Author: First Lutheran Church

Today’s worship service was our first live Zoom worship. Click HERE to watch the video recording. I hope you’ll join us again next week for worship.

A Lenten and Easter Reflection from the Holy Land By Meghan and Gabi Aelabouni, area desk director for the Middle East and North Africa One spring afternoon, in the open courtyard inside the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem’s Old City, we met with the Rev. Carrie Ballenger, fellow ELCA missionary, and the Rev. … [Read more…]

Pastor’s Corner: Wedding Edition One of the things I’ve missed in our services this year is the presence of kids and all they bring to our worship experience and lives together as church.  We are very grateful to the Sunday School and its leaders who have been sharing what that group has been up to … [Read more…]

Respectful Communication Guidelines At one of the Together in Mission sessions that was offered by the synod last Saturday, we learned about how to handle conflict in congregations.  One of the ways that we learned to best address conflict was to address the way we communicate in our communities, so that negative feelings and assumptions … [Read more…]

Wednesday Lenten Bible Studies: Light for Lent At the first Greater Milwaukee Synod “Together in Mission” Gathering, we were reminded that the word “synod” means walking together. A synod pastor shared a story about innovation, about how her church had created a worship podcast for people while they walked their dogs. These people began to … [Read more…]

Mission Exploration I get excited when I talk about the Mission Planning Team, because it comes from the initial proposal that I presented to the Council and Call Committee last year at this time. In that proposal, I charted out how I was sensing God calling me to First Lutheran and the ways I felt … [Read more…]

Although we will miss being in person this year, we are still excited to invite you to Lutheran Campus Ministry’s Annual Chili Cook Off this coming Saturday, January 30th!  Register for free at the link below and receive an email with recipes to our past award winning chilis and links for two virtual opportunities to … [Read more…]

Pastor’s Corner As we start a new year and prepare for our first Virtual Annual Meeting in February, I’m grateful and proud as I think of everyone in this congregation.  Seriously.  We have been on a journey together that none of us could have predicted.  I can’t believe that I started this call right before … [Read more…]

The road to redemption ELCA pastor’s journey began in prison By Jay Saunders January 6, 2021 In the span of less than a decade, Erich Kussman went from prison to Princeton Theological Seminary to serving as pastor of St. Bartholomew Church in Trenton, N.J. From prison to Princeton to the pulpit. That is the road … [Read more…]