This is Keith, and this is Ben, and this is Main Street Lutherans. Today we're going to talk about our experience at the festival of homiletics in Pittsburgh, but I thought we'd start by talking about what the actual preaching profession is like. You know, in particular for you, Keith, as a professional minister, how much preaching do you actually do as a pastor versus all the other stuff that you do?

Yeah, it's an interesting question. So I am an associate pastor, which means I'm on a ministerial team. And so we share the responsibilities of preaching. Like, we share a lot of things, and I preach about twice a month. We have this kind of rule of thumb that we use in scheduling us for preaching that Kevin, my colleague, who's the lead pastor, preaches twice to my one, so two to one. But then the reality of vacation schedules and other responsibilities, you know, tends to creep in, and so it actually ends up being, if not 50 50, probably more like 60 40. So, yeah, I preach. I preach about twice a month, typically.

Yeah. What other sort of stuff do you do in there, then?

Good golly, it's crazy to explain what the responsibilities of being a pastor are to anybody who doesn't have any context, but sometimes I even have to think about it a little bit. So in my particular role, I do a lot of writing and proofreading of other writing, you know, a lot of the communications that, that St. Matthew does, you know, for the congregation and the public kind of filter through me. So whether it's our bi monthly newsletter or weekly e blasts or our social media posts, I end up either being directly or indirectly involved in a lot of that. I also personally oversee a lot of teaching ministries in the congregation. So for adults, it's predominantly me and Kevin directly, you know, I've also supervised the staff who manage the faith formation of children and teens and families and that sort of thing, too. So my actual title being pastor for faith formation and discipleship, kind of says that, that, you know, I'm helping to oversee a lot of the developmental kinds of things that happen in the life of the congregation. And then, you know, then there's the pastoral care stuff, you know, visitation in hospitals and nursing homes and planning weddings and funerals in addition to regular Sunday worship. So that's about it. My preaching time when I do that probably takes typically, oh, about ten to 15 hours in a given week if I'm. If I am preaching that Sunday.

Yeah.

What about you as a. As a lay minister?

The way my internship is set up, I'm. I'm set to preach and or preside, that's another question for you too, is. But we'll get to that. So preaching as an intern, I'm preaching about once a month for this nine month thing. And so most of it will be at the church that I'm interning at at Unity Lutheran and Southgate. I'm being asked to go a few other places. So in July I'll be at a church in Dearborn, Michigan, and so kind of get a variety of that. When I started the LLM program, the licensed lay ministry program, I anticipated being on the list of supply preachers. So if a church was, you know, their, their pastor had gone on to a conference or a vacation or sabbatical that I could fill in, and they're synod, you know, guidelines for that. And so once I am, once I'm fully certified, that's an annual recertification process, by the way, I will be able to, in our mice in my Senate in southeast Michigan, be able to fill in for folks they can call me and I can, I can preside over the sacraments at the, at the church right now, every time I preside, I have to get a letter from the synod authorizing me for that place and time specifically. And so there's not really a problem getting that. But the congregation has to make that plan to make sure they have the letter available at the time. I don't know what the conditions would be where they would have to show that to somebody, but it's always good for the bishop to know that somebody who is a lay minister, who is authorized to preside over communion, but the bishop knows that that's going on.

Yeah. Our lutheran theology would say that anyone can preside over the sacraments, but our piety, the organization of our denomination, and most lutheran bodies around the world would say that for the sake of good order, you know, it's pastors who preside and or people that have been given that responsibility in a more limited way by the church denomination.

Right. And we've talked about, I think we've talked about it before, that ordained folks can. Are generally, you know, acceptable for presiding over service, whereas laypeople generally not. Now, as far as you, when you preach, do you preside?

No. In the way that pastor Kevin and I have typically done, it is one of us preaches for the weekend. We have two services on a Sunday and those are our only two services weekly right now. So one of us preaches and the other presides. So it just takes all of the liturgy for that service from the confession up through the creed and the prayers in the middle and the peace, and then presides a communion at the end, unless one of us is away, and then it becomes a one man show where I would. I preach and preside at both services. And that. That works out, too.

Yeah. And I think. I think most churches only have the one, and so that's probably the experience for most. So, yeah, I think that's what folks are used to.

