Caring for our Kids and Youth in this Chapter

Posted on February 10, 2025 by megganmanlove

Originally published in the Northwest Intermountain Synod electronic newsletter, February 3, 2025.

With the number of executive orders coming out of the new administration, state legislatures back in session, and the Season of Lent coming up, you may be scratching your head wondering why I picked this topic for my February 2025 column. Please stick with me. In December I finished reading social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. In January I watched ELCA Lutherans from across the country descend on Louisville for the annual Youth Ministry Extravaganza. I have been thinking that with everything going on, we could easily lose sight of something so important: caring for the kids in our care.

I cannot think of a congregation in our synod that has no kids and teens in its sphere of care, whether in the form of preschools, childcare, Sunday School, or simply the myriads of church members who are parents, grandparents, neighbors, and friends helping raise children. What does love and passing on the faith look like in your context? How can the Lutheran Christian lens or ear inform this ministry?

Equip kids to talk with you, a caring adult. My hair stylist told me that she restricts what her ten-year old can watch on YouTube, but that the daughter was at a friend’s house, and they ended up watching something false and disturbing. The daughter confessed this to her mom and told her how the video made her feel. I told my stylist this was an affirmation of her parenting—her daughter could talk with her, name her feelings, and understood the boundaries her mom was setting. General wisdom is that, in order to thrive, every kid needs at least five adults in their lives who are pouring into them. We can all be part of this equation in the lives of the kids and youth we know.

Teach kids how to talk with God. In addition to being able to have conversations with their parents and other caring adults, it is essential that we teach kids how to pray. The promises made in Holy Baptism include the promise to teach children the Lord’s Prayer, a guide for all other prayers, and to nurture them in faith and prayer. Try to remember the first time you realized you could bring everything to God. It is at once comforting, freeing, and awesome. Make sure the kids in your life know they can talk with God and tell them about your own prayer life.

Give Bibles to the kids in your life and read scripture with them. As with prayer, there is something life giving about knowing the whole biblical narrative and then realizing that the same God active in that story is the God who loves you! Start with the Spark Story Bible. Move onto the Action Bible. Pull out that old Good News Bible with its simple English, and finally give them an NRSV edition. If the first language of the kids in your life is not English, track down a Bible in their first language. Plus, the Bible is full of some pretty interesting stories!

Take kids into the great outdoors. Fortunately, in our synod there is no shortage of places to experience God’s grandeur, from the North Cascades and the Tetons to state and city parks to tossing a ball in your backyard. As I write this, youth and adults are headed to Lutherhaven for a Confirmation Retreat. Encourage kids to play freely and explore the wonders of the natural world. 

Introduce kids to their neighbors. We believe all people are made in the image of God. There are many ways to introduce kids and teens to neighbors: block parties, community events, visual or musical arts, novels, movies, and travel. Just as learning our own family story and the story of God’s relationship with creation (through scripture), learning the stories of our neighbors, next door and across the globe, is part of the life of faith. It’s easier to follow the mandate to love our neighbor when we know them and have heard their stories.

Thank you for already caring for the kids and youth in your lives. 

Bishop Meggan Manlove

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Shepherd of the Valley, Feb. 2

Posted on February 2, 2025 by megganmanlove

It was so good to be with SoV in Boise, about 11 months after Pastor Dave’s heart attack and the Sunday following when I was there to preside and give some comfort. There was wonderful energy this morning and Dave has made a great recovery!

Luke 4:21-30

This morning, we find Jesus is in his hometown of Nazareth. His homecoming seems to be a mixed bag. He brings hometown loyalties into question. Jesus has just preached the first sermon of his ministry. It is based on a text from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…to bring good news to the poor…to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” The sermon is one of the shortest every recorded: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

At first glance, the reviews of the congregation at Nazareth were positive. We read “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” But what started out as the world’s shortest sermon turned into a dialogue.  The crowd began to question and wonder.  

And their objections have to do with hometown loyalties. Who is Jesus rooting for? His quote from Isaiah is full of good news. But the good news extends far beyond the hometown.  

