Happy New Year! Greetings to you, your families, and your congregations as we enter 2025.

Throughout this year, I invite us to take a bold and unifying step: reading one chapter of Luke-Acts each week. Together, these 52 chapters form a seamless story of Jesus' life, ministry, death, resurrection, and the Spirit's work through the early church.

This journey is more than reading. It’s about growing as disciples, finding alignment in heart, mission, and ministry, and discovering how the gospel can inspire us today. By walking through these scriptures together as an area, we center our lives on Christ’s teachings and create space for the Spirit to work in new and powerful ways—renewing our faith, reaching new people, and offering healing to a world in need.

I encourage you to participate as individuals, small groups, and congregations, engaging the text and discussing the chapters with others as you go. You can access a variety of resources related to this initiative. They include a booklet for tracking progress and recording reflections, a bookmark with a chapter checklist, and various promotional resources for you to get your congregation involved.

To support this discipleship journey, our conference teams will provide additional resources and opportunities for engagement:

• Every Sunday, we will post a conversation prompt on our Facebook and Instagram pages. We encourage you to reflect on them as you read the designated chapter for the week, and to leave a response in the comments.
• Every week in our regular e-newsletters, we will provide a resource related to the designated chapter of the week to help you think about it in a new way.
• If you'd like to go deeper, join our area-wide Luke-Acts Journey Facebook Group. There, you will find additional conversation prompts and resources, and you are welcome and encouraged to share your learnings and wonderings with others.
• Each month, I will offer a breakthrough prayer, inviting the Holy Spirit to form and transform us through this communal practice. I encourage you to pray the prayer daily.
• We want to know how you and/or your congregation are engaging in this journey, and what you are learning, discerning, or experiencing. I encourage you to email your reflections to the communications team so we can share them and inspire others.

I want to conclude with the breakthrough prayer for January: Holy God, as we begin this year of reading and prayer, dedicate our hearts to your word. Shape us through the story of Jesus and his followers, that we may grow in faith and love. Prepare us for the transformative journey ahead. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Let’s open our hearts to what God will do as we commit to this shared journey of scripture and prayer. 

Grace and peace,

Bishop Lanette Plambeck 
Resident Bishop, Dakotas-Minnesota Episcopal Area 
The United Methodist Church