The Lutheran Ladies' Lounge from KFUO Radio

Inspired by the upcoming 2024 Institute on Liturgy, Preaching and Church Music (July 9–12), the Ladies are turning their attention to the book of Psalms. In the third of a five-episode series, Sarah turns her attention to Psalm paraphrases in a special Hymn Sing episode.

Lyrics featured in this episode include hymns by Isaac Watts (“Joy to the World,” “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need”), Martin Luther (“A Mighty Fortress,” “Out of the Depths”), Joachim Neander (“Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”), Johann Gramann (“My Soul Now Praise Your Maker”), and many more.

Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook group members: visit our ongoing poll in the group to vote for your favorites and see how they rank.

Resources referenced in the episode include:

• Hymnary.org: a comprehensive index of hymns and hymnals | Hymnary.org
• "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need" (arr. Virgil Thomson) (youtube.com)
• Hymnapalooza episode on Louis Bourgeois
• The Westminster Standard – To glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
• 2024 Institute on Liturgy, Preaching and Church Music - LCMS Calendar
• Engaging the Psalms: A Guide for Reflection and Prayer - Concordia Publishing House (cph.org)
• Lutheran Service Book: Companion to the Hymns - 2 Volume Set - Concordia Publishing House (cph.org)

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge) and on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge. Follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), and Erin (@erinaltered) on Instagram!

Sign up for the Lutheran Ladies' Lounge monthly e-newsletter here, and email the Ladies at [email protected].

Inspired by the upcoming 2024 Institute on Liturgy, Preaching and Church Music (July 9–12), the Ladies are turning their attention to the book of Psalms. In the second of a five-episode series, Sarah, Erin, and Rachel welcome fellow Lutheran lady Sarah Reinsel (LCMS writer, editor and former English teacher) to the Lounge to talk about the literary beauty of psalmic poetry.

What makes literature literature and poetry poetry? Are the Psalms poetry? What universal and uniquely Hebrew poetic devices do we see in the Psalms? What do we gain by learning to appreciate their literary beauty more deeply?

At the end of the episode, the Ladies introduce an all-new “Write This:” challenge — write your own psalm. Submit your original work by June 12 to be included in our online recap: https://forms.office.com/r/yJCNbUErwN

To learn more, check out the following:

• 2024 Institute on Liturgy, Preaching and Church Music - LCMS Calendar
• Engaging the Psalms: A Guide for Reflection and Prayer - Concordia Publishing House (cph.org)
• Understanding Biblical Literary Devices– A Key to Correctly Interpreting Scripture | Hoshana Rabbah BlogHoshana Rabbah Blog

Sarah Reinsel is a staff writer and editor for LCMS Communications. She studied English at Hillsdale College and earned her master's in medieval literature from the University of St. Andrews. Find an archive of Sarah’s LCMS online articles here.

Need inspiration? Check out or revisit these authors and poets recommended by Sarah Reinsel during the episode:

• Augustine of Hippo
• William Shakespeare
• John Donne
• George Herbert
• Gerard Manly Hopkins
• Czesław Miłosz

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge) and on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge. Follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), and Erin (@erinaltered) on Instagram!

Sign up for the Lutheran Ladies' Lounge monthly e-newsletter here, and email the Ladies at [email protected].

Inspired by the upcoming 2024 Institute on Liturgy, Preaching and Church Music (July 9–12), the Ladies are turning their attention to the book of Psalms. In the first of a five-episode series, Sarah, Erin, and Rachel welcome Chaplain Sean Daenzer back to the Lounge for a Kitchen Table Talk conversation on the theology of Psalms.

How are the Psalms structured (and why is this important)? Where do we find the Gospel in the Psalms — and the Psalms in the Gospel? What can we learn from the Psalms about how to rejoice in — and lament to — the Lord? How has the church used Psalms in its worship throughout history? How can we get the most out of reading the Psalms devotionally?

To learn more, check out the following:

• 2024 Institute on Liturgy, Preaching and Church Music - LCMS Calendar
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 5 - Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible - Concordia Publishing House (cph.org)
• Reading the Psalms with Luther - Concordia Publishing House (cph.org)

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge) and on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge. Follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), and Erin (@erinaltered) on Instagram!

Sign up for the Lutheran Ladies' Lounge monthly e-newsletter here, and email the Ladies at [email protected].

