eNewsletter - July 8, 2024
The Latest News & Events from the Western North Dakota Synod of ELCA
Livestream LSM Through July
Lutheran Summer Music invites you to livestream over 30 inspiring concerts, recitals, and worship services throughout the entire month of July. Performances and services are shared by over 250 students, faculty, fellows, worship staff, and guest artists who come together to create a vibrant community of music-makers. Visit LSMacademy.org/2024 to explore the schedule and access the livestream and video archive. You won't want to miss this!
Employment Opportunities
If you or someone you know is being called to work as a congregational leader, CLICK HERE to check our website for job openings at some of our WND Synod Congregations.
SAVE THE DATE: Monday, August 26 @ 6PM
Come have free supper at Olive Garden and meet other incoming freshmen from our area ELCA congregations! Please let Rachel know if you plan to come so she knows what sized table to get (email Paster Rachel at Rachel.Simonson@MinotStateU.edu). This will be an easy way to meet people as school begins!
And remember, you have a chance to WIN FREE TEXTBOOKS for Spring 2025 semester! There are two opportunities to register. One, by following LCM on Instagram (@LCM.MSU) and another is by signing up to LCM's e-Newsletter.
PORTICO BENEFIT SERVICES
Benefits reExamined Survey Reminder
Through an initiative called Benefits reExamined, Portico seeks input as we discern and design potential benefit changes to continue to meet the evolving needs of this church.
Portico plan members and registered EmployerLink users,
if you received an email invitation to take the survey, we strongly encourage you to take a few minutes before the survey closes July 12 and add your voice to the conversation.
Staying On Track with Retirement Planning
The idea of retirement can bring up many questions and emotions. Portico offers a series of 30-minute, prerecorded, online workshops called the Retirement Readiness Series to help ELCA Retirement Plan members feel confident about discerning their next steps.
Workshops are easily accessible on myPortico. There’s no need to preregister — just sign in and watch. What to go deeper?
Schedule a conversation with a Portico Financial Planner to understand more about where you are now and how to ensure you’ll reach your retirement goals.
Time for a Mid-Year Checkup?
One of the best ways to stay healthy is to get regular checkups, vaccinations, and screenings. Preventive care is not only essential for maintaining overall health, it’s also one of the best ways to catch unknown health issues early. An annual preventive exam is part of your ELCA-Primary health coverage and this video can help you maximize the time with your doctor so you can live, work, and serve well.
JUSTmove: Becoming God's Breach Repairers in a Polarized World
How do we invite people into God’s Breach Repairing work of justice in a way that does not alienate them? While many diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts can utilize “guilt, blame, and shame”, there is a way to graciously invite people into a new vision of humanity that makes space for all people.
In these engaging educational modules, JUSTmove (David Scherer and Joe Davis) will give us tools and resources to start courageous conversations that bring us closer to Gospel inclusion (Every other Thursday through August 22nd @ 12pm Noon CST).
CLICK HERE to join the next discussion module.
“Christ’s Dance of Power” (Jul 11) “Power” has often been a dirty word in the church, but it is important that we understand how it functions in scripture, in our world, and in our own lives. This session will help us understand how power dynamics shape our interactions and how we can follow Christ’s model of power sharing rather than power hoarding.
“Confession and Repentance” (Jul 25) While we confess our own complicity in human suffering every week in church (“by what we have done and by what we have undone”), we often allow shame to paralyze us in anti-racism efforts. How do we move our understanding of racism beyond and individualistic “bad people trying to hurt others on purpose” toward a more communal understanding of racism that we can recognize and repair? This session will help us do this important work.
“Wounded Healers” (Aug 8) How do we metabolize the racialized trauma that each of us carry in our bodies? If we know so much about the system of oppression that harms people in our minds, why have our bodies not gotten the memo? This session will give practical tools and a methodology that can help us re member the body of Christ that we are a part of to create the change that we wish to see.
“Go and Do …” (Aug 22) As Martin Luther points out, our faith is active and living. How do we remain faithful to the next step toward God’s preferred and promised future? This last session together will help us deter mine our next faithful steps and create a plan for operationalizing the compassionate justice about which we are learning.
Footsteps of Paul Tour
The Eastern North Dakota Synod ELCA's Bishop Tessa Moon Leiseth and our own Bishop Craig Schweitzer are leading a tour of Greece and Turkey in October 2024. We invite you to join us on this journey in the footsteps of Paul.
On this life-changing adventure, we will explore the land of Greece and Turkey as the history of the New Testament comes alive. We will retrace the voyages of Paul and learn about the early church and the spread of the Gospel. Our journey will begin in Athens and Corinth, then into Ephesus, as we make our way to Patmos.
