The Heart of Mission

A few months ago, our Home Council approved a major revision to our Mission Handbook. We have been (re-) introducing the document in the months since. We have focused on the first few chapters – and our Mission Statement, in … (read more)

Striving Side by Side for the Gospel

Our Mission Handbook is full of community-oriented language and images. It takes its lead in this regard from the New Testament. We began our life together nearly a century ago as “a band… joined together in prayer” (¶6). We were … (read more)

To Share the Gospel and Ourselves…

Our Mission Handbook describes our purpose in the world. We want to know Jesus Christ, first of all. We are determined to pray for the advance of his kingdom. And there is more. We are determined “to share the gospel … (read more)

A cathedral's sanctuary

A Praying League With a World Mission …

You may have reasonably supposed that the World Mission Prayer League is an agency for the sending and support of missionaries. I hope that I will not disappoint you: we are not. Over the last few months we have worked … (read more)

Knowing Christ

Over the past few months, we have immersed ourselves in the Mission Handbook, a document that stands at the heart of our missionary community. The Handbook tells us who we are, what we do, where we do it, and why. … (read more)

A Lutheran Community

At the heart of the World Mission Prayer League you will find our Mission Handbook. The document describes who we are, what we do, where we do it, and why. We introduced the Handbook last month, and will continue again … (read more)

Introducing the Mission Handbook

For many, many decades, a Handbook has circulated at the center of our missionary community. The document describes who we are, what we do, where we do it, and why. It is the accumulated testimony of our shared allegiances, core … (read more)

Nothingness and Nobodies

I relish Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians – the most personal and poignant of Paul’s wonderful epistles, it seems to me. I relish chapter one. All the promises of God, Paul reports ecstatically, find their “Yes!” in Jesus (v.20). … (read more)

A Week of Prayer for Unity

For more than a century, the Christian church around the world has dedicated a week in January to prayer for Christian unity. I have often participated myself. This year the effort seems especially relevant. Our own nation is as fractured … (read more)

Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus

Incarnation

The Incarnation is so very many things. There are so many other things, of course, that it is not. The Incarnation, in particular, is about God become a human being – and not the other way around. The Incarnation is … (read more)