ELCA Evangelism and Discipleship Leader Featured on Radio Show

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lori Claudio, associate director for Latino evangelism and discipleship for the Division for Congregational Ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), will be the featured speaker four times this year on "The Protestant Hour," an ecumenical religious radio program heard across the nation.
Claudio's sermons will cover a variety of topics. Her first sermon, called "If We Do Not Give Up," airing on most stations July 8, is about "dealing with obstacles, doubts, difficulties and other negative situations," Claudio said. "In this one I am trying to tell people not to give up and to remain faithful and proclaim the Word of God," she said.
"Living In the Fullness of God," Claudio's second sermon, will air August 5. She talks about living in fullness and newness. She discusses how lives being transformed by the gospel can be used as an invitation to God. "I had given up, but he had not given up on me," Claudio said. "If it worked for me, it can work for others."
Claudio's personal story is told in the September 2 sermon, "Remember." This sermon "covers painful memories, negative feelings and why they occur," she said. "I tell my own story of when I was shaken and broken and God remembered me in the midst of my troubles. Jesus died shamefully on the cross because he loved me," she said.
The last of her sermons, September 30, "Living the True Life," concerns the greed of money. "I talk about how we need to keep our minds on the heavenly things and be grateful for the things we have. Material things are the end all and be all; we need to live a full and new life, the true life of Jesus Christ. God supplies what we need, not what we want," said Claudio.
Claudio sees this opportunity to speak on The Protestant Hour as a podium for lay people. "This is a good opportunity for a lay person to proclaim the Word of God," she said. "I am not a pastor. I am a lay person, and this is my chance to share the word. It's not just about clergy," she said.
After listening to her sermons, Claudio wants people to gain an understanding that God is faithful. She hopes people who are lonely, depressed, imprisoned or new in the country will be able to listen to her sermons.
"I want them to know that, in the midst of all troubles, God can break through and establish a relationship with them," she said. "God wants a relationship of love."
Claudio, the oldest of six children, was born and raised in New York. For a portion of her life she lived in Puerto Rico. Claudio is a graduate of the Metropolitan New York Synod Diakonia Program, a two-year spiritual and ministerial program designed to deepen understanding of the faith. She also spent time working with prison inmates. Claudio served as an assistant to the bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod to develop Latino ministries and lay leadership. Now with the ELCA Division for Congregational Ministries, she travels all over the nation and Caribbean making Christ known, especially in the Latino community.
The Protestant Hour, in its 56th year, is the longest running ecumenical radio program on the air today. The program reaches more than 2 million people each week via radio and is now available on the Internet. It is produced cooperatively by the ELCA, the Episcopal Media Center, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the United Methodist Church. ---
A list of radio stations carrying The Protestant Hour is available at http://info.protestanthour.com/stations.html on the Web.

*Michelle T. Mills is a senior at Bradley University, Peoria, Ill.
This summer, she is an intern with ELCA News and Information.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html