Three or four years ago, Rev. Brandon Froiland of Christ Lutheran Church in Platte City received a request to share their church building with a group of recent immigrants from Ethiopia. These individuals, members of the Oromo tribe, came to the United States as refugees, fleeing persecution. They were specifically...
At first, church planting can feel daunting for pastors, elders and lay leaders. Some people imagine expensive buildings, mission developers and intense volunteerism and it can feel overwhelming. So it might surprise you that nearly all of the 13 of the congregations who participated in our recent Churches Planting Churches...
As an LCMS Recognized Service Organization (RSO), Lutheran Urban Mission Agency (LUMA) works alongside pastors, lay leaders and congregations in urban and multicultural outreach. Partnering with both the Missouri and Kansas Districts means they can work across the entire Kansas City Metro area and beyond. As part of our mission...
In May of 2018 Bethlehem Lutheran Church held an upbeat street ministry event, Taking Jesus to the Streets, in Ferguson. They met more than 100 people a block from the Canfield Apartment complex, the epicenter of the unrest that made the St. Louis suburb infamous. The residents asked them a...
Just off of Southwest Boulevard, in the shadow of downtown Kansas City, Jesus El Buen Pastor (JEBP) Lutheran Church serves up the love Christ with weekly community dinners, bible study and prayer. Hundreds of people flock to the church each week for the comfort of a home-cooked meal, lovingly prepared...
If you’ve ever had a bold idea, it may have been followed immediately by doubts, or at least wondering if this could really work. Rev. Jesse Kueker experienced this firsthand when he realized he could envision a barbecue-based ministry in his congregation, Trinity Lutheran Church in Clinton, MO. Back at...
This year, Rev. Michael Tanney of St. Johns Lutheran Church in St. Louis led Pentecost worship services in the midst of two baptisms and twenty-seven confirmations. Every individual confirmed and baptized came from a close-knit Nepalese Christian community that was worshipping nearby. Many people in this group were already Christian,...
Who am I? How do I define myself? How does being created by a loving God impact my identity? The kids at Hodiamont Identity Camp will be tackling these questions, under the guidance of Cyril Loum, a vicar at St. Timothy Lutheran Church in St. Louis. At the end of...
Campus Ministry can be a lonely mission field, even though the job often means working with young adults during one of the most exciting times of their lives. This work also comes with some unique challenges and a much smaller population of church workers than other types of ministry.For starters,...
When Rev. John Perling first traveled to Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church in St. Robert, MO, he was working on his Ph.D. at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. He was not seeking a Call at the congregation. However, as he continued to preach there as part of the seminary’s Pulpit Supply,...