Prayer Ministry Group
All are welcome to join! Prayer Ministry meets on Mondays via Zoom, from 7:00 – 8:00 PM.
Contact [email protected] or (612) 377-5095
Wednesday Morning Bible Study
Pastor Haug leads the morning bible study group in the Library & via Zoom at 10:00 AM Wednesdays.
Women’s Bible Study 2024-25 Program Year
The Women’s Bible Study meets the first Thursday of each month 7:00 – 8:30 pm, in the Library.
The 2024-25 Sessions begin September 5.
This season’s text is Esther: It’s Tough Being a Woman – Bible Study Book, by Beth Moore.
Dates include: SEP 5, OCT 3, NOV 7, DEC 5, JAN 2, FEB 6, MAR 6, APR 3, & MAY 1
Moore provides a personal study experience five days a week plus viewer guides for the group video sessions of this in-depth women’s Bible study of Esther – a profile in courage. Join Beth in a very personal examination of this great story of threat and deliverance as she peels back the layers of history and shows how very contemporary and applicable the story of Esther is to our lives today.
If you’ve ever felt inadequate, threatened, or pushed into situations that seemed overpowering, this is the Bible study for you. Just as it was tough being a woman in Esther’s day, it’s tough today. This portion of God’s Word contains treasures to aid us in our hurried, harried, and pressured lives.
Contact [email protected] or (612) 377-5095
Growlers & Theology
Following the model of Luther in his home in Wittenberg, Germany, Pastor Haug leads a monthly gathering on the Patio or in the Library on Thursday evenings.
Dates include: SEP 12, OCT 10, NOV 14, DEC 12, JAN 9, FEB 13, MAR 13, APR 10, & MAY 8.
Priscilla Circle
Have you wondered what the Priscilla Circle is all about? Our focus is on knitting and other crafts which we donate to bring happiness (and warmth) to others. We do simple things that are easy, but have members who are happy to help when needed.
Check the bulletin board in Fellowship Hall for additional samples of our work.
We meet the first Saturday of each month, 9:30am, on the Patio, in the Christy Room or at a member’s home.
Contact [email protected] or call (612) 377-5095.
LOTI Book Club September 2024 – May 2025
Meets once a month on Friday at 5:00pm at the home of Debra Gilroy.
Contact [email protected] or (612) 377-5095
Join us! And bring a snack to share if you like…
The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich
September 27th
Winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
New York Times Best Seller
Washington Post, Amazon, NPR, CBS Sunday Morning, Kirkus, Chicago Public Library, and Good Housekeeping Best Book of 2020
Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, DC, this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.
Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis
October 25th
A repackaged edition of the revered author’s spiritual memoir, in which he recounts the story of his divine journey and eventual conversion to Christianity.
C. S. Lewis—the great British writer, scholar, lay theologian, broadcaster, Christian apologist, and bestselling author of Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many other beloved classics—takes readers on a spiritual journey through his early life and eventual embrace of the Christian faith. Lewis begins with his childhood in Belfast, surveys his boarding school years and his youthful atheism in England, reflects on his experience in World War I, and ends at Oxford, where he became “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.” As he recounts his lifelong search for joy, Lewis demonstrates its role in guiding him to find God.
Mr. Ives Christmas, Oscar Hijuelos
November 22nd
A moving work from a Pulitzer Prize-winning author concerns the loss of faith endured by Mr. Ives, a businessman whose world is shattered when his son, who is studying for the priesthood, violently dies at Christmas.
Italian Shoes, Henning Mankell
January 31st
From the bestselling author of the Kurt Wallander series comes a touching and intimate story about an embattled man’s unexpected chance at redemption.
Many years ago a devastating mistake drove Fredrik Welin into a life as far as possible from his former position as a surgeon, where he mistakenly amputated the wrong arm of one of his patients. Now he lives in a frozen landscape. Each morning he dips his body into the freezing lake surrounding his home to remind himself he’s alive. However, Welins’s icy existence begins to thaw when he receives a visit from a guest who helps him embark on a journey to acceptance and understanding. Full of the graceful prose and deft characterization that have been the hallmarks of Mankell’s prose, Italian Shoes shows a modern master at the height of his powers, effortlessly delivering a remarkable novel about the most rewarding theme of all: hope.
