Memento: A Movement For Lutheran Men Begins Now

Introducing Memento, The First Year-Long Lutheran Devotional Platform for Discipline, Prayer, Brotherhood, and Faithful Living. Crafted For Men

Why Memento Exists

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Memento—a year-long devotional movement and digital platform built to train men in discipline, prayer, and brotherhood. It has been long in development and brings together pastors, theologians, and craftsmen from across the Lutheran Church who share one conviction: the renewal of the Church begins with the renewal of men.

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Our age is quietly unforming men. Pornography, social media, and constant distraction have dulled attention and weakened resolve. The culture promises freedom through indulgence but delivers exhaustion and isolation. The ordinary habits that once trained Christian men to lead, serve, and endure have largely vanished. As a pastor in my mid-thirties, I see this struggle among my friends, my peers, and myself. Men desire to be faithful husbands, fathers, and servants of Christ, yet they often feel scattered and spiritually unanchored.

Several years ago, I was introduced to formal spiritual disciplines practiced within a small fraternity. We prayed together, fasted from food and certain comforts, limited technology, exercised, and ordered our days around Scripture and prayer. It was not emotional or dramatic, but steady. Over time I noticed greater clarity, peace, and endurance. Discipline did not restrict freedom—it deepened it. Those months and years convinced me of what Christians through the centuries have always known: that faith grows through form. Discipline is not opposed to grace; it is one of its instruments.

The Church once trained men through these very rhythms. Fathers led their homes in daily devotion. Congregations fasted and feasted according to the Church Year. Pastors taught men to pray and to master their appetites so they could love with strength and stability. Where those habits have been lost, faith often thins; where they return, faith matures.

It became clear that the Church needed a way to recover these rhythms for the modern world. Memento was built to do exactly that. It is a movement and a platform that brings the Church’s historic disciplines into an accessible, beautifully designed, year-round structure. Our goal was simple: to create a framework that allows men to live the Christian life with intention every day of the year. We believe this renewal is not optional but needed. The Lutheran Church requires men who are awake, disciplined, and rooted in the Word. If we are to hand down the faith with strength, we must once again train men to pray, to fast, to do hard things, to feast, and to lead with conviction. Memento was created to help make that possible.

What Memento Is

Memento is both a movement and a platform—the only ongoing men’s devotional resource of its kind in the Lutheran Church. It offers daily devotions, Scripture readings, and structured disciplines that align with the rhythm of the Church Year. Each day’s content can be accessed through a clean, intuitive online portal, available on any device. Every devotion can be read or listened to, allowing men to hear the Word during prayer, work, or travel.

The system is built with excellence. A former Meta engineer who helped develop Hopper created the technology, and a London-based brand designer shaped its visual identity. The goal was to provide a seamless, dignified experience focused on formation in Christ rather than on distraction.

Memento follows the full Church Year. Each season carries its own theme and packet of disciplines. Lent remains the heart of the cycle—the most rigorous period of fasting and repentance. Other seasons emphasize watchfulness, gratitude, feasting, spiritual warfare, and prayer. Together they teach men to live by the rhythm of the Church rather than the rhythm of the world—to fast and to feast, to repent and to rejoice.

Every participant is encouraged to join a fraternity of four to eight men. This component is essential. Brotherhood gives discipline endurance. In these fraternities men walk together, encouraging one another and raising each other up, especially during the more challenging seasons. Each fraternity meets weekly using detailed packets that include prayers, Scripture readings, questions, and reflections. Seasonal documents explain the purpose behind each discipline and how it connects to Scripture and the catechism.

There are also guides for families, written particularly for wives and children, to help households understand how these rhythms affect daily life and how to support them. The goal is not to isolate men from their homes but to strengthen the home itself through order and peace.

The disciplines that shape Memento are concrete and structured. During Lent, men enter a defined rule of life that includes fasting from food, alcohol, and sweets, limiting technology, maintaining consistent wake-up times, exercising regularly, and restoring the rhythm of morning and evening prayer. These disciplines are the backbone of the program and are practiced in community, not alone. Memento also includes three tiers so that men at different stages can participate fully. Each tier follows the same framework, but higher tiers add further challenges such as hymn memorization, cold showers, or extended fasts. The structure is demanding but attainable, designed to train the body, steady the mind, and focus the heart on Christ.