One theologian [Justo Gonzales] proposed a rewriting of Jesus’ words this way, “One can imagine, in our day, a young man who becomes a famous athlete and signs a contract for millions of dollars. He then returns to his hometown, and all come to receive him and hear what he has to say. The town band goes out to greet him. The local papers praise him. The town gathers at the stadium for a welcome ceremony. Everybody is excited. 

Some say: “It is difficult to believe that this is Joe, who grew up next door.” When Joe finally comes to the speaker’s stand, all are eager to hear what he has to say. They know that he has talked of ht eneed for better schools and clinics, and that he has supported such institutions elsewhere. Now Joe stands up and says: “Do not think that because I grew up in Smallville you will receive any special favors from me. Actually, I have decided to support the school in Eastville, and the clinic in Northville.” There will be a chilled silence. Soon shock will turn to anger, and anger to hostility. “Who does he think he is? We don’t need him! Run him out of town!”

Jesus continues by quoting other Scripture passages that reveal God’s expansive grace. Does he select the stories of the fathers and mothers of the Jewish faith—Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. No. Jesus’ quotes scripture which reveals God’s grace toward the Gentiles. In 1 Kings, it was a Gentile woman to whom Elijah provided the never-failing oil and flour. And in 2 Kings, it was the Gentile Naaman whom Elisha healed of leprosy.

This was too much. Why couldn’t Jesus speak promises for the hometown? The anger of the crowd is so great that they seek to destroy Jesus—to do away with him by hurling him off a cliff.

Already in Jesus’ ministry we see rejection. Sometimes we think the rejection of Jesus comes only in the final weeks, on the way to the cross. But here it is at his first sermon. Throughout Jesus’ entire ministry, the good news is proclaimed, rejected, and proclaimed again—to a wider and wider circle—even to the ends of the earth. And if we look closely enough, we see ourselves in this text. In the center of this rejection story, we find ourselves, our culture, our society—people who like to know who is in and who is out, who is welcome and who is not.

We are part way through the Season after Epiphany, a season in which we celebrate the manifestation of God. We celebrate how Jesus is made known, revealed to us as God’s Messiah. But something else is revealed in this season. In this text, we, too, are made known. And we, like the congregation in Nazareth, are revealed to be a people who like to draw lines in the sand—people with a persistent “we-they” mind-set.  

Even outside the world of hometown rivalries, we like to divide our world into home teams and out of town rivals, into us and them, friends and enemies. We can easily turn all of life into a competition—who is better than whom. We see this profoundly as the excluded become empowered and then turn around to exclude others. I say this as a white woman who knows the early feminist movement left out women of color. 

It is all too human to want the world to be neatly divided into insiders and outsiders.  And we would just as soon that God were on our side.  Sometimes we would like to peg God with a certain nationality, a political party, an income level.  But further ahead we will read especially about the impartiality of God.  When Peter preached about the inclusion of both Jews and Gentiles through Christ, he proclaimed, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34).  Literally, this reads: “God makes no distinction between faces.”   God does not differentiate between peoples. 

God is not interested in faces.  God is interested in hearts.  Not beautiful hearts, not pure hearts, not even perfect hearts, but hearts that know their need of God—hearts that “are restless until they find their rest in God,” who know with the psalmist that only God can create clean hearts.

Recognizing our need will transform our relationships with others. This is what will help to erase the lines we draw between others and ourselves. We are all in the same boat—lost without God—saved not because of our own merit, not because we are pure on the inside, but solely by the grace of God. When it comes to redemption, we are all on the outside—all sinful and unclean. We are only saved by the God who crosses all lines, who breaks boundaries, who becomes human in Jesus to create new and clean hearts within us.

In this Epiphany season, we see Jesus, God’s Son, full of grace, and we see ourselves, so deeply in need of that grace. We see the Jesus who welcomes us all. No matter who we are, there are times when we feel like an outsider, a stranger, on the outside looking in. It is only the radical welcome of Christ that welcomes us fully and completely. The rejection at Nazareth will lead one day to the ultimate rejection at Golgotha, yet God will be at work in that event to bring life out of death. And in Christ’s death and resurrection, the welcome extended to us will be as lavish as Jesus’ words to a dying criminal: “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

When my father picked me up from grade school, he did not ask about what I learned. He didn’t ask what my favorite subject had been. The very first thing he asked nearly every day was, “How were things on the playground?” He knew how important that part of the day was to my formation as a person. On the playground my classmates and I were learning how to interact with one another. Already we were discovering who was in and who was out. It was clear at an early age that there were people who should be left alone, others who should be included, and still others who called the shots. 

