Pastor Eric Andrae is a Lutheran pastor whose pastoral work has now become virtual. As a chaplain for Lutheran Student Fellowship and International Student Ministry, he knows the spiritual struggles his students and parishioners are encountering as they practice social distancing. We chat about how he is reaching out to his congregation, what a Lutheran approach to remote worship looks like, and what Martin Luther had to say about social distancing during the bubonic plague.

• How an epidemic changes pastoral work
• Corporate worship and livestream services
• Means of grace
• Scriptural reading to grow closer in the Word
• Spiritual communion
• Forming and maintaining habits in isolation
• Communal intimacy
• God works all things ultimately for the good
• Benefits for the spiritual life: reaching out and connecting with others
• Martin Luther on social isolation during the bubonic plague
• God’s will works through people
• Compline and daily prayer

Links:

Confessions by St. Augustine

InterVarsity Best Christian Book of All Time

Life Together by Dietriech Bonhoeffer

Daily Prayer from Lutheran Student Fellowship

To Live with Christ by Bo Giertz