There is a lot of talk in the church today about power. There is even more posturing.
Constitutions are dusted off. It’s easy to find the denomination’s favorite passage that at first glance gives the bishop and synod council powers over individual congregations. Its pages are well-worn. The sections that support the current desire of leaders are easily quoted from memory. All other sections or even sections that further define the powers are ignored.
The constitutions define very specific powers and they are all to be read in the context of the church’s founding document — The Articles of Incorporation. Very few people in the church ever read these foundational documents. This includes bishops and synod councils. Delegates at Synod Assemblies don’t give them a moment’s thought. Does anyone at a Synod Assembly stand up and ask if they have the power to take votes on some issues?
The Articles of Incorporation define the scope of responsibility. They set the rules for the writing of constitutions and the altering of constitutions over the years. If they are never read, there is a danger of writing new church bylaws that conflict with founding documents. This has created the backdrop for church legal issues, including the ones the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) faces with Redeemer, that little passionate church in East Falls, Philadelphia.
Bishop Claire Burkat reviews the constitution and finds the powers she seeks. She probably cited them to the other churches she closed with less trouble. No one challenged her.
She declared way back in 2008 (or even earlier). “I have the power to close that church and I intend to close it.”
Maybe she does. Maybe she doesn’t. The courts didn’t rule that she does. They deferred to the church to make that decision. In making that decision the church must follow its rules — which most people in the church have never read.
Five powers vested in the church
Let’s not argue any more about it. Putting all constitutions aside, we know very well that the bishop has significant power — should she decide to use it.
Let’s just look at powers the bishop and church leaders have.
Where would we be today if Bishop Burkat had cited the following powers?
“I have the power to help that church and I intend to help them.”
“I have the power to love Redeemer’s people and I intend to love them.”
“I have the power to forgive the people of this synod who disagree and I intend to forgive them.”
“I have the power to reconcile with the member churches of this synod who are unhappy and I intend to reconcile.”
“I have the power to be a peacemaker, if I value peace over acrimony.”
These are the powers given to Bishop Burkat and all the members of SEPA Synod as defined in our founding documents: the Books of the Bible.
2×2 has been friends in ministry with a church movement in Pakistan for a year or so, New Life Ministries. We’ve watched the passion of the leaders who travel into the countryside around the northern city of Faisalabad — an agricultural hub in this Moslem country near the border of India.
A few months ago they shared reports of the frightening unrest and the fear that gripped their families. We’ve heard how the children struggle for acceptance in the schools.
We’ve also heard of their brave celebrations, marching on Palm Sunday through the city streets, the house churches they are starting and the baptisms in the river.
Pastor Sarwar Sadiq writes to us now with their goal of creating 1000 new home churches this year. They need Bibles. They are looking for gifts of $13.50 to purchase hard-bound Bibles for the home churches.
More than that they need our prayers. Know that they have been powerful and loyal prayer partners with us. Here is a link to their web site where you can learn more abut them. www.nlfministries.weebly.com
AT&T Commercials Reveal the Thinking of Young People
AT&T is currently airing a series of commercials that feature a small group of children. They appear to be carefully chosen, boy/girl/boy/girl, some diversity and all comfortable with a camera recording their answers.
A moderator asks a question. The children give a few obvious answers but with the creative twists of youth and the voiceover concludes, “It’s not complicated.”
Most of the answers are just cute. A couple are more revealing.
In one, the children are asked about the difference between fast and slow. One boy answers with great empathy for a child his age.
Another shows the situation many students deal with daily, especially girls. The attention goes to the show off. Everyone else is shoved aside.
Which is better? Doing one thing or two things at the same time?
The children agree. Two is better.
One boy demonstrates with silly movements. All sit and watch as the moderator turns all attention to his antics.
I’ve never seen anything like it! he exclaims.
The girl sitting between them tries to attract his attention and starts to say, “Look! I can do it too.”
The moderator cuts her off turning all attention back to the silly boy. Analytically, the boy is contributing nothing. But he continues to get the attention.
The girl shrinks into the background and accepts the passive role assigned to her.
How often do we turn our attention to the show offs, with nothing to say, and ignore the contributions of the quieter members of our church or congregations?
Our busy ambassadors needed somewhere close to visit this week so we returned to Zion, where we had visited two years ago. One ambassador returned on her own for a mid-week service, so technically this was our third visit to Zion.
Things have changed a bit at Zion. They have a new pastor, Rev. Sozinho Alves, from Angola.
As we entered their organist was reviewing hymns with the congregation in preparation for worship. He was teaching the hymns, sharing his vast knowledge of church music as he familiarized the congregation with what was to come.