But my parents also took me to a place so radically different than the grade school playground—the table where bread and wine were given freely. There everyone in town was welcome to feast on the bread of life and the cup of healing, to receive forgiveness and new life. We left that table nourished to slowly transform the playgrounds of our lives, only by the grace of God.

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Near the Columbia River/Hope, the Stranger, History

Posted on February 2, 2025 by megganmanlove

Last Monday I flew from Boise to Portland, where a pastor and spouse picked me up on their way to the Byberg Preaching Conference in Seaside, OR. When I registered for this event months ago, I thought it would be great to be at a church event and not be in charge and catch up with friends (a pastor friend flew out for Byberg from Minnesota). I also have enjoyed hearing from the keynote speaker, Rev. Luke Powry, twice before. All of that rang true, but it was also a gift to be in a space with natural beauty, with each day grounded in worship, during a week when my heart couldn’t keep up with the heartbreak: a stop order for refugees entering the country, a cuts in funding for agencies serving refugees (which impacts refugees I know and friends who work at various agencies), then the email to government employees offering them buyouts (impacting more friends). And all this while daily heartbreak continues, the regular hard stuff of life: medical diagnosis and treatment for friends and co-workers, challenges of raising kids today, people losing jobs, deaths in families. Hearing the Word preached, praying and singing with others, hiking along the Oregon Coast, kept me buoyed.

I should mention that I’ve been reading, for discussion with a friend in the Midwest who I read books with, the Bonhoeffer biography A Spoke in the Wheel, which has provided an interesting and helpful lens for current events.

DEM Pastor Liv Larson Andrews (chaplain for Byberg) drove me to the Tri-cities where I stayed with retired Deacon Heidi and her husband.

On Thursday I joined the Global Refuge (formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services) and ELCA AMMPARO webinar on what we all should know about helping refugees and immigrants now. Having worked for a Catholic Charities refugee resettlement office in Syracuse, NY during my Jesuit Volunteer Corps year, and welcoming Congolese refugees into our family at Trinity Lutheran Church, all of this is so sad.

Thursday evening, I joined several ELCA Lutherans from the Tri-cities at a Pasco Middle School for a community event put on by the League of United Latin American Citizens. Several immigration lawyers spoke and answered questions. The point when they told parents how to prepare their kids for their, the parents, possible deportation was the most sobering.

On Friday morning I had coffee with a classmate of mine from my D.Min. program at San Francisco Theological Seminary. One very rainy week in Marin County, Silvana and I had a class together. She was, for many years, a chaplain at the juvenile detention center in town. It was good to catch up. She knows many of the people who have been chaplains in the Tri-cities, including several Lutheans, and she came to the United States many years ago from Germany, so it was interesting to hear her talk about her home town and country.

Friday afternoon, Heidi and I made our way to to First Lutheran in Pasco for the installation of Pastor Kathleen Anderson. Kathleen’s husband Pastor Bob Lewis, Immanuel, Boise, preached and I presided.

Pastors Kathleen and Bob are next to me

The current administration seems to be deliberately dismantling the civil service, so I have been thinking a lot about the podcast episode Lillian Cunningham did on President Chester Arthur, the first person to reform the civil service from political rewarding to being merit based.

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Bishop’s Report for NWIM Synod Council

Posted on January 25, 2025 by megganmanlove

Bishop’s Report for NWIM Synod Council – January 2025

Pastor: Since our fall meeting, I have visited the following congregations for a Sunday worship or an ordination: Fullness of God at Holden Village, Lake Chelan Lutheran, Sunnyside Lutheran, ordination/installation at Our Savior in Twin Falls, St. Paul in Chewelah, St. Luke in Spokane, holy closure at Messiah in Spokane, Bethel in Firth, Lord of Life in Kennewick, King of Glory in Boise, Cameron Emmanuel, Central in Spokane, Whitney UMC in Boise (where campus minister Hannah serves ¾ time). We have had two Retired Rostered Leader Gatherings (Riverview in Spokane and First Lutheran in Kennewick) and we have two coming up (Boise in February and Wenatchee in the spring). 

