by Sandy Wood Becoming a pastor of a church in Hawaii was not what Rev. Joshua Schneider had in mind when he decided to pursue a degree in biology and chemistry in college. But God had a plan. “By the last half of my senior year in college, through a variety of influences including my

by Sandy Wood Dr. Lang Yang’s story highlights how a flexible, non-traditional route to ordination is expanding the ethnic diversity within the LCMS and supporting the leaders of immigrant churches in using their knowledge of language and culture to spread the Gospel. Yang, 42, is of Hmong origin. He was born in Laos and immigrated

by Dr. Albert B. Collver In John 17:11, Jesus prayed to His Father that the Church “may be one, even as we are one” (ESV). Yet, already in the early Church, St. Paul writes, “For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you” (1 Cor. 1:11). From the earliest

by Cindy Steinbeck Newkirk Barbara Amelia Matthes wrote an incredible memoir of her life journey before she died. My mind’s eye travels with her as her family journeyed from Germany to Illinois to California in the 1800s. The joys and hardships she recounts in this short memoir condense 95 years of vibrant life to a