The Lutheran Ladies' Lounge from KFUO Radio

Is gardening a creative pursuit? Do microgreens have magical powers? Will kids eat chard? In this next "Conversations with Creatives" episode, Beth Ritzman, a micro-farmer of microgreens, gardener on many levels, former missionary to Papua New Guinea, and fellow Lutheran Lady, joins Sarah, Erin, Bri, and Rachel to share how creativity infuses every part of growing things. She also shares stories a...

Deployment represents one of the greatest challenges to faith and life a military family can face. How can churches help? In this frank and open conversation, Rachel (herself currently undergoing a lengthy separation from her deployed husband) answers questions from Sarah, Erin, and Bri about what life is like for a military family, what it takes to survive an extended deployment, and how Christia...

Lindsay Hausch is a pastor’s wife, mother of three, blogger, Lutheran lady, and author of Take Heart: God’s Comfort for Anxious Thoughts. In this episode, she talks with Sarah, Erin, Bri, and Rachel about her own mental health journey and how her faith has grown in spite of (and even sometimes because of) her long-term struggles with social anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Along the way,...

Smack dab in the middle of Mental Health Awareness Month, the Lutheran Ladies turn their attention toward a crucial aspect of personal health and wellness: “Stewardship of the Mind and the Emotions.” Bri, who has lived with and successfully managed a mental health diagnosis throughout her adult life, leads this discussion, building on the “Stewardship of the Physical Body” conversation she first s...

In this Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge short, the Ladies discuss their options and announce the next book club read: John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley: In Search of America. Click to learn more about or order Travels with Charley, to see a complete list of Lutheran Ladies’ Book Club picks and runners up, or to revisit past online book club events in the Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook group. Connect...

In this episode, Rachel leads Sarah, Erin, and Bri in a recap discussion of the latest Lutheran Ladies’ Book Club selection: C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold. Why would a Christian author at the height of his career choose a pagan setting (replete with false idols and human sacrifice) for his most mature novel? Why would a man known for both his historical erudition and his devotion...

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to participate in a Call Day service at an LCMS seminary, this episode is for you. In this latest “Adventure in Lutheranism,” Sarah, Erin, Bri, and Rachel share their perspectives on the annual seminary services at which pastoral candidates, vicars, deaconesses, and deaconess interns receive their first divine calls and vicarage/internship assignments. A mean...

What does a return to normal (or a turn towards a brand new kind of normal) look like in a post-COVID world? In this special Sharathon episode, Sarah, Erin, Bri, and Rachel continue their impromptu series on what it means to survive and thrive in a global pandemic. Following on the heels of their earlier conversations (referenced in this episode as “the descent” and “the enduring”), they share the...

It’s an Iron Ladle Challenge! In honor of the 500th Anniversary of Martin Luther’s defiant confession of faith at the Diet of Worms, Sarah, Erin, Bri, and Rachel are each cooking up a tasty recipe inspired by a single key ingredient: worms. Beginning with a brief history of Luther’s legendary 1521 trial appearance at the city of Worms, the Ladies then launch into a four-course smorgasbord of wormy...

Digging back into the early days of Lutheranism in the American Midwest, this “Story Time with Sarah” episode focuses on the life and times of Dorothea Craemer, one of the “founding mothers” of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Leaving Germany as an unwed mother 1845, Dorothea met her future husband on the ship to America and, after their marriage in New York, traveled with him to serve as missi...

Emmy Woock (Director of Music Ministries at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Elmhurst, Illinois) joins Sarah, Erin, Bri, and Rachel for the first episode in a new segment—Adventures in Lutheranism—which introduces Ladies and listeners alike to some aspect of Lutheran faith and culture that may have been previously unfamiliar to them. In this joy-filled conversation, Woock (together with fellow enthusia...

Martin Franzmann (1907–1976) was a Lutheran pastor, theologian, college professor, and poet who wrote numerous books and hymns. In this “Hymn Sing with Sarah” episode, Sarah introduces her fellow hymn nerds to the life and work of the skilled hymn writer whose ministerial calling took him from Lake City, Minnesota, through Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis, Mo., and all the way to Cambridge, England...

Following up on her uproarious “Ode to Vitality Points” in January, Bri offers a new set of “Radio Theatre” comedy sketches, this time inspired by the Lenten soup suppers and Wednesday night services familiar in so many Lutheran churches. Meet Trent, “the overly eager, accidentally irreverent, bordering-on-heretical praise band leader.” Get to know Dana, the “overworked, underpaid DCE intern.” Sha...

