2022 LCMS Youth Gathering Sessions. The LCRL and You – Responding to COVID-19, the Equality Act, and Religious Liberty Challenges in the Public Square

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2020 was an unprecedented year of challenge for the Church in America. Under the guise of the COVID 19 pandemic, the state, namely governors, mayors, and even the federal government, for the first time in US history challenged the Church’s “essentialness” to the culture in ways never imagined. Post COVID, in light of new legislation like the so-called “Equality Act” what have we learned? What are the ongoing challenges and opportunities for the church in the year 2021 and beyond? How might this be the best time to demonstrate the limitations of the necessary work of the state as we Christians, proclaim more courageously and clearly the uniqueness of the salvation that comes by grace through faith alone in Christ. Dr. Seltz speaks to this unique opportunity to put our Two-Kingdom voice of the “same yesterday, today, and forever” Lord to work for the sake of our mission as His people to the culture in which we live.

Bio: Previous to Seltz’s work in Washington D.C., He served as the Speaker of The Lutheran Hour® radio program, a position he has held since February 2011. As Speaker, now Speaker Emeritus, he served as the featured speaker on Lutheran Hour Ministries’ flagship Christian outreach radio program, with over 1 million listeners, airing on more than 800 stations across North America as well as on the American Forces Network. He served as the organization’s spiritual leader, evangelist, and ministry emissary with The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC). Before joining Lutheran Hour Ministries, Seltz most recently served as the Director of the Cross-Cultural Ministry Center, as well as professor of Theology at Concordia University in Irvine, California. He went to Concordia in 2000 to oversee the master’s program in Theology and Culture.With over 75 pastors now in the urban mission field during his tenure, His work prepared leaders from various cultures to launch ministries in a variety of cultural settings, including Vietnamese, Korean, Spanish, Indonesian, Indian, and African-American just to name a few. Prior to his work at Concordia, Seltz was the Executive Director of Life’s Journey Ministries, an urban, not-for-profit evangelism ministry in Manhattan, New York. He was also the founding pastor of the first new Lutheran mission start in New York City in more than 40 years (Church For All Nations-LCMS), started a mission church in Dallas, served as pastor of a large congregation in Tampa. Seltz holds a bachelor’s degree in New Testament-Biblical Languages from Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Michigan, plus a Master of Divinity in Systematics–New Testament and a Master of Sacred Theology in Systematics and a PhD in Theology and Culture, from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. He also was awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree from Concordia University Irvine for his urban work in Dallas, NYC, and Los Angeles, launching churches in the city as well as training over 75 candidates for LCMS-urban Ministry in the United States. He and his wife, Marie Yvette, have one daughter, Devin. This young convert was deeply impressed and determined to make these the rules of his life. From that day onward throughout his life he made it a rule to spend the first moments of his day alone with God and God’s Word. Before he read a letter, looked at a paper or even read a telegram, he went first to the Bible, that the first impression of the day might be what he got directly from God.

Youth and adult sessions recorded at the 2022 LCMS Youth Gathering in Houston, Texas. For more information about the Gathering, visit www.lcmsgathering.com.