Robert Camburn knows our Ambassadors because he is a resident of East Falls. He and two of our Ambassadors once worked at the LCA national headquarters in East Falls. He stopped what he was doing and came to greet us, pronouncing my name like a Fallser. From the day I moved into East Falls and the mailman asked me if I was one of the East Falls Gotwals (not Gotwald), I have had to accept my new name—even from my Fallser husband. It always makes me smile.
We saw today a church very like Redeemer.
First. They have a color bulletin similar to Redeemer. Large print format. Smaller churches can do this because they don’t need to print dozens and so the expense is not formidable. Just like Redeemer there was a puzzle on the back for the little ones.
Attendance was up from our last visit—about 27. Similar to Redeemer. The congregation was quite diverse and seemed acclimated to diversity, worshiping as one. There were two rows of young people and at least one baby. Good age representation.
They still operate a school as Redeemer was about to when Synod made this impossible.
We had two native African pastors working with us. They have one.
Our visit to Zion proves the point we have been making in recent posts that small churches are best situated to take on the SEPA’s stated mission goal of diversity. Larger churches tend to take the separate but equal approach. One group meets at 10 am—the second, usually newer group, meets at 1 pm—something like that. Smaller churches can bypass that while larger churches retain that model for years—sometimes never becoming one.
It also proves that Redeemer was not a legitimate target for Synodical Administration. We’ve visited many congregations with statistics the same or lower than Redeemer’s. The ruse of Synodical Administration was about property and assets and never about mission potential.
Olney has two Lutheran churches and at least one other (Mt. Tabor) just across the boulevard.
From Roosevelt Boulevard to the Montgomery County line, East Falls and the largest geographic neighborhood in Philadelphia, Roxborough, has just one small ELCA congregation located on a crowded back street. SEPA has taken the assets of Grace, Epiphany and Redeemer. They have put nothing back into these neighborhoods. SEPA has abandoned this part of Philadelphia — still fairly well to do, working class and professional neighborhoods, making sure they got the resulting wealth — which they squander on a hierarchy that is largely unneeded in the modern world.
Getting back to Zion, the people were all friendly and talked to us. This has become rare. Most of the 54 churches we have visited do little more than say hello and never engage in conversation.
The members of Zion seemed unaware of what is going on just two neighborhoods away from them.
They graciously gave us the altar flowers, which we sent home with the ambassador who SEPA Synod shamelessly is content to allow to personally suffer the consequences of their interference in East Falls to the point that she is threatened with losing her home and retirement income. She will celebrate her 79th birthday this week. Sixty-two of those years were spent in selfless service to her congregation and some to the national church. Being a Lutheran in East Falls is thankless.
Seth Godin speaks words of wisdom regarding possession and power.
Will SEPA publish these in their next newsletter?
It is very interesting that the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod has discovered the blog of Seth Godin. 2×2 has long been a follower of Seth’s.
Seth thinks and Seth acts on his thoughts. He’s a good model for Christian leaders to emulate. He’s responsible for spurring a lot of change in the business world. It is not hard to apply his thinking to the world of church.
It’s actually not that easy to give something substantial away. That’s because accepting it means a change (in lifestyle, responsibility or worldview) of the person receiving it. It’s stressful.
Far more stressful, though, is taking something away. Once a person or an organization comes to believe that, “this is mine,” they erect a worldview around their possession of it. Taking it away instantly becomes personal, an act far greater than living without a privilege or object in the first place would be.
We care more about the change than the object or privilege itself.
This describes the conflict between Redeemer and East Falls to a T. SEPA took something that was not theirs and has ever since been protecting their newfound right. In the corporate world, it is likely the courts would have stopped them. They are not following their own governing rules. But they are protected from court scrutiny by the First Amendment. They can’t be touched except from within the church. Not likely when the strongest church leaders are busy protecting their status. This undefined chain of responsibility—protecting the clergy at the expense of the most vulnerable laity—is causing the ruin of the Roman Catholic clergy system. Lutherans aren’t far behind.
SEPA has adopted their worldview around “rights” not found in their founding documents—treating congregational properties as their own. Early on, they will attempt congregational votes but if the congregation does not vote the right way, they will declare synodical administration and do as they please. This very scenario happened twice in East Falls. Once with Bishop Almquist, who to his credit gave up the ruse a year later. Bishop Burkat picked up where he left off and made the SEPA worldview a personal vendetta.
Seth is one smart cookie.
SEPA, don’t pick and choose from Seth. If you are his disciple, present more of his advice.
By the way, a lot of good advice is in the Bible, too.
