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Cincinnati Reds second baseman Scooter Gennett is fresh off making his first appearance in MLB’s Midsummer Classic, and he credits God for getting him to where he is right now. Gennett began his Major League career with the Milwaukee Brewers back in 2013. Gennett posted a batting line of .279/.318/.420 over the course of four seasons with the Brewers, per Baseball Reference. An article in Sports Spectrum on Tuesday details many of the times Gennett has spoken openly about his faith and devotion to God.

Their journeys from the trauma of youth, through criminal pasts and prison, to personal transformation make them uniquely positioned to help others returning to the community from incarceration. Madison-area Urban Ministry has offered an array of services to individuals and families affected by the criminal justice system, including prison re-entry programming, since 1999. At the time, the concept of peer support didn’t really exist, but the nonprofit has long tried to connect those returning from incarceration to others who have been on that journey.

La Salle, Minn. — For 100 years, Lutherans in this farming community on the Minnesota prairie have come to one church to share life’s milestones. They have been baptized, confirmed and married at La Salle Lutheran. Their grandparents, parents and siblings lie in the church cemetery next door. But the old friends who gathered here early one recent Sunday never imagined that they would one day be marking the death of their own church. When La Salle Lutheran locks its doors in August, it will become the latest casualty among fragile Minnesota churches either closing, merging or praying for a…

Brewers first baseman Jesús Aguilar hit his National-League-leading 23rd home run Monday night and is very much in the early conversations for MVP. But he’s not on the NL’s All Star Roster. Not yet, at least. And you can help change it. Read more of this story.  

Nearly 15,000 children in Dane County live in poverty, one in six Dane County children face hunger and about 800 Madison Metropolitan School District students are homeless. In the face of those statistics, local nonprofit Selfless Ambition announced today that it will partner with Second Harvest Food Bank and the Madison Metropolitan School District to place food pantries in schools with the highest levels of poverty, beginning with Glendale Elementary this fall.

A church that has operated out of Chavez Elementary School since 2013 could soon have a home of its own – and a chance to share it. Redeemer City Church pastor Casey Johnson told the Star the church is set to take over the former Steven’s Design building, 5356 King James Way, though it still needs some approvals from the City of Fitchburg’s Plan Commission and Common Council. Johnson said the church has been looking for building space in the Fitchburg area for about a year, and “wanted to be in an area that lacked resources,” like building space on…

Dane County will begin working with Madison-area Urban Ministry (MUM), Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development, Anesis Center for Marriage and Family Therapy and the Jessie Crawford Recovery Center to help inmates who are transitioning into the community from the Dane County Jail, Dane County Executive Director Joe Parisi announced today.

As an African-American woman in a denomination that’s nearly all white, the Rev. Viviane Thomas-Breitfeld says she hopes to make the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America more appealing to minorities. Thomas-Breitfeld, from Brookfield, was recently elected bishop for the ELCA’s South-Central Synod of Wisconsin, a region that includes Madison, Janesville, Beloit and many rural communities.

Like most Wednesday afternoons, organ music echoed through the historic Luther Memorial Church earlier this month.Bruce Bengtson, the church’s longtime music director, had led the free organ concerts — a tradition that predated him — since he began working at the church as a 24-year-old. But on this week he was showered with applause before and after the concert, handshakes and hugs by the approximately 100 people who attended the concert, more than would typically come to listen to him improvise his way through classic organ pieces.That’s because the concert was his last at Luther Memorial.

Robert Pierce has been passing on his farming skills for years, teaching urban agriculture to at-risk youth and the formerly incarcerated. Now, in a partnership with Madison-area Urban Ministry, he’ll expand his work with the formerly incarcerated, bringing a class of five to the farm. They’ll be paid for their time, learn to grow their own food and benefit from the dignity of work.