WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 – 11 AM EDT
In addition to alerting people to ways in which the ELCA is going further and further off the rails, we of Lutheran CORE see as part of our work providing encouragement and resources for congregations and their leaders and lay members.
Lutheran CORE is about to embark on providing a new series of resources – webinars on church leadership and ministry led by practitioners who know what they are talking about because they will be sharing insights and approaches that they have learned from their own ministry experience and have put into practice in their own ministry settings. Many thanks to three members of the board – NALC pastors Brian Hughes, David Charlton, and Doug Schoelles – for articulating and developing the vision for this new ministry and doing the work to bring it to life.
The first webinar, entitled “Planning as a Paradigm Shift,” will be offered on Wednesday, September 25 from 11 AM to 12 noon Eastern Daylight Time. Lutheran CORE vice president Brian Hughes says concerning the webinar, “Planning is deciding about a preferred future, especially when it comes to creating faithful disciples.” He also said, “Planning for ministry means setting priorities which might, even in the best and healthiest of situations, require pruning something in order to add a new emphasis.” He also shared that as we deal with the diminishment of our ministry amid the accelerating de-churching of America, church leaders need to figure out what path to take and how to convince others to join.
When asked why this webinar series starts with planning, Brian answered, “Planning assumes we’ve looked at our current reality and want to be somewhere else. What is not working and what do we want to be about that’s different?” When asked whether this webinar is a one-time event, he replied, “This is a taster offered by Lutheran CORE that will likely become a monthly offering with more content and other presenters already in the wings depending on the response and needs we hear.”
Brian Hughes is a retired pastor now rostered with the NALC and living in South Carolina. After serving ELCA congregations in places like Capitol Hill (Washington DC), Pittsburgh PA, and the Bay Area of California, he finished up with almost twenty years in Columbia MD. For several years he served as assistant to the bishop in the ELCA’s Sierra Pacific Synod (northern California and western Nevada) with seminary candidacy and first call leadership development as part of his portfolio. He continues to be part of a movement of reintroducing faith formation into homes, multi-generationally. After retiring from his ELCA congregation in Maryland in 2019 (where they had nine services a weekend in five languages) he launched an NALC street ministry in Baltimore that evolved into leading a Sunday morning worship service in a strip club. His former congregation in Maryland is now LCMC. He currently serves as vice president of the board of Lutheran CORE. Mission and discipleship have been his passions throughout his entire ministry.
Here is a link to register for this webinar. There is no charge for attending.
