People are in fact striving for meaning and spirituality. The Rev. Asha Mary George-Guiser, assistant to the bishop for the ELCA's Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod, preached at the closing worship. Jesus is on-line, all the time. The Rev. Barbara Berry-Bailey, pastor for Trinity Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, and Lori Claudio, assistant to the bishop for the ELCA's Metropolitan New York Synod, served as the conference's Bible study leaders. What people long for and look for in Jesus Christ is compassion and community.
People look for the bread of compassion and the wine of community.
Christians are different because Christ is in their life. A successful democracy desperately needs religion. God doesn't want us to live our faith just for ourselves. ELCA congregations and synods were honored in a communication and evangelism award banquet at the conference. We are different people than before we were Christians.