Servant: Kelly Preboski, executive director of Luther Heights Bible Camp, finished serving as director Jan. 2 and took another job with a Boise nonprofit. I have simply been a sounding board for the board chairperson. I continue to serve on the Rhythms of Faith Advisory Team, an ecumenical project funded by the Lilly Endowment exploring the relationship between church, home, and camp. Our tagline is camps as catalyst for family faith formation. I continue to check in every six-months with our two Campus Ministers and I point them and their boards to resources as they arise. I also crafted an end-of-year appeal letter addressed to alumni encouraging donations and legacy giving for the Wells Endowment for Campus Ministry. I continue to serve on the Pacific Lutheran University board along with a task force evaluating PLU’s association (its connection to the ELCA denomination).  I attended Ray Scherven’s Lutheran Disaster Response congregation readiness training and will encourage more congregations to participate in his next online training. I continue to help our Companion Synod team prepare for two guests from the Ulanga Kilombero Diocese to visit our synod in fall 2025. I attended the Love out Loud Lutheran Community Services Brunch in Boise and helped recruit the next board member from the Boise area. Lisa Kraft, King of Glory, Boise, served three three-year terms. Bonita Hammer, Redeemer, Boise, has agreed to serve a three-year term.

Symbol of our unity in Christ’s church: Above I noted Pastor Andy Hamblen’s ordination/installation in Twin Falls. Pastor Phil and I continue to nurture relationships with leaders of full-communion denominations across our synod. I am grateful for the mutual support and concrete collaborations that come with these relationships. One of the most interesting projects, which won’t come to fruition for some time, is possibly redeveloping the land at the The Center in Moscow (owned by six denominations, including the NWIM Synod-ELCA). The dream is student housing, more meeting space, and space to rent. 2025 is of course a Churchwide Assembly (CWA) Year (with elections for presiding bishop and ELCA secretary), so I anticipate pulling together online our synod’s voting members beginning in February. There is a CWA orientation for Region 1 scheduled for April. The Conference of Bishops’ history included a Bishop’s Academy (learning event) annually. Now it is biannual, and this January may be our last one. I will have been to Puerto Rico (Jan. 4-8) by the time synod council meets. I will be a guest in our domestic companion synod (Greater Milwaukee) Feb. 15-16. Whereas most synods have one or two companion synods, every synod is in relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and so we are each expected to participate in a Holy Land trip during our term. My class (2023) of bishops’ first opportunity was supposed to be this February, but it has been postponed until possibly September. I am honored to represent our synod, and I promise to report thoroughly during and after these trips. 

CEO: We were quite successful in our Rooted in Place financial campaign for geographically restricted internship sites. Our total raised from the Regional Gatherings, one special gift, and other online donations given around Giving Tuesday is $21,293.17.

It was sad, joyful, and an honor to be with Messiah for their holy closure, or service of completion. The synod gratefully received one of their legacy gifts: $40,000. Per our gift policy, the executive committee directed 10% to ELCA Churchwide and 10% to the NWIM Wells Endowment for Campus Ministry. We designated 60% to bequests and 20% to our operating fund.  Other organizations receiving legacy gifts from Messiah include Lutherhaven, Second Harvest, Christ Kitchen of Spokane, Venessa Behan Nursery, Shalom ministries, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, and Meals on Wheels of Spokane. Finally, Messiah redirected their “Messiah Mission Endowment Funds to now send the interest generated by our $230,000 to the NWIM Synod Fund for Leaders, which we hope will be used to help pastors, interns, and TEEM members who are preparing for leadership in our church through ordination. And, if needed, we hope it can be used for those who are preparing for Lay Associates in our parishes, to bring the word of Gospel to those faith communities who can no longer afford a pastor.”Fund for Leaders (a national ELCA program) will need to change its guidelines for Messiah’s hope about supporting lay leadership training to be realized, but Synod Council may want to remember this note from Messiah when distributing the funds Exec put towards bequests (see above).

