Every once and awhile you can’t help but feel that God is active and up to something. For me, that really happened this past week as the Spirit moved with, through, and in the Nebraska Synod Assembly in Kearney, Nebraska.

The Nebraska Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America officially gathered in assembly June 2-3, 2023. We gathered together under the theme, “Go and…” It’s drawn directly from this past weekend’s gospel lesson from the end of the Gospel of Matthew where we hear the familiar commissioning from Jesus, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20, NRSV).

This “Go and…” theme launched at assembly, but it will shape our year ahead in the Nebraska Synod. As a synod together, we are embarking on a year-long focus to “Go and…” inviting one another to be part of this call to GO, and lean in as God’s people who are called, gathered, and sent to “Go and…” The overall theme has twelve intentional focuses that we invite all disciples of the Nebraska Synod to join in with, as together we will go and: pray (June); listen (July); share your story (August); serve with neighbors (September); ask (October); be honest (November); be present (December); rest (January 2024); have the conversation (February 2024); be intentional (March 2024); tell the story (April 2024); and be church (May 2024). I’m so excited about what this might mean and what together we might discern and discover about what God might be up to and inviting next.

To help expand our ideas and conceptions of this theme, we heard from my Director for Evangelical Mission (DEM) colleague from the New Jersey Synod, the Rev. Maristela Freiberg, who served as our keynote presenter and shared about their synod’s resources similarly created around the ideas of “Go and…” The New Jersey Synod’s focus areas were a bit different than what we have discerned to focus on here in Nebraska, but they have helped shape our planning and resources which we will be curating and creating here too.

We also heard powerfully from our ELCA churchwide representative, the Rev. Christopher Otten, Assistant to the Presiding Bishop as Director for Chaplaincy. He connected the “Go and…” theme with the larger call and challenge we all share, to “Go and love!” Which really is the umbrella for our call to go and…

Bishop Scott Johnson presented his first Bishop’s report as Bishop to the whole synod, and he did a great job of outlining the first year of discernment and the steps we’re taking as church together to lean into what God is inviting next. I greatly appreciated his emphasis on staffing decisions, Emmaus: Lifelong Learning, the Vitality Initiative for Congregations, and his gratitude for all who were gathered for assembly and for all the disciples and congregations who are the Nebraska Synod and who make so much great ministry happen and possible as we are the church together.

So what might be next? Where will the year ahead lead? First, I am very excited to see where the “Go and…” theme might lead us. For more on our ideas and plans, visit the synod website here. There are many resources already available, and more will be coming soon. Some of the available resources include: full “Go and” theme summaries for each month of the theme; stewardship preaching ideas for the theme for the months of September 2023-May 2024; and even fall stewardship campaign tips related to the theme.

By the end of the summer, synod staff colleagues and myself have promised to have created and curated plans for mid-week Advent and mid-week Lenten resources and worship related to the “Go and…” themes for the year ahead. I am not sure yet what they will center around, but I am imagining the Advent series will especially lean into the December focus of “Go and be present,” and will likely include a suggested Longest Night/Blue Christmas order of service which can be adapted for the final mid-week worship of the season. I am also anticipating the Lenten focus will include at least one or two weeks wrapped around the “Go and be intentional” focus, so as to lean into our identities and purpose related to being disciples and followers of Jesus. We’ll see what emerges related to both of these ideas in the next couple of months.

I am also super excited to continue to see and sense what might be emerging with and through the Nebraska Synod’s Vitality Initiative for Congregations. Bishop Johnson alluded to this in the first video above in his report. That report included a short video snippet from Pastor Tim Koester about St. Michael Lutheran’s experience through the Vitality Initiative. St. Michael was part of the first cohort of the vitality initiative which included eight congregations from across the synod. The second cohort is currently forming, and based on the responses out of assembly it will likely be bigger than the first one.

God is really up to something, and to see disciples and congregations lean in through this process and journey excites, inspires, and gives me great hope. Together we ponder big questions of the faith, listen, wonder, and experiment. Questions pondered include: Who are we? Who are our neighbors? What might God be up to? And what might God be inviting next?

As we “Go and…” we invite you to join us and the whole Nebraska Synod in this year-long focus. Share your experiences with the hashtag #GoAnd, and let us know what creative ideas are emerging by emailing GoAnd AT nebraskasynod.org.

Additionally, this fall there will be another cohort offering of “How Then Will I Lead?” This may be the last offering of this course in its current structure, so if you are a leader in the Nebraska Synod and have not yet had the experience, or if you are a leader who has and knows of colleagues who need to experience it, please register and share this news. You don’t want to miss out on this opportunity which many ministry leaders have said is a “game changer,” and “the best continuing education money can buy.”

I’m excited for what God might be up to and inviting next. And I hope you will join me and the whole Nebraska Synod as together, we “Go and…” in the year ahead.