We celebrated Epiphany last week. The season of revelation of Christ as Messiah is short this year.
Just four weeks from now we will embark upon the season of Lent.
In our analytics of our website, we noticed that beginning on Christmas Day, our readers were searching for resources for Easter. So we are going to try to provide some resources to help with Easter’s prelude—that mixed-up season of Lent.
Lent is confusing. It is the season of repentance. Didn’t we just go through this a few weeks ago in Advent?
It is also a season of mixed messages. Centuries of tradition have become muddled with modern sensibilities.
Ash Wednesday has always been a puzzle. We routinely read the passage from Matthew which tells us repeatedly to NOT make a show of our repentance and NOT distort our appearance. Then we defy the gospel we have just read and make a show of our repentance and distort our appearance.
Then some well-intentioned theologian came up with the concept of “burying or sealing the Alleluias”—banning the utterance of the traditional word of praise during the season of Lent. This flies in the face of the fact that Lent is structured to observe 40 days of repentance (modeled from Christ’s 40 days in the wilderness) and those 40 days EXCLUDE Sundays. There are NO Sundays in Lent. Every Sunday is reserved for a celebration of Easter. Alleluia!
We never sealed the Alleluias at Redeemer. The custom was unknown to us until we shared a pastor with a neighboring congregation. Their pastor surprised us when he announced during the service that the Alleluias were now sealed.
Our worship service for the next Sunday had already been planned and it was to feature an adaptation of Leonard Cohen’s mournful song Hallelujah—which repeats the Hebrew version of Alleluia countless times in a way entirely appropriate for Lent. (Rules tend to hamper creativity!)
Except for the fact that this was preplanned it would have given the impression that we were defying our pastor, which was in no way our intent. We tabled our plans for a year.
The pastor apologized for making the assumption that this was our custom. No conflict resulted.
But every year since, we have used this song, which retells the story of Christ’s temptation. Here’s a link.
Jesus never used the word church. He didn’t tell his disciples to build churches. The idea of church just happened. For sure, the Spirit was involved.
The earliest church makers had a sense of power. They were fighting the establishment, undaunted by law or convention. They were doing a good thing, a revolutionary thing. They were changing the world. They had a very real sense that God was leading them.
But that was the beginning. It wasn’t long before the sense of power became centralized and the focus shifted. What’s in it for us?
This has been a temptation all along for both those who wield power and those who submit to power.
In the Church’s heyday, people flocked to church for many reasons in addition to and sometimes instead of faith.
Social acceptance
Guidance
Comfort and well-being
A carefully fostered sense of guilt
Business connections
Perceived access to God
Access to the power-makers of the day
Some of these factors are still in play, but there is a new social dynamic that the Church is not recognizing.
The emerging citizens of the world have a new sense of personal power.
They have ready access to information. Have you had dinner with a 20-year-old lately? Make a claim and he or she will pull out a cell phone and fact-check you on the spot!
They don’t need the church for social networking.
Their secular educations have shielded them from a sense of inadequacy and guilt.
Books on any topic, including self-help books, can be streamed into the palms of their hands with one click. They can figure out how to accomplish complex goals very quickly.
They recognize that the Church has lost influence in the modern world. They won’t spend time wishing it weren’t so. They will live with reality.
There is less need for access to power-makers or power-holders or power-brokers because the new generations know deep in their bones that they have power. Every pimple-faced kid carries as much power in his or her jeans pocket as Napoleon.
One newscaster noted that an individual today has at his or her fingertips as many resources as an entire television network twenty years ago.
The Church tends to read the new sense of power as lack of respect. Some of this may be true. In many cases Church abuses have justified a fall from grace. But generally, the lack of respect is an illusion.
What they are sensing is not lack of passive respect. It’s a growing sense of power in the pews.
What does this say to the church?
Older people may go to church out of habit or for personal satisfaction or devotion.
Young people, if they are to connect with the church, want to use their power. They know they have it. There is no point in pretending it does not exist. They want to make a difference.
As power shifts, the sense of entitlement grows among those in the Church who are accustomed to being viewed as powerful.
They are destined to lose their grip.
This realization may come hard.
The people the Church needs to reach (for its own sake if not for the sake of others) want to be part of activities that make a real difference. Not patchwork, feel-good social fixes. Their absence from church is impatience.
For the first time, perhaps, in the history of the world they really have power and they know it.
The Church must harness the “can do” spirit. Let go of the ecclesiastic reins. Trust in a new plan.
