Walking Together

To download Walking Together May 2024 as a PDF,
please click here.

A Word from Bishop Stacie Fidlar

The first question I asked people gathered for our Congregational Resourcing Event was this: 

What’s your favorite Bible story?

The answers came fast and furious, Hebrew Bible and New Testament. Good Samaritan. Woman at the Well. The resurrection. David and Goliath.

Now – tell me what that story has to do with your life. How does God’s story of life and redemption and healing and reconciliation shape your life? Does that change the story – or how you think about it?

The arc of God’s story with the beloved people of God’s creation is long, but all along the way it is meant to shape us. That’s why our ancestors recorded these stories in their minds and hearts and finally in writing. They wanted us to be shaped by them. They wanted us to learn from them. They wanted us to know deep within us how God’s story never leaves us the same. God’s story is meant to be transformative. It never leaves us the same. 

That’s why we are called as the people of God to be continually immersed in God’s story. To open it in our lives and listen to how God is reaching out to us in this time and this place through the old, old story of love and life.

God’s story, God’s work through Jesus, is woven with your story. Your life is a story of redemption, time and again. Your life is a story of finding your authentic self, your home, your peace, in the heart of God’s story. From the beginning of creation through the reconciling and healing work of Jesus and continually blowing through the Holy Spirit’s nudging – God is always at work in you. On you. Among you.

Open God’s Story in your life and listen. Open God’s Story in your congregation – where is God’s mission, Jesus’ calling, leading you?

Synod Assembly 2024

Synod Assembly 2024 The Thirty-Sixth Annual Northern Illinois Synod Assembly will be held on Friday, June 14th and Saturday, June 15th, 2024 at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Every congregation will send voting members to gather under the theme of Open God's Story. We will be focusing on God's stories - both in scripture and in our lives - and how these stories change us. The Assembly will be joined by The Rev. Miguel Gomez-Acosta, the Senior Director for New Ministry Development and Evangelism at the Churchwide Office of the ELCA. 

Outside of doing the business of the Synod, like passing the budget and electing people to various committees, we will have a Ministry Fair. This will be a time - with dessert - that is focused on celebrating ministry in and around our synod.

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of ELCA World Hunger, the Social Ministry Committee encourages the congregations of the Northern Illinois Synod to have a food drive for your local food pantries during the time that an in-kind offering would have been collected for Synod Assembly.  Our offering at our Festival Worship on Friday will be split between Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Center and ELCA World Hunger, both celebrating 50 years of ministry. 

You are invited to pray for your congregation's voting member as they join together in June:

Almighty God, shown fully to us in your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we give you thanks that by your Holy Spirit you sustain the church. By the Spirit’s power you call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify the whole church. Guide us into the ways that we can be your hands and feet and heart to bring healing, hope, and restoration and to cultivate life-giving relationships wherever possible, in order to find abundant life together. As the Holy Spirit continues to work among us and in us, we pray for the strengthening of our communities of faith, as we navigate new challenges and possibilities. Be with our synod staff and all pastors and leaders in congregations, and all who gather as your church everywhere. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.

To download Walking Together March 2024 as a PDF,
please click here.

A Word from Bishop Stacie Fidlar

The Lord IS with you!

And I have the privilege of hearing your stories of how God is at work among you and the living Christ walking with you. This insert, to be sent out 4 times a year, is an opportunity to share some of those stories. It will help us “walk together” as a synod, as the body of Christ throughout Northern Illinois.  

Our theme together as a synod this year is Open God’s Story. It calls us back to God’s story of redemption and reconciliation, love and hope, and challenges us all to recognize the ways God’s story intersects with our own stories. Who do you identify with in the Biblical story? How do the stories of the Bible open your eyes to how God is at work? How does the power of Christ’s story live in your life?

As we gather at the CRE on March 16, Pastor Miguel Gomez-Acosta will join us. He brings a challenge to us to not only know God’s story AND our own stories of faith – but to learn how to share them. When you Open God’s Story in your life, how has it shaped you? And how do you share that story with others?

I read a phrase recently that is sticking in my mind – liquid time. Our world is changing so rapidly that time feels fluid. Nothing ever quite settles under our feet before we have to figure out our next steps. God’s story has seen such times before in history; that’s why knowing it and our place in it is so important. With all the shifts around us, we always know this: we are marked with the cross of Christ forever. Nothing changes that. We are part of a love that does not let us go, that pursues us, seeks us, and reminds us constantly in the swirls of chaos that we ARE beloved.

How do you live and share that story?

Open God’s Story

Throughout the year the Northern Illinois Synod will be diving deep into scripture as we reflect on how we open God’s story. Take a moment to read through Genesis 12:1-4, as you read through it you are invited to ponder the following questions:

V - What values are present in this story?

O - Where are there invitations to openness in this story?

C - What voices, literal and metaphorical, are calling in this story?

A - Where is attention invested in this story?

R - What regrets are present in this story?

E - How is God’s presence experienced in this story?

What does this mean for your life?

Mission Moment

Bwana asifiwe! (Praise the Lord!)

Bishop Stacie Fidlar, along with two others, traveled to Tanzania for the consecration of Bishop Godson Abel Mollel, Bishop of the North Central Diocese of Tanzania.

While Bishop Fidlar was in Tanzania, they had the chance to not only meet with local leaders who are opening God’s story in their communities but also spent time in various ministries that congregations in the Northern Illinois Synod have supported over the years. One of the highlights of the trip was visiting the now-finished School of Nursing that the Northern Illinois Synod helped to build with generous gifts. The newly completed nursing school has expanded to include Social Work classes to meet a growing need. As Bishop noted in her trip recap, “It is an amazing thing to see this dream come to reality.”

You are invited to pray for Bishop Abel, for the leaders of the North Central Diocese of Tanzania, and for the nursing school. Your partnership and gifts have strengthened our relationship with the North Central Diocese of Tanzania and we are excited to continue to grow into our partnership as we walk together, loving Christ, and loving all for the sake of the world.