4/7InkzHVUEQeEdU9vpc1tikzEhChrKmPfvXI-FSDBrBQ

SEPA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod)

The Lutheran Grinch Ponders His Evil Ways—or NOT!

grinch8Eight Years Locked Out of Church on Christmas Eve

and every other day, for that matter.

 

Every year for the last seven years, the Lutherans of East Falls—locked out of our own property by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod  (ELCA) in a budget-balancing land grab—checked in with the Lutheran Grinch to see if conscience had yet to kick in.

 

Year eight. An opportunity to do the right thing in a way that was right and feasible and perhaps in keeping with mission is now gone.

 

But Redeemer Whoville is still here! We’ll gather around the relics we saved from the church—not allowed by the synod but by the developer that purchased our land for a song.

 

The Grinch of Whoville was able to breach the wall between evil and good. That Grinch pondered the effects of his greed and changed his ways. He at last could stand with the people of Whoville and sing with joy and a growing heart. It’s supposed to make us think of the Christmas message if the Bible doesn’t hit home.

 

Neither is likely to happen in Lutheran Whoville.

 

There will be no reflection. The Lutheran Grinch sits on the hill overlooking their 150 or so congregations and never sees the people of their Whoville.

 

Reflection is not part of the popular “discernment” process. The need to win and save face stood in the way of reason and principle. There were no doctrinal differences, no issues requiring church discipline, no financial distress necessitating intervention. There was plenty of “fake” news—unsubstantiated stories about horrible things that simply were untrue. We were probably the fastest growing church in a synod where numbers are down in almost every congregation. The synod had ignored us since 1998, following their published strategy of ignoring small congregations for ten years to facilitate decline. They didn’t know anything about us in 2008. They cited 1990s statistics to the rest of the synod. We pointed out the “big lie.” No one was listening. No one was asking questions—nor were they encouraged to.

 

SEPA was successful in their land grab.  At what cost? Six years of lawsuits—during which the building deteriorated in appraisal value from $1.5 million to $350,000—ate up the coveted pie.

 

Leaders without a strategy, tend to rely on destruction to demonstrate power.

 

The long-term effects set an unhealthy precedent. Much needed innovation will not happen in congregations for fear of intervention.

 

SEPA’s tactic to sue individual church members should be very disturbing to all church leaders. A desire for safety and security clouds the sense of right/wrong.

 

CHURCH HISTORY—UNEXAMINED

In most historical contexts, there are people who look back at the decisions of leadership and measure the results to see if popular decisions ended up to be foolish or wise. Leaders with perceived mediocre promise (Harry Truman) end up wearing history’s halo. Popular leaders (Hitler) are condemned.

 

Churches don’t examine church history in the light of self-discovery or improvement. Did that pastor that everyone loved move the congregation forward or were those happy years the onset of decline? Were those lay people who raised questions trouble makers, or did their concerns prove to be valid?

 

The Redeemer decision—made with overwhelming acceptance of a synod assembly acting outside their constitutional powers—wise or even Christian? Only one church asked back then (Old Zion). None have asked since. It became Church at its worst, something akin to a Lutheran Hunger Games, with fluid rules and and tactics designed to inflict maximum damage.

 

The now eight-year-old decision that SEPA won in a weird way should give all Lutherans pause. The final court decision was that if the law were applied Redeemer’s arguments have merit, but the courts cannot enforce church law. In other words, Redeemer was right to challenge SEPA! SEPA’s actions were questionable. Our fellow Lutherans failed in their duty to provide the checks/balances.

 

Let’s look back at a few of the results of a power run unchecked.

 

ROOTS OF THE DECISION

SEPA Synod was routinely operating on a significant deficit budget. Closing churches in a way that guaranteed the assets went to the synod became a goal. Problem: it violates the founding agreement between the synods and congregations. Congregations have the right to vote on their future and to disperse property as the congregation wishes (within charitable guidelines). SEPA Synod usurps this right by invoking an unconstitutional tactic they call Involuntary Synodical Administration. This violates the agreement member congregations that joined the ELCA made only 27 years ago. The founding constitution allows for VOLUNTARY synodical administration, done with a vote of the congregation. But SEPA made up an INVOLUNTARY form to side-step congregational rights and take control of congregational assets. It is a form of theft. Even the wording: Taking the control of property and assets without the consent of the congregation and administering assets for the synod’s benefit is the definition of theft. Use fancy words. No one notices.

 

POTENTIAL IMPACT: Sooner or later, church leaders can expect to be challenged. This happened in East Falls. Christian beliefs and teachings ceased to matter. Winning mattered.

 

MISSION STRATEGY

The leadership theory that was published in a book by Bishop Claire Burkat a few years before she put it into practice in East Falls states that the best way to manage a struggling church is to close it for a few weeks, remove signage, and reopen under a new leadership with NONE of the existing members permitted to participate. Where did they get such nonsense?