One afternoon at Redeemer, we hosted the choir from the public school across the street. The sanctuary was filled, people were standing in the aisles and down the steps. I found a seat in the choir loft behind the choir. It didn’t hurt the sound one bit.
They started an anthem that featured a soloist. She had a hand-held microphone, hardly necessary in the small sanctuary, but it gave her confidence. She was singing with every ounce of her heart and the solo was reaching its climax, building phrase by phrase.
All I could see was the back of the choir. The middle school girls in the back row had a tacit communication going. They were anticipating the soloist’s coming high note. Each of them literally had their fingers crossed, their wrists punctuating every beat as they waited for what they hoped was coming.
And when that singer hit that note, you could feel them rejoicing within the decorum of the choir. But even if they jumped for joy, it wouldn’t have been out of line. The congregation was on its feet applauding in the middle of the anthem.
And so the congregation returns to routine. It’s Wednesday evening. For the last six decades Wednesday evening has been filled with church choir practice.
Every week the choir meets to make sure their Sunday music is as fine as they can make it. Every week the choir pools all its talent and raises voices to God. Even with all that practice, none of the members sitting in the pew expect them to be perfect. They won’t always hit that high note. But they’ll be back working on it next Wednesday night.
What about other skills of church leadership? Where’s the time for practice, honing skills, attempting something a bit beyond the usual, growing together, cheering for one another when a tough job goes great, laughing together when efforts bomb.
Maybe we need to hold Monday—evangelism practice, Tuesday—teaching practice, (Wednesday’s taken!), Thursday—prayer practice, Friday—stewardship practice, Saturday—social ministry practice.
It might be worth considering making these other skills as much a discipline as we expect from our musicians. Practice may not make perfect, but it builds confidence and it opens doors for new ideas. Skill sets grow.
Let’s practice mission. Try some new things. Be intentional enough to work at them weekly. Cheer when we succeed. Back to the drawing board when we don’t. We will experience both failure and success. Failure feeds success. But not if we don’t practice!
A newsletter from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) today begins with a quote from futuristic thinker, Seth Godin.
There is the mistake of overdoing the defense of the status quo, the error of investing too much time and energy in keeping things as they are.
And then there is the mistake made while inventing the future, the error of small experiments gone bad.
We are almost never hurt by the second kind of mistake and yet we persist in making the first kind, again and again.”
Words of wisdom. Except that SEPA has shown no inclination to follow them. Their decisions tend to be status quo-oriented at best—and remarkably retro overall.
Redeemer’s Ambassadors have visited 54 churches and we see the same ministry plan with few variations in most of them.
SEPA’s vision:
You will have a congregation led by a pastor which we will choose for you—but we will pretend it is your call —because that’s the church way.
You can worship any way you like, but if you aren’t celebrating communion weekly, you are just not with it.
Accepted worship innovations include drums and an audio-visual screen.
Your budget will maintain your building and pay for a pastor, organist, choir director, sexton and church secretary. If money allows, your next hires will be a youth or visitation pastor. That’s the church way. Employing clergy is your major missional purpose.
Your mission efforts will coordinate with our mission office (keeping us employed as well). Otherwise, any success will not count and your ministry will be judged as uncooperative
Your ministry will be supported by offerings from a dwindling number of supporters in a volatile economy. That’s the church way. Go ahead. Keep trying. We’ll wait a reasonable amount of time before we celebrate your failure. Pastoral help? Sorry, no one is available.
When at last our prediction of your poor ministry potential comes true, we will make sure any remaining assets benefit synod.
Redeemer’s members, most of whom are entrepreneurial in their private lives, determined that we had to have a different kind of ministry. We had worked with Synod’s plans for a decade. Some showed promise, but SEPA’s support for their own proposed ministry plans was self-serving and ephemeral. The interim pastor we agreed to call for 18 months was recalled by Bishop Almquist after three months. He was needed in Bucks County. The covenant we signed with Epiphany was broken with the support (and to the benefit) of SEPA.
Redeemer’s vision:
Relying on offerings will guarantee failure. Providing pastoral needs as a priority will deplete resources with no measurable benefit.
Serve the community with profit center ministries.
Use the educational building to operate a community day school (with religious instruction) which might also reach the neighboring public school. Projected revenue $6000 per month.
Invest the skills of members in ministry that would serve the immigrant community while generating income. Projected revenue $10,000 per month (anticipated to grow with experience).
Experiment with social media, sharing ideas and potentially creating an income stream. Projected revenue within two years ($1000 per month with much more potential).
