Fill… Spill… Thrill…

Receive Bread, Give Bread: Giving to World Hunger through the Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper
Salem Lutheran Church, Ponca, NE
Pastor Neal Anthony

Salem Lutheran Church in Ponca, Nebraska has started receiving an offering called “Receive Bread, Give Bread” on Communion Sundays. The offering is dedicated to ELCA World Hunger.

Pastor Neal Anthony says the offering is intended to help make world hunger a regular part of the mission center’s benevolence. The special offering began in March and has averaged $150 for world hunger per offering.

The following is an excerpt from the church’s bulletin insert explaining “Receive Bread, Give Bread”:

What: Responding to the gift of the Bread of Life who is given to us in, with and under the Lord’s Supper, “Receive Bread, Give Bread” is an opportunity to give the gift of daily bread to those in need.

Why: Purely as a response! We give the gift of daily bread to World Hunger because God has first given us the Bread of Life through his Word. Also, recognizing that World Hunger is not included in our congregation’s benevolence, we want to make our giving to World Hunger a high visibility habit. There is no better medium by which to accomplish this than to make it part of the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper.

Where: At our Worship Services of Word and Sacrament

When: After we have received the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ – the Bread of Life! – we are given the opportunity, as we are returning to our seats, to place our gifts in the bread baskets on both sides of the communion station from which you have received the Lord’s Supper.

How Much: This is up to you. You don’t have to give anything (and nor will you be judged for not giving anything). You get to give whatever you want. You can give 25 cents. You can give a dollar. You can give $25. It’s all up to you. God has given us the Bread of Life. This is simply an opportunity to respond to the gift of the Bread of Life by giving bread to those in need.

Bishop David deFreese
Nebraska Synod, ELCA

Greetings!

Recently, the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality publicly released the proposed social statement on “Human Sexuality” and its report and recommendations on ministry practices. I hope that you have had the chance to read it over yourself. It is available for download at http://www.elca.org/faithfuljourney. Let me share with you some of my pastoral reflections.

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Lisa Kramme
Director of Faith Formation
Nebraska Synod, ELCA

When I drive to the Nebraska Synod office, I travel past a nursery on the south side of Center Street in West Omaha. Now that it’s February, the young trees are without leaves, of course. They stand expectantly, in rows, planted just-the-right distance apart as though they were school children lined up to begin exercising in PE class, holding their arms straight out from their sides so that their fingertips just about touch.

I wonder where the trees will go eventually. Perhaps someone has built a new house and is landscaping for the first time. Maybe there’s been some clearing of old brush, and it’s time for new trees that change the look of a back yard. Regardless of the specific motivation to plant a tree, the action of planting something that will eventually grow taller and bigger around than the person who planted it is a sign of hope to me.

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