I am grateful to Nick Kiger from the ELCA and the rest of the synod staff for working with me on our Mission Support case for support. We sent out a dozen Mission Support increase ask letters (asking for a specific percentage increase in Mission Support for 2025). Through those letters, direct emails from our staff, and one email to around 20 churches, we asked every congregation in our synod to fill out and return their Mission Support intent form. Please help us with that synod council members! Our staff had a good day together (at St. Mark’s parish house) the second Wednesday in December. I also had end-of-year conversations/evals with each staff member. I am grateful to Messiah, Spokane for taking to heart, it seems, many of the suggestions laid out in my letter to them about keeping their legacy Lutheran and local.  A big thank you to the task group working with Cathy Steiner on her summer sabbatical. 

You will receive an oral report about Region 1: ELCA hiring a new Financial Services Officer.

I am grateful for all the synod council task forces which keep tackling projects. Your work is seen and appreciated and is making a real difference in our culture as a synod.

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As ELCA Lutherans follow the ID Legislature

Posted on January 23, 2025 by megganmanlove

Jan. 22, 2025

Dear Idahoans in the NWIM Synod: ELCA,

The state legislature is back in session. Various legislators and the governor gave us previews of what to expect and the first few weeks have already seen a flurry of bills. In the summary of the ELCA’s 1991 Social Statement Church in Society, we read, “God’s restless church is called to serve and advocate in response to such diverse social situations as disasters, poverty, discrimination, social policies and economic arrangements. The statement says the church should keep enough critical distance from society to act, when appropriate, like the prophets of Scripture. Prophets challenged the culture, exposed the power of sin and idolatry, and spoke out on behalf of the poor and powerless.”

Our cranberry ELW hymnal has beautiful prayers for those who govern. Please pray for them often during worship and on your own. Get to know our legislators and those on their staffs. The more real relationships we build, the more meaningful conversations we can have. Rejoice when they pass legislation that helps those most on the margins of society. Unfortunately, those moments do not always get the most press. 

I am particularly mindful of the legislation being proposed around the following issues, legislation that could adversely impact the most vulnerable in the state. I hope you will join me in opposing the following:

  • A repeal of Medicaid expansion
  • Legislation that further erodes women’s reproductive health
  • Taxpayer support for private and religious education (which could end up underfunding public schools and burdening tax payers) 
  • Legislation that dehumanizes and threatens immigrants and refugees (see the letter from the Region 1 ELCA bishops on immigration)
  • Legislation that dehumanizes our LGBTQ siblings and takes away their human rights (see our synod’s 2023 resolution on Transgender Dignity)

I will also be watching for scheduled executions and will join others who protest them (see our synod’s 2023 resolution condemning the use of the firing squad and all forms of the death penalty). 

On the other hand, any legislation that addresses food and housing challenges, I will follow closely and hope to support whole heartedly. The 1999 ELCA Social Statement Economic Life “addresses economic life in light of the moral imperative to seek sufficient, sustainable livelihood for all.” I want all Idahoans to have enough and believe the legislature could help solve food and housing scarcity.

Bishop Meggan Manlove

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Region 1 Bishops Immigration Statement

Posted on January 22, 2025 by megganmanlove

January 22, 2025

A Statement on Immigration

As Lutherans, we are called to live out the teachings of Jesus Christ, who welcomed strangers and emphasized love, mercy, and justice for all people. We believe that every human being, regardless of their country of origin or legal status, is created in the image of God and has inherent dignity and worth. This foundational truth compels us to approach the issue of immigration with compassion and a commitment to the common good.

Scripture repeatedly instructs us to love our neighbor and show the stranger hospitality. God commands the people of Israel, “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself” (Leviticus 19:34). Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) shows us that caring for people in need is central to who we are as Christians. The parable also challenges us to acknowledge the goodness in all people because the “foreigner” in the story is the one who acts in the most Christlike way. In light of these teachings, we advocate for an immigration policy that reflects Christ’s love, recognizing that all people deserve respect and protection. 