Yeah. It's been tougher in different settings when you've got, you know, like, my first call, we had four pastors on staff, and when I first began, they were seriously in the practice of having every minister involved in every service in some way. And it was really weird. And finally, you know, kind of shifted away from that to more like, what, you know, what Kevin and I do here with just the two of us. But. Yeah. And then, you know, in congregations with. With one pastor who is, you know, typically the presiding minister also, then you often have more opportunities for lay people to be helping lead worship, whether it's, you know, reading the lessons, which we do here, too. But maybe with the prayers, maybe helping with the communion liturgy, helping distribute communion, that sort of thing.

Yeah, yeah.

Actually, we also, of course, have a deacon on staff as well. But because she's so wrapped up in our music ministry, she typically does not do a lot of leadership apart from that in worship, unless, again, one of us is on sick or something like that. And then she often developed a pinch hit, but she would not preside over the sacraments as a deacon. Again, same as.

The other thing that I put in the notes here is that sometimes I feel like I preach more at my day job at Greenfield Village, especially right now.

Talked about that. We talked about that at the festival a little bit. Why don't you share some.

We talked about it in a bar, and people were paying attention to it. Yeah, it was weird. Yeah. So, in particular. Well, I guess all three places that I'm working currently, I work at a. Well, I'm in Greenfield Village. We've got historic structures. One of them that I work in right now is a courthouse where Abraham Lincoln practice law. And I find myself talking to people about how important it is that Abraham Lincoln and the rest of the court system, not only that he became president and that he had a reputation of honesty to become president, but that the honesty that he had and the other people who had passed the bar that argued in front of that court district, the 8th Judicial Circuit of Illinois, that those people being known as reputable, honest, people earned the trust of people who were more likely to take out their disputes with violence. And so it's the trustworthy. Right. So I talk about that and explain to people why honoring the court system, why it's important those people have that reputation. The other two places I do are part of the black history story. And so I talk about a plantation from southern Maryland and talk about how the family that owned that plantation, how they used the economic and social system of slavery to disadvantage people and to their advantage and how they joined the lost cause movement after that. And I talk about the Maddox family from outside of Savannah, Georgia, and how institutional racism leads to them not being able to access the bank system and that their, their method of resistance is by staying on their land. And so these are, these are stories that, that are also important for us to be talking about in the church, at least as far as, well, even, even the judicial system story is probably something that we'll be talking about as we talk about christian nationalism and some of those other things. But these are, these are stories that are really important, and they are the mission of my institution, the Henry Ford. And so it is important that people get that message. And in a way, those messages are grounded in our mission of a museum as our sermons are in the gospel. Right. And so I feel like I'm preaching when I'm there.

Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot to be said for, you know, any, any role, any, any profession in which you talk for a living. Right. Whether that's as a teacher, as a presenter, as a pastor, as a politician. I was at an event before the festival. It was a fundraising breakfast for an organization that I'm part of, and one of the other members of the board stood up to speak. And really, what he was doing was introducing the next keynote, actually, the next person that was receiving an award. But he did so with a little five minute speech that, you know, made linkages between his own personal story and what was to come in this presentation, as well as what the person before him had just finished saying and what the person coming after him was about to say. And doing that in, you know, five, six minutes in a, in a really engaging, interesting way, is, is really quite a craft and takes a lot of skill and sensitivity and preparation. And so it's, you know, regardless of the subject, being able to do that well. And I know, Ben, that you do that well is really incredible and amazing. And then, you know, to put on that the burden of what we as christians would say is the most important story worth telling. Story of Jesus. You know, it's really a responsibility that ministers take very seriously. Hence the, you know, the need for an event called the Festival of Homiletics, which is really just a conference about preaching, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah. So we got to be there. This was my first time attending the festival since the pandemic. I had been there a few times in person prior to, and I attended, I think, once online. Being back was pretty awesome for me, personally. And then, Ben, for you, this was your first time being there, right?

It was my first time being there. I'd done the free. I actually just watched two sessions last year. I went to watch Tripp Fuller, and so I watched Bishop Michael Curry give his sermon, which was just absolutely stunning and sold me on the whole event, actually.

Yeah, yeah, I remember that, too.

Yeah. So this year it was last year it was in Minneapolis St. Paul, and this year it was in Pittsburgh. Not as many lakes, a lot more mountains, bridges and bridges and tunnels.

Yeah. Driving in Pittsburgh is really a three dimensional experience. You have to be aware of not only north, south, east, and west, but the vertical elements as well, because you make a turn, and suddenly you realize that you thought you were going to be on a road down there, and. No, you're on a bridge going over top of it instead.

