Lutheran Bishop To Speak

Bishop Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, will visit Arkansas for the first time Nov. 4.

Hanson, who will preach at the 8, 10, and 11:15 a.m. Nov. 4 services at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, 2925 Old Missouri Road, was invited to visit the state by the youth of the church, said Clint Schnekloth, pastor of Good Shepherd.

Hanson’s visit to Northwest Arkansas this month also is in recognition of the new missions under way through the synod and Good Shepherd. The Neighborhood Church in Bentonville is a new mission start of the ELCA within this past year. Good Shepherd Lutheran Church is in the process of calling a second pastor, titled a Pastor of New Communities, with the goal of establishing new faith communities in Fayetteville and Northwest Arkansas that reach new groups of people with the gospel of Christ.

Bishop Hanson said at a recent ELCA Conference of Bishops Gathering that congregations are committed to being in a process of “renewal that begins with worship,” and to planting new congregations “in all kinds of new ways and new contexts.” He added the ELCA has 343 ministries now under development, with 30 percent of them among new immigrants, those who live in poverty, those who are homeless and others inrural areas and suburbs.

Hanson, whose off ice is in Chicago, has served as presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America since 2001. He was elected to a second six-year term in 2007. From 2003 until 2010, he was president of The Lutheran World Federation. He has traveled widely throughout the world, sharing a confident hope in God’s promises and a vision of the joyful freedom in Christian community and mission.

The ELCA, the seventh largest religious body in the United States, is made up of more than 10,000 individual congregations across the United States. It is divided into 65 synods, each led by a synodical bishop. Good Shepherd Lutheran is a member church of the Arkansas-Oklahoma synod. The ELCA is the largest Lutheran denomination.