Overview Bible Study Resources 2025-2026

Topics

Sunday School Kick-Off

Catapult into the new year with hands on activities in a joint Sunday School with the youth, exploring how we hope to fulfil our purpose in the year ahead.

ELCA Vision and Purpose

Together we explore the ELCA’s Vision and Purpose, reflecting on what each part means to us personally and as a community. The focus is not on reaching agreement, but on listening to one another and gaining a deeper understanding of how each person connects with the church’s calling. The idea of God’s Love Made Real is introduced as a guiding theme for our continued conversation.

God’s Love Made Real is shorthand for the ELCA’s vision statement and encompasses all the ways our congregations, synods, and ministries are helping the world around us know the love of God in Jesus. This session centers on that vision, engaging with the five commitments identified in The Strategic Recommendations Report from Barna Group and Fuller Seminary, and inviting us to imagine how these commitments might shape our life together.

  1. Cultivate congregations that are warmer, more inviting and more invitational in nature.

  2. Enhance ELCA-wide efforts to nurture and strengthen faith and spiritual formation.

  3. Tangibly and significantly incorporate and empower young people in all levels of the Church’s life.

  4. Provide greater empowerment, equipping and tools for lay leaders to carry out the work of ministry and be the Church in the world today

  5. Rethink, refocus and reorganize the ELCA’s educational systems and structures to serve the current (and rapidly changing) needs of the ELCA.

God's Work, Our Hands

Join together to work on community service projects for Lutheran World Relief.

Books of Faith Series: Matthew

Throughout history Matthew’s gospel has played a prominent role in Christian worship and practice, and to this day it retains a central place in most people’s experiences of the New Testament and the Christian faith. Matthew’s gospel speaks well to church communities today, identifying the church as founded by Jesus (16:18) and issuing practical instructions for practicing community (18:1-35). Matthew envisions the church as made up of sinners and doubters who struggle with faith, temptation, and forgiveness, but ultimately reflect the ministry and presence of Jesus.

This 8-session course explores selected passages from Matthew.

  1. The Birth of the Messiah
    Matthew 1:18—2:12
  2. This Is My Son, the Beloved
    Matthew 3:13—4:11
  3. You Are the Salt of the Earth
    Matthew 5:1-16 [17-20], 21-48
  4. You of Little Faith
    Matthew 14:13-36
  5. Who Do You Say That I Am?
    Matthew 16:13—17:9 [13]
  6. Where Two or Three Are Gathered in My Name
    Matthew 18:1-22 [23-35]
  7. My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?
    Matthew 27:32-56
  8. I Am with You Always
    Matthew 28:1-10 [11-15], 16-20

Advent

 

Christmas

 

 

(6 weeks)

Lent

 

Palm Sunday

 

Easter