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Dear Beloved Community of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries,

Grace and peace to you in the name of the One who meets us in prayer, in persistence, and in promise.

This last Sunday, we heard Jesus teach his disciples how to pray. In a world filled with uncertainty and longing, Jesus reminds us to turn to God with boldness and trust, saying, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” These words speak deeply to where we find ourselves as a community in this season, holding space for both what has been and what is yet to come, leaning into God’s faithfulness as we discern a new way forward.

With this in heart and mind, I am filled with gratitude to share that, after a thoughtful and Spirit-led search, the Board of Directors of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries has appointed Mr. Roberto Lara Aranda (he/él) as our Interim Executive Director beginning on September 1st, 2025.

Roberto brings a rare blend of strategic vision, faithful leadership, and compassionate presence. He currently serves as Director of Communications for Global Outreach at the Fetzer Institute, where he leads award-winning multimedia campaigns and narrative strategies that help build the spiritual foundation for a loving world in collaboration with organizations like the UN Religions for Peace and the Faith and Media Coalition. He also teaches in Columbia University’s Strategic Communication graduate program, mentoring emerging leaders in ethics, authenticity, and connecting mission to action.

Within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Roberto has held several prominent leadership roles, including Assistant to the Bishop for Communications and Development in the Metropolitan New York Synod, President of the Latino Ministries Association, and member of the recent Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church. He also serves on the ELCA Foundation Board of Trustees and with Select Learning, a nonprofit offering accessible theological education for lay leaders.

Get to know Roberto more:
Roberto is a proud queer immigrant lay leader, born and raised in México. His leadership is shaped by his deep commitments to LGBTQIA+ inclusion, anti-oppression, and communal healing. His courageous and transparent presence during key moments of institutional change, particularly in times of grief and conflict in the wider church, has made him a trusted voice of integrity and hope.

A fun fact: before his career in ministry and communications, Roberto was a professional ballet dancer. He credits his time on stage with teaching him discipline, presence, and timing, gifts that continue to shape how he leads with clarity and creativity.

Gratitudes:
We give deep thanks to the Search Committee, who faithfully led this process with compassion and diligence: The Rev. Mycah McNett (she/her), Dana Rademacher Hansen (they/she), The Rev. Erik Christensen (he/him), The Rev. Kelsey Green (she/her), Christopher Vergara* (he/él). Their work has been a testament to the spirit of Psalm 138: “On the day I called, you answered me; you increased my strength of soul.”

We invite the full ELM community to join us in celebration, prayer, and participation as we continue this sacred work of rebuilding. In the coming weeks, you’ll receive opportunities to meet Roberto and engage with him in the shared mission of ELM.

Special Invitation:
If you are attending the ELCA Churchwide Assembly or are in the Phoenix area, we invite you to join us for a Celebratory Toast with Roberto, hosted by Board Chair Rev. Mycah McNett. We will gather at 8:30 PM at Carcara in the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown. Non-alcoholic options will be available. Further celebrations and welcome events will be planned when Roberto officially begins his time with us after September 1st, 2025.

Thank you for being part of this journey, for your prayers, your presence, and your persistent hope. May this next season bring renewal, clarity, and joy in our shared call to proclaim God’s love and seek justice for all.

With deep gratitude,
The Rev. Mycah McNett, Chair
On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Bio: Mycah McNett(She/Her) is a lifelong Lutheran who hails from both Washingtons: the State and the DC Area. Being a Queer Lutheran is a major part of Mycah’s identity. Mycah is a 2023 graduate of United Lutheran Seminary and is ordained in the ELCA. Mycah holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from James Madison University, specializing in environmental and evolutionary fields as well as anthropology. After college, Mycah served as a Young Adult in Global Mission through the ELCA in Manchester, UK, and as a lay staff member at a Lutheran Church in Harrisonburg, VA. Currently, Mycah is located just outside Philadelphia, PA with her spouse, Alyssa, and three cats: Clem, Clio, and Minnie.