The Lutheran tradition emphasizes both mercy and justice. Justice requires everyone, including immigrants, to be treated fairly and equitably. While upholding the rule of law is important, it must not be done in ways that dehumanize or exploit vulnerable people. We are especially concerned about the possibility that places of worship, hospitals, and schools could be the target of deportation raids. A policy that allowed such raids would increase the suffering not only of undocumented people but also of many people who would fear being unjustly targeted and thus avoid those places. Denying people the opportunity to attend worship, be educated, or receive medical treatment violates individuals’ fundamental rights. We urge those in government and law enforcement who are responsible for the detention or deportation of undocumented persons to consider how their actions might be seen in the eyes of God.

We are all members of the same human family. Therefore, we approach immigration not merely as a political or legal issue but as a matter of human solidarity. The health and prosperity of the United States are intertwined with the contributions and lives of immigrants. Immigrants bring diverse gifts and play an essential role in our communities and economies. Our immigration policies should reflect a commitment to the welfare of all, especially the most vulnerable. 

As people who have received God’s mercy and grace, we are called to extend that same mercy and grace to others. This means offering opportunities for new beginnings, particularly for those already present in the United States without legal documentation. A just immigration policy would provide pathways to citizenship for those who have lived in the U.S. for years, contributing to the country and integrating into our communities. It should also guarantee protection for those fleeing violence or persecution, ensure that immigrant families remain united, and make sure that children are not punished for their parents’ actions.

We are called, as individuals and as a society, to remember that the immigrants among us are not intruders or enemies but bearers of the image of God, deserving of our care, respect, and advocacy.

The Rev. Shelley Bryan Wee, Bishop, Northwest Washington Synod

The Rev. Richard Jaech, Bishop, Southwestern Washington Synod

The Rev. Dr. Laurie Jungling, Bishop, Montana Synod                                

The Rev. Laurie Larson Caesar, Bishop, Oregon Synod

The Rev. Dr. Meggan Manlove, Bishop, Northwest Intermountain Synod

The Rev. Timothy Oslovich, Bishop, Alaska Synod

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Letter for Annual Meetings

Posted on January 22, 2025 by megganmanlove

13Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’  John 4:13-14 

Dear Friends in Christ,

Our synod staff and synod council have been using the phrase Wellsprings of God’s Love to describe ministries across the beautiful and vast Northwest Intermountain Synod. In our two-page document about what we do together as a synod, you’ll read, “As the waters of our synod all flow into streams and creeks that run into the Snake and Columbia Rivers, our ministry sites make up a watershed proclaiming the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ.” Using the phrase Wellsprings of God’s Love is meant to be descriptive, not prescriptive. In other words, we do not want to give you one more thing to do or be. The phrase comes out of who you already are, which our staff observes as we travel throughout the synod. Furthermore, a wellspring implies abundance, and we trust that such abundance is possible because of God’s love made known to us through Jesus Christ. Whether you are in a rural community or a more urban area, your ministry might feel isolated; you are not. The waters above ground and the aquifers below keep us connected as one synod, one church. Wellsprings are not isolated, and neither are our ministries!

Our scripture guide for Wellsprings of God’s Love comes from John chapter 4: Jesus’ encountering the woman at the well. Jesus uses the phrase “living water” for the Holy Spirit that meets people’s thirst for life in relationship with God. Ultimately, that is what ministries in our Northwest Intermountain Synod do, help people be in relationship with the loving God we worship. Whatever that looks like in your context, thank you! And thank you also for your gifts of Mission Support. Because of Mission Support from congregations like yours, our entire synod can collectively help people build and strengthen their relationships with God. 

When we gather online for our Synod Assembly, Saturday, May 3, we will use John 4:7-15 as our central text. Further along in the story, in verse 29, the woman says to the people in her city, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 

As you celebrate the ministries in your own congregation from the past year and look ahead to the new year, I encourage you individually and collectively to wonder and commit to who you will proclaim, “Come and see!” Who in your sphere of family and friends has no idea that a Wellspring of God’s Love even exists? Who needs a place of welcome? Who has no clue that God’s love is absolutely without a doubt for them? Who is parched from the daily grind of life? Telling someone about God’s love can be scary. Inviting someone to join you for worship or a potluck might be overwhelming. Consider how you have experienced your congregation, or one like it, as a Wellspring of God’s Love. That is your story, your truth. And then you can be bold to say, “Come and see!”

