Today’s seminar focused on one of the most foundational documents of Martin Luther entitled “Martin Luther’s Treatise on Christian Liberty” or “The Freedom of a Christian.” The lengthy document can be summed up in two sentences:

While these two seem to be diametrically opposed to each other, Luther goes to great detail explaining how we are first set free by God, who gives us faith to believe and trust in God. In doing so, we come to know that it is by God’s doing, not ours, that we are saved.   Because we are free, we are not made right by doing good works. But we DO good works out of love and obedience to God. Good works are not done to gain approval of God, but rather in response to our relationship with God.    We spent the whole day in this text. For me, it is a great opportunity to revisit these works with my colleagues from around the world. The conversations have been insightful and helpful.

Dhanaraj serves the Lutheran Church in the southernmost part of India. There are 12 Lutheran church bodies in India. In his church, there are about 1000 families, and they celebrate about 100 baptisms a year. Dhanaraj loves his church wholeheartedly, because the church gave him an education and taught him the love of God. He gave each of us a wooden medallion with a Bible verse written in his native language.  

Isak is from Namibia. He lives in the city of Windhoek. The churches in town worship about 1500-1800 each week, and the national church has grown about 13% over the past six years. 39% of the population are members of the national church.  Isak loves being a pastor, and he is thankful that his church is a singing church.