In Rachel’s latest Trivia Challenge, she quizzes Sarah, Erin, and Bri on all things Lenten. What does the word “Lent” actually mean? How and where do our Lenten observances tie in with Scripture and Christian history? What made Lenten fasts in the Middle Ages so hardcore? How do Lutheran, Catholic, and Orthodox attitudes and practices differ today? Perhaps most intriguingly: what happens when one...

Erin Bode is a lifelong Lutheran lady, a pastor’s daughter, and a celebrated jazz performer known for her pure voice and impressive phrasing and style. To date, Bode and her band have released eight albums and toured the United States, as well overseas to Italy, Japan, and South Africa. In this inaugural “Conversations with Creatives” episode, Bode joins Sarah, Erin, Bri, and Rachel to share with...

Events in 2020 and 2021 have left many Lutheran women questioning their relationships with (and heavy reliance upon) social media. In this “Wild Card” episode, Sarah, Erin, Bri, and Rachel take an honest look at their own attitudes toward digital platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, paying special attention to how their habits and perspectives have evolved over the past decade and a ha...

In this jam-packed “Hymn Sing with Sarah” episode, Sarah leads Erin, Bri, and Rachel through a celebration of African American hymns and spirituals in honor of Black History Month. Beginning with the story of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (often referred to in the U.S. as the “Black national anthem”), Sarah discusses the remarkable lives and creative work of brothers James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosa...

In this Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge short, the Ladies discuss their options and announce the next book club read: C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold. Click to learn more about or order Till We Have Faces, to see a complete list of Lutheran Ladies’ Book Club picks and runners up, or to revisit past online book club events in the Lutheran Ladies’ Lounge Facebook group. Connect with the Luthe...

In this episode, Rachel leads Sarah, Erin, and Bri in a recap discussion of a Lutheran Ladies’ Book Club “Ladies’ Choice” selection: Ellen Raskin’s Newbery-Award-winning middle-grade mystery The Westing Game. How do children’s authors create surprisingly complex works that respect the intelligence of readers young and old? What can a story about a diverse group of people sharing an apartment build...

This February, as winter and the global pandemic alike drag on and on and on, why not enjoy some good old fashioned comfort food? In this installment of Erin’s Recipe Card, the ladies share their favorite recipes for “hot fat carbs,” from savory red beans and rice, to crowd-pleasing meat loaf, to “ooey-gooey” peanut chicken curry—and beyond. Whether your comfort food of choice is lasagna or stew,...

Stanisława Leszczyńska (May 8, 1896 – March 11, 1974) was a Polish Catholic midwife and member of the Polish Resistance who was incarcerated at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. During her time in the notorious death camp, she provided obstetrical and other medical care to her fellow prisoners and delivered over 3,000 children — most to certain death, a precious few to life. In...

Thinking back over the year since “coronavirus” entered their collective vocabularies, Sarah, Erin, Bri, and Rachel revisit the subject of social distancing (first covered in March 2020) in this all-hands-on-deck conversation. Taking an honest (and occasionally uproarious) look at the joys and woes of life in lockdown, each of the Lutheran Ladies offers her own heartfelt answer to the following pr...

Beginning the New Year with what has now (officially) been branded a “Wild Card” episode, Bri celebrates physical, mental, and spiritual by offering her heartfelt paean to a program that has helped her achieve greater measures of all three: Concordia Plans and its Vitality® wellness benefit.  Extoling the virtues of this virtual tool that incentivizes participating church workers to track their he...

In this edition of “Rachel’s Trivia Challenge,” Rachel guides Sarah, Erin, and Bri back through 4,000 years of New Year’s tradition as she quizzes them on the past and present of New Year’s resolutions. Who made the first annual resolutions? What does Julius Caesar have to do with the New Year? Which Medieval party day made New Year’s Eve look tame by comparison? How have Lutherans (including Mart...

Tearing a page each from Amy Grant’s “Grown-Up Christmas List” and NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! Predictions segment, each of the Lutheran Ladies here offers five good wishes and one wacky prognostication to ring in the New Year. Will 2021 be the year of the analog hobby? Will it go down in history as the year Lutherans on both sides of the northern border inaugurate a multinational seminary ho...