That's right. I was traveling with somebody from up here in Michigan, and we decided to take the bus. They'd warned us that there wasn't a lot of parking around these churches, and so we. We took the bus from our hotel, and the bus had 30 stops in 20 minutes. It was. It was aggressive driving like I've never seen. And it was pretty neat. Only a 15 minutes drive, but it takes about an hour on the bus, so.

Well, and public transportation in Pittsburgh is complicated. There's, like, three different bus systems, let alone bus routes. Yeah, yeah, it was.

It was wild. And, of course, you know, both your hotel and our hotel were on the other side of the University of Pittsburgh campus and Carnegie Mellon. And. Oh, there was another one in there that I can't remember.

Cane is right alongside there. And then there's. Yeah. Cat. Cats. I don't know what to see. Well, it was this college I wasn't familiar with.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So all these colleges and all that. Yeah, it was pretty neat. So the theme was sustaining and nurturing the preaching life. So the focus, I think it's safe to say that the last several years have been difficult on preachers. I think we talked about it a bit outside of the sessions that folks actually, I was talking with Dale, the guy I drove with, a bit, how the pastor he works with is very connected to people, had just taken the call that he's in and had to be masked when he was with folks and had a hard time being out of, like, real contact with these folks as he moved into this church. And I think that was sort of the pain that this was trying to address, that preaching and pastoring and being nurtured in that has been really difficult over the last five or six years.

Yeah. And, you know, we can certainly say that with the caveat that we know it's not the only field that has been difficult, but, yeah, every field has been difficult, and yet that difficulty is felt in their own unique context. Right. Or in unique ways. So, yeah, for pastors, you know, not being able to be in physical proximity to your congregants, especially when they're going through very difficult things where either you're talking about the pandemic or someone in their family actually being sick or, you know, or just the run of the mill stuff like, you know, housing crises and job losses and all of that is really. Is really tough. And then, you know, like, our political climate in our country right now is challenging, and so being a person of faith, looking to speak into that is hard. It's draining, it's frustrating. And, you know, and so this theme was really timely for that. That piece as well, that compromise as well.

Yeah. And I guess we should. We should. You know, since we are about the ELCA, we should talk about the ELCA's affiliation here. Right. It's organized by Luther Seminary, which is an ELCA seminary, but I couldn't tell you how many of the actual speakers were ELCA folks. Obviously, the Luther seminary people were generally.

Yeah, yeah. I don't. I don't know either, actually, because, I mean, you made it to workshops that I didn't, and I don't know that. I think the opening preacher, Caroline Lewis, who was not scheduled to be the opening preacher, she's affiliated with Luther Seminary. But beyond that, the folks that I heard preach, by and large, are not Lutheran.

I mean, Otis Moss was the preacher the last morning at the wind church, and he's UCC in Chicago. A lot of the attendees were Presbyterian, and I think a lot of that is because the area of Pittsburgh we were in, or maybe Pittsburgh in general, is very Presbyterian Presbyterian seminary and all that. So every table I sat at had at least two Presbyterians whenever there was sort of a social thing.

Yeah. In fact, I don't know if you noticed, Ben, that there was a second presbyterian seminary that we drove past frequently getting to and from the venue.

Oh, I didn't realize that.

Yeah.

Yeah. Another interesting thing is that the. So this happened in two churches and a Presbyterian seminary called Pittsburgh Theological. But the two churches, East Liberty Presbyterian, was built with the funds from Aw Mellon, who was a former secretary of the treasury in the 1920s, was secretary of treasury when the stock market crash happened and the Great Depression began. And so it was a just immense gothic cathedral building, I think they said 1936. Truly anointed 35. Yeah. The other church was a little bit smaller, but had we not been in East Liberty the night before, the Calvary Episcopal church there would have seemed immense. Right.

And again, it is.

It's just enormous. And this event, had, they said, 800 people in person and 1300 people viewing online. And so it is just really. It would be hard to find churches that could fit, you know, the in person group, by far. But one of the amazing things about Calvary Episcopal is that they're also the site for Tree of Life synagogue that had the attack in 2018. And so they've been having their services in that church. And so the last morning, as I moved from one side of the church to the other to see. See the sermon better, I walked by the ark that contains the scrolls, the Torah for tree of life, and it was really touching. So the event itself made up of worship services that contain sermons and then lectures, and some of the people that gave sermons gave lectures. There were also workshops. There were. There were four sessions of workshops to each. So eight workshops altogether in a. In another venue that was probably more than half a mile away from the other churches. But simultaneously, each of the churches would have a service with a. With a sermon, and then would follow with. With a lecture, with about ten minutes to get between.