Search Committee Update

Overview of the Process:
In June 2025, the position of Interim Executive Director was publicly posted and widely circulated through networks aligned with ELM’s mission and values. By the June 30 deadline, the hiring committee had received several complete applications—enough to proceed with an interview phase.

After a thorough initial review, the committee determined applicants who met the criteria for further consideration and invited them to participate in interviews. All applicants were interviewed using a structured interview format designed to ensure fairness, transparency, and consistency. Each candidate was asked the same set of core questions, distributed in advance of the interview, which assessed competencies in the following areas:

• Executive Leadership and Organizational Stability
• Community Engagement
• Communications Strategy and Voice
• Donor Engagement and Development
• Mission Alignment and Cultural Sensitivity

Composition of the Committee:
The hiring committee was composed of a diverse group of ELM stakeholders, including current and former board members, BIPOC leaders, gender identity, historic roster, and Proclaim community members. The committee reflects a broad spectrum of identities, geographies, and leadership roles within the church and the wider LGBTQIA+ Lutheran movements. We are grateful for our search committee members: The Rev. Kelsey Green (she/her), The Rev. Erik Christensen (he/him), and Dana Radamacher-Hensen (they/she), as well as board members Christopher Vergara (he/él), and the Rev. Mycah McNett (she/her).

The Next Steps:
The interview and discernment process is still underway. We ask for your continued prayers and support as we listen for the Spirit’s guidance in identifying the leader who will serve ELM in this interim season. We look forward to sharing further updates as they become available.

Happy Pride, Beloveds!

The ELM Board is excited to share that after a period of listening and discerning, we have agreed upon a job description for an Interim Executive Director. The ELM Board took into account our current financial situation, the needs and desires we have heard from the Proclaim community and our supporters, and the current political climate in North America. We plan on contracting with a suitable candidate for 18 months, during which period we will be setting specific goals for ELM, our growth, and the ministry we participate in! Priority deadline for applications is June 30th, 2025.

What can you do to help? Discern if you would like to apply for the position, share the position availability, and above all, please pray. Pray for a potential candidate, for the hiring team, and for the ministry that our creator is calling us to in the next era of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries.
Interim ED Job Description and Application Process

You can find the Interim Executive Director Job Description and Application Process Here.

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Bio: Mycah McNett(She/Her) is a life-long Lutheran who hails from both Washingtons: the State and the DC Area. Being a Queer Lutheran is a major part of Mycah’s identity. Mycah is a 2023 graduate of United Lutheran Seminary and is ordained in the ELCA. Mycah holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from James Madison University, specializing in environmental and evolutionary fields as well as anthropology. After college, Mycah served as a Young Adult in Global Mission through the ELCA in Manchester, UK. Before attending seminary, Mycah served as a lay staff member in a Lutheran congregation where she worked with communication, youth, and young adult ministries. Currently, Mycah is located just outside Philadelphia, PA with her spouse, Alyssa, and three cats: Clem, Clio, and Minnie.

On Joel R Workin’s Birthday, we are happy to announce that the Workin Scholarship committee received five incredible applications for this Scholarship cycle. This Spring, the committee met, discerned, and decided to award two Working Scholarship awards.

This year’s honor comes with a $7500 grant to be used for the specified purposes of the fund: professional or spiritual development, or educational, ministry, or candidacy expenses.

Meet the awardees:

The Reverend Juan Manuel Arias-Perea (He,Him, Él) serves as the pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Weehawken, New Jersey. Originally from Cuba, Rev. Arias-Perea brings a rich blend of academic and pastoral experience to his ministry. He holds a Master of Divinity from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, a Master of Theology from the Mexican Theological Community in Mexico City, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado.

Rev. Arias-Perea is a committed public theologian whose work is shaped by a liberative and decolonial perspective, informed by his experiences in Cuba and his theological formation across Latin America and the United States. His writing and teaching often explore the intersections of faith, justice, and identity, with a particular focus on dismantling systems of oppression within and beyond the church. He believes that theology must be embodied, prophetic, and responsive to the cries of the marginalized.

