Hungry people don't care about a football game in February

On Sunday, January 6th a group of six volunteers from Christ the King served dinner to forty-five people at Bozeman Community Café, a cooperative hunger program run by Gallatin Valley Food Bank and area churches.
The café is located in the old Frontier Pies Restaurant at 302 North 7th in Bozeman. Customers are greeted at the door by a host. Once seated they are greeted by a server, who takes their beverage order and informs them of the meal choices available that evening. Once the order was taken by the server, the “scoopers” promptly plated the meal requested. The six volunteers, after all the customers were served, cleaned the restaurant in preparation for service the following day.
One of our strongest social outreach ministries is hunger relief. As a congregation we actively support the food bank and the ELCA World Hunger Appeal through a monthly offering. We also collect canned soup and boxed cereal for the food bank throughout the year.

Helping to staff Community Café as it serves hungry residents of Gallatin County is a natural fit to what we already do.


Christ the King is scheduled to serve at Bozeman Community Café on Sunday, February 3rd from 4:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. We already have three caring adult volunteers. We need four more people to help serve. If you are interested in volunteering, please see Pastor Grant

What is Baptism?

Here's a great post from Dave Lose, who teaches preaching at Luther Seminary:

Do you remember anything about your baptism?


If you’re like me – that is, if you were baptized as a baby – the answer is probably “no.”

A second question: do you remember any stories about your baptism that your parents or others present have told you over the years. The two details of the day that I was told about were 1) that my baptism fell on Palm Sunday (1965 – yikes!) and 2) that my grandfather, a Lutheran pastor and missionary, performed the baptism.

I ask and tell all of this in response to one of the keen and vexing contradictions of our present life together in the church, a contradiction made up of two equally true elements. First truth: We confess that baptism is the pivotal event in the life of a Christian. Second truth: Most of us have no memory of our baptism, no clear idea of what it means or why it’s important, and no active sense of how it might shape our daily lives. In fact, I’d be willing to go so far as to say that most of us almost never think about baptism with the exception, perhaps, of when we see a baptism at church or one of our family members or close friends is having a child baptized.

So where do we go from here?  read more...

A Great Class in a Great Place

The Northern Rockies Institute of Theology, a ministry of the Montana Synod of the ELCA, offers a Midwinter Theological Conference each year, at the Izaak Walton Inn in Essex, near Glacier Park. This year, the title of the conference, to be held February 4th-6th, is "Being Lutheran in a Multi-Faith World," taught by Dr. Michael Trice. Here's a synopsis:

As Lutherans, we live in a country and world filled with a plurality of religions and perspectives. Conflicting voices contend for their place in church life and in the public square. What does it mean to be Lutheran in the midst of the challenges and opportunities within this changing landscape? In the whirlwind of pluralism and change, what does it mean to be a Lutheran, a Christian, a citizen and even a human being in our current age? Join us for presentations, and conversation. The retreat also includes time for worship, recreation and relaxation.


The registration deadline is January 7th. Check out the NRIT website for more information. And let us know if you plan to go!