Churchwide Resources
Churchwide Programs
The Women of the ELCA website has a wide selection of resources, some available for free download,
like those listed below.
Advent: A Season for All Generations
This two-part Advent program can be used by a group of any size. You’ll discuss various customs and explore the biblical figures of Advent (Zechariah and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna, Joseph and Mary, and more). You might use it with your regular study group or as a special Advent Bible study group. Each part takes about 20 to 45 minutes and includes prayer, hymns, Scripture, narration, and discussion.
A Bold Life of Faith: Katharina von Bora Luther
Katie Luther was a wife, mother, farmer, brewmaster, innkeeper, and more. In all that she did, she acted boldly on her faith in Jesus Christ. There’s a little bit of Katie in all of us. Learn about Katie while learning more about yourself. Use this resource, designed to take about an hour, a small group or individually.
The Called to ... Series
This series of eight programs for groups, each designed to take about 60-90 minutes, offers a wide variety of opportunities to explore together what God is calling you to be and to do.
Passport to Your Heart helps women to see themselves as a part of a global community in which all can play leadership roles.
Called to Be Global Sisters
Seeing Each Other with New Eyes increases our understanding of women from other cultures. A one-hour program that includes role plays and probing discussion questions.
This offers a fascinating glimpse into the teachings of Martin Luther on the role of Christians in politics and explores how those teachings still speak to us. A two-hour program.
This provides a biblical foundation for understanding God's call to be women in mission, in our homes, congregations, communities, and world.
This presents a process for thinking theologically as we face difficult issues in our daily lives.
This is a two-hour workshop, explores the Lutheran ethical approach and the complexities involved in ethical decision making, and offers participants practical experience in ethical deliberation.
This is a three-session resource that focuses on God's call to love ourselves, to love our neighbors, and to support one another.
This probes the book of Jonah for help in learning how to discern our role in carrying out God's vision for the whole of creation.
God Colors Outside the Lines
A Short Workshop on Diversity and God's Church Diversity is one way God demonstrates genius at coloring outside the lines. Through scripture and simple, brief exercises, this short resource will help you demonstrate how diversity is a gift from God, as well as a trait of God, worthy of our exploration and embrace.
The Faces of Grief
The Faces of Grief is a three-session resource designed to help you find wholeness and peace after loss. Loss comes in many forms: miscarriage, trauma, natural disaster, goodbyes, death, foreclosure, to name just a few. Discover your own grieving process, explore how grief can transform you, learn to feel the feelings of grief. The Faces of Grief is filled with questions for reflection, discussion or journaling.
Finding Your Bold: An Ice-Breaker
Boldness comes in many forms. Some is bright and loud. Some is firm and quiet. Women of the ELCA celebrates this range of voices, knowing that the avenues for bold self-expression are limitless. Do you have a definition of BOLD? What do you believe is your best BOLD? Come explore what "bold" is.
How to Lead a Bible Study
Whether you are a confident, experienced leader or are struck with terror when someone asks, "Could you help lead the Bible study?" this resource offers practical suggestions and will motivate and inspire you to claim—or reclaim—your role in building up the body of Christ through teaching. You can lead Bible study!
I Am She
Our mission statement calls us to act boldly. What does this mean? It means a variety of things, for boldness has a range of voices. Some is bright and loud. Some is firm and quiet. Do you know what is your “best bold”? This program will help you discover it and put it into action! I Am She can be used in a congregational setting, as a conference event, or as part of a synodical convention. It could be conducted over five to six weeks or as a weekend retreat. So boldly claim your boldness today, declaring, “I am she!”
Journaling
Journaling can open up pathways to new thoughts, new insights and new energy. If you're intrigued by the idea of journaling but need some guidance on how to get started, this resource will show you the many benefits of regular journaling and set you on your way. This resource is primarily for individuals, but it would also be good for a small group that wants to come together to learn about journaling and then support one another along the way by sharing tips, struggles, inspiration and success stories.
Listening to God: A Guide to Discernment
This resource was written for Women of the ELCA by Debra Farrington, a popular author and motivational speaker. It consists of six flexible hour-long sessions exploring what it means for an individual to discern God's hopes and desires for her life and what it means for a group to discern what their God-given gifts are for ministry. Ideal for a small group in either a retreat or workshop setting.
(Available in print only. Please call the churchwide office at 1-800-638-3522, ext. 2730.)
Living from the Heart of God: A Journal for Life's Stages
This journal for women of all ages offers reflections, devotions, and prayers on the many life stages and experiences of women, from first friends to marriage and family life, from buying a home to chronic illness. Each section also includes
space for the reader to record her own thoughts, prayers, and experiences. (Available in print only. Visit the ELCA Resource Web Site to order,
or call 800-638-3522, ext. 2580.)
Looking into the Mirror: A Lenten Reflection
Lent is about looking into a metaphorical mirror, the kind we hold up to out souls. Use the Lenten season to refocus your faith life and realign your relationship with God through 40 days of reflection. The discussion questions work best in small groups, though this resource can also be used independently.
Out of the Mouths of Babes
Author Barbara Gove Gill offers 21 heart-warming devotions inspired by insights from children, enriched by questions for discussion and reflection. Can be used by individuals as well as by groups.
Paths to Wholeness
How is your spiritual life? Do you sometimes find it hard to connect with God or let God connect with you? Would like to try some new things? Take a journey in spirituality and learn about the many different paths to God. Paths to Wholeness is a retreat experience that offers a holistic approach to spirituality. You will recognize your own spiritual paths as well as the spiritual paths of others. This retreat resource can be conducted over a period of several weeks and is ideal for a one-day retreat.
Rachel's Day
This new resource offers step-by-step information on how you can carry out a service project that helps incarcerated mothers and fathers read to their children. Your congregation donates books, blank tapes, and recorders, and then volunteers help parents choose a book, record it, and mail the recording to their children. Rachel’s Day is observed by Women of the ELCA annually on the first Sunday in May, though it can be observed any time of the year. It is a time set aside to mourn the loss of our children and to renounce the forces of violence and fear. (Also see the more extensive section on Rachel's Day for ideas on observing the day, including a litany and responsive reading and other resources.)
Sacred Spaces
This is a helpful guide to creating a personal sacred space that enriches and supports your practice of regular worship within a community of faith. Learn how to select and create a sacred space, whether that space is a whole room, a quiet corner of a room, or your garden.
Shared Wisdom: An Effective Style of Leadership
Are there occasional (even frequent?) differences of opinion at your meetings? Do tempers flare? This resource summarizes a group discernment model for decision-making built on the principle that every person has a piece of the wisdom, but not all of it. Try it at your next meeting to help move you in a new direction.
The Three Stations: A Readiness Exercise
This 30-40 minute tool can be used as an ice-breaker activity at the beginning of a retreat, workshop, or other group time. Its meditative approach helps participants to clear their minds, to "do what they need to do" in order to become open and ready for their time together as a group.
Who? Me? - Women of Faith Making a Difference
Individuals and groups can use this 8-step process for addressing justice issues that affect women, children, and families. Learn how to gather information from those with firsthand experience, welcome new partners in your work, identify issues, and develop action plans. This program can be conducted over 6 sessions of about one hour each.
For these and many other programs just visit the Women of the ELCA
website at www.womenoftheelca.org or call 1-800-638-3522 ext 2741