The Lutheran Ladies' Lounge from KFUO Radio

There’s a chill in the air on this midwinter day — and a warm, mouth-watering aroma wafting from the kitchen. That’s right: the Lutheran Ladies are brewing up savory pots of soup in an all-new Iron Ladle Challenge! Erin leads off with a Finnish salmon soup (lohikeitto) that leaves her co-hosts drooling. Rachel then shares a trio of seasonally appropriate soups: seafood chowder for holiday decadenc...

Following up on a promise made early last year, Sarah’s turning to the end of her Lutheran Service Book to sing — and get a lot better acquainted with — all eight “Close of Service” hymns in this all-new Hymn Sing episode.   Hymns featured include “Go, My Children, with My Blessing” (LSB 922), Lord, Dismiss Us with Your Blessing (LSB 924), “Savior, Again to Thy Dear Name We Raise” (LSB 917), “Guid...

After an unexpected two-year hiatus, the Ladies’ annual New Year’s Wishes and Prognostication episode is back!  After first looking back over their 2023 prognostications to see if any came true (spoiler alert: wide-leg jeans — who knew?), Sarah, Erin, and Rachel each present listeners with a good wish, a zany "prognostication” for what life will hold in 2026, and a word of blessing for a good New...

Spoiler alert: We're back to shamelessly regifting our Poetry Slams because we love them so much, but this year is a first-time regift! Five years after their first Christmas Poetry Slam in 2019 (routinely “regifted” ever since), the Ladies have finally picked up their pens to write a fresh batch of poems for the holiday season.   And this time, they have help.   Joining Sarah, Erin, and Rachel in...

Former co-host and semi-regular guest Bri Gerzevske stops by the Lounge for a holiday visit — and this time, she’s mining her own recent life experience to offer Sarah, Erin, and Rachel her expert “Guide to a Fun and Fabulous Christmas Program at Church.”  Among Bri’s words of wisdom are these key takeaways:  Don’t go it alone! YOU NEED A VILLAGE FOR THIS.  Treat the kids like “professionals.”  Sh...

Normally, when one of the Ladies asks a Big Question, the answer ends up being exploratory and open-ended — but not today. Today, Erin isn’t asking. She's telling.   It’s Erin’s Soapbox: The Internet Ruined Christmas Lists.   In this episode, Erin compares the traditional handwritten Christmas list (with its general descriptions of needs and wants) to the modern Amazon wish list (with its detailed...

How do imagination, poetry, and fantasy literature like of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis help us deepen our faith in Christ?   Sarah sits down with esteemed poet Malcolm Guite in this special Wild Card episode (recorded on location at the Getty Sing! Conference) for a conversation full of delightful storytelling, brilliant insight into the Christian faith, and encouragement to lean into the imagin...

“Bring us some Figgy Pudding!”  Inspired by the traditional Christmas carol, Andy Bates (co-host of The Coffee Hour) joins Sarah (also a co-host of The Coffee Hour) and Erin in the Lounge for a festive, fig-filled crossover episode all about the legendary dish everyone’s heard of (but few have ever actually tasted): Figgy Pudding, also known as Christmas Pudding.   What is it made from? Is it secr...

Although Scripture is never trivial, Bible trivia games can be an effective and motivational teaching tool — as the Ladies discover in this week’s episode.   Inspired by Sarah’s account of the New Testament knowledge exam she took upon matriculating into Concordia Seminary’s deaconess program, Rachel here quizzes her friends — and all the ladies listening at home — on their New Testament acumen.  ...

Class is back in session, Ladies, this time at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis!   What even is deaconess ministry, and how do deaconesses serve the church? Sarah begins her studies in the Online Deaconess Studies program at Concordia Seminary, and she’s revisiting experiences from Orientation Week at the Seminary and her first class in Deaconess Ministry, including insights into personality types an...

Following their recent book club discussion of Joel Biermann’s Day 7: For Work, Rest, or Play, the Ladies welcome Dr. Biermann himself to the Lounge for a Kitchen Table Talk conversation all about Sabbath-keeping and the Third Commandment.   What does Sabbath have to do with the meaning of life? What does the Bible teach us about how we are to “remember the Sabbath”? How are work, leisure, sleep,...

While “Halloween” for most people involves scary costumes, candy, and jack-o'-lanterns, the Ladies are tracing the word back to its roots — “All Hallows’ Eve” — as they team up to plan a Halloween-alternative All Saints/Reformation Day party around the theme of “saints, reformers, and heretics.”*  The episode starts with each of the Ladies suggesting a pair of apropos costume ideas. Sarah then sha...