Yeah. And you can't tell the difference between the lectures and the sermons, you know, in terms of presentation and style and content. I mean, the only way to know.

Is that we sang or did, you know, some sort of prayers during. Before and after the sermons.

Yeah, I mean, they both tend to be very scholarly. They both tend to have a little bit of humor, a little bit of personal stories, and yet also clearly very focused on the good news of Jesus. And I was reflecting even as I was listening to some of these lecturers and thinking, wow, wouldn't it be great if some of these things could be more kind of interactive, you know, like a class in seminary? And I think. But you've got 800 people present in this enormous room. There's really no practical way to do that. You really are best served, format wise, by the traditional one person up in front, literally speaking nonstop for 60 minutes. It's just the format that works. Now, maybe there's a little q and a at the end if there's time, but it's really a very limited. It's a limited format of presentation because you're in a very limited space, despite its grand size. Now, the workshops, though, are more interactive. You attended some of those, Ben, didn't you?

Yeah, generally a little more interactive. And I just went to two of the workshops, and to some extent, they were a little more interactive, but they were more. I would say they were more like that. They had slideshows, which wasn't something we had with lectures. While both, both of the churches had screens, they really just showed the liturgy and pretty much what online viewers would see as far as being able to participate with what was going on.

Yeah, more like just some section headings, you know, what was happening in service, not any real content.

Let's see. Did you do any of the meditation or prayer times?

You know, I didn't. I mean, I chose my own kind of approach to this particular festival, and we can talk about that later on. So did you make it to some of the meditation?

I didn't. I was thinking about that later. I think my meditation and prayer time was praying that I would make it off the bus. Since it took an hour to get back, there really wasn't much I didn't want to miss. Well, we found out later that the bus, one of the bus lines that we took to get back to our hotel and ended at like 05:00 and so making sure to get hit that bus line just right so that you didn't get stuck trying to do this. It's a pretty big deal. If. Dale, if you're listening, I'm still praying for you. Recovering from that walk, he ended up walking the entire distance from. From the churches to the hotel one night. So sorry about that, Dale. We did do a little bit of the beer and hymns. That was a band I had never heard of, but apparently is a fan favorite of the festival called the flesh Pots of Egypt. One of the best band names I've ever heard.

Right. Yeah, they're really going to be famous just for that alone. The core member that most people are familiar with at the festival is Rolf Jacobson, who's a professor of, I think, Old Testament at Luther Seminary, and one of their frequent speakers. And so he plays guitar, and then, I don't know who the other members of this group are, but they're a bluegrass band that performs, you know, sort of like what they were doing for us was hymn. So they're doing, like, kind of bluegrass arrangements of familiar, whether it's, you know, kind of traditional lutheran hymns or american spirituals, you know, or even some of the more appalachian style music. It was pretty cool.

Yeah, the beer line was really, really long, and then they had food trucks outside, which is kind of cool.

Yeah, it was the long beer line that discouraged me from staying for very long.

We went. Now, I posted some video of that. If you get on Instagram or Facebook, you'll see some video of that. I didn't take very much, but. And you'll see a little bit of the different venues we were at. I tried to post a little bit each day, so you get a flip of what was going on there. So after hours and between sessions, there was, like, a vendor. Vendor hall in each of the churches that had some seminaries represented, some publishers. I did find a place that had albs. Probably didn't find any that would work for me, but pretty interesting. I had some interesting conversations with some folks there because they thought I was snatching some stickers when I was actually just taking the card. But we had a discussion of why I can't have a clergy sticker. You know, it would be a waste of my time to steal one because I can't even be called clergy. I'd be struck down if that were to happen. But they had places where you could buy stoles and all that sort of stuff. In each of them, a variety of book vendors. There was a clergy meditation organization that I got a back scratcher from. It's all about the swag after all, right?

Absolutely. Yep. Yep. What do you get? What do you get to take home for free from each table? They also did something that was kind of fun. I didn't do this, but I was intrigued by it. They had vendor bingo. So, at the beginning of the event, you got this sheet of paper laid out like a bingo card, and it had all the vendors kind of plastered on it. So you could go around and try to make a bingo with. Each vendor had a stamp, and you could stamp their name on your card. And if you got a bingo, there was some prize that you could go get from the. From the event, too. So that was close.

Yeah. And that vendor hall in East East Liberty, I don't know how many basements they had. So that was, like, the third or fourth basement down, it seemed. And apparently, the bottom basement has a bowling alley.