Let the Holy Spirit into the mix and stand back! Be prepared to say, WOW!
Baptism was not unique to John the Baptist or to Jesus. Ritual cleansing was part of other beliefs in ancient Mesopotamia. John’s following were engaging in a familiar custom — just by different and rather unusual leader.
Then came Jesus. When John baptized Jesus, God added something new to an old custom. He sent his Spirit. Adding Spirit made an old custom new to the point that today baptism is associated with Christians.
Christians are baptized with both the water and the spirit.
Here’s one idea for how you might illustrate this to your congregation.
You might set a kettle to boil while you talk to your congregation this week. You could do this with a whistling kettle right in front of people or you could have a hot plate off to the side with a the kettle rigged to go off just about the time you are making a point about water.
Water is so common. There is no life without it. We drink it, wash with it, cook with, and even have fun with it.
Water at rest is still and peaceful.
Water at rest can also become stagnant and foul.
Water in motion cleanses itself. Its power can grind grain and feed a village. It can turn turbines and generate still more power. It can destroy what man cleverly builds and admires.
Water combined with spirit is unstoppable. And that’s what makes baptism in Christ so different.
Water and the Spirit grab our attention. (And that’s about when the whistle should go off!)
2×2 is nearing its second anniversary from the date of launch (February 2, 2011).
Can a small church blog make an impact?
Church blogs are a bit different from other forms of social media where the aim is often engagement. People don’t tend to engage in public forums in matters of faith. If we measured our impact by comments and likes, we’d be tempted to say no. Very little impact. Just over 100 comments in two years.
2×2 has learned that people don’t tend to respond ONLINE. We get many emails from readers that are not part of the public discussion. And that’s OK. We have not followed the engagement star.
Our first year was spent learning. 2012 was the year that the launch actually took hold. We started posting daily in mid-summer of 2011. It wasn’t until the end of 2011 that we saw any encouraging statistics. 2012, however, was a year of steady growth that is beginning to display exponential potential.
Redeemer, through 2×2, now reaches more people each week with the message of Christ than do the largest congregations in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (who claims we are too small to fulfill our missional purpose).
What Draws Readers to a Church Blog?
It is not pictures of your sanctuary and activities or messages from your pastor—all the standard stuff on most church websites.
Readers (seekers) are drawn by helpful content.
Our goal for 2012 is to develop more helpful content.
Last Easter we posted a play that Redeemer had created and performed in 2008, when we still had a sanctuary in which to practice our faith. Beginning on Christmas Day 2012, this play, offered for free to our readers, has drawn about 50 readers and downloads per day.
Our series on object lessons, designed for adult listeners but applicable to children as well, also draws regular weekly readers. One reader wrote a note of thanks last week. They mentioned that they work with Bhutanese refugees.
Our third and fourth biggest draws are commentary on any number of church-related issues and our series on using social media in the church (this was our biggest draw early last year but that is shifting).
We now have more than 2000 new readers each month and about 150 who subscribe through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Our followers tend to be young people (20s and 30s—the very demographic the organized church has trouble reaching). They represent many ethnic backgrounds. In any given hour, an average of 20 people read our site. Most visit more than the home page.
We’ve written before about the network of small mission churches that correspond with us regularly. This continues to grow.
There are many people of faith working in isolation and under hostile conditions in the world. Finding support for their efforts within the organized church is expensive and time-consuming. It can take years to be recognized as legitimate mission within denominational standards. Meanwhile, orphans, widows and needy cope, meeting in houses and open-air pavilions and along the banks of rivers, caring little about denominational structure—relying on faith and the bonds they forge on their own.
Their needs are simple. They want Bibles and friendship. They don’t want to walk their faith journeys alone. They really don’t care about denominational labels.
Our little church blog is making a difference in these places. Yours could, too.
A retired pastor and former assistant to the bishop of the Metropolitan Washington DC Synod, Rev. Ronald Christian, wrote a short editorial view in the current issue of the ELCA’s denominational magazine, The Lutheran.
Why do they leave? he asks about the mass exodus of congregations in the last few years.
His question reveals just how clueless leaders in the ELCA are.
NOTE: Not all synods operate with a lack of conscience. We hope the horrific activities we recount are not as widespread as they seem.