So Redeemer set about reinventing its ministry. Redeemer presented a detailed plan to Bishop Burkat who never reviewed it with us before (or after) announcing her plans to close our church. No questions, no answers, no complaints, no discussion, no congregational vote — just a declaration of closure. SEPA had a six-figure deficit clouding its vision. Redeemer, on the other hand, was living within its means.
Redeemer was willing to take calculated risks with its own resources for the benefit of its own ministry. Redeemer asked nothing of SEPA except their approval of the pastor we hoped to work with and who was entirely qualified and agreeable to the plan. He disappeared after a private meeting with Bishop Burkat. He resurfaced with an interim call to good old Bucks County.
While reinventing our future, we were willing to make mistakes along the way and planned for careful monitoring to maximize success. We set about our new ministry by rallying the support of members, involving them in the planning and shaping of their own ministry.
Outsiders, with no interest in our assets, have commented that we were doing a pretty good job. (Some of them were Lutheran!)
But status quo SEPA, facing its own murky future, decided that they had better plans for Redeemer’s assets. And so there has been no SEPA-sponsored ministry in East Falls in four years—Redeemer’s assets serving no ministry purpose. A legacy of distrust growing daily.
Meanwhile, Redeemer continues as much of its ministry as we can, under hateful conditions, while SEPA uses our resources to sue us.
If only SEPA had come across Seth’s words of wisdom before they fouled the baptismal waters in East Falls.
Looking for Success in the Wrong Places
As it struggles, the Church tends to misidentify success. They look at the largest dozen or so churches that attract larger numbers. They can still afford a few pastors and a staff. Careful analysis will show that the larger churches are also struggling. It just isn’t as noticeable. So their “success” is emulated.
We are emulating failure.
The Small Churches and Laity Are Pivotal to Change
Small churches are keenly aware that complacency endangers ministry. Most small churches have strong lay leadership. Synod shows no interest in serving them. It’s a waiting game. A death watch.
If SEPA Synod is sincere in wanting to foster innovation, they must turn to their smallest congregations and work WITH them.
Here’s why the laity are key to innovation.
Lay people do not rely on the approval of hierarchy for their career trajectory. They are more likely to take innovative risks.
Lay people tend to circulate among other churches, religions and denominations — fodder for creative ideas.
Lay people are dedicated to the church and the neighborhoods where they live. They have no plans to move on to a bigger church in seven years.
Lay people provide the funds that support ministry. They care about how THEIR offerings are spent.
Lay people collectively bring the wisdom of many disciplines to the Church. Clergy get similar training in whatever seminary they choose.
Lay people serve with no expectations of reward or credit.
Church has long recognized that it has trouble connecting with the young. For several decades it was taken for granted that our youth would disappear in high school and return with their children in their twenties.
The benign neglect of this demographic is now haunting us.
Young people began putting off parenthood until their 30s or 40s. A two-decade absence was insurmountable. Add to that the demands of the modern family, including high divorce rates and intensive community commitments, and you have an entire population missing from church life.
Time has only widened the demographic.
Our Ambassador visits reveal that the problem demographic is now pre-school through 40.
This should alarm congregations.
We won’t pretend to have all the answers, but we had some of them. Redeemer’s membership, though small, had every age group represented with a good representation of families with young children and a small group of active youth. Our cradle roll was showing particular promise when SEPA Synod decided to vote us closed without our knowledge.
Whatever it was we were doing right, we have learned even more in the last few years.
We took our ministry online. 2x2virtualchurch.com is the voice of Redeemer, East Falls. We are about to celebrate the second anniversary of our launch.
We are pioneers in social media ministry and we have attracted attention from church leaders all over the world.
As of this month, we average more than 2000 readers per month. This doesn’t count readers who subscribe by email, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. This adds another 200 daily readers.
These social media channels are valuable in growing our ministry. They help us identify our readers.
Surprise! Most of our readers fit the very demographic missing in bricks and mortar churches. Our subscribers tend to be in their 20s and 30s. They are from any number of ethnic backgrounds. They tend to be adventurous in lifestyle and involved in making spiritual connections online. Many of them blog on spiritual subjects.
They are timid to comment online but tend to write to us by email.
Another demographic is beginning to emerge. From time to time (we wish more often) we publish resources we hope are helpful to other small congregations. Some of them are from our archives of things we used in our own worship.
Our church was unique in that most of our members spoke English as a third language and learned music by ear, not by reading from hymnals. Our early attempt to use published resources flopped. We started writing our own resources that could be performed simply and without expensive professional leadership.
Last year, we posted an Easter/Holy Week play that Redeemer produced and performed for the community in 2008. It sat there all year getting little attention.