Peace,

Bishop Meggan Manlove

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Whitney UMC: Celebrating Sophia’s Table at BSU

Posted on January 19, 2025 by megganmanlove

Pastor Hannah Andres (Whitney United Methodist Church, Boise and Sophia’s Table) asked me to bring greetings to Whitney UMC and thank them for their partnership in campus ministry. What a wonderful morning! A BSU professor greeted me after worship. A few of his students came to worship at Whitney for the first time this morning and they were able to meet one of the students already involved in Sophia’s Table. This congregation, by the way, does an incredible job of loving their neighbors through food and clothing ministries. Thanks for the invite Pastor Hannah! Also a shout-out to the two current ELCA board members of Sophia’s Table: Pastor Mariah Mills (Redeemer, Boise) and Tom Trotter (Immanuel, Boise). Scroll down for my words of explanation and gratitude. Bonus, Pastor Hannah is doing a sermon series on Methodism so I got a lesson in Holy Conferencing.

With Pastor Hannah after worship

Thank You Whitney UMC, Boise – Jan. 19, 2025

I am here to celebrate the ecumenical campus ministry at Boise State: Sophia’s Table, but first some background. My name is Meggan Manlove and since July 2023 I have served as bishop of the Northwest Intermountain Synod, covering mostly Eastern WA and Idaho, 88 ministries between Leavenworth, WA and Jackson, WY. Before my election, I served as pastor of Trinity Lutheran, Nampa for 12.5 years.

ELCA stands for Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We are evangelical because we believe and trust in the good news, evangelion in Greek, not because we are part of the capital E Evangelical Movement in this country. The ELCA is one of several Lutheran families in the Treasure Valley, other families are Missouri Synod, Wisconsin Synod, Lutheran Church of the Brethren. The ELCA is the family that ordains women and LGBTQ individuals, and we practice what we call open table, non-members are welcome to Holy Communion.

Since the creation of the ELCA church body in 1988, this synod has supported Lutheran Campus Ministries on three campuses: Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington State University in Pullman, and University of Idaho in Moscow.

For many years, including during my 12+ years serving in Nampa, we ELCA Lutherans wanted to start some kind of campus ministry at Boise State, possibly ecumenically. When District Superintendent Rev. Karen Hernandez, Interim Presbyter Rachel Yates, and I started meeting for lunch, none of us dreamed this might be a fruit, but it is, in part thanks to you all! Rev. Karen suggested appointing a pastor at Whitney ¾ time. The other ¼ appointment would be to campus ministry IF two other ecumenical partners would join. We Lutherans and Presbyterians eventually said Yes. Last fall, the students named the ministry Sophia’s Table.

Why yet another campus ministry at Boise State? To be the bridge from the Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, UCC, Episcopal, Disciples of Christ congregations of students’ youth to their adulthood congregations, to be sure. But more importantly, to ensure there is a space where young adults can hear and explore the gospel, the gospel in which Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection liberates us from our bondage to sin, individual sin and systems of oppression. Further, young adult followers of Jesus, no matter their gender, first language, race, or sexual identity, need to know that they are loved and forgiven and freed by Jesus’ Christ. So, hear from your ELCA Lutheran siblings that we are incredibly grateful to be partnering with you in this ministry: Sophia’s Table.

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Grand Canyon and NWIM Synods-Church Together

Posted on January 13, 2025 by megganmanlove

For Baptism of our Lord Sunday, my mom and I drove northwest of Mesa to Lord of Life Lutheran in Sun City West. One of our Northwest Intermountain Synod candidates for Word and Sacrament ministry received full-tuition scholarship from this congregation for his seminary education at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley. I figured that since I was relatively close, I could go make the trip and say thank you. Mom and I slipped into the very end of the 8:30 am worship service and were seated in the front pew. Imagine our surprise when we looked behind us and saw the Tuckers, who we used to worship with at our home church: Custer Lutheran Fellowship in Custer, SD! On our way to coffee hour between the two services, a woman thanked me for my words and said she had been baptized at Cameron Emmanuel near Kendrick, ID where I was for the Second Sunday of Advent!! (Read on for more NWIM Synod connections).