Yeah.

So I don't know how far down that is, but it seemed like we were getting close to the core of the earth.

Yeah. It was an insanely complex building to walk around in.

Yeah. Oh, and should add also Duolingo was based on the same, like, like a block away. And so it was my 365th day of doing my duolingo in a row. And I got my, I got my picture of my selfie with the Duolingo headquarters, so that's kind of nice. Serendipity.

And what language have you been working on, Ben?

I've been trying French.

Okay.

C'est la vie, I guess, right? Yeah. Oh, let's see. And then after hours, you and I snuck away after the beer and hymns to go have a bite to eat. This is a really nice area of Pittsburgh. Not like, fancy, but there were just so many restaurants and things right around there. I don't normally think of churches being in really, I don't know, social hotspot sort of areas. But this had, you know, several wood fired pizza places that I didn't, I didn't go to, but we went to a nice, I don't know, I don't know what you'd call that. Sort of a kind of a typical.

American style bar and grill.

Yeah. With music outside.

Yeah, right. Yeah. And, you know, lots of chains as well, but also lots of local places. And it was, it was very cool.

It was just, there was even, I even went to a, I don't know if it was CV's or Walgreens. I needed some stuff. And between the two churches, there was this urban CV's. There's even a two story aldi a few blocks away, which is kind of cool.

Yeah, yeah. I went into the Home Depot once just to kind of browse around a little bit, try to get right.

Yeah. In the middle of all this is a full sized Home Depot with a full parking lot. Just nothing. Nothing there had much of a parking lot. And then there's this Home Depot with this giant parking lot.

Yeah. So what was your favorite session at the event? Benchmark.

Oh, it, I mean, we're going to, we're definitely going to agree on this. Otis Moss, his sermon, which, you know, we won't, we won't linger on it, but you missed it. And then, and then the lecture that he gave after that were just, just so amazing.

Yeah, yeah. And really, you know, with, again, that, that theme of sustaining and nurturing the preaching life. You know, for me, what I was looking to do with this event throughout the week was just sort of be present and take it in. You know, there's, there's so many things going on back at home, whether it's at St. Matthew or in my personal life, that I just wanted to have a hiatus from and to simply be present, to kind of let the words of these, these fantastic speakers and preachers wash over me and, and, you know, kind of refill my cup, fill my spirit. And Otis Moss, absolutely, you know, did just that. And as I said, I've heard him before, so I was expecting that. But just, you know, it's amazing to me that this gentleman who has been preaching, you know, I don't know how long at this point, a couple of decades at least, can just continue to deliver this message of God's love in a way that sounds new every time, is just profoundly impressive. But also, you know, something that I profoundly appreciate every time that I get a chance to hear him speak.

Yeah.

And it just felt that way throughout the entire week with whoever was up in the front hearing their words and letting them just fill me.

Yeah. And one of the great things about this event is that the lectures and the sermons that are given in both churches, when you subscribe, when you either go as a in person attendee, or if you do it online and you pay for it, you get a record. You get all the recordings they have from the two churches. Right. So we can revisit those things and hopefully be reinspired. And you don't actually miss what you didn't get to. Right. So you get to see everything. And they're really top quality recordings, just fabulous. I've been going through those bit by bit. My wife is probably tired of it by now. And so that's kind of a takeaway we have from it. Right. I think the other takeaway I've got is that, and that's a literal takeaway. But the takeaway, one of Otis Moss points in his sermon was that we're on the same team. Right. This wasn't a lutheran thing. It wasn't a presbyterian thing. It wasn't a tec or the Episcopal Church thing. It was now, you know, to restrict a little bit. It is mainline churches really coming together. So there were people from American Baptist and that, but Fuller seminary was there, represented in the vendors and not, not somebody I expected to see there. But we are all on the same team, doing the same work of God. We just have some different words between us.