Rev. Ronald Christian writes in the first hundred words or so (The Lutheran asks us to pay to read to the end, but I’ve given about all I can to the ELCA.):
The ELCA requires nothing of congregations. A congregation will not be removed from the roster for lack of giving, lack of diversity in membership, lack of a youth ministry, lack of mission activity, lack of social work in its community, lack of Bible studies, wrong vestments or secular music on Sundays.
It is possible to be removed if a congregation votes to disavow the constitution of the ELCA and the congregation’s own documents of affiliation with the ELCA. But then it has removed itself from the family.
He clearly has not heard about the cannibalism going on in SEPA, in Metro New York, in Slovak Zion and in New England Synods (the ones we know about). There is a plague of synod leadership moving in on congregations with stealth, deceit and all the power their awkwardly written constitutions steal from their Articles of Incorporation.
These synods haven’t read their founding documents as Rev. Christian seems to have. They rely on no one else reading them either. They also rely on their protected status under the Bill of Rights to continue their activities without legal challenge—even as they use the courts to force their will on member churches.
Constitutionally, the synods do not have the power to remove a congregation from the roster unilaterally. This doesn’t stop them! If a congregation does not vote to close when asked to do so, the synods simply replace the congregation’s authority with their own. That eliminates the work of serving the congregations—their stated mission.
We found out we were closed a year after the fact when we googled our name and the SEPA Synod Council minutes came up.
There was no conversation, no congregational vote and no notification—just a Synod Council blindly following orders.
The national church is useless. Congregations pay for the infrastructure in Chicago. But Bishop Hanson and the ELCA legal offices refuse to deal with congregations. Congregations are lucky to get form letters in response to complaints. We wrote monthly to Bishop Hanson for almost a year back in 2008. He responded benignly to only the first letter.
There is no impartial place within the ELCA to turn.
How did this come about?
Giving is down. Attendance is down. SEPA synod staff is bigger than some of their congregations’ Sunday morning attendance. Synods are looking for money. Small congregations with endowments are tempting.
It’s all about assets. If the people dare to protest, a synod can identify the most influential lay leaders and attack them personally, pitting the combined resources of a couple hundred churches (failing as they may be) against the household incomes and life savings of individual volunteer church members.
It’s open season on the laity. We have no place to turn.
Laity who served faithfully all their lives are suddenly considered enemies by church leaders. Why? We stood our ground (like a certain forefather). We deserve anything that happens to us as a result is the attitude. That includes being ostracized, losing our church home, losing our personal homes, spending more money than we have on legal bills. Anything! And never an attempt to work with the congregation.
Where are the clergy? They flee. We had two pastors whom we never saw again after private meetings with the bishop. One of them had just encouraged us to “stand firm.”
As part of the merger, ELCA agreed to call our presidents bishops with the promise that the title change meant no change in power. In fact, it has changed attitudes and perceptions. As Dr. Phil says, perceptions are reality.
As a result it is increasingly difficult to recognize or participate in the ELCA. Do as you are told or be closed.
The people do not have access to their governing bodies.
Synod councils act in a vacuum getting all their data for making decisions from the synod office. No contact information is listed on our synod’s website.
Synod Assemblies are dummied down by the maze of quota voters (many of whom have no knowledge of the issues).
The time constraints of a weekend Synod Assembly has turned them into “feel good” showcases for the administration.
The entire structure is designed on paper to be representative. In practice it has become top down.
Bishops view their power differently than presidents. People respond differently.
Presidents can be questioned. Presidents represent the people who elect them. Bishops—not so much.
Clergy increasingly stay arms length—content to stick to their parish worlds and protect their standing with the bishop. They “cannot question the wisdom of the bishop” they repeat as an excuse for hiding their eyes.
OF COURSE THEY CAN! The Church relies on them questioning the wisdom of the bishops.
This has created a mess!
The question is not Why do churches leave? Rather, it is Why in heaven’s name do they stay?
Lutherans used to have something to be proud of. A little piece of me still is.
PS: Redeemer was one of the only growing congregations in SEPA in 2007 when Bishop Burkat, facing a $275,000 annual deficit, decided she needed our assets. Redeemer was cross-cultural, multi-lingual, and entrepreneurial with youthful demographics—all the things churches are looking to achieve. We were self-supporting. We had more money than synod. SEPA’s treasurer had just reported they were within $75,000 of depleting every available resource when it was suddenly determined Redeemer should die. We voted to leave. SEPA refused to engage in the constitutional process for leaving. You can’t leave; we are terminating you. (That way they get the money.) Several churches were similarly challenged before us. We were the first to say NO!