Church leaders see things from a clergy point of view. When a pastor leaves a church, they are advised to stay out of their previous parish to avoid conflicts with new leadership. This theory does not transfer to church members. Church members still live in the community and church leaders are likely also to be community leaders. Banishing them is easier said than done. Interestingly, another such SEPA experiment in which the synod closed a church and took possession of congregational assets received acclaim in the early years. They reopened to great fanfare with 70 or so charter members. A few years later, the parish statistics reflected far fewer members. No fanfare about this. Reported success. Unmentioned failure.

 

All the theory obscures the real reasons to wish church members gone.

churchreplanters

 

UNFORESEEN IMPACT: Leaders fail to understand the value of land and tradition. They also fail to realize that in small churches, a lot of people are related by both blood and social circles. Scratch off a few problem lay members and you’ve riled a whole neighborhood. Working class East Falls residents sacrificed to provide prime real estate in our community to ensure a faith presence beyond their own lifetimes. They didn’t just build a shack. They invested their labor and wages to create beauty. Bishop Burkat’s attack on our congregation ended up predictably with the sale of the church. They sold it at least twice. An early sale was to a nonprofit that was willing to work with Redeemer members to establish Christian day school in the space they once owned. When the synod found out, they used tactics that would embarrass faithful Lutherans to regain rights to the property. Then they sold it to developers, of course. Urban land always has greater commercial value than monetary mission value. These developers were also willing to work with Redeemer members. Remember, we still live here! We were close to raising the money, but it was difficult. After all, SEPA took our endowment funds, too. We had only a few months and came very close. The land so carefully provided for mission in our community will be apartments. Our school has already been leveled for town houses. That’s the impact on Redeemer. For all regional Lutherans, it will be almost impossible to influence all of northwest Philadelphia (population 200,000+ and where SEPA is headquartered) will soon be next to impossible.

 

The loss to the community is even worse. The school we had planned is needed far more than five new houses. Our land as a cultural hub for many community groups is now gone and difficult to replace as available land in urban neighborhoods is now economically steep.

 

THE REALITY FOR URBAN LUTHERANS

Our experience is representative. Most of our members were life-long Lutherans—some in America, others from Africa. We remain Lutheran in a neighborhood where other Lutherans have been unkind. We are still active in our community and we speak up for our continued presence, our history and our traditions. We are learning a lot. We are seeing what the future of faith communities in urban neighborhoods are likely to look like. We learned we were dong a lot right. We were growing diverse in a natural, organic way. Our membership was young in a church body that is adopting a new liturgical color of gray. We would not have been growing had we followed the advice of church consultants. Their predictions made in the 1990s—that demographics did not favor mission—we now know were baloney.

 

Redeemer was here long enough to experience, understand, and be part of real societal change. During this time, the Lutheran church was unable to provide adequate leadership. The suburbs called. Redeemer, largely lay-led, worked through the problems. East Falls is now a melting pot of diversity. We have experience we could be sharing.

 

EAST FALLS and NW PHILADELPHIA TODAY

East Falls, along with neighboring communities of Manayunk, Wissahickon and Roxborough, are among the fastest growing neighborhoods in Philadelphia. They are also the youngest neighborhoods. SEPA’s leadership has positioned Lutherans to miss a true opportunity for long-term mission. The era of White Flight was a challenge! We turned the corner, partly because we stayed in the city. For the first time since the 1970s, people are finding urban neighborhoods attractive places to raise families. Redeemer would be in a position to be truly helpful as our neighborhood continues to transform. But SEPA administered our assets for their benefit.

 

The Lutheran Grinch still sits at the top or the hill in Northwest Philadelphia carefully waiting to sled down the hill and take as much as they can carry. Just three churches left. Probably not for long!

 

18 Dec 2016

Maintaining Order in the Social Media Age

waveSMHow Will the Church Cope
in a World with No Boundaries?

Today’s Alban Weekly post points to a major challenge in the church. Rev. Adam Walker Cleaveland gives advice to pastors on how to manage their social media presence when they move from one parish to another.

 

What will pastors do with all their social media connections when they move from one parish to another?

 

Well, most of them aren’t very active online, but perhaps that will change.

 

You’d think the answer might be simple. They do what we all do when we move. Make new friends. Keep the old. Check in at Christmastime.

 

The few laity who happen across this article might be truly puzzled. They might be surprised to learn that pastors are actually taught to cut off relationships and ties to their past. Be hard-nosed about it. Do not make friends within your parish. Do not communicate with them when you leave. Make a clean break. That relationship you thought you had—it was all business.

Perhaps this is why church leaders so easily advise congregations to grieve and move on when they want to close churches. They have been taught an inhumane approach to ministry.

