NT-NL News: March 2019, First Monday

Briarwood FAQs

Dear Partners in Mission,

In February, our synod council, as well as the boards of the Mission Endowment Fund and Briarwood, held their regular meetings. At these meetings, we discussed many things, including the new vision and direction for Briarwood and the hiring of the director for the Briarwood Leadership Center.

From these conversations, I took away a great sense of hope in the commitment to Briarwood being shown by NT-NL in this new partnership. There was affirmation of the hard decisions made over the last year by key leaders at Briarwood and NT-NL. Additionally, there was still some confusion about the leadership model for Briarwood and how it was to be executed.

As a result, I felt it wise to communicate with you directly in the form of a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that came out of these conversations with elected leadership.

Continue reading this letter from Bishop Erik K. J. Gronberg.

LWR Partners with IMA World Health

Lutheran World Relief has some exciting news about big changes! If you haven’t already heard, LWR is excited to announce they are joining forces with IMA World Health (Interchurch Medical Assistance)! This partnership is a change that will help Lutherans better serve our brothers and sisters across the world in an even deeper way and increase our global reach to more people living in poverty.

In order to truly break the cycle of poverty and recover from disasters, communities not only need to develop livelihoods that support the needs of their families, but they also need a system of support to maintain health and wellness.

Lutheran World Relief and IMA World Health have worked together for more than half a century. In 1960, Lutheran World Relief, in partnership with other faith-based relief agencies, founded IMA World Health to provide medical supplies to the world’s poorest populations. Over the years, IMA has provided $75 million in medical-related materials to Lutheran programs.

We are excited by the impact Lutherans can achieve with Lutheran World Relief and IMA World Health as a unified organization and want to thank all of you for your prayers, good will, and support. For more information, please visit www.lwr.org/imaworldhealth.

Lenten Mass Resource

Gloria Dei, Garland, is happy to offer a new mass setting for use in congregations just in time for the Lent season. The new mass setting is composed by their keyboardist, Josh Bradford, who also serves as a vocalist and composer/arranger for the congregation. This is his first mass setting and first piece of music written for specific use in church services.

The “Lenten” Mass was introduced segment by segment to the congregation and completed in March of 2017 and was successfully implemented as the mass music for the Lent season at Gloria Dei in 2018. Most sections are in call-and-response form to make congregation participation the primary focus.

After two years of enjoying the mass within its walls, Gloria Dei feels the time has come to share this musical work with other churches who may enjoy it as well. The congregation believes that sharing this “Lenten” Mass is a wonderful way in which it can practice a form of stewardship through the use of sharing new music that has been effective in their services.

More information about the history of the “Lenten” Mass, videos of the full mass setting during an actual service, and information of how your congregation can obtain copies for your own church services are all available through the church website at https://gloriadeigarland.org/about-us/music-ministry/lenten-mass-music/.