Associate Pastor Pam Reynold presiding at the 10:30am service.
With the Tuckers
Leone Lovejoy, baptized at Cameron Emmanuel

My first Sunday in Mesa, mom and I attended Love of Christ, where several members of Lutheran Church of the Master, Coeur d’Alene came up to me and said, “You’re our bishop!” One of them was Pat Fuller. Years ago she and her husband gifted this cross to the congregation. As the congregation has just sold the part of the building where the cross hung, she and her husband offered to bring it to their winter congregation, Love of Christ!

Pat Fuller with the cross from Lutheran Church of the Master
Finishing a 5-mile hike with Bishop Deb Hutterer, Grand Canyon Synod: ELCA

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Year of Luke & the Season after Epiphany

Posted on January 12, 2025 by megganmanlove

Originally published in the bi-monthly electronic newsletter of the Northwest Intermountain Synod-ELCA.

Bernward’s Doors: Presentation in the Temple

If your congregation follows the Revised Common Lectionary or the newer Narrative Lectionary, you could be hearing regularly from Luke’s Gospel (plus the Wedding at Cana from John 2) between now and Ash Wednesday, March 5. I actually love a long Season after Epiphany (marking the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus) because we keep learning more and more about Jesus, hearing more manifestations. That said, it can be a hard season to hold together thematically. You might consider, as Sundays and Seasons from Augsburg Fortress suggested, singing a gathering hymn like When Jesus Came to Jordan (ELW 305) or Songs of Thankfulness and Praise (ELW 310) for the entire season! Or you could simply keep stars up in the sanctuary for eight weeks. 

Luke’s Gospel has much to offer us during this church season and all year. I first grew to appreciate this Gospel my first summer working on a Lutheran camp staff. Our weekly bible study that year was on the liturgical, or church, year and was largely shaped by Luke’s Gospel, for obvious reasons. All the Gospels include Jesus’ death and resurrection, but Luke’s Gospel also includes one of Jesus’ birth narratives and, if you read Luke-Acts as two volumes of one narrative written by the same author, the Pentecost story. That Lutheran camp also offered Morning Prayer (Matins) every morning for anyone who wanted to attend and worshiped using Prayer at the End of the Day (Compline) in the middle of each camp session. Both of those daily offices, along with Evening Prayer (Vespers), are anchored by one of the canticles sung in the first two chapters of Luke.  In many ways, the canticles by Jesus’ mother Mary, Zechariah, and Simeon set up the rest of the rest of the Gospel:

prayer (which Jesus does often in Luke),

the activity of the Holy Spirit, and

attention to those on the margins of society.

the reign of God, Jesus as Savior (deliverer and rescuer),

warnings about wealth’s potential to corrupt,

Where might you go for resources on preaching on or teaching Luke’s Gospel? About a year ago, I used this space to introduce a commentary on Mark’s Gospel and so I thought I would use this January column to name some of my favorite commentaries on Luke. None of this should prevent any of you readers from bringing your own life experiences and stories to this Gospel; something it sadly took me too long to learn to do. That said, a good commentary can be one of many helpful tools in the preaching and teaching toolbox. For years I leaned heavily on Alan Culpepper’s Luke commentary in the New Interpreter’s Bible. More recently I have been turning to Joel Green’s older New International Commentary, which weaves together historical and narrative context. Two new commentaries that could be interesting to read straight through, rather than turning to them for a particular passage, are Justo Gonzalez’ 2010 commentary in the Belief series and Robert Karris’ Eating Your Way Through Luke’s Gospel. I also love visiting the Vanderbilt Divinity Library’s lectionary to see which pieces of art they have paired with the Sunday scripture readings. What is your favorite commentary or source for preaching and teaching on Luke (podcast, YouTube series, blog)? 

Thanks to all of you who will be preaching the gospel and teaching across the Northwest Intermountain Synod in 2025! Your communities and the world needs to hear about Jesus’ love and healing.

Peace,

Bishop Meggan Manlove

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