“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a...

Anyone who has spent much time serving Christ’s Church knows that ministry can be exhausting. Pastors preach, teach, visit, counsel, bury, baptize, administer the Sacrament, and carry burdens few people ever see. Teachers prepare lessons, shepherd children, answer difficult questions, deal with frustrations, and wonder whether anything they said actually...

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord of the church! One of the key tenets of Lutheran theology is that individual Christians are citizens of two kingdoms, the “right-hand kingdom” of the church and the “left-hand kingdom” of the state. God works...

When we speak about ministry in the Church, it is easy to begin with ourselves—our abilities, our responsibilities, our programs, our plans, and sometimes even our frustrations. But Paul begins somewhere entirely different. He begins with Christ: “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,”...