 

The practice comes from a day when pastoring was a family business. The spouse (wife) and children were part of parish culture and would follow the pastor (dad) wherever he went. The kids would change schools. The wife would clean and decorate the new parsonage and start attending women’s meetings.

 

The Church has always been asking for the impossible. The practice has caused more hardship—cruel hardship—than it will ever admit. But it is “the way” of the church—opposite in many ways to what the Church teaches.

 

But now it is a “way” that is no longer possible. The spouse works (husband or wife). The kids are going to stay connected whether or not the move disrupts their friendships. They didn’t attend those seminary classes that taught the church social order. They are not obligated to take orders.

 

The practice attempts to make life easier for the next pastor. That’s church culture. The pastor must be able to stand in the pulpit and look across a totally compliant and mindlessly happy congregation. When trouble breaks a congregant’s bubble, he or she must know who to call. No options.

 

Oh, and that trouble can never involve the pastor.

 

That’s the system. Like it or leave it.

 

A lot of people are leaving it!

 

The view is insulting to laity. We are not putty in pastoral hands, waiting for the next shepherd to dote upon our every need. There is trust and a regard, but not a total dependency.

This view fuels church conflict. When disagreements arise, the pastors must hang on to authority at every cost. It is the laity’s role to “give.”

 

Pastoral relationships often depend on dependency.

 

Dependency depends upon weakness.

 

And so the Church as an influence in our culture grows weaker.

Here in Southeast Pennsylvania in the ELCA, we’ve seen our entire denomination fostering dependence. We come from a tradition that honors the contributions of both laity and clergy as equals. That’s the theory anyway.

Reality: Congregations are expected to comply with synodical wishes. If they don’t, the laity are labeled. Disrespectful. Adversarial. Resistant. We need only question. We don’t even have to disagree!

 

This synodical view is bound to trickle down. If a bishop expects compliance, so too can a pastor.

 

All these decades or centuries of fostering dependent relationships are now rising up, gathering the force of a tsunami.

The tsunami called Social Media.

Pastor Cleaveland admits that Social Media is not a fad. It must be reckoned with. In typical pastoral thinking, he gives a “to do” list to keep things “under control.”

 

Odd. The power of Social Media to influence and expand the work of the church is enormous, and pastors focus on how it affects THEM.

  • Break your Social Media connections into lists that you can control.
  • Be sparing about your “likes.” Make sure there is a way for to disconnect from the people you were once eager to please. Find a gentle way to “unfriend” them. (The dangers of the “like” culture of social media are why we recommend blogging to Facebook, etc., by the way.)
  • Remember, this is for their own good. You are helping them grieve the loss of your influence in their lives.

Narcissistic? Just a little!

 

Really, pastors. It is quite simple to explain to your parish that you love them and will always love them. If there were problems, apologize. Mean it. Tell them that you will check into the church website from time to time. Let it go at that.

 

Don’t tell them that the reason you don’t “like” them anymore is because you are being paid to “like” someone else now.

 

All those needy people you are leaving behind will find others to love them and to love. It may be the new pastor. It may not! You won’t be able to control that.

 

Love is like that. You can’t corral it as much as the Church might try.

photo credit: Sunova Surfboards via photopin cc
03 Feb 2014

Dealing with Church Community

The Best Way vs The Easy Way

Christians are no different from people in general. We tend to look for easy ways.

How many of you had a mother that routinely pointed out that no one promised an easy life?

There are plenty of examples in the Bible of just how true Mom’s advice is. But let’s not muddy up the New Year by referencing biblical examples.

Christians are all about building community.

Communities are messy things, intricately woven. The resulting tapestry can be beautiful.

There is no easy way. But that won’t stop church leaders from trying.

This is a good week to think about Christian community. This coming Sunday’s lessons are all about facing the challenges of life where God planted us.

Remember, God wasn’t afraid to stick his only Son right in the middle of a big mess.

I was reading the Alban Weekly blog this week. They are pushing a book about relations with former pastors.

Here is an example where the Church often advocates the easy approach. Pastors are taught to separate themselves completely from a congregation when they leave. No contact. No funerals (either attending or presiding). No weddings. No attendance at worship. No coffee meetups with the friends made over decades of service. Some pastors are advised to not talk to the next pastor. The theory is that no prejudices should be passed on—as if that’s the only thing pastors share!

The new pastor is supposed to be presented with a sterile environment. Make life easier for everyone. Remove allegiance. Remove choices. And in doing so, remove humanity.

What an artificial approach!

Perhaps this comes from the day when pastors lived in parsonages and leaving the community was almost a necessity.

Perhaps it comes from the day when the internet was not around and connecting was harder.

Today, most pastors purchase their own homes. The spouses are often employed in the community. They and the children have no reason to take orders from regional leaders. They can go to church and maintain friendships as they please.