In addition to his pastoral duties, Rev. Arias-Perea serves on the Board of Directors of Seafarers International House, reflecting his commitment to social justice and advocacy for marginalized communities. Under his leadership, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church continues to be a vibrant, bilingual, and multicultural congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), dedicated to creating an inclusive, welcoming community for all.

Seminarian Max Del Bosque (he/him) is a queer, bi, transgender, Latinè seminarian at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and candidate for ordination in the ELCA’s Southwest California Synod. Max has an MFA in Studio Art, and is a practicing visual artist and tenured art professor at Los Angeles’s Pierce College. He has taught painting workshops for Yale Divinity School’s Graduate Conference on Religion and Ecology and Harvard Divinity School’s Program for the Evolution of Spirituality, as well as painting workshops for San Francisco Night Ministry, and art workshops for transgender and gender diverse folk out of his studio, Miel de la Tierra Studio. Max’s art explores identity as it relates to gender, culture, and sacred connections to land and place.

The Joel R.Workin Memorial Scholarship was established in 1995 by the generosity of Joel’s family, colleagues and close friends to honor his life and legacy. Read more about Joel and the scholarship here. We are pleased to add Rev. Juan Manuel Arias Perea and Seminarian Max Del Bosque to this distinguished roster of previous Workin Scholars: Bishop Jen Rude, Rev. Matthew James, Rev. Julie Boleyn, Rev. Asher O’Callaghan, Rev. Laura Kuntz, Rev. Emily Ewing, Rev. Becca Seely, Rev. Gretchen Colby Rode, Justin Ferko, Christephor Gilbert, Ben Hogue, Rev. Leon LaCross, Jory Mickelson, Rev. Rachel San Diego, and Rev. Reed Fowler.

Please join us in congratulating these two awardees and in giving thanks for their continued witness as beloved members of Christ’s body.

Sincerely,
Rev Mycah McNett, Chair, Extraordinary Lutheran Board of Directors
Michael Price Nelson, Chair

Workin Committee members: Greg Egertson, Bishop Jeff Johnson, Michael Price Nelson, Rev. Becca Seely, Rev. Amalia Vagts, Rev. Becca Seely, Rev. Kelsey Green.
Donate to the Continued Ministry of ELM

Bio: Mycah McNett (She/Her) is a life-long Lutheran who hails from both Washingtons: the State and the DC Area. Being a Queer Lutheran is a major part of Mycah’s identity. Mycah is a 2023 graduate of United Lutheran Seminary and is ordained in the ELCA. Mycah holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from James Madison University, specializing in environmental and evolutionary fields as well as anthropology. After college, Mycah served as a Young Adult in Global Mission through the ELCA in Manchester, UK. Before attending seminary, Mycah served as a lay staff member in a Lutheran congregation where she worked with communication, youth, and young adult ministries. Currently, Mycah is located just outside Philadelphia, PA with her spouse, Alyssa, and three cats: Clem, Clio, and Minnie.

“Look, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” – 1 Corinthians 15:51   I’ve never been good at tending to plants. The rhythms of care that most require are rhythms that I find hard to keep in a way that keeps them vibrant and green. Most plants that come into my possession are ones I receive as gifts, including a jade plant gifted to me by a congregant after sharing this trait of mine as a sermon illustration (“These plants are unkillable!” they said. Reader, I did my best, but this plant did indeed eventually die under my care). Having received these verdant companions as a sign of friendship, there exists a guilt when my lack of a green thumb kicks in.   At the outset of this Lenten season, I was gifted with a helpful reframing of this guilt by means of the eponymous piece of Ash Wednesday. Being new to my call, I wasn’t sure if any of the congregations I served had any ashes on-hand to use, and I waited too long to order any from a church supply store. Luckily, a local ecumenical colleague was making her own from the palms of the prior year’s Palm Sunday observance and she was willing to share them with me. I’ve heard of such a practice before, but to be using ashes made from a leafy green that had served such an important purpose a year prior got me thinking about death and transformation in some particularly harmonious ways.   In particular, it sparked in my mind what Paul wrote in his first letter to the church in Corinth that is a recommended piece of our graveside ritual. For us and for the palms from Palm Sunday, death is not the end of the story but there is yet change to be seen and experienced! While this is a beautiful and comforting and mysterious reminder for us to steward on the grand scale of one’s life, I feel it also provides us with an invitation to look for the change and transformation in our midst when we’re in smaller seasons of change, liminality, and lament. Change can certainly take many forms: pruning to make room for new growth, decay to feed what will emerge next, and sprouts emerging from what was previously sown. From death, from ashes, from dust, from all of these arrives potential for transformation.   As we continue our wanderings through this season, it’s my hope that we’ll discover something within this season to help us find meaning in the in-between: a helpful change, some guiding meaning, a spark of gentle newness. Liminal spaces are difficult to hold, especially when they linger longer than we expect them to last. All the while, may we be buoyed by these reminders from Paul, the companionship of those on this journey with us, and ever-guiding presence of our loving Creator.