In this episode, Sarah, Erin, and Rachel introduce a new interview series: Leading Ladies, a celebration of Lutheran women in notable positions of leadership or influence in the church or the world.

Their first guest in this series is Teresa Todd, fellow Lutheran lady and wife of Chaplain (RDM) Gregory N. Todd, who currently serves as the 28th Chief of Chaplains of the United States Navy. Chaplain Todd previously served as the 20th Chaplain of the Marine Corps and the tenth Chaplain of the Coast Guard. Over 32 years as a chaplain spouse, Teresa has supported her husband through a variety of Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard assignments, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and chaplaincy work at Ground Zero in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

In this episode, Teresa tells her story, shares her wisdom, and offers encouragement to ministry and military wives everywhere.

Click to learn more about LCMS Ministry to the Armed Forces, listen to Chaplain Todd on KFUO’s The Coffee Hour, watch a recent television interview with him on The 700 Club (starting at the 11:00 mark), or hear a Story Time with Sarah episode on military chaplaincy in American history.

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge) and on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge. Follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), and Erin (@erinaltered) on Instagram!

Sign up for the Lutheran Ladies' Lounge monthly e-newsletter here, and email the Ladies at [email protected].

Following up on her earlier foray into liturgical calendar trivia last Advent, Rachel here offers “The Church Year, Part 2.”

Tackling Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Ordinary Time, Michaelmas, saints’ days, the Last Sunday, and more, Rachel quizzes Erin and Sarah with 16 questions ranging from easy to expert level. Will Rachel manage to stump her smarty-pants cohosts? Will they be able to stop laughing long enough to remember whether or not Athanasius wrote the Athanasian Creed? Find out in the latest installment of Rachel’s Trivia Challenge.

“I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: humans need holidays,” Rachel reminds us. “ We need feasts and fasts and seasons to break up the monotony of our days. The church calendar gives us that, and we’d be fools not to accept the gift. Because when we let our holy-days go, we find ourselves with a string of ho-hum secular holidays instead.”

Select sources referenced in this episode:

• Sundays and Seasons - Church Year (lcms.org)
• What Ordinary Time Means in the Catholic Church (learnreligions.com)

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge) and on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge. Follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), and Erin (@erinaltered) on Instagram!

Sign up for the Lutheran Ladies' Lounge monthly e-newsletter here, and email the Ladies at [email protected].

Altar Guild ladies ... this one’s for you!

Following up on Rachel’s historical tribute to the Altar Guild last year, Sarah’s continuing the conversation with an all-new Adventures in Lutheranism episode spotlighting Altar Guild life hacks.

“Part of the beauty of serving on Altar Guild is passing knowledge and wisdom from one generation to the next,” says Sarah, “and I’m leaning all into that wisdom today.”

From removing wine and lipstick stains from purificators to washing glass communion cups to troubleshooting oil candles — and beyond — this episode comes crammed full of practical tips for tending the altar of God.

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge) and on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge. Follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), and Erin (@erinaltered) on Instagram!

Sign up for the Lutheran Ladies' Lounge monthly e-newsletter here, and email the Ladies at [email protected].

A book club reveal this epic needs its own episode ...

Lounge-alum Bri rejoins the Ladies to wrap up their book club discussion of Little Women with style, flair — and an all-new original Bri’s Radio Theatre audio play imagining Meg, Jo, and Amy March at the LCMS National Youth Gathering (chaperoned, of course, by our old friend DCE Dana, the overworked church worker).

But wait ... who’s that mysterious voice playing Marmee March?

IT’S AUTHOR KATIE SCHUERMANN, here to help us announce the release of her new novel (our next Lutheran Ladies’ Book Club pick): The Saints of Whistle Grove.

From the publisher:

After 150 years of preaching the Gospel, the little country parish of Whistle Grove has closed its doors for good, but the faithful Rev. Edmund G. Oglethorpe remains. There is the empty building and the crumbling cemetery to maintain, and who else will bury old Miriam Werth when the time comes?

Told through the voices of generations past and present, The Saints of Whistle Grove follows the journey of a son in search of his mother, a daughter in need of connection, a family without a home, and the cemetery that brings them all together.

Join the blessed saints of Whistle Grove in pondering the wondrous mystery that, whoever believes in Christ, “though he die, yet shall he live.”