The pastor may be moving on to a different job—not another church far away. The pastor and the pastor’s family will continue to be part of the community.

Continuity. Longevity. Networking. Incoming pastors are taught to see these as threatening—an obstacle to leadership. An excuse for failure.

This is baloney.

Collegiality and a passion for helping among all clergy and lay leaders will trump territorialism. We need each other today.

Train pastors with integrity, unselfish motivation and good judgement. Train pastors to talk with one another. Not selfish gossip. Honest communication tempered with common sense.

Stop creating a phony environment.

A congregation is not a clean slate on which an incoming pastor will write pristine words of wisdom. The pastor will not mold the congregation. Congregations are more likely to mold the pastor!

Lay people are not pawns in the hands of either the new or old pastor. No interim ministry, no matter how long or well-orchestrated, will change that. The congregation will build on its past and find strength in that.

There is no way to keep people from connecting. Church leaders that attempt to isolate congregations from their past are fighting a losing battle.

This standard practice has led to abuses. The advice is stretched to the ridiculous. Bishops actually look at congregations and suggest that certain members will have to go before a new pastor will be agree to serve. Heaven forbid lay leaders have influence.

Transitions are managed for the comfort of clergy.

The extension of faulty reasoning continues. Property will have to be turned over to the regional body before pastoral recommendations will be made. When “easy” is the goal, this makes sense despite what the rules of the church may be.

Communities grow. The new will add to what has been.

Don’t haul out the pruning analogy. It’s just plain mean — especially when the lives and property of lay people are the targets.

Churches are made up of people, not trees.

31 Dec 2013

Lutherans Who Care. Are there any?

Light one candle to watch for Messiah . . . .

I was touched by the story shared by a Redeemer family on Sunday. They reported that their family visited our church and placed a candle at the steps to the locked doors on Christmas Eve. It was our fifth Christmas Eve locked out of God’s house.

Light one candle to watch for Messiah . . . .

East Falls Lutherans are faithful. It is sad that our devotion and passion for mission and church is lost on a denomination that just doesn’t care about congregations and communities beyond their own comfort.

It is even sadder that our successful ministries could be benefiting the whole church, if we weren’t being shunned.

These particular members have suffered severely at the hands of SEPA Synod. Still they are loyal and hopeful leaders of Redeemer and 2×2.

We’ve waited five years for Lutherans to demonstrate compassion for our church.

The ELCA is only as good as it treats its own.

We’ll light more candles.

There is always hope.

30 Dec 2013

Analyzing Key Word Searches

“Small Congregation Overworked, Pastor Lazy”

One of the benefits of having a church blog is that you can find out what is on people’s mind. Blogs provide a list of the words people have plugged into their search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) in order to land on your site.

Today someone plugged in “small congregation overworked, pastor lazy.”

Redeemer is a small congregation and our people are overworked at least as measured by any normal volunteer church efforts.

For many years we had no pastor. If lay people didn’t step up, no one would.

Maybe pastors saw our little part of God’s kingdom as too much work. Those words spoken by a Synod representative ten years ago are hard to forget. “Ministry in East Falls is not good use of the Lord’s money.”

We suspect that the deprivation of leadership was by design. Our assets were targeted for 25 years. Our assets provided incentive to create conditions for failure in East Falls. Accepting a call with any anticipation of success meant defying the prejudices of leadership. Redeemer was not a church to be served by any pastor with upwardly mobile career ambitions. Calls issued by God rarely do!

But were the few pastors we encountered lazy? Some of them were. Some of them were focused on their own ambitions and sense of purpose. But their reluctance was not necessarily motivated by fear of hard work.

Some of them found themselves serving with inadequate training. They arrived with established ideas and packaged formulas for urban neighborhood ministry. They would provide these services after they did the normal pastoral duties. They would structure their work-week around sermon preparation, clergy gatherings, committees and visiting the sick.

All of this is care-taking, not church-building.

Many of the pastors sent our way were ill-prepared for the realities of urban ministry. Cities tend to be very diverse and fast-changing. Pastors are trained with goals of longevity and traditions. There was often a sense that they would do what was expected of them, whether or not their efforts advanced mission.

Evangelism, therefore, is often relegated to the laity. If pastors have little training in evangelism, lay people are likely to have none. The mission work of the church becomes fund-raising for someone else to implement mission. Easier to fund bricks and mortar than community-building.

Sadly, there are never enough funds for the work that needs to be done.

Lazy, no. Lost, yes.

 

10 Dec 2013

Leadership Lessons for Advent

The Power of Reconciliation

The world lost a great leader this Advent with the death of Nelson Mandela. The two-week long tribute to his life pales to the length of hardships he endured.

The lessons to be learned from his experience can improve a world that is often led with more force by lesser men and women.