Redeemer is not closed. We are locked out of God’s House by SEPA Synod.
The Church tends to think of itself within narrow economic confines.
Church professionals will busy themselves with all things mission-related.
Laity will generously give money to them…and work hard, too!
The model is failing.
Small churches face the most pressing problems. We suspect that they hold some answers for changing things but are rarely given the opportunity to explore solutions. It is too tempting to just close them and rake in their assets.
Large church numbers are down too. Status quo must be the mission goal, because that is about the best you can find when reviewing parish reports—even in big flagship churches! A church boasting of 7000 members is likely to see only 10% at worship.
The temptation is to keep this age-old economic model going as long as possible.
Beg for money from people—be they dead or alive.
Build endowments that must be protected as a legacy for the hierarchy and not spent (or as synod’s tend to say, squandered) by the congregations that provide it.
As the smallest churches begin to fail, modify denominational polity to ensure congregational assets are churned into the greater church, whether or not the donors of the wealth agree.
Call the acquired assets The Mission Fund. Use it to help the hierarchy survive.
This is the current state of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA)of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). They are camouflaging a crisis. The only remedies we see being presented as we travel from church to church is more of the same. Commitment Sundays. Stewardship Sundays. It’s surprising how many of these we have encountered in our random visits. Lots of talk about finding the money to keep doing things the same way.
Churches continue to struggle.
And yet we keep trying to do things the same way—making the same mistakes over and over.
Reality must be faced. Money for mission and growth is not going to come from the offering plate. There are simply too many worthy causes demanding members’ expendable income and some of them have the force of law behind them.
If congregations are to survive they must start thinking entrepreneurially. The resources at hand must be viewed as money-producing assets for the benefit of the congregations — not the synods! Mission must be the priority. Existing assets must be used accordingly—to ensure that the activities of the Church help fund the mission of the Church.
This may sound like new territory. It is not. Monks have long-supported their mission and lifestyle with entrepreneurial enterprises.
If we are going to grow in mission in new ways, we must be willing to make new mistakes. Risk is necessary when the dependable model is failing. Otherwise we are fending off failure.
Why is progress so difficult?
The steps that need to be taken are unlikely as long as we rely on leadership from hierarchy that depends on churches failing for their survival.
The Ambassadors were out in unusual force yesterday visiting Trinity, Lansdale, one of the largest congregations in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). It was our 54th visit to a SEPA congregation.
It’s been a rough few days for Redeemer. Yesterday, Saturday, January 5, was particularly difficult.
At least a quarter of the people gathered in the large sanctuary on this cold Saturday afternoon claim Lutheran roots firmly planted in Redeemer, East Falls.
Tragically, the infant we gathered to remember and lay to rest was one of our family. Families at Redeemer have always been intricately interconnected. Remarkably, this has remained true even as we grow to become more diverse. One Redeemer member cannot itch without another scratching.
Indeed, we have a goodly heritage.
Part of the beautiful service was thanksgiving for baptism.
Our Jude was baptized as he was coming into the world. His chances for survival were known to be slim. When his parents learned early on that he was not likely to survive birth, they named him. His name breathed life into him. Jude Michael Boeh belonged.
I am privileged to know the family of both sides of one set of Jude’s grandparents. Many of the names bandied about in the narthex as the family gathered came alive again. Remember Clarence and George, Vicki, Tom, Emma and Jacob?
I wasn’t born into Redeemer, but I remember them well. It was good to hear their names again and to pass their stories on to the younger members of the family. Some belonged to Redeemer and some to the Presbyterian church across the street. But that was a formality. Redeemer members worshiped at Redeemer in the morning and attended services with their Presbyterian neighbors afterwards. Dual citizenship.
Jude’s mother, born Elizabeth Leach, gave a moving tribute to his short life and its powerful force.
Jude was named for the patron saint of lost causes. His life was a tribute to the value of any life-affirming cause, even one that appears to be facing hopeless odds.
We are so proud of his family, especially his mother whom we watched grow up at many Redeemer services and events.
Redeemer, East Falls, and Trinity, Lansdale, are worlds apart. Trinity’s narthex is about the size of Redeemer’s sanctuary. But it doesn’t matter how large a sanctuary is. A lot of good can come out of both large and small churches. As the history we read on the walls of Trinity attest, churches start small. Some grow in size. Some grow in spirit. All have worth.