Bio: Anders Nelson (he/they) is the pastor of the Mabel/Henrytown Tri-Point Parish in Mabel, Minnesota where he’s been serving three congregations since December 2024. Their interests in ministry center around inviting communities to tell their own story, including recognizing how their story fits into the larger narrative God is weaving throughout all time and space. In his spare time, you can find Anders playing plenty of board games, singing and dancing on stage and off, and participating in way too many Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.

“We are treated as impostors and yet are true, as unknown and yet are well known, as dying and look—we are alive, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything.” – 2 Corinthians 6:8b-10     Beloved friends, colleagues, and siblings in Christ, grace and peace to you from God the wellspring of imagination, God our co-conspirator, and God the in-dwelling breath of our liberating creativity.     Deciding on a theme for this year’s season of Lent has proven to be a challenge. Surely you don’t need me to tell you that the times we live in are oppressive, terrifying, challenging, uncertain, and exhausting. If you’re like me, then every day seems to bring the challenge of trying to find the delicate balance between staying informed, spiraling into despair, and shifting my habits away from what they have been to better connect with organizations and efforts towards justice in my immediate community. Right-Wing movements around the globe have gained momentum and power. The 3-month old federal administration within my home, the USA, continues to wreak havoc upon the rights of its citizens while actively trying to legislate trans, queer, disabled, truly most people of marginalized identities, out of existence. The Earth, mother of us all, screams in anguish as human and corporate greed continue to upset the balance of the climate putting lives across the world in increasing danger. And, tomorrow, I will still need to clock in to my job in order to afford my ongoing survival. Strange and challenging times to exist in, indeed.     Given this surrounding context, I did not know how to approach the Lenten season. For so many years of my life I have equated the season with grief, stillness, solemnity, and solitude. A temporal and theological memento mori, as it were. But this year especially, I did not feel we needed yet another reminder of the world’s brokenness, our finitude, or simply another reason to grieve. That is, until I turned my focus towards the day that begins the season, Ash Wednesday.     This year, I found the imagery of dust and ashes to be a source of inspiration as well as a reminder of my mortality. Yes, we all return to the dust, but so also are we born from the dust in God’s very image. What we might consider the moment of life’s end, as a body returns to dust, is also in fact the moment of life’s beginning. While we might see a moment of decomposition void of life, that moment is also the time where microbes start to recycle nutrients back to the soil, (or dust!) which then go on to nourish fungi which feed bugs, slugs, and other crawling things which in turn feed the birds and animals and the cycle continues.     In this moment of unrest and upheaval, it seems that there is much in the world and in our lives returning to dust. To grieve those losses is certainly appropriate, and I also believe that imagining what life may spring forth next is equally appropriate. In Lent, as we turn inward and reflect, I invite you to join me in honestly accepting the realities of dust and ash: that all things come to an end, and that each end can and will generate renewed beginnings. From the ashes, let us grieve and imagine together.

Author Bio: Tom Gehring (He/They) is a pastor currently working as a chaplain in Metro Chicago providing spiritual care for individuals living with, or at risk for HIV. In their free time Tom loves to DJ, spend time outside, play lots of games (both video and board), read excessively thick fantasy novels, and work out with his lovely gym community. Tom has been serving as a member of ELM’s board of directors since October of ’23 and is honored to be a part of this ministry.

