Wondering what happened today at the Delaware-Maryland Synod Assembly?
Social Media team member Emma Wagner has your daily digest here.
Social Media team member Emma Wagner has your daily digest here.
Christ is Risen! He is risen, indeed!
Synod Assembly 2017 is finally here! As I made my three-hour journey here this week, I reflected on the many, many times I've made the drive. Starting from the time I was born in 1990, my family would make the drive from Baltimore to the beach for a week every summer. Eventually, I began to think of Ocean City as a place of faith formation when the town hosted RoadTrip, our synod's high school youth event, and then our Synod Assembly. I began to think of this town as not just a beach town, but as a holy place where deep relationships are formed and members of the Delaware-Maryland Synod gather at least twice every year to continue our work together.
We began the assembly in worship. We were greeted with a powerful vignette sermon by Pastor Judy Cobb, interim Assistant to the Bishop, and were treated to wonderful music led by Jeremy Grenhart.
Some highlights from today's business sessions:
See you tomorrow!
Synod Assembly 2017 is finally here! As I made my three-hour journey here this week, I reflected on the many, many times I've made the drive. Starting from the time I was born in 1990, my family would make the drive from Baltimore to the beach for a week every summer. Eventually, I began to think of Ocean City as a place of faith formation when the town hosted RoadTrip, our synod's high school youth event, and then our Synod Assembly. I began to think of this town as not just a beach town, but as a holy place where deep relationships are formed and members of the Delaware-Maryland Synod gather at least twice every year to continue our work together.
We began the assembly in worship. We were greeted with a powerful vignette sermon by Pastor Judy Cobb, interim Assistant to the Bishop, and were treated to wonderful music led by Jeremy Grenhart.
Some highlights from today's business sessions:
- Karen Pugatch and Tim Brooks shared their [Forward in] Faith stories. In her story, Karen reflected that it's "not that bad things won't happen to us, but we are promised God's love and are children of God ... what could be better than that?" These stories were shared through videos created by Pastor Jason Chesnut of ANKOS Films. We’ve been treated to many ANKOS Films productions throughout the day, and there are plenty more to come.
- "Let the law of God be our mirror, curb, and guide" -Pastor Amsalu Geleta of Christ, Inner Harbor, who will be installed as the Executive Assistant to the Bishop and Director of Evangelical Mission tomorrow, bringing us an opening devotion based on the Small Catechism.
- Synod Vice President John Auger reminded us that we can’t continue to do church the way we’ve been doing it. How do we adapt to what the Holy Spirit is doing through us? Our theme for the assembly is “Reformation 500: Looking Back/Moving Forward."
- Pastor Sara Yotter shared that her congregation, Joy Reigns Lutheran Church, gave a generous gift of $10,000 to the Forward in Faith campaign.
- Ron Fairchild, Chair of the Synod Restructuring Task Force, led us through the synod restructuring plan to better use the gifts of our leaders to further the mission of the gospel. Five recommendations came out of that task force which you can find in the bulletin of reports on the synod website.
- The Rev. Dr. Robin Steinke, President of Luther Seminary, delivered a powerful keynote address. We are liberated by God’s grace through faith and it is not our own doing (Ephesians 2:8). What does God's liberating grace give you the freedom to repent from, to rethink, to reimagine, or to renew? You can use resources from the Lutheran World Federation to guide your own study.
- Our synod’s Racial Justice Ministry Team is 10 years old. We are still facing the same racism today than we did 10 years ago. Engage in our synod's team and invite them to your congregation to learn about their work and be in conversation about how to respond to and eradicate racism in our synod. We CAN become more ethnically and racially diverse as a church.
- There are some awesome creative hunger ministries in our synod. St. Abrahams in Beckleysville raised chickens and sold their eggs to raise money for ELCA World Hunger. Half of the offering received at this Assembly will go to support local hunger initiatives!
See you tomorrow!