POSSIBILITY!

Bishop Wayne N. Miller

Metropolitan Chicago Synod

ELCA

Christmas in June Please open the

RED envelope in your packet and read the card

Now open your GREEN envelope and read the card

Who is the second card for?

Passing the Gift All that I am and all that I have comes by

GRACE alone, through FAITH alone, in CHRIST alone”

One card given by each voting member means 500 new lives touched by grace

One card given by each baptized member means 100,000 new lives touched by grace

One card per week given by each baptized member for 1 year means 5,200,000 new lives touched by grace

Remembering Frutifulness

Start with a YES! Saying “YES” to God

always means COURAGEOUSLY surrendering control

Saying “YES” to God means opening mind, heart, and hands to the world around you

Saying “YES” to God means suspending disbelief…

How Can This Be? We’re Almost Dead!

Birth and New Life in Congregations is not a function of size, age, or wealth

Birth and New Life depends upon hearing and responding ADAPTIVELY to a call.

Mary Brought Jesus to the Hills

Reimagining the Christian community as a movement

INCLUSIVITY requires us to let the stranger call us out … not just calling them in

Mission Music My soul proclaims the greatness of God!

Mission still begins with TELLING the story and INVITING others into it

You have filled the hungry with good things! Mission calls us to SERVE others with compassion

and generosity

You have cast down the mighty and lifted the lowly Mission calls us to work for JUSTICE so that all are

free to respond to their vocation

Proclamation! Worship God Share Faith Invite to Belong

Service! Generosity Compassion

Justice! Respect Freedom Vocation

Life Requires Growth

How do you measure growth?

Celebrate Growth

Notice the arrival of saints as well as their departure

My Child Leapt for Joy!

LIFE is energized and called out by LIFE

Collaboration:

What congregations do you know that are a source of inspiration for you?

It All Leads to This!

The present vitality and future life of the ELCA resides in congregations giving birth to new faith communities

Every Christian must be dedicated to discovering and liberating new life

The Role of Synod Leadership

Synod Leadership is here to INSPIRE, FACILITATE, and EXTEND THE REACH of Congregational Mission

To call each Christian to personal responsibility for witness