Linda Staats's Blog (6)

I am posting up-dated resources to support the Book of Faith for Households of Faith focus. All of these are available for you to use in your congregations. A special thank you to Teresa Kaldor who compiled the top 52 Bible Stories list. She spent a great deal of time researching the most frequently included Bible Stories in storybook Bibles. Teresa is the past President of Lutheran Association of Christian Educators. She also promoted the Households of Faith Covenant at th… Continue

Jodi Lorenz, a member at Mt Cross in Payson, AZ has taken the "52 Bible Stories for Households of Faith" idea and created a tri-fold brochure (see PDF) to place in the pew for all and any to take. Others are using this as an evangelism tool by adding one's contact info and distributing in the neighborhood. And others are utilizing this as an opportunity on Rally Day to sign up families to make a pledge to read one story a week for the coming year. Thank you Jodi and all who keep tweakin… Continue

People continue to fall in love with the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally-Lloyd Jones per the comment below posted on my www.homegrownfaith.ning.com site. "Also I have bought 4 copies of the Jesus Storybook Bible. Have given two away.... sharing the third and keeping the 4th for myself. What a great Bible." My spouse and I recently attended a birthday party for a little boy on our street. Imagine our surprise when during Dick's conversation with someone he was meeting for the first time an… Continue

To know, hear, share, and be rooted in Scripture. If you have read some of my other comments in these BOF postings, you know that my spouse and I are big proponents for folks of all ages and all educational degrees reading Bibles written for children. Today is Dick's and my 41st Anniversary and I simply want to acknowledge one of Dick's gifts. He can talk at length with almost anyone - he is a natural evangelist. (One of those traits I have grown to appreciate!). And currently much of hi… Continue

An important aspect of the Book of Faith initiative is for us Lutherans to experience more fully the power of the Word and to allow the Bible to come alive for us for the very first time or anew. Each year when we celebrate Jesus birth, I am reminded of an insight into scripture that was a wonderful "Ah Ha!" for me many years ago and continues to support my passion for encouraging individuals and families to read and discuss scripture at home and in daily life. I have no seminary training nor a… Continue

Imagine what is possible if we begin to think about the places where people live: apartments, dorms, 5th wheels, park-models, casas, hogans, cabins, condos, group homes, high rises, assisted living centers, nursing homes, boats, tract homes, ranch, and farm-houses as more than zip codes and addresses on mailing labels but as places where people are equipped to become fluent in the first language of faith! "We need language in our ceremonies and for our stories. It's like a person's heart. When… Continue