Over the past ten years working as a studio potter, I have travelled across the Upper Midwest with my small business, teaching, hosting pottery events, and sharing my testimony through my wheel demonstrations. During this time, the Lord began revealing to me some deep truths about his sovereignty, my relationship with him, and the transformative work he wanted to do in my life.

Dr. Joel Christenson (Lutheran Brethren Seminary) and I had the privilege to experience this when we participated in the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, held in Seoul, South Korea, September 22-28, 2024.

What has helped us navigate biblical truths is taking part in an intergenerational Bible Study: an intentional practice that builds relationships and fosters learning between people of different age groups.

January/February 2025 issue of Faith & Fellowship

But Christmas is also a time for reflection on what Jesus actually did, in giving up his heavenly throne and becoming human: Jesus was God “with skin on!” As his kinfolk, can we follow his example in this season? Where do we see incarnational ministry―God’s love with skin on?

In early October, a new chapter began for the Gethsemané de Meube school in Chad. The school held its first week of classes for the brand-new junior high class.

On the weekend of September 6-8, Lutheran Brethren International Mission (LBIM) hosted a retreat for former missionary kids at Inspiration Point Christian Camp & Retreat Center in Vining, Minnesota. This time away was meant for those who had spent a portion of their childhood as children of missionaries serving with the Church of the Lutheran Brethren.

Get to know the five new students of Lutheran Brethren Seminary, starting the Fall 2024 semester.

The Rooted Gap Year program is off and running and I couldn’t be more thankful for the way things have started. We have eight incredible young adults from all over the country who have come to be discipled, to live in community, and to serve the Lord.

Called by God to lead this infant nation, Moses had been extracted by God from a sheep tending career and pressed into leading this strange adventure. People who knew nothing but slavery journeyed into the wonders of freedom in a land that would be their very own.

John 1:14 describes “The Word” (Jesus) as dwelling among us “full of grace and truth.” As a pastor, I hope that I regularly dwell with others as Jesus did, in the fullness of his grace and truth, but I don’t.

I’m more inclined to lose myself in the urgent, but relatively comprehensible, demands of a Christmas shopping list than to lose myself in meditation on the incomprehensible truth that “the Word” ––the One who is God––would become a man to bring the grace and truth of God to humanity.

November/December 2024 issue of Faith & Fellowship

In many instances my clients were not just the children who had come to my office for help, but also the parents who came with them, most often mothers. Mothers who were exhausted, anxious, depressed, lost, and breaking under pressure―struggling to know how to help themselves and their children.

The Glimpse Project is a resource that gives you the ability to peek into the life and ministry of our Lutheran Brethren missionaries. New Glimpse Projects of Taiwan and Japan were released this year, along with companion study guides for each series.

For five days we watched our young people take in God’s Word, praise his name together in worship, and join each other in prayer. They experienced fellowship through afternoon activities, games with emcees, climbing mountains, and more! Hundreds of students are growing in Christ!

One of my biggest priorities is supporting students as they go through challenges in their lives. I am not a mental health expert, but I am here to tell my story and share advice coming out of my successes, as well as my failures.

It was a Saturday. I was trying to finish a sermon but couldn’t quite get it done. Feelings of sadness didn’t help. Maybe going for a walk would. It didn’t. Despite the beautiful fall afternoon, the sad feelings only increased. They reached a point of almost overwhelming me with their power. I knew I had to do something.

Mental health problems are difficult to talk about because we simply don’t do it much. As a result, we don’t always know what to think or what to say. Yet mental health problems are extremely common. In any given year, about one in five persons, regardless of age, will experience a mental illness.

September/October 2024 issue of Faith & Fellowship