In this Lutheran Ladies’ Book Club recap episode, Rachel leads Erin and Sarah through a discussion of Joel Biermann’s Day 7: For Work, Rest, or Play.  What does it mean to "remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy"? Does how we think about "leisure" change how we "remember the Sabbath"? How does a biblical understanding of Sabbath help us recognize good and bad ways to use the days that God has...

“What should we be talking about that we’re not?”   That’s the starting prompt for every installment of “Erin’s One-Question Interview.” While the answers to this question may change, the quality of these vital, hard-hitting conversations remains the same.    In this episode, Sarah, Erin, and Rachel welcome special guest Carrie Ill to the Lounge to share her personal experience with infertility. ...

In their latest “How to Lutheran” conversation, Rachel celebrates the ongoing legacy of quilting circles in Lutheran Churches.   Beginning with a look back at the significance of quilts and quilting bees in American history, she then explores biblical examples of women who used their skill with textile arts to help those in need. From there, the conversation examines the heyday of Lutheran quilter...

“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!” (Psalm 150:10).  As we mark the beginning of the end of Ordinary Time and begin our descent toward the end of the church year, Sarah’s turning her attention to Praise and Adoration hymns in this all-new Hymn Sing episode.   Hymns featured include “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” (LSB 790), “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee” (LSB 803)...

Have you ever imagined becoming an international missionary? Can you think of someone in your life who would make a good missionary?   In this third International Mission 101 episode, Erin invites her colleague Anne Gonzalez to the Lounge to answer common questions about missionary recruitment.   Who is qualified to be an LCMS missionary? What mission roles are open to (and even ideally suited to)...

The Ladies are celebrating their SIXTH ANNIVERSARY in style this week — with a potluck party for the ages.  The challenge: prepare and share at least one recipe published in a vintage (pre-A.D. 2000) church cookbook.   The result: pull up a chair, grab a fork, and find out for yourself!  From perennial favorites like broccoli salad and tater tot casserole, to neglected classics like chocolate ecla...

“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!” — Psalm 150:6  In this episode, Rachel embarks on a new Adventure in Lutheranism as she helps start and lead a new children’s choir at her church.   After cruising through a cursory history of children’s music in church, she invites Sarah, Erin, and her own daughter, Emalie, to share their personal stories of singing in Lutheran ch...

For the first time ever, Erin’s asking a Big Question in the Lounge — and it’s a doozie:  Is Dungeons and Dragons actually great?   Throughout the 80s and 90s, as Erin recalls, many conservative Christians regarded the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons as “a gateway to advance along the primrose path to perdition” — something roughly in the same moral category as “cigarettes and death...

What are Lutherans to think about the saints? How, especially, are we to regard the most controversial saint of all — Mary, the Mother of Jesus?   In this Kitchen Table Talk episode, aired in honor of Mary’s commemoration on August 15, Sarah, Erin, and Rachel welcome the Rev. William Weedon to talk through pressing questions about whether and how we can faithfully and appropriately celebrate the s...

This riveting episode from August 2024 celebrates America's love of corn culture, so the Ladies wanted to share it again. Q: Why shouldn’t you tell secrets in a cornfield?   A: Because the corn has ears!  It’s a “cornival” of craziness as Erin leads Sarah and Rachel in an Iron Ladle Challenge celebrating the joys of “corn culture” (or “corny culture”) in midsummer.    After discussing results from...

Class is back in session, Ladies — one more time (for now)!  Sarah wraps up her studies at Concordia University Irvine’s Townsend Institute for Counseling and Leadership as she revisits her capstone project on humor in the workplace and celebrates the completion of her M.A. in organizational leadership. She also gives Erin and Rachel an eye-opening crash course in different types of humor and how...

It’s a story of joyful mission service with two LCMS Lutheran Lady Missionaries! In this delightful conversation (recorded in person at the LWML Convention in Omaha), the Ladies welcome Deaconess Carol Halter, the LCMS’s longest-serving missionary, and Chelsea Irwin, one of the youngest LCMS missionaries, to share their stories of serving as international missionaries.   Did they always want to se...

In this joy-filled conversation (recorded in person at the LWML Convention in Omaha), the Ladies welcome “leading lady” Donna Snow to Lounge, as they continue celebrating and learning from Lutheran women in positions of influence in the church and around the world.  Donna Snow is founder and CEO of Artesian Ministries, an organization dedicated to equipping disciples to share Jesus by becoming bib...