
Rural Ministries: Vibrant Opportunities
Despite declining populations, rural communities offer vibrant opportunities to joyfully share the comfort of the Gospel.

Despite declining populations, rural communities offer vibrant opportunities to joyfully share the comfort of the Gospel.

Three rural LCMS congregations in Kansas and Nebraska share their stories.

Scripture makes it clear that when the communion of saints gathers, Jesus comes in all His fullness among us (Matt. 18:20). He is really present.

Like Daniel in the lion’s den, Philip Melanchthon faced the papal legate Lorenzo Campeggio at Augsburg in 1530.

Forgiveness is a treasure God gives to His people to share with one another.

I truly enjoyed “Christmas Magic,” Rev. Raymond L. Hartwig’s article in the December Lutheran Witness. It brought back memories of my wonderful grade-school days in the 1950s at St. Paul’s Lutheran School. We had a devout Christian man named Edison F. Onken who taught all four of the lower grades. I remember those beautiful days

I’d like to respond to a recent Christmastime poll question on your Lutheran Witness Web site [www.lcms.org/witness]. The poll asked the following: “How do you reply when greeted by the words ‘Happy Holidays’? [Do you reply] ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Holidays’?” Because there was no option for “Other,” I submit that Neither/Other would be a

In your December Family Counselor, Theresa Shaltanis answered a question about grieving. I did not write the following, but I copied it after losing my husband and struggling with the feeling of overwhelming loneliness. I don’t know who the author is. However, it made me feel better knowing I wasn’t strange just because I couldn’t

I have been reading The Lutheran Witness since I was young (30+ years) and have often found it to be written in language better suited for seminary professors and pastors. The ordinary layperson in our churches may have to struggle through articles written in a pedantic style and language. Where are the articles that pertain

to have little to do with each other, but they do, in
fact, have something in common. Both deal with
matters of the heart.

April. It’s hard to believe that we are well into A.D.
2010—in the year of our Lord 2010, that is—and
that Easter, glorious Easter, is upon us.

Say What? Leaving church one Sunday morning not long ago, my niece and her husband asked Kiera, their 3-year-old daughter, what she had learned in Sunday School. “Jesus was boring,” she responded proudly. Relieved she wasn’t overheard by someone, they proceeded straight to their van. Once again, Mom and Dad asked the question: “What did