If you have developed a Bible study or other Christian educational resources, we need you! We are working towards an “open source” concept of Christian Education materials to provide to churches free of charge.
What is open sourcing?
“Open Source: denoting software (in this case Christian educational materials) for which the original source code (in this case Christian materials and content) is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified.”
What you need to know:
If you have developed Christian Educational Materials and would like to open source them here, please do so by submitting all components in a ZIPPED (compressed) file via the form on this page. Your submission will then be reviewed, and if accepted, we will happily publish it here to open source for all to freely use.
How to Zip Files
**Alternate Method
Zipping a file on an Apple Computer can vary greatly. The best advice we can give would be to search Google for “how to zip/compress a file” for your specific system.
Augustana District
335 Main St S
Hutchinson MN 55350
Note: The newsletter is sent on the first Friday of every month and the newsletter deadline is the Monday prior to that Friday.
Luther House of Study is offering a brand new comprehensive confirmation curriculum, just released in July 2024. Year One of the confirmation curriculum, 25 lessons on the Catechism, is available online, completely free of charge. Each lesson is presented as a digital module that includes custom-made videos, quizzes, drag/drop tasks, discussion questions, Scripture passages, and prayers. Supplemental teacher guides are also included with each lesson! Year Two of the curriculum, 25 lessons on the Bible, will be released in the summer of 2025.
The Word of God is moving and active, even today as we are gathering in our own separate homes. This step by step guide is meant to draw the entire family together around God’s Word. Use as much or as little of these resources as you’d like. Make this time your own, but be intentional about it. Whether it is morning, afternoon or night, set aside this time to make sure everyone is in the same place at the same time. You might consider watching the recording of worship Pastor Aaron has emailed out. The Bible story you are getting ready to talk about as a family is the same Bible story Pastor Aaron is preaching on.
The Rev. Dr. Fred Baltz (president of ILT and pastor of St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Galena, Illinois) has presented a new congregationally-based program called “Lutheran Evangelism Initiative.” Dr. Baltz graciously consulted with the Board of Domestic Mission in preparation of this program and sought its input. “LEI” is a re-working of an old ELC / ALC highly effective evangelism program that was called “Preaching, Teaching, and Reaching” (PTR). It was widely used among all sorts of Lutherans in the 1950’s and 60’s. LEI is a more stream-line program than its predecessor.
Augustana District’s Board of Domestic Mission commends this program to you for use in your congregation. Please note it invites neighboring churches to participate and provides all sorts of flexibility to fit local situations. The Board of Domestic Mission is available to you and your church for introducing, planning, supporting, and staffing this program. If you are interested in this kind of assistance, please contact one of the members of the board.
By Nick Hopman, Board of Theology and Ministry
The Augustana District takes its name from the Latin name of the Augsburg Confession (hereafter A. C.). It has this to say about the freedom and limits of the human will, or as people often say, “free will.
” Augsburg Confession, Article 18 “Free Will” …
The Congregational Visioning Process is a tool congregation’s may use to process congregational discernment. Where is God leading your congregation? How do we discern? This process uses prayer, scripture, and mutual conversation as the components that work toward a collective consensus of where God is leading. Feel free to adapt it to fit your own needs.
By Nick Hopman, Board of Theology and Ministry
That we may obtain this faith (the justifying faith in Christ described in Article 4), the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in those who hear the Gospel, namely, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christ’s sake, justifies those who believe and that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake. They [our Evangelical-Lutheran churches of the Augsburg Confession] condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that the Holy Spirit comes to men without the external Word, through their own preparations and works.
FORDE’S RADICAL LUTHERANISM AND
THE 500TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE REFORMATION —
A THREE-PRONGED APPROACH TO A
21ST CENTURY LUTHERAN REFORMATION/RE-FORMATION
The Lutheran Church in North America is becoming irrelevant. It is dis-integrating, splintering, shrinking, drifting from its radical origins, its roots. As a result, the Lutheran enterprise has lost the respect of many Christians and non-Christians alike. It is seen as passé, as a kind of “gated community”, self-absorbed, without much to offer. That is the way many of its own members think of it, and so they also leave. They leave not only their church and join another (that happens), but some simply leave “the faith” (as they perceive it to be) altogether….