At Christmastime 2012, readers started to find it. It has been downloaded 700 times in the last month.
Our Adult Object Lessons, based on the Common Lectionary and published weekly, are also attracting a following and are beginning to engage readers.
Will our ministry ever be seen as worthy to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod who claimed our assets with the unsupported rationale that we were incapable of fulfilling our “missional” purpose?
They are unlikely to budge.
Meanwhile, Redeemer will keep moving! We think the survival of the church in the next 100 years depends on learning the skills we are pioneering today. We’ll be glad to share our adventure.
Mystery writers follow an old adage. If there is a gun hanging on the wall in Act 1, shots had better be fired by the end of Act 3.
Today’s objects are a small glass of water and wine.
We are now in Act 1 of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus has already left home, been baptized, and collected his disciples. They travel to Cana for a wedding—major entertainment in those days, typically lasting a week.
The stage in John’s Gospel is set with two things. Water and Wine.
Water has already played a role in this mystery. Jesus was baptized. Dramatic anticipation.
Wine is the gun hanging on the wall, or in this case crowding the edges of the stage in the form of six huge wine bottles.
But we are not yet finished with water!
John writes about two people whose lives were very much interwoven with his own. He was an invited guest at this wedding. Yet he tells this story from a distance.
There by Jesus’ side is his mother, unnamed by John, who was charged at the foot of the cross with her care and well-being.
Jesus’ mother prods her son. Now is the time, she encourages. Your special talents are needed now.
Jesus, like many sons coming of age, resists. What do you know, woman? My hour has not yet come? Suspense!
The common humanity of this situation is in contrast to the sign that is about to happen. Mary ignores her son and takes control. She puts Jesus in a position where he must perform. This mother will have her way.
The Spirit is reentering the story. We heard about the Spirit last week. It’s what made Jesus’ baptism different from all the baptisms gone before.
And so the water, which has come to mean so much in the story of Jesus, once again takes center stage. It is to become wine—extraordinary wine.
It’s still Act 1. Wine will continue to play a role as the plot unfolds. Wait ’til Act 3 for the gun to go off!
Our pastor is admittedly old school. (He isn’t official but we love him anyway.) He carries his Bible with him always. I’ve always admired that about him. It is well-worn (falling apart to be honest). He lovingly covers it in paper as we used to have to cover our school texts in grade school. Would that our Bibles were as in danger of wear and tear as our school primers!
The only Bible I carry with me is on my smart phone. The internet has made Bible-toting so unnecessary that I’ll never feel guilty. I read a lot more of Scripture since it is accessible with the size of type adjustable and with any number of translations available at the click of the mouse. Just Google a key word and the passage you are trying to remember pops up. How spoiled can we Christians get?
To think of the time I wasted memorizing the books of the Bible! At least I got a prize for my effort. While it still provides an understanding of the structure of the Bible, it is no longer necessary for easy reference. It’s almost like the Dewey Decimal System. Remember that?
How I remember the arguments among my elders when I was a child! Which was the real Bible, the true Word of God? King James or Revised Standard? My old Sunday School teachers would suffer apoplexy at the number of versions available today!
And so, I was reading some suggested passages this morning, when I noticed the requisite banner ads. Bibles were for sale.
How would monetizing Scripture fly with the people who shaped my faith? But then that’s nothing new. Each of those translations is copyrighted and you can be sure that new translations will pop up when the copyrights expire. Yes, someone on earth will always claim ownership of those wonderful words of love!
One ad caught my eye.
The Message Remix Solo New Testament Brown Imitation Leather Slightly Imperfect
Six dollars were knocked off the list price.
Does “imitation leather” cheapen the Word?
Slightly Imperfect. Are they referring to the cover—or the translation—or the Bible itself? Is that sacrilege?
Back to the adage(s). You can’t tell a book by its cover. The proof of the pudding is in the reading—and the living.
Join Bishop Ruby Kinisa as she visits small churches "under cover" to learn what people would never share if they knew they were talking to their bishop.
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For bulk copies, please contact 2x2: creation@dca.net.
Contact Info
You can reach
Judy Gotwald,
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at
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Redeemer’s Prayer
We were all once strangers, the weakest, the outcasts, until someone came to our defense, included us, empowered us, reconciled us (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 2).
2×2 Sections
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On Isaiah 30:15b
Be calm. Wait. Wait. Commit your cause to God. He will make it succeed. Look for Him a little at a time. Wait. Wait. But since this waiting seems long to the flesh and appears like death, the flesh always wavers. But keep faith. Patience will overcome wickedness.
—Martin Luther