As I participated in the memorial service for my step great-grandson, I thought of my late husband.
Jude’s great-grandfather, Andrew Leach, was the first baby baptized in Redeemer in 1909. Jude’s grandfather and many of his aunts and uncles of varying generations were also baptized at Redeemer.
He would have been proud of the courage his grandchildren displayed in their compassionate, faithful, heart-wrenching choices. Their willingness to share their heartbreak is a gift.
Jude’s great-grandfather was the heart and soul of Redeemer, devout in practical ways. He managed the church finances and was responsible for protecting and growing the endowment that tempted SEPA from the day of his death. He was universally respected in the church and community and set the tone of what could be called Redeemer’s personality.
He not only managed the church as a business but he had a superb voice, a legacy passed on to many family members. He was never so proud that he wouldn’t clean the sidewalks and scrub floors. His interest in the community made Redeemer the common meeting place for many community groups. When it came to Redeemer, there was no nonsense.
His great granddaughter, Hazel, (Jude’s older sister) was born shortly after Andy’s death. Hazel, at 14, shared with poise a heartfelt testimony of how her journey with her sister, mom, stepdad and baby Jude had awakened her faith. She reminded me of her great-grandmother.
Gertrude Trommer Leach was a member of the Sunday School class I taught at Redeemer. She worked hard with the ladies group, sang in the choir and played the piano. She was a deeply spiritual child of God, a true matriarchal cornerstone. Easy-going and loving, when she occasionally stood her ground, she was a force to be reckoned with.
Andrew’s youngest son, Nathaniel, is still a member of Redeemer. He was seated next to me in the sanctuary, singing with his father’s voice as we remembered Jude. I was reminded of his biblical namesake. Nathaniel in the Bible asks rather flippantly upon learning of Jesus of Nazareth, “Can any good come out of Nazareth?”
Is there any good to be found in trying circumstances, in facing difficult odds?
People of faith must answer yes.
Sometimes you have to dig through a lot of grime. Sometimes you have to wipe away the tears. Sometimes you have to struggle to get up in the morning. Often we have to withstand hurtful gossip and defend against questionable, self-serving advice. But there is value wherever there is life.
Jesus loves us. The Bible tells us so.
The service was beautiful, but as Sunday quickly rolled around, it would have been a comfort to many of the mourners to sit in the pews so familiar to our family, to kneel at the altar where our families knelt together for generations, to pass the font where five generations have been baptized, to shed a tear in our own sacred space—now desecrated with fighting that should have been resolved with love within the Christian family long ago, and to embrace other members of Redeemer who live in fear beyond their control. It would be a comfort to have some sense that in the community of God we have worth beyond the value of our assets.
Redeemer members continue to meet, worship and serve—and grow.
Faith gives us no choice. Affirming life is a part of our legacy.
Jude. The patron saint of lost causes.
Is there really such a thing for people of faith? Sometimes we just don’t know what the real cause is!
The name Jude, by the way, means PRAISE! That’s how I will remember Jude. With praise.
God bless our Jude. God bless Jude’s family. God bless the Christian legacy that brought us all together in the sanctuary in Trinity, Lansdale, on January 5, 2013.
I often have the television news on in the background while I fix dinner. Lately, I’ve been wondering if my house near the center of Philadelphia, one of the largest cities in the United States, has been picked up by a tornado and plopped down in neighboring New Jersey.
All the worthwhile news seems to be about the Garden State, with place names I recognize but would have to scan a map to know exactly where they are.
The Philadelphia news is crime- and sports-oriented.
That was my impression. Was I imagining things?
Last night when the news came on, I was sitting in my easy chair, so I grabbed a scrap of paper and pen and took notes. CBS-3 local news opened with the story of a woman who was beaten by another woman near a subway stop in South Philadelphia.
The next five or so stories, bringing us seven minutes into the 20-minute broadcast, were about Hurricane Sandy relief at the Jersey shore—seventy or so miles away. (I know NJ Governor Christie’s politics much better than that Tom fellow in Harrisburg.)
Commercial Break
The next segment opened with a teaser about the weather. Great map. Beautiful gal standing in front of it. No real information. That was coming. Promise!
Some poor soul in New Jersey was practicing the art of kidnapping. Glad we got him!
At last, some Philadelphia news. A shooting in North Philadelphia. An update on two shootings at Temple University (where my son works, should I panic?!).
Back to New Jersey. Camden County police will be replacing Camden City police, something all we Philadelphians need to know about our crime-ridden sister city across the Delaware River.
