Renewal For Life Update

From LifeDate – Summer 2008.

Renewal For Life:

Responsibility, Relevance, and Resources

by Rev. Dr. James I. Lamb

Renewal For Life is LFL’s initiative to inspire and equip Lutheran pastors and congregations to address the life issues with the Gospel as part of their ongoing ministry. It’s renewal of the 3 R’s:

Responsibility

Since the life issues are spiritual issues, the responsibility to address them lies with the church.

Relevancy

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most relevant message in the world to address the life issues.

Resources

Lutherans For Life will renew our efforts to provide resources to help accomplish the above.

Currently a pilot project is being conducted in two regions in Iowa. We met with pastors in January and February and asked them to have Life Advocates appointed within their congregations. In April we conducted our first training workshops for Pastors and Life Advocates. We had great speakers and topics:

Life Issues in the Pew—An Overview of Pertinent Life Issues with Rev. Dr. Kevin Voss, Director of the Concordia Bioethics Institute, Concordia University, Mequon, Wisconsin.

Life Issues and the Two Kingdoms with Mr. Carl Schroeder, Private Practice Attorney, Chicago, Illinois.

Healing Broken Hearts—The Gospel and Post-Abortion Syndrome with Diane Schroeder, President of Lutherans For Life, and myself.

Connecting the Word of Life to the Life Issues in Preaching and Teaching. I was privileged to share this topic.

Life Issues and the Church Year with Rev. Dr. Arthur Just, Professor of Exegetical Theology, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Connecting the Word of Life to the Life Issues in Preaching and Teaching and Renewal For Life Library Demonstration/Practical Ideas/What’s Next? I was privileged to lead these two workshops.

The first very well-received April workshop was taped by a highly-regarded production company so these presentations can be used in subsequent workshops.

One problem was encountered with the workshop: it was not well attended! So we are evaluating the process to see how we can improve. That’s what a pilot is for!

Keep this initiative in your prayers and we will keep you updated.