Book-pdf Be at Leisure-A Lutheran approach to outreach

 "Be at Leisure: A Lutheran Approach to Outreach" addresses how outreach happens naturally within the congregation. 

The advice in this book is not so much about changing practices as it is about focusing the faith of the heart on Christ, and teaching minds to think according to how the Scriptures speak. 

Chapters

1. Motives - Approach (Diagram) 
2. Faithfulness 
3. Beauty 
4. Hospitality 
5. Procreation 
6. Catechesis 
7. Straying 
8. Invitation 
9. Good Works 
10. Epilogue: Waiting

You can download a free copy of the book at https://steadfastlutherans.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Be-at-Leisure-by-Andrew-Richard.pdf

Worship and Study Resources: Leaving no one behind

In 2026, the Bible Society of New Zealand, in celebrating their 180th anniversary, are focusing on 5 powerful parables from the Gospel of Luke....with the theme Leaving no one behind

The resources they are providing are for all ages — designed to help individuals, churches, and ministries engage deeply with God’s Word.

Each week you will focus on one of the parables:

• The lost coin
• The lost sheep
• The prodigal son
• The Good Samaritan 
• The Sower

The resources available include:

• Adult devotional bible studies
• Teen devotional bible studies
• 7 day challenge plan
• Children's lesson
• 31 day reading plan

For more information visit

https://biblesociety.org.nz/bible-month-2026/#bm

Resources: Faith and Lead

Faith and Lead:   Faith Leadership for Everyone

Faith and lead provides on-demand courses, live ministry workshops, learning communities, and peer support for congregations, pastors, lay workers, leaders  and members.

Resources available include

• live learning 
• on demand learning 
• Ebooks
• Podcasts
• Blogs

You can choose to have becoming a member giving you access to courses and resources for no further charge or you can pay a one off fee for a resource/course. 

They also offer a limited number of free courses and resources

Main Topics covered include:

• Bible
• Cultivate community
• Faith and contemporary issues
• Faith in daily life
• Faithful innovation
• Justice and service
• Ministry leadership
• Mission and Evangelism
• Rural Ministry
• Spiritual Practices
• Stewardship and Sustainability
• Theology and History 

Begin exploring faith and lead https://faithlead.org/

A missionary idea: The whiteboard/butchers paper

In a place where your congregation gathers for fellowship place a whiteboard or butchers paper in a prominent place with some markers, and the following question:

How can we as a church, share God with our wider community through:
our relationships

technology

buildings

people?

And encourage people to put down their thoughts

Article: Lutheran Ecclesiology - Jonathan Mumme

Jonathan Mumme's article in the St Andrew's Encyclopedia of Theology is Lutheran Ecclesiology.  

The article covers

Introduction

Late medieval ecclesiological thought

The ecclesiology of the reformers and the confessions

            General characteristics

            Symbolical expression (the Lutheran Confessions)

            Productive theological pairings

                    Invisible and visible

                    Faith and the means of grace

                    Church and marks of the church

                    Ministry (Amt) and congregation (Gemeinde)

                    Internality and externality as ecclesiological diagnostic

Historical unfolding

                   Orthodoxy and Enlightenment

                   The long nineteenth century

                   Recent and contemporary

                   Polities and particular ecclesial trajectories

                          Germany

                          Nordic countries

                          America

                          Amalgamations

                  Lutheran approaches to general ecclesiological concerns

                          Israel and eschatology

                          The church and the state

Current state of play

                 Federations, communions, and associations

                 Ecumenism and post-ecumenism

                 Directions toward the future

Lutheran Ecclesiology by Jonathan Mumme is available at St Andrews Encyclopedia of Theology