Back to Philadelphia. I was happy to learn that the fired Eagles coach found an $8 million dollar per year job in Kansas City. His family will eat for five more years.
More promises of a weather report. Meanwhile, be advised, it is cold.
Commercial Break
The next stories gave me a view of the world. Another celebrity visited Newtown, Connecticut. There was some trouble in Minneapolis, a drunk on a plane that flew into New York’s JFK Airport, and a health alert.
More about the Eagles and some footage of a tired-looking Sixers team. At least they help each other up off the floor. We are the City of Brotherly Love.
Finally, the promised weather report. It was cold today and it will be cold tomorrow.
It’s great to live in Philadelphia. We just have to dodge bullets. Everyone else has real problems.
It is clear that the local news is about building a platform to sell advertising. They, like the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, want to broaden readership. The news becomes about the New Jersey suburbs. They wonder why Philadelphians stop following them.
They are chasing demographics.
Dodging Bullets in City Ministry
We tend chase demographics in the church, too. We find mission projects upon which we can build our reputation and will be easy to support. It feels good to support the organized efforts of organizations like Habitat for Humanity and the Weekend Walk for any number of causes. But let’s not fool ourselves.
It looks good in the bulletin. It feels good to those who participate. It is good work.
It is not mission work.
Within the church, an attractive demographic is one that is already predisposed to church tradition, where mission work is not needed to meet a budget that supports a pastor and a building.
This demographic fled to the suburbs decades ago. Replacing it is too much like work—mission work.
When the experts come to evaluate city churches they use that very language. The demographics for success are not here, city congregations are advised. Don’t expect help from us, but keep sending in your offerings. We will provide a minister to hold your hand. Make sure you provide the required benefits package as if ministry were actually happening. Let us know when the money runs out. We will help you then.
All those little churches in the city neighborhoods—still populated with plenty of God-loving, hard-serving people — well, let them dodge bullets. The suburbs will get the benefit of their property sooner that way.
Meanwhile, at Christmas, suburban church members don stylish dungarees, reluctantly shell out $20 parking in center city, dish out some soup to the city’s worst off, and call it mission.
That’s a pretty paltry return for the millions of dollars they are taking from city neighborhoods when they force church closures and lock local people out of the churches they built—contributing to slum-building.
And now for the weather. It’s STILL cold!
By the way, those people you fed at Christmas are hungry again.
Who needs social media? We are just a neighborhood church. No need to reach the world.
Or . .
Who needs social media?
We are a thriving suburban church with plenty to do as it is.
Using social media as an evangelism tool does not stop your congregation from being a local neighborhood church. Nor does it have to detract from your current mission efforts.
You can still have weekly worship in your sanctuary, mid-week activities, and weekend service projects. You can still sing in the choir and teach Sunday School. You will still know your neighbors.
There might just be more of them!
Social Media opens the doors to new possibilities.
Social Media helps you network with people you will never meet if you are waiting for them to show up on Sunday morning.
You will be able to identify needs that you may be able to serve but which you won’t hear about through the traditional channel of pooling resources and sending them to a regional body.
Your view of the world will change as Christians from all over the world begin to contact you.
Your broader world view will eventually impress your visitors as they will have more opportunity to connect with their skills and interests.
You will be more effective in whatever your mission might be.
More effective ministry tends to attract contributors.
Social Media is an investment in time for sure. The investment in money does not have to be great. You can get started for less than $100.
After two years, 2×2 can testify that the attention devoted to outreach on the internet is mission-changing.
It’s a new year. Give it a try.
If you need help, contact us. We’ll be glad to share.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is celebrating 25 years! They are clearly proud.
The merger that created the ELCA has not been particularly successful, although you won’t hear that from the remaining members.
There has been a mass exodus. It’s hard to find the statistics. Early in 2012, the number was more than 700. I’ve heard it has surpassed 1000.
Redeemer tried to leave. Not for the same reasons as many of the recently departing. We just saw no future in the ELCA for our small congregation. Our regional body was struggling to survive economically and cannibalizing its member churches to pay for its expensive infrastructure. Our regional body wasn’t about to let us go with our property and assets, which they had coveted for almost all of the 25 years of their existence. The Synod Council, with no constitutional authority, voted to close Redeemer in June of 2010. We found out a year late when we googled our name and came across SEPA’s minutes. They never even told us! The national office asked no questions. We are gone from the ELCA records by decree. Presumably we have the right to appeal this 2010 decision. Hard to appeal when they never tell you what they are doing! Just for the record—we are not waiving this right!