As we head into the holiday season – a time where we often gather with our loved ones around tables and share in delicious food, and one another’s company – I keep being reminded of the image of God’s endless table. 

 

For me, the image of the eschaton being like a large banquet, with a never-ending table with enough room for all, has been an image of hope, liberation, and admittedly, also confusion. This idea that no one is separate from the love and grace of God, that our God is one who craves wholeness with us, and among each other. That in God’s desired future, we might all share in a meal together, even those we might disagree with most vehemently in this lifetime. That one day, all of creation might be reconciled to God, and that can look like gathering over a meal that never ceases, full of joy, abundance, and pleasure. 

 

This image of a banquet table being a place of God’s salvation is a repeated metaphor throughout scripture, found in Isaiah 25:6-10, Luke 14:15-24, and Matthew 26:26-29, and so, has been a common metaphor in our practice of Holy Communion. In the Lutheran tradition, we trust that in the Eucharist, all are gathered in a mysterious union with God, to share in the sacrament with us, and that this is just a small taste of the feast that is yet to come. Every time we share in communion together, we are at the same time preparing for, and participating in, this endless table.

 

While thinking about this tradition, where the Kingdom of God is like gathering around a dinner table, I couldn’t help but be reminded of kitchen table polyamory. For those unfamiliar, kitchen table polyamory centers around the idea of polyamorous relationships being anchored in building community, sustaining relationships, and found family – so much so that a polycule (partners, and partners’ partners, and everyone connected in a great web of relationship!) might be so comfortable around each other, they hope to regularly gather around a kitchen table and share in a meal together. This style of polyamory is the closest definition for what my relationship structure looks like, where my partners (though not together romantically) are family to one another. 

 

Kitchen table polyamory is itself a metaphor for the style of relationship the practitioners of it want to achieve – that of closeness, proximity, and interconnected relationships. It is especially fitting then that the Kingdom of God is said to look like all of us gathered together, around food, around abundance, around love and around reconciliation. In this way, kitchen table polyamory is a fitting metaphor for how the Kingdom of God might one day look. To me, this is not a flowery or utopic metaphor – polyamory, just as life in the Church, or in any relationship structure, is not all sunshine and rainbows. There can be hurt feelings, grief, miscommunications, and more – and yet, we are drawn back to the table, drawn to being reconciled to one another, created by God to be in community.

There is something beautiful too about how a seemingly small, daily act that my family (and incredibly queer polycule) regularly does – sharing a meal together around a table – might in some way, be re-enacting or foreshadowing the world to come. In her book Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown talks about how our imaginations can aid us in thinking of our future, and I find it fitting here. “Science fiction is simply a way to practice the future together. I suspect that is what many of you are up to, practicing futures together, practicing justice together, living into new stories. It is our right and responsibility to create a new world.” (pg.19) Through living kitchen table polyamory in the flesh, we are practicing God’s New Day together. We are practicing what it is like to meet one another across difference and difficulty, to share in nourishing our bodies, and building lasting community – in this act, we are in fact, living and creating the Kingdom of God together.

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This blog post was lovingly submitted by an anonymous author and has full support of ELM’s Board of Directors. If polyamory, relationship anarchy, ethical nonmonogamy, or any other relationship structures are new and unfamiliar, we ask that you approach this topic with curiosity rather than judgment. Relationship structures outside of a monogamous paradigm are not for everyone, and that’s okay, but it is not okay to do harm to a sibling in Christ who finds it right for their relationship. Here are some further resources to check out if you are curious: The Triad Fam: a Polyamourus Christian Family or the book Polysecure by Jessica Fern.

By Bergen Eickhoff

I was almost too intimidated to join Proclaim.

I know that never feeling Queer enough is a part of the modern bisexual/nonbinary condition. Still, I was apprehensive to join an organization filled with living Lutheran legends. As a closeted Queer kid in small-town Minnesota, Proclaim members were the legendary defenders of a bright future I needed to believe in even though it felt far away. How could I now be in the same group as my heroes when I was just a mere intern pastor?

