warm Relationships with Rachel Alley and others, Zoom
- Feb. 18: Weekly NT-NL Leadership Prayer, Check-in, Zoom
Access our full online Calendar here. Updates made regularly.
Do you have news or announcements to share? Please submit to Jason (jason@ntnl.org) for consideration for upcoming NT-NL News.