Missionary at Large Update – End of Year 2023

By Paul Arndt missionary at large

Blessings to you as we enter the Advent and Christmas season of 2023 and a new year in 2024.

How quickly the years pass! The grass may wither and the flowers may fall but the Word of the Lord and the Lord of Word remain forever. (Isaiah 40:8)

It is hard to believe that this upcoming year will mark five full years of being deployed as a Missionary at Large through East Bethlehem Lutheran Church, in Detroit. Each year has had its share of changes, challenges, and joys and the Lord is ever abundant in the giving of all of His gifts through Jesus.

Through the Christ child, God and sinners are reconciled and now we are dear and beloved children of the Heavenly Father. Praise the Triune God from whom all blessings flow!

This dark world and the spiritual forces of evil may rage against us, our families, and the Church, but the Lord is ever faithful, and the gates of hell cannot and will not prevail (Matthew 16). The Triune God protects and provides for His Church and gives the abundant gifts of His Spirit so that we might be able to proclaim the Gospel and “teach the devil to death”.

Thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and gracious support of the Missionary at Large position throughout the years. Below is an update of the work in 2023 and some exciting opportunities for 2024.

Serving Peace Lutheran in Detroit on Sundays

I continue to serve as a vacancy/interim pastor for Peace Lutheran Church in Detroit.

When Peace lost their pastor in February of 2023, Pastor Asaph James, the circuit visitor for the Detroit Area churches and brother pastor at East Bethlehem Lutheran Church, suggested that I consider filling the vacancy. Since there were two of us serving at East Bethlehem, it seemed wise for me to help Peace during their time without a full or part-time pastor.

I started to preach in Lent of 2023 and plan to help them into the first part of 2024. It has been a blessing for me to lead worship, preach the Lord’s words, and administer the Sacrament of the Altar every Sunday.

They may be a small flock, but they are faithful.

We have had some wonderful moments celebrating Easter, the Lord’s Ascension, Pentecost, Reformation, and All Saints Day. We’ll look forward to the Advent season and the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus on Christmas.

Please commend Peace (and all of the Detroit churches) into the Lord’s hands. They are under-resourced ministries and need the wisdom of Solomon to decide how to proceed with the mission work in the city of Detroit

Ekklesia Digital Resources and Classes

I recently logged into the analytic database of my email service provider and digital course platforms and noted the following statistics:

  • There are 735 individuals who have subscribed to my email list.
  • They are scattered across the following countries:  the United States, Canada, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Taiwan, Korea, Kenya, Nigeria, Burundi, South Africa, Finland, Great Britain, Germany, Jamaica, Netherlands, and other countries listed as “the European Union”
  • I currently have 281 individuals enrolled in 13 different classes in my “eXPlain it” digital curriculum portal.
  • You can sign up for the Book of Revelation series here.
  • You can sign up for the With Intrepid Hearts (study of the Formula of Concord) here.
  • Since beginning in 2019, I have created 1210 pieces of digital content

Now, thanks to technology, all of the content that I have ever created over the past five years can be queried, searched, and accessed through some amazing software tools. This is an amazing research gift for me and I think it will be a wonderful teaching and learning resource for you.

For example, in 2023 I started teaching two intensive digital courses:  The Book of Revelation and With Intrepid Hearts (a study of the Formula of Concord). The number of videos piled up quickly and the material was/is packed with details and in-depth commentary and discussions.

I soon found out that if I didn’t have some way to help learners access the content in an easy and simple way, they might get frustrated with the amount of material and give up the study.

Every teacher knows that the number one obstacle to learning is …

… students feeling overwhelmed.

Have a Question? My New Chat Box Will Help!

And so …

I took advantage of modern technology and created my own digital chat box. With the help of some software tools, I loaded all 1210 pieces of my content into a digital library (“the brains”).

Then I set up a query and search system so that you can ask a question in the chat box and, while you wait, the software would scroll through all of my content and see if it could find an answer in one of my videos, as well as provide the exact reference source for further study.

And wouldn’t you know it … it worked!

I have to say that the chat box is an amazing technological tool and a wonderful aid for teaching and learning.

For example, if you ever heard me talk about the “rapture” or “original sin” or the “imprecatory Psalms” in one of my videos but couldn’t remember where to find it, now you can just type the query into the chat box and you’ll receive a text answer with the actual video references for you to watch.

Here are a couple of prompt questions that I created. You can just type them into the chat box query line and you’ll get an answer that is “pure Paul”. In other words, you’ll only receive answers from the material that I have created and loaded into my digital library. No other outside resources from the internet will be accessed.

  • How do you interpret the Book of Revelation?
  • How does 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 talk about the “rapture”?
  • What is original sin? What is original righteousness?
  • What is the Receptive Life? What does eXPlain it mean? What is ekklesia?
  • What are the stations of the daily and weekly practice?
  • How is Jesus the “reality” of all of the Old Testament “shadows”?
  • What is oratio, meditatio, tentatio (reference Psalm 119)?

You can access the new chat box here or in the button below …

Paul’s Chat Box

A Return to Africa in 2024

Besides the ongoing work of the ministry in the Detroit area, I’ll have an opportunity to return to Kenya, Africa twice in 2024. Rev. James May of Lutherans in Africa has asked me to come and teach/train African men who are studying to be pastors at the Lutheran School of Theology outside of Nairobi, Kenya.

I helped establish this school during my trips in 2016 and 2017 and now, after seven years, the Lord has opened the door to return.

I’ll be teaching two times in 2024 …

  • one month in March
  • and one month in November/December

Along with the teaching responsibilities, Rev. May has asked me to use my acquired digital and media skills to help him document and tell the story of Lutherans in Africa and the students who come to study to become pastors.

Here are a few links to the Photo Stories I created from our 2016 and 2017 trips. I think the following stories will give you a good picture of the ministry of Rev. James May and Lutherans in Africa.

All Photo Stories (here)

In addition, Rev. May would like for me to update the Lutherans in Africa website and create a new and separate website for the Lutheran School of Theology. Lord willing, I’ll be able to pull all of the technical elements together so that you can see what’s happening with the spread of the Gospel in Africa.  

We’ll commend the work into the Lord’s hands and keep you up to date with posts on my website.

All Links and Resources

You can access all of the other Ekklesia resources in the button below. When you click on the “resource” link, a full menu of options will appear.

You’ll be able to click on all missionary at large updates, the eXPlain it portal, ekklesia resources, The Receptive Life, a new “publishing” service for pastors and churches called the Gutenberg Digital Press, and other recommended links.

All Links and Resources (here)

Thank you again for your generous support, encouragement, prayers and many kindnesses.

If you would like to continue to support the Missionary at Large position through East Bethlehem you can either give a charitable donation by check or through electronic giving. Here’s a link that will give you more information … Support Missionary at Large (here).