And, yeah, you also mentioned earlier about, you know, us, that this podcast is about the ELCA. So what does this mean for us? It's a reinforcement about that ecumenical nature of our understanding of who we are that we want to be at. You know, this is an event that does bring people together from all different kinds of traditions, and to have a moment to interact with them is important. You know, it's not only gratifying for the attendees, but it's also important about, you know, what these denominations are saying. By being present with one another in such a significant way, I think it also speaks to our understanding of the role of preacher. And pastor is, you know, someone who does have some, you know, scholarly background in this. You know, it's not just for anyone to, you know, sometimes you hear the. Just stand up and say, what's on your heart, pastor? It's like, well, you know, what's on my heart may not be all that relevant or interesting compared to what the text is in front of me or what the gospel is going to say. I read something from Amy Jo Levine recently, and she said with her seminary students, she would hear them say, well, I just read the biblical text. And then I listened to what the spirit tells me about it, and she says, well, let's give the spirit something to work on. So the notion that we've got, you know, scholarly teachings about, you know, what these books of the Bible mean and where they came from and what their context was and all of that, I'm not to say that any of the people, you know, Otis Moss aside, are biblical scholars, you know, I'm certainly not, but it's still a part of, you know, who we are, what we learn. I know. You know, you, Ben, as a lay minister, you've had more than one or two classes on. On books of the Bible and with theology and background and heritage.

Yeah.

And that's just a part of what our understanding of what the role of preacher is. And this festival speaks to that, too.

Oh, for sure. And this isn't a theology conference. Right. So it wasn't people debating our understanding of the Trinity, which is we're releasing this on the day before Trinity Sunday. And so it's not like we're debating doctrine and we're debating any of these issues. It's the delivery and like the theme said, right. Sustaining and nurturing the people that are preaching was really the focus for this time. Another takeaway I've got that just came to me is that I think the ELCA is in an interesting place in an event like this because we are in full communion, I believe, with every denomination that was represented.

I think that's likely true.

Yeah. And I discovered through this that the Episcopal Church is not with most of the others. And so we are a denomination that unites the seven sisters together, which is the mainline churches, that we bring them together in a way that maybe no other denomination can. And so that puts our seminaries sort of in a central place of unity. And I think that's a point of pride we should have as an, as the ELCA.

Absolutely. Yeah. It's a very good point, you know.

And that we don't. No single denomination has the answers, but we can't, if we can't commune together, we can't talk.

Yeah.

And so, and so I think that's an important part of that. So, so, you know, take pride, ELCA members.

Right.

And also we were sort of invited to do this for the Presbyterians because they think they need a podcast like this. And I think we've decided we're not going to do that. So, because they don't want to hear what we think of them, which isn't all bad. We just don't understand them the way they understand themselves.

So they don't need us Lutherans planning their presbyterian theology.

That's right. That's right. So I still don't know what a session really is, but we'll get there someday. All right, well, I think we've moved on to our catechism question. So the thing about our catechism question is, last episode, I was so excited that our friend Judy Tyler had won the question, I forgot to answer the actual, you know, give the actual answer. And that was that an apostle is meant to send out. That's what so. So apostle means to send out. Our last episodes question was that Mark's gospel, the shortest and earliest of the four, includes, so, a, Jesus family history, b, streaking, c, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, and d, the wise men. What does Mark's gospel include?

The answer is b, streaking, believe it or not. I mean, all of those things do come in the gospels, but only Mark contains an element of streaking and none of these others. So there is this moment when Jesus is arrested in the garden of Gethsemane that there is like a one line reference to a young man who, you know, witnesses these soldiers coming in to arrest Jesus. And the soldiers try to grab this young man, too, and he's wearing a linen robe, and he shrugs out of it and runs away. And there's even a tradition that's grown up around it that says, that maybe that is supposed to be mark, the author of the gospel. That that's like kind of how he knew what was going on.

It's like an Easter egg.

Yeah, right. Exactly. It's like an Easter egg. So about that, this week's question. Then again, since we're releasing this before Trinity Sunday, I thought we'd do something on the creed. And the question is the first article or the first part of the apostles Creed is a one God and three persons b the funny part c I believe in God the father almighty, creator of heaven and earth, or d I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me, and we will let you know that answer in our next episode. But if you think you know the answer, you can contact us. How then?

Well, you can contact us through all the things I'm about to tell you. Main Street Lutherans is hosted by Keith Fair and Ben Fot. You can reach us by email with the answers to your catechism questions or any questions that you have or suggestions. Our email is mainstreetlutheransmail.com dot. Our website is mainstreetlutherans.com. you can listen to episodes and share them from there. We're also on the social media sites as Main Street Lutherans. We're on Facebook, Instagram threads, and YouTube. You can listen to episodes on YouTube, too, by the way. That would make a great way to share it with your congregation during an adult education class. You can also call us to leave a message at 734-250-9554 that is the phone number for folk media productions, and the phone number is also in our episode notes if you want to look that up. The show is produced by Folk media Productions. Until next time, go in peace. Serve the Lord.

Thanks be to God.