Center for Missional Leadership

Nobel Peace Prize awarded today

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:17:00 GMT

Praise God for the amazing hope, courage and activism of the three women who were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today. I hope that the awarding of the prize brings hope to their movement, and encouragement to women working for peace all over the world. The three women are Leymah Gbowee, Ellen Johnson read more...

Moving with the Spirit, Engaging race and diversity

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:07:00 GMT

This week at Luther Seminary we honor Jane Buckley Farlee with the annual Race, Church and Change award. Her work with Trinity Lutheran Congregation , the only Christian community in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis (which is predominately Somali Muslim), demonstrates the flow and vibrancy read more...

Discerning mission: The Holy Spirit's new challenge and opportunity

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 12:04:00 GMT

By Gary Simpson

In his August 5, 2011 letter to the rostered lay leaders and pastors of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson highlighted the calling "to discern together" what the ELCA's 2011 LIFT Report (Living Into the Future Together) confesses is our "missionary read more...

Listening, leadership, ethnography

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:15:00 GMT

Dori Baker reflects on the benefits of an " ethnography of hope " at the Alban blog . She quotes Thomas E. Frank, a seasoned observer of church life, noting that he "writes about turning to ethnographic practices of listening as a way to escape what he perceived to be market-driven perspectives prevalent read more...

The political novelty of God

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:51:00 GMT

I can't resist this quote from John Howard Yoder, which is cited in David Fitch's blog on mission and ecclesiology :

The political novelty that God brings into the world is a community of those who serve instead of ruling, who suffer instead of inflicting suffering, whose fellowship crosses social lines read more...

Andrew Walls on the risks of becoming a "caste" in a plural society

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:30:00 GMT

Here's a fascinating and brief glimpse of Andrew Walls:

Should numbers count?

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:20:00 GMT

One of the terms from the Luther Seminary "insider language" book that used to be bug me a lot was when people would start their description of their church by saying something like "we worship 200 on Sunday." I would immediately wonder: 200 what? Who are you worshiping?

Eventually I began to understand read more...

What blogs do you read?

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:34:02 GMT

We're working on compiling a list of blogs to keep an eye on, and we'd like to include the blogs you read regularly, particularly blogs by Luther CML grads. Check out Pr. Rob Moss' blog, for instance.

New book by Paul Chung

Wed, 04 May 2011 12:21:47 GMT

Dr. Paul Chung has just published a book on Lutheran theology in the public sphere: Liberating Lutheran Theology . Here's a brief description:

Lutheran theology of freedom at the center of grace of justification may become an arbiter for contextualizing God's grace and human discipleship in the public read more...

The death of Osama bin Laden

Wed, 04 May 2011 12:16:45 GMT

Two days ago we woke up to the three inch headlines of Osama bin Laden's death. Today all I can feel is grief. This is not a time for jubilation, no matter what the news media may be stirring up. Particularly for those of us who are called to love our enemies, to pray for peace, to do justice, this is read more...

How To Start a Church Without Money

Tue, 03 May 2011 21:36:08 GMT

Humble Walk mission developer, Rev. Jodi Houge, reflects on the benefits of being broke. read more...

Responses to Love Wins

Tue, 03 May 2011 21:07:43 GMT

Pastor and author Rob Bell has stirred the conversational pot in recent months with his newest book, Love Wins .

Responses to the book have varied widely, as this sampling of reviews reveals.

Bell's fellow emergent church leaders have also weighed in , as has Luther Seminary's own Dr. David Lose .

Some read more...

Missiology and multicultural ministries

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:57:41 GMT

The International Review of Mission has just made available, via free access to the Wiley site , the latest issue of the journal which is focused on church and migration. As the website notes:

The church and migration is the focus of the latest issue of the International Review of Mission (IRM). read more...

Good question: what's the difference between worshiping together and worshiping at the same time?

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:10:27 GMT

From time to time we plan to post a "good question" at this blog, and deliberately invite responses. (We're overjoyed, of course, whenever anyone responds to any post here.) This time I thought we could ask the same question Jodi-Renee Adams is asking in her very thoughtful blog essay on worship and read more...

T is for teaching the Bible

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:47:26 GMT

The Lutheran University Press has just published the lectures from last year's Hein-Fry series , and that series included one from Mary Hess entitled Learning the Bible in the 21st Century: Lessons from Harry Potter and Vampires . Here's an excerpt:

"To argue that the Bible read more...

Leadership lessons

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:16:26 GMT

Every so often I run across interesting reflections from people outside of the "church world," reflections that I think all of us who are seeking to serve in missional leadership could learn from. Here's a great post about inter-cultural learning , written by Susan Campion , who is a consultant and businesswoman read more...

The woman at the well

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:05:22 GMT

It's about time that people really read this text (John 4:5-42), rather than simply projecting onto it their fears about immorality. David Lose has a great reflection on it up at the Huffington Post . Here's an excerpt:

"Why? Because Jesus has "seen" her. He has seen her plight -- of dependence, not read more...

Missional church in perspective

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 23:34:51 GMT

Last month Dr. Dwight Zscheile gave an excellent brief overview of his new book, authored jointly with D r. Craig Van Gelder , The Missional Church in Perspective: Mapping Trends and Shaping the Conversation . The book will be out later this spring, and in the meantime Dr. Zscheile has agreed to post read more...

Young people asking big questions

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 19:34:25 GMT

Dr. Michael Jinkins, the president of Louisville Presbyterian Seminary , notes that : " Young adults are searching for meaning that is not just of their own making and for purpose that transcends. They are looking for answers to life’s most persistent questions, the Big Questions, and they are finding read more...

Spiritual praxis and mission

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:57:39 GMT

The 2010 Missional Church Consultation included a wonderful presentation by the Rev. Karen Ward that engaged issues of spiritual praxis and mission. Watch it here, and we invite you to add comments or questions to this blog post. read more...