I joined Proclaim in 2020. So it’s safe to say that my experience in Proclaim has been marked by instability. Heartbreak. Hurt. Change upon change upon change. Like the wider Lutheran church, ELM and Proclaim are in a period of self-discovery. Gone are the days of growth and advancement. Here are the days of discernment, adaptation, accountability, advocacy, and change upon change upon change.

Self-discovery is a beautiful period of life, but one defined by pain. To quote Jimmy Eat World, “We’re in the middle of the ride.” Everything might be alright one day. But not until we endure a lot of struggle and the seemingly endless onslaught of questions and tasks of becoming. Being in Proclaim and ELM right now feels like writing the perfect poem but struggling to come up with an appropriate ending.

When I was discerning an invitation to become the Proclaim relator to the ELM Board, I felt that all too familiar intimidation returned. Proclaim, to me, seemed in need of healing. I am a pretty new pastor. I’m still pretty new to being out. What place did I have in that healing process?

I still don’t know what place I have in the healing process of Proclaim. But my discernment told me that I have a place in the self-discovery process. We in Proclaim, in ELM, in the Church, in the world, are being called to change. And as Queer people of faith, we trust that the call to change is a holy call from God in the Holy Spirit. When the world screams at us to be normal, we respond by changing with the brilliant and loud enthusiasm as a Lollapalooza crowd singing “Hot to Go.” When the church tells us it isn’t ready for our change, we reform it by sharing our transformation loud and proud like a Pride parade. We do this because we know our change is holy.

Now is the time for us to give attention to the millions of ways that each of us individually and collectively are being called by God to change. We’re in for some holy chaos in the middle of this ride. But leaning into that call to change is what we’ll need to do if we want to get to a place where everything might once again feel alright.

And that’s why I’m here. As the new Proclaim relator to the ELM Board, I am here to give attention to your call to change. Proclaimers, use my Calendly page to schedule a time to meet with me, and tell me about how you are called to change and how Proclaim or ELM is called to change in this moment. I promise never to minimize or put down your call to change. My commitment is to be a presence in the world of ELM and Proclaim whom you can trust to carry your call to change. And I will do everything I can to prove worthy of your trust by representing your call to change in ELM’s self-discovery process.

It’s going to take some time to heal. Especially as America is kind of a political tirefire right now. But I hope that these conversations about your call to change help make ELM and Proclaim a community that sustains and nourishes your vocation to love and serve in this weary world.

Please do not be too intimidated to find a time to talk. Please do not be too intimidated to dive into the middle of Proclaim and ELM’s questions of self-discovery. As we figure out how we’re called to change, we don’t need legend and heroes.

We need you. Thanks be to God that you’re here.

 

Peace,

Pastor Bergen Eickhoff (they/them)

 

P.S. If you’d like to get in touch with Bergen or the ELM board, please reach out via board@elm.org

Bio: Bergen Eickhoff (they/them) is a pastor, poet, and mercenary pianist living in Tacoma, Washington. They currently work in Children, Youth and Family ministry in Olympia, Washington, where they enjoy great Music and better coffee. They are bisexual and nonbinary, and love to be loud about both of those identities. They have been a member of Proclaim since 2021 and currently serve as the Proclaim Relator To the ELM Board. You can find their writings on their Substack pages (Standard) (Bible Rewrite Project). Go be Queer!

Those of us reading this in the United States have a pretty big responsibility today. We have stressed over the election for months, prayed about it, and maybe talked about it with friends and family members.

As the hours pass today, and more and more of us have completed our voting duty or voted early by some means, all that is left is the waiting.

As Christians, we have seasons when we contemplate waiting intentionally. Even though the stakes feel high, like we are in the midst of Good Friday, observing a kind of Holy Saturday Vigil, or approaching the tomb early at sunrise…

I wonder if this is more like how we wait in Advent?

In the comforting night. Contemplating what the deeper meanings of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love might really mean to a weary people. Contemplating more than the birth pangs of a newborn baby, but the birth pangs of a whole people. A whole people delivered like how the Hebrew people were delivered from Egypt, or the Judeans living under colonial Roman rule.