Nelson Mandela”s strength was found in his ability to reconcile—to see past the hurt (profound hurt). Exiled from the world he loved for a quarter of his life, he was at last freed in his senior years. He did not rest. He reformed his country and impacted the world.

His power was in his smile.

He embraced concepts Christians teach but often cannot practice. He forgave and left the memory of all reasons for forgiveness to others.

He did the work of reconciliation. He saw the strengths of his oppressors. He did not use his power to get rid of them (as had been done unto him). Instead, he embraced them. He did more than that. He empowered them.

Amazingly top positions in his staff went to some who had “followed orders” in imprisoning him—in keeping him from his family—in losing no opportunity to humiliate him.

The qualities foundational to Christianity work, but they need a good dusting off!

This Christmas will be the fifth Christmas the Lutherans of East Falls will be locked out of the church we served—most of us all our lives. This Christmas, Lutheran leaders of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod will join in singing hymns of love, peace and reconciliation.

Easy songs to sing. Hard songs to practice.

10 Dec 2013

SEPA Asks Some Good Questions

Here’s Redeemer’s Answer

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is launching a new fund-raising appeal to member congregations.

It is called “It Takes All the Saints.”

Giving is down.

Under ELCA structure no congregation is required to give. We are not hierarchical, but are united for common mission. There may be many reasons why congregations do not support the regional body as they once did.

The evaluation of that mission is a right of congregations. If congregations are to part with resources, there must be clear benefits.

When a church sends less or sends nothing, it is easy to jump to the conclusion that the congregation is failing.

The congregation may simply be practicing stewardship.

Congregations may realize that in this great, new, networked world, they have choices. Giving to the regional body is a choice. The answer for many is that the support of a regional office is not “good use of the Lord’s money. ”

The words in quotes were once used by a Synod representative with Redeemer in East Falls. “Ministry in East Falls is not good use of the Lord’s money.” This is a convenient euphemism. When you view resources as belonging to the Lord, claiming them for yourself seems less like stealing.

Congregations may withhold money to express concern about the direction of the Church. For example, many churches stopped giving because of the theological objections in the interpretation of sexual policies. The Church heard that.

When the issues are more subtle and closer to home, there is a disconnect. Congregations may stop giving when they see no benefit or services. When the regional body claims managerial authority, there is little liklihood that this will be viewed as having anything to do with them.

The insatiable need for more money for “the Lord’s work” is always upon us. Problems occur when the regional and national bodies see their work as more important than that of the congregations. This creates hierarchy where none was intended.

Lutheran constitutions addressed this early on. However, in recent years they have been tweaked to mean the opposite of the promises made to congregations in 1987 and 1988 when the ELCA was soliciting members.

Synods were not intended to have management control of congregational assets. Now they do. Every congregation MUST realize this. They can no longer use their offerings to send a message. The risks are too high. This is a problem no one wants to address.

Here is SEPA’s pitch for their latest fund-raiser. It is excerpted from their website, MinistryLink.

Has your congregation called a pastor or sponsored a member through candidacy? Have you been engaged with one of our new missions or had an evangelism consult with one of our coaches? Have you been blessed by global connections with Tanzania, SEKOMU, and our missionaries, the MacPhersons? Did you send junior or senior high youth to our annual youth gatherings? Have you downloaded documents from our updated MinistryLink.org website? Are you presently serving on one of the more than 40 ministry teams and networks — including the Faith Formation team, Tanzania Partnership team, Stewardship Resource Team, Transformational Ministry team and so many more – active in our Synod right now. Have you called the synod office with a question, and received an answer? None of these services would be available without synod staff, contracted experts, and many dedicated volunteers who spend hours planning programs, producing resources and being present with the leaders and congregations of our Synod.

Having asked these questions, SEPA needs to hear the answers—from each congregation. The answers will tell them whether they are using “the Lord’s money” wisely. If they are not, “the Lord’s money” may be better invested elsewhere.

Here are Redeemer’s answers.

Has your congregation called a pastor . . . ?

Redeemer attempted to call a pastor through the synod office several times.

  • In 1997, we signed an 18-month interim agreement with Pastor Robert Matthias. Bishop Almquist broke the contract after three months and supplied no one to replace him for more than a year.
  • In 2000, we encountered a “take who I recommend or else” ultimatum from Bishop Almquist.
  • In 2006, our pastor of close to two years had a private meeting with newly elected Bishop Burkat. He gave us ten days notice (not the constitutional 30) and left the synod after a private meeting with the bishop’s office. Synod lifted no finger to help Redeemer find a replacement ever again. Refusing to supply pastoral leadership (SEPA’s constitutional purpose) was a means to the desired end of acquiring property and assets.
  • In 2007, we presented a resolution to Bishop Burkat to call a pastor with whom we had been successfully working for seven months. Terms had been negotiated. The candidate was qualified. All we sought was SEPA approval. This pastor disappeared after a private meeting with the bishop’s office.