The ELCA is a big organization, probably too big. The atmosphere differs from synod to synod. The size and style of governance differs.
The ELCA is proud of being big. They are stuck in old thinking that bigger is better. Bigger is more powerful. Bigger gives them status and clout. Big gives them control of more resources. None of this is true in the emerging digitally-connected world, but old ideas die hard.
SEPA has one of the largest regional staffs in the ELCA, along with Metropolitan New York. Both have been pursuing the strategy of closing churches and claiming congregational properties and assets against the promises made to congregations in the founding documents of the ELCA.
SEPA has a high percentage of congregations under direct synodical control of some form or another. There are mission developers, bridge pastors, and interim pastors which report to synod. They boast of their pool of interim pastors who are never asked to make a long-term commitment to a parish, so there must always be a pool of churches without pastors so that they have places to serve. This is a good idea?
When a high percentage of the clergy answer directly to the bishop, it influences the decision-making process at the Annual Assembly.
Lutherans used to operate with a knowledgeable and involved laity. The ELCA’s rules, designed to promote inclusion, have created voting blocks of special interests, including people who have little knowledge of the greater church.
The professed idea is to give voice to all Lutherans, including those new to the denomination—a worthy goal but with problems the ELCA never envisioned.
Clergy can be any gender, age or race. We presume they have knowledge of Lutheran law, but we’ve learned this is not guaranteed by any means..
The laity have to fit a set criteria for age, genitalia, race, ethnicity, and language. This often leaves the most knowledgeable and experienced lay people without a voice. For example, a congregation with a predominant membership of women must come up with a male representative. Physical credentials outweigh his capabilities. Therefore, critical decisions are made by clergy with a decided self-interest and lay people with a fragile knowledge base. With the death of adult education in the church and minimal time spent by our children in Sunday School or church, the knowledge base is getting weaker and weaker. This is at the heart of many problems facing the ELCA.
Down-sizing has been the watchword for much of the denomination’s short history, especially in the regional bodies that are top heavy with administrative staff.
Seizure of small congregations’ properties has been a strategy to ward off budget problems. With brazen confidence that this could go on for many more years without question, SEPA’s Annual Assembly approved large deficit budgets year after year, only recently passing a balanced budget for the first time since SEPA was formed. Except for Redeemer’s challenge, they might still be targeting small congregations as they stated in court was their plan.
Meanwhile, the national office eliminated about 60 positions.
Lutherans just aren’t supporting hierarchy like they used to.
The reality of the emerging world is that hierarchies have less reason to exist and may actually impede the work of the church. The money collected by congregations is more effectively spent at home. Congregations know this.
Hierarchies used to control and fund mission outreach. Congregations can work directly with mission churches of their choice these days.
Hierarchies used to control social service agencies. Many of these have independent or government funding these days and have lost their religious connection for any purpose save funding. They also have easy direct access to their supporters. They don’t need the hierarchy anymore.
Hierarchies used to control publishing and curriculum. Congregations are finding less expensive alternatives with the explosion of self-publishing and online availability of resources they used to have to send away for.
Hierarchies used to control seminary education. They still do, but finding candidates has become a challenge. A recent class of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia had only nine members.
Hierarchies used to control the interpretation of doctrine. Boy, did that backfire on them two years ago when an unpopular interpretation sparked the recent mass departure.
The ELCA is a mess. Its interdependent structure allows its leaders to shirk responsibility. The power of checks and balances is given to the Synod Assemblies—which we’ve just shown is comprised of self-interested clergy and a laity with a weakening knowledge base.
The highest church leaders neglect to take stands or become involved in the problems members bring to them. No waves will be made on their watch, even if there are 1000 fewer ships. To switch analogies—we are all on our own in this Wild West denomination. (We could go back to sea analogy. There is a lot of piracy going on.)
Lutherans need a Reformation.
There’s the cue for a Broadway parody: We need a Reformation. Right this very minute. . . .
Maybe a retrospective of the last 25 years will point this out.
The question is: Will the ELCA last another 25 years?
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Contact Info
You can reach
Judy Gotwald,
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at
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or 215 605 8774
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
Where in the World is 2×2?
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
We celebrated Epiphany last week. The season of revelation of Christ as Messiah is short this year.