Visit Kloria Publishing to learn more, and watch for a pair of exciting giveaways next week on Facebook and Instagram.

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge) and on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge. Follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), and Erin (@erinaltered) on Instagram!

Sign up for the Lutheran Ladies' Lounge monthly e-newsletter here, and email the Ladies at [email protected].

In this Lutheran Ladies’ Book Club recap episode, Rachel leads Sarah and Erin in a highly anticipated conversation on Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.

How does Alcott’s cast of sisters offer a range of imaginative options for understanding virtuous womanhood? What are we to make of artsy-but-annoying Amy and tomboy Jo? Despite its being filled with religious themes and moral platitudes, can we call this a Christian book? How (if at all) does it measure up as “feminist” literature in the modern age? And most pressing of all: Should Josephine March and Theodore Lawrence have gotten married in the end?

Tune in next week to hear our most epic new-book-club-pick announcement to date!

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge) and on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge. Follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), and Erin (@erinaltered) on Instagram!

Sign up for the Lutheran Ladies' Lounge monthly e-newsletter here, and email the Ladies at [email protected].

Following up on last year’s Baptism party episode, the Ladies are once again forming a Party-Planning Committee — and this time, they’re tackling confirmation.

In this three-segment Sharathon episode, the Ladies provide friendly advice to anyone hosting a confirmation party. Erin (recipe subcommittee) starts things off with an Apostles’ Creed-themed menu, featuring gingerbread, Braunschweiger (a “lost and condemned food”), and red-and-white gelatin poke cake. Sarah (music subcommittee) explores several hymns that are appropriate for confirmation, including “Christ Be My Leader” and “Shepherd of Tender Youth.” Finally, Rachel (subcommittee for interesting conversation) ends the episode with a short Trivia Challenge on the history of confirmation.

Sources referenced in Rachel’s Trivia Challenge:

• John M. Brenner, “A Brief Study of Confirmation” (BrennerConfirmation.pdf (wisluthsem.org))
• A History of Confirmation - About Catholics
• The History and Development of the Sacrament of… | Loyola Press
• Sacraments? Baptism? Confirmation? - The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville (pclawrenceville.org)
• What do I need to know about confirmation in the UMC?
• Confirmation Facts for Kids (kiddle.co)
• The Recovery of Memorization in Confirmation: A Study of Junior Confirmation at Concordia Lutheran Church, Geneseo, Illinois (lutherancatechism.com)
• The Confirmation Slap | Latin Mass Society (lms.org.uk)

Learn more about Sharathon 2024 and give now at kfuo.org/sharathon.

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge) and on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge. Follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), and Erin (@erinaltered) on Instagram!

Sign up for the Lutheran Ladies' Lounge monthly e-newsletter here, and email the Ladies at [email protected].

We’re back in class, ladies!

Once again, Sarah’s sharing study notes from her graduate courses at Concordia University Irvine’s Townsend Institute for Counseling and Leadership. In this insightful episode, she covers:

• How great teamwork skills relate to the Body of Christ
• Pat Lencioni’s Working Genius model for productivity
• How a productivity model applies to everything from marriage, to church council, to homeschool co-ops

"I think the most beautiful part about this is how Lencioni frames the [Working Genius] model,” Sarah says. “He specifically talks about the geniuses as the things God has gifted you to do, how He has wired you. I’ve talked about this before in several places, about recognizing the gifts God has given and not given to us, and using those gifts to the best of our abilities. This fits so beautifully with our description of the Body of Christ, that each of us in individually gifted with ways to serve each other within the unity of the Body. So this assessment gives us insight into how God has wired us so we can lean into the spaces that are our strengths, and uplift others in the spaces that are not our strengths but someone else’s strength.”

Find the Working Genius podcast, book, assessment, and insights at workinggenius.com.

For even more from Pat Lencioni, including the Table Group podcast, visit tablegroup.com.

Click to learn more about CUI’s Townsend Institute for Counseling and Leadership.

Connect with the Lutheran Ladies on social media in The Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook discussion group (facebook.com/groups/LutheranLadiesLounge) and on Instagram @lutheranladieslounge. Follow Sarah (@hymnnerd), Rachel (@rachbomberger), and Erin (@erinaltered) on Instagram!

Sign up for the Lutheran Ladies' Lounge monthly e-newsletter here, and email the Ladies at [email protected].