Salvation did not come to all people through a political candidate in the time of Jesus, and it will not come through this election today. The grace, love, and peace of God remain the foundation we stand upon.

As people of faith – we put our trust in Christ Jesus, the one who calls us to love God and love our neighbors. Now, I am not saying don’t go vote. I hope you already have! And as we vote, we remember that we follow the one who restores us into community. The one who heals. The one who forgives. Who reconciles. Who brings us to new life.

Whether the election is called today, tomorrow, or legal proceedings drag this out to the very last minute up to the inauguration, may we know we are not alone in the waiting.

I pray you have already started the steadfast work of cultivating your network – the network of loving support – the kind that James Baldwin writes about – so that even when we do not feel like we are shining the light of Christ as brightly as we could be, our light together radiates.

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About this author: Mycah McNett graduated with honors in Biblical and Lutheran studies from United Lutheran Seminary. She was called as the second pastor at Saint Luke Lutheran Church in Devon, PA in the summer of 2023. Before seminary, she served in church communication and youth ministry roles in Harrisonburg, VA, and was an ELCA Young Adult in Global Mission participant. Since 2022 Pastor Mycah has served on the Board of Directors for Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries and is an active member of the Proclaim Community for LGBTQIA+ Lutheran Rostered Leaders. Pastor Mycah lives in Downingtown with her spouse, Alyssa, and three cats, Minnie, Clio, and Clem.

“Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries anticipates a church in which queer leadership is valued, empowered, and celebrated: queer-led ministries are dynamic and thriving; all marginalized communities are liberated and honored, and justice flows from the sacraments as they overwhelm us and bring us to life”

As the liturgical calendar closes in on the end of another year, and as I continue in my service as a board member in this season of ELM’s ministry, I cannot help but reflect upon the arrival of All-Saints Sunday. Whenever I think of the saints throughout history as well as those in my personal life, one thing that stands out to me is the way they all rose up in their particular context, to boldly live out lives of faith rooted in the grace and peace of our Creator. From the bold witness of members of the early Jesus-movement, to family and friends whose lives leave a lasting impact upon us, I am perennially struck by how vast the cloud of witnesses is, and how fortunate we are to remember, honor, and reflect on the impact of their lives.             ELM also has its own cloud of witnesses, as it were. There is certainly no shortage of saints who boldly and faithfully committed themselves to the work of living out God’s love even when the systems and powers that be actively resisted their efforts. Leaders, volunteers, witnesses, and allies, each a precious and beloved child of God, rose to the occasion of their specific context and showed the Church through their very lives how expansive, how inclusive, and how radical the love of God truly is. It is for the historic and ongoing witness of these saints that I give thanks today.             And, now, ELM finds itself in another specific time and place. In a recent meeting, the current members of ELM’s board partook in a ritual of recommitment to this storied and important ministry. In this ritual, we spoke aloud our intentions to stay committed to the vision, direction and values that have always been at the core of this ministry, while prayerfully letting go of what was not serving us in our endeavors. In this current moment, the board’s efforts are focused on: making expedient progress in the process of hiring a new director, working to lock down the day-to-day operations of ELM so when a new director is hired, they can transition into their position smoothly and easily, and return the board to the work of visioning and guiding the direction of ELM’s ministry.             In all of this work, we continue to follow the Spirit’s guidance towards a church where queer leadership is valued, celebrated, empowered and normalized. We anticipate a churchly reality where marginalized communities are liberated and honored, and the radical, world-changing justice we encounter in Christ through the sacraments may imbue us all with new life and new passions to boldly step into this moment as faithful followers of the One called Love.

Bio: Tom Gehring (He/They) is a pastor currently working as a chaplain in Metro Chicago providing spiritual care for individuals living with, or at risk for HIV. In their free time Tom loves to DJ, spend time outside, play lots of games (both video and board), read excessively thick fantasy novels, and work out with his lovely gym community. Tom has been serving as a member of ELM’s board of directors since October of ’23 and is honored to be a part of this ministry