Have you been engaged with one of our new missions or had an evangelism consult with one of our coaches?

Redeemer was having great success with an outreach to Tanzanians in our neighborhood who were coming here to attend schools and making new lives in America. Our attempts to work with SEPA’s mission office were rebuffed. Numerous calls went unreturned. The national office noticed our ministry and asked for a report, which we sent to Chicago. When a SEPA mission director at last responded, he offered this excuse. “It doesn’t matter what you do. The bishop intends to close your church.” On November 1, 2007, Bishop Burkat promised that we could work with the new Mission Director. She broke this promise.

Have we been blessed by global connections with Tanzania?

YES! But not through SEPA! About 60 Tanzanians joined Redeemer between 2000 and 2007. Yet when SEPA reported our membership to Synod Assembly, they weren’t counted. Synod Assembly was told we had only 13 members. The first judges in court were told this too. By the time SEPA started chasing our individual members in court, SEPA was holding Redeemer accountable for a voting membership of more than 70.

This led one of our young members to quip, “The Synod is big on Tanzania, as long as we Tanzanians stay in Tanzania.”

Redeemer is now supporting several mission efforts all over the world. We do this with no budget.

Did you send youth to annual youth gatherings?

No. We sent our youth and families to Lutheran Church camp. It was a better choice for children of immigrants who were learning about America and it was helping grow our congregation and our leadership. This stopped when SEPA took our money.

Have you downloaded documents from our updated MinistryLink.org website?

No.

Are you serving on ministry teams?

No. We have been excluded from all SEPA activities. However, we’ve created our own ministry teams that are amazingly effective.

Have you called the synod office with a question?

Yes. We called and wrote numerous times between 2006 and 2008 and received NO response.

Given this track record (which we hear in our Ambassador visits is not unique) it is no wonder that congregations think twice about where their offerings are best used. With new powers assumed by the Synod, they are risking more than they agreed to when they signed up for the ELCA.

What Redeemer continues to discover is that a congregation’s strength today is in its own network-building—not in the networks crafted by the regional or national body.

Perhaps the reason denominational giving is down is that congregations are realizing their offerings are best spent where they can make sure they are working, where there is transparency and accountability every day, and where they can individually evaluate success. That’s always been the Lutheran way.

Mission DOES take all the saints.

As for Redeemer  . . . we’ve given all we’ve got. Literally! It still is not enough for SEPA.

Again, when you view congregations as keepers of “the Lord’s money,” it feels a little less like stealing when you claim it for yourself.

06 Dec 2013

8 Lessons Learned by David Fighting Goliath

This is part 2 of yesterday’s post about Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants.

Yesterday, we pointed to Gladwell’s observation that true innovation comes from the Davids who fight established practices and wisdom. We promised examples from our experience today.

Ironically, the lessons we learned in our feud with the established church correlate with today’s post of the Alban Institute.

The post by Sarai Rice answers a frequently asked question. What are the emerging trends in the church?

Here are her answers with our corroborating experience.

1. A congregation’s identity does not equal its building.

Lutherans teach “the church is not a building.” This is not the only thing we teach that we do not believe!

Buildings are tools for ministry. Their financial demands can also impede ministry.

Our denomination desperately uses property as a weapon. Give to the regional body the way we expect you to give, or we will take your building off your hands.

This is in total violation of Lutheran polity. However, it is hoped that congregations will lack the will to fight.

People don’t go to church to fight, however righteous. Most Davids flee at the sign of trouble.

Our property was modest but had appreciated in an upscale Philadelphia neighborhood. That should be good news for the congregation. We had equity.

We planned a renovation project that would put our educational building to work in mission and which would provide a healthy income to support ministry.

But our equity was coveted by our denomination — not to benefit the neighborhood that provided it but to benefit SEPA Synod and its recurring budget shortfalls — (still a problem by the way).

Without our property, Redeemer was expected to disappear. Easy pickings.

Taking our building was supposed to be the nail in our coffin.

But Redeemer turned to home churches and after a year reached an agreement with a neighborhood ally for rent-free space. This had the benefit of strengthening our neighborhood ties.

We took our ministry online and learned a great deal about a medium that all churches should use, but almost none are. While our own doors are locked to us, doors opened all over the world.

With our experience in this new realm of ministry we would be in very good shape to conduct our own ministry in our own building for the benefit of the whole denomination.

But Goliath knows best.

We would add a Part B to this point.

A congregation’s identity does not equal its pastor.

This is somewhat covered in Rice’s next point.

2. Pastor does not equal a full-time position.

SEPA Synod seemed to be unable to work with our congregation without a pastor of their choosing in control. This too goes against Lutheran polity. The congregation is supposed to be part of the call process, but small churches are often given few or poor choices.

This expectation drains ministry. Valuable resources are spent on professional help who have little invested in the actual work.