Nine Parts of Desire, The HIdden World of Islamic Women, Geraldine Brooks
February 28th
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER – Pulitzer Prize winning author presents the stories of a wide range of Muslim women in the Middle East. As an Australian American and an experienced foreign correspondent, Brooks’ thoughtful analysis attempts to understand the precarious status of women in the wake of Islamic fundamentalism.
“Frank, enraging, and captivating.” – The New York Times
Nine Parts of Desire is the story of Brooks’ intrepid journey toward an understanding of the women behind the veils, and of the often contradictory political, religious, and cultural forces that shape their lives. Defying our stereotypes about the Muslim world, Brooks’ acute analysis of the world’s fastest growing religion deftly illustrates how Islam’s holiest texts have been misused to justify repression of women, and how male pride and power have warped the original message of a once liberating faith.
As a prizewinning foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Geraldine Brooks spent six years covering the Middle East through wars, insurrections, and the volcanic upheaval of resurgent fundamentalism. Yet for her, headline events were only the backdrop to a less obvious but more enduring drama: the daily life of Muslim women.
A Single Shard, Sue Park
March 28th
Newbery MedalWinner, 2002
Tree-ear is fascinated by the celedon ware created in the village of Ch’ulp’o. He is determined to prove himself to the master potter, Min—even if it means making a solitary journey to present Min’s work in the hope of a royal commission . . . or arriving at the royal court with nothing but a single celadon shard.
Surprised by Grace, Tullian Tchividjian
April 25th
God’s compassion and pardon are utterly shocking in their lavish abundance—that’s a lesson God himself pounded into the epic life-story of one man who kept resisting in whatever way he could. Surprised by Grace retells that man’s true story—in a gripping presentation that will open readers’ eyes wider than ever to God’s relentless, purposeful, and inexhaustible grace.
The man’s name isn’t new to anyone. It’s Jonah, the famous Old Testament prophet. This fresh unfolding of his story seeks to recapture the staggering effect it had on those who first encountered it so many centuries ago—the same shock effect that’s desperately needed today among those who think they know God’s heart far better than they really do.
In a powerful journey through unforgettable events and imagery, Surprised by Grace reveals how relentlessly God pursues rebels (a category that ultimately includes everyone), though he has every right and plenty of reasons to give up on us all.
Peace Lika a River, Leif Enger
MAY 30th
A “reminder of why we read fiction to begin with” (San Francisco Chronicle), Peace Like a River is Leif Enger’s extraordinary debut novel—a heroic quest, a tragedy, a love story, and a haunting meditation on the possibility of magic in the everyday world—with over one million copies sold
Raised on tales of cowboys and pirates, eleven-year-old Reuben Land has little doubt that miracles happen all around us, and that it’s up to us to “make of it what we will.” Reuben was born with no air in his lungs, and it was only when his father, Jeremiah, picked him up and commanded him to breathe that his lungs filled. Reuben struggles with debilitating asthma from then on, making him a boy who knows firsthand that life is a gift, and also one who suspects that his father is touched by God and can overturn the laws of nature.
The quiet Midwestern life of the Lands is upended when Davy, the oldest son, kills two marauders who have come to harm the family; unlike his father, he is not content to leave all matters of justice in God’s hands. The morning of his sentencing, Davy–a hero to some, a cold-blooded murderer to others–escapes from his cell, and the Lands set out in search of him. Their journey is touched by serendipity and the kindness of strangers–among them a free spirit named Roxanna, who offers them a place to stay during a blizzard and winds up providing them with something far more permanent. Meanwhile, a federal agent is trailing the Lands, convinced they know of Davy’s whereabouts.
With Jeremiah at the helm, the family covers territory far more extraordinary than even the Badlands where they search for Davy from their Airstream trailer. Sprinkled with playful nods to biblical tales, beloved classics such as Huckleberry Finn, the adventure stories of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the westerns of Zane Grey, Peace Like a River unfolds like a revelation..