Memento integrates all of this into a unified daily rhythm. When a man accesses his portal each morning, he finds that day’s devotion and Scripture readings along with his discipline checklist. Each devotion can be read or listened to, providing a steady pattern of prayer and reflection throughout the day.

Every aspect of Memento is designed to serve the Church with excellence. The devotions are written by pastors who know the spiritual life and the pastoral care of men. The interface is simple, the design elegant, and the flow intuitive. This attention to detail is intentional. Beauty and clarity are forms of witness. The world should see that Lutheran theology produces both truth and craftsmanship. Just as previous generations built churches and composed hymns that reflected the glory of God, we can now build digital spaces that carry the same dignity and care.

This movement has already united leaders from across the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in remarkable cooperation. Contributors include Rev’s. Ben Ball, Jeff Hemmer, Dr. Gifford Grobein, Dr. David Peterson, Heath Curtis, Dr. Adam Koontz, Willie Grills, Jacob Benson, David Buchs, Daniel Broaddus, Jason Braaten, Stephan Gramenz, and Eric Bednash, with special help from Rev. Ian Kinney. These pastors and teachers share one conviction: the Church must again train men for endurance and holiness. Their partnership has been both humbling and energizing, a reminder that the Spirit still unites the faithful in common purpose.

The Fruit and the Future

Through my own practice of these disciplines and the men I have walked beside, I have seen how powerfully God works through simple structure. The results are not flashy but enduring. Men learn steadiness. They regain focus in prayer. They become more attentive husbands and fathers. Homes become quieter and more joyful. Congregations begin to see laymen stepping forward to serve. Discipline reveals weakness, and weakness becomes the place where grace does its work.

The bonds formed through these fraternities are unlike anything I have experienced elsewhere. We have prayed together, struggled through the same fasts, laughed through the same failures, and celebrated the same small victories. These friendships have grown deep precisely because they are ordered toward what is eternal. In a world that isolates men, Memento restores genuine fellowship.

Memento is not about self-improvement; it is about sanctification. The framework simply gives the Spirit space to shape the heart. When men live within this rhythm, families flourish. When families flourish, congregations gain stability. And when congregations stand firm, the Church’s public witness gains credibility once again. The renewal we need will not begin in programs or conferences but in men who pray, fast, and love with steady hearts.

This is the vision that drives Memento. Our first goal is to strengthen our own Lutheran Church—to give pastors and laymen the tools to live their confession in daily life. Yet we also see in this an extraordinary opportunity for outreach. Many men outside the Lutheran Church are hungry for structure and meaning. They are searching for a faith that unites grace with seriousness. Memento offers them a window into the depth and beauty of Lutheran theology. It shows that our Church does not separate faith from formation but sees both as gifts of the same Lord. In a culture of noise, Memento is a quiet witness to order, grace, and strength.

We hope that as men from within and beyond our Synod participate, they will see in these disciplines a reflection of the Gospel itself—freedom that is found through obedience, joy that follows repentance, and peace that grows from structure. This is not a reinvention of Christianity; it is a remembering of what the Church has always known.

The path forward is clear. Memento will continue to grow with additional devotions, seasonal content, and enhanced tools for fraternity life. But the purpose will remain the same: to train men to live as disciples of Christ in body and soul, faithful in prayer, steadfast in work, and joyful in service.

The Church does not need novelty; she needs faithfulness. The world does not need louder voices; it needs deeper men. The renewal we long for will not come through slogans but through the quiet persistence of men who remember their mortality, their calling, and their Redeemer.

Memento calls men to that remembrance. It invites them to recover the fast, the feast, and the fellowship that have always marked the life of the Church. It is not temporary inspiration but daily training in the way of Christ—discipline made daily, devotion made lasting, and brotherhood made strong.

If you are ready to begin, gather a fraternity, log in to your portal, and take the first step. The time to remember is now.

Visit memento70.com to learn more.