Redeemer was told in 2000 that we had to accept the pastor SEPA wanted us to call or there would be no pastor for a very long time. The pastor they were recommending was upfront. He wanted to provide minimal service—just ten hours per week, just enough to keep his ordination status and benefits active. He would be happy. SEPA would be happy. Under the rules of a regularized call, Redeemer would be endlessly obligated with no promise of benefit.

Wisely, Redeemer turned down this ultimatum. But SEPA required THREE divisive votes before they stepped away from their demand. SEPA walked away. We were supposed to wither on the vine. Bishop Almquist even said, “In ten years, you will die a natural death.”

We found qualified pastors on our own and managed to grow.

In 2007, we presented a resolution to call one of them. We had worked well together for seven months. He had overseen the acceptance of 49 new members. Bishop Claire Burkat did not respond to our resolution. She met privately with the pastor and he never set foot in our church again.

3. Resourcing happens via drop-down menus rather than denominational staff.

The internet is a treasure that can be used by anyone.  “Even small congregations in remote communities know how to use search engines for everything from conflict management to curriculum choices,” Rice writes.

In other words, congregations don’t need to allocate great resources for help from the regional body. Regional bodies can and should downsize. This goes against our bigger is better thinking.

4. Group participation does not equal my congregation’s group.

Church members are loyal but not exclusive. Shunned by our own denomination Redeemer formed relations around the world. The amazing thing is that they have become intertwined. Denomination is never discussed.

Pakistan, Kenya, Sweden, Nigeria, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Boston have worked together in amazing ministry because they met us via our website. (None, except perhaps Redeemer, is ELCA!).

5. Worship does not equal Sunday morning.

Redeemer often meets on Sunday morning, but we also find reason to meet during the week.

6. Small groups and faith formation does not equal Sunday School in church buildings.

Redeemer follows the “meetup” concept. We have no place of our own but meet in homes, restaurants, trips, and theaters—even occasional bars.

7. Active membership does not equal weekly attendance.

Redeemer members stay in touch. We don’t have a church in which to take attendance, but we know that we have nearly 1000 people who read our website every week and participate in our various outreach endeavors. Our reach is broader than any other church in SEPA Synod that has a building.

We would add an eighth point to Sarai Rice’s observations.

8. Income does not equal offering plate.

Redeemer found ourselves suddenly with no church in which to worship and no offering plate to pass. Without a building or a pastor, we had little need to take offerings. But there were these pesky lawsuits (funded against us with our own money!). SEPA also threatened our members’ personal property. Money remained an issue. This is leading us down a new road to self-sufficiency. There is great promise in funding Lutheran ministry in East Falls with a combination of our school and a  mission outreach with entrepreneurial potential. We’ve laid good groundwork!

Should SEPA ever rightfully return East Falls property to East Falls Lutherans, they would soon have a viable flagship church where they have created strife.

25 Nov 2013

From Whence Cometh Church Innovation

Why Transformation in the ELCA Is Unlikely

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (SEPA / ELCA) recently posted a link on its Facebook page from a Methodist Conference that discussed the role of clergy in church transformation.

It referenced the work of Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations. His work studied innovation in farming.

Rogers found the implementers of new ideas broke into the following categories:

  • 2.5% were Innovators. They were educated, had means and were risk-oriented.
  • Early Adopters followed them. They were young, educated and community leaders.
  • Then came the Early Majority. They were conservative but open to new ideas.
  • The Late Majority were older, less educated, conservative and less socially active.
  • Laggards were very conservative had the smallest farms and little capital.

The article argued that clergy could not be effective innovators within their parish role. They place the clergy somewhere between early adopters and the effective implementation that follows.

innovation-700x386Perhaps this is true within Methodist circles.

The Lutheran Bell Curve would probably find clergy at the other end of the spectrum. It is probably a disproportionate number, eating into the hump of the Bell Curve.

innovation2-700x386

  • Lutheran clergy, at least in our area, are older.
  • Lutheran churches in our area are smaller.
  • Lutheran leaders at every level are desperate for capital. That equity should be a tool for the congregation’s use, but regional bodies covet it.
  • Lutheran clergy, by some measure, are less socially active. (Search Lutheran clergy on LinkedIn and see how many are connected and how many of them post their profiles publicly.)
  • Lutheran clergy are becoming increasingly enamored with and dependent upon hierarchy which makes them less likely to explore risk. Innovation without risk is unlikely.

Given these factors, the Lutheran Church will lag in innovation if we depend on professional leaders. Clergy already turn to laity for implementation of most church work. But the control reins hold them back.

Add a few other factors. Lutheran regional leadership, desperate for capital, hover over member congregations waiting for signs of failure. The incentive to assist with innovation is not there. Innovation takes capital! Most of that capital tends to go toward salaries with inconsequential accountability.

Caretaker and part-time ministries rarely lead to innovation but they abound. Pastors inclined toward innovation must be careful. Would-be innovators do so in an unfair arena where leadership is protected by separation of church and state and lay innovators accept personal risk. They may not know it! Ask the laity of Redeemer in East Falls who were named personally in lawsuits by SEPA Synod, while the actions of clergy were protected under separation of church and state.

Laity step up when caretaker ministries are in place, but their leadership is often unappreciated by clergy, who even with part-time status want full-time oversight and credit for success. Failure? The laity can take the credit for that!

Beware! Laity inclined toward innovation do so at their own risk. They may even risk the mission of the church if their leadership threatens the perceived turf of professional leaders.

Yet transformation is not going to happen without a fully empowered laity.

Dedicated laity bring skills to the table that the church desperately needs. When they go unappreciated or are seen as threatening, innovation is squashed.

Laggards swim in the wake. They see the opportunity to sustain things as they are by seizing property, capital and equity.

Consequently, transformation will not happen any time soon. Talk won’t get you there! Visibly aligning with the few charismatic rising stars among the clergy won’t work either. Feature them at Synod Assemblies and Bishop’s Convocations and hope their energy fuels a local movement. Will it catch on without an infrastructure to support it? Not likely. Looks good, though!

This is 2×2’s (Redeemer’s) experience in the ELCA.
Our ministry was already getting attention for innovation back in 2006.
Enter SEPA Synod with its recurring six-figure annual deficit, legal team and locksmith.
SPLAT!

The Lutheran Church desperately needs to empower the laity. They just don’t know how.

19 Nov 2013

The Modern Pulpit Is Not In A Church

The Blogging Pulpit—Open 7 Days per Week

Few preachers are serious bloggers.

On one hand, you can’t blame them. Blogging has only been popular for a short decade. Pastors aren’t trained that way and neither are most teachers of pastors.

On the other hand, blogging embraces new tools that could revive an ancient and failing medium. It deserves attention.

Sermons have a built-in schedule. The deadline is Sunday. Some pastors plan ahead. Others ponder until Saturday night. This weekly discipline belongs to a bygone era. Fewer people attend church. Many aren’t listening. They are taking time from modern lives in which many communicators are vying for their attention. Consequently, the once-a-week sermon is failing to communicate.

Nevertheless, it eats up a healthy chunk of every congregation’s budget.

Why aren’t more preachers excited by the new possibilities to reach the world with the Good News?

martinlutherproGreat preachers of the past would have jumped at using technology!

Consider Martin Luther. He wrote prolifically. He was effective because his writing coincided with the invention of the printing press.

Imagine Martin Luther with a laptop!

The discipline of daily writing combined with today’s marvelous ability to reach individuals, if practiced religiously, could reach vast new audiences.

It is likely to breathe new life into old scripture.

  • Blogging makes you think.
  • Thinking leads to questions and the pursuit of answers.
  • Writers tend to be careful with their words.
  • Blogging every day makes you think of things from different viewpoints.
  • Some of those viewpoints will consider the lives of the people you hope to reach.

This will happen because preachers will run out of material if they don’t think outside their sanctuary.

I’ve been writing here for nearly three years. It was a challenge at first. I didn’t start blogging daily until I’d posted once or twice a week for four or five months.

When I started posting daily, things started happening. The audience started to grow and so did my discipline. Blogging on behalf of my church became the cornerstone of Redeemer’s new ministry. We are still stretching and experimenting and we are doing it with NO budget.

Blogging differs from preaching in one big way. It is two-way. People can engage. They can contribute. They share links. Sometimes they comment online. More often they call or email. Dialogue is good!

But dialogue in the church tends to be one-sided.

The ability to reach people who can respond makes you think about how the words you say or write will resonate with readers. Blogging preachers will start looking for new ways to communicate.

Example from 2×2’s experience:

The highest traffic post on 2×2 is an old post about mission statements. It never fails to have a few reads every day! This is a “hot” topic.

Last week, 2×2 re-purposed this post with a Powerpoint presentation to provide a tool for churches discussing mission statements. It was posted late last week and has been downloaded 100 times so far and has been embedded in 59 other websites! That’s hardly viral. But consider the size of Redeemer and our mission. Our blog reaches more people each week than attend the services of any other church in SEPA Synod.

Blogging is a powerful tool for preachers who care about the impact of their words.

So why are church websites so dry? Why do preachers do little more than post their Sunday sermons (if that)? Do they follow the traffic statistics to see if this is effective or do they just keep doing it?

Few people go to the internet to read 20-minute sermons.

They DO go to the internet for inspiration, however.

Most attend the internet every day—not just on Sunday.

When they are inspired, it is so easy for them to hit a button and share with dozens more.

That’s good news for the Good News.

18 Nov 2013