We had a new ambassador with us today so we wanted to make sure he had a good experience. We returned to the first church we visited two years ago, Prince of Peace, Plymouth Meeting, Pa.
We found the church celebrating a happy day—the baptism of a nine-year-old boy. We were greeted by people who remembered our last visit. We were delighted to find their worship population had doubled from our last visit.
Prince of Peace is celebrating their 50th anniversary. As the service began, an announcement was made. They were looking for names of people previously involved in their church. The woman making the announcement mentioned two people specifically. One was a prominent member of Redeemer! The other had worked with one of our ambassadors. We were happy to tell them what we knew about them.
Prince of Peace’s pastor, Rev. John Jorgenson, has been working to launch a program that centers on the strength of the family. He has a particular passion for families living with autism. He has been working with neighborhood groups and church agencies and his program, No Family Left Behind, launches in May.
We had a lovely morning, including a nice fellowship reception for their new young member.
The lectionary this morning tells the story of our Lord’s commissioning of Peter to lead his church. A simple exchange between Jesus and his most dynamic disciple has led to the hierarchical church we know today.
We are reposting a cartoon that addresses “Feed My Sheep” Sunday and our situation.
I received an anonymous letter from a member of a SEPA congregation this week. The writer added a note that she was sending the letter to ELCA Presiding Bishop Hanson and several other church leaders including our local bishop.
She noted that she doubted letters make any difference. True, anonymous letters give the recipient an excuse to blow off any point the writer makes no matter how valid.
We understand the need for anonymity. We live in a Synod that is funding its ministry with seizures of property and lawsuits against laity.
Clergy have no room to criticize. Their universal silence on these issues is a form of anonymity.
We at Redeemer have written many signed letters almost all of which have been ignored. The single exception was the first letter we wrote to Bishop Hanson, probably early 2008. The Bishop glibly dismissed our very serious issues. Lots of God words, no God actions. His attitude trickles down to his staff and clergy. The ELCA legal offices, funded with parishioner offerings, responded to a Redeemer member’s letter with a note that they feel no obligation to get involved. Bishop Burkat has never responded to any of our letters. The people we pay to be there to make sure the congregations are protected spend our offerings protecting themselves.
We are going to reprint this anonymous letter because it has value. This writer took the time to understand the issues — something SEPA clergy, the Synod Council and Synod Assembly and the courts have failed to do. This writer nails the issues. Write on!
Here’s the letter (with minor spelling/grammar edits):
Dear Bishop Hanson,
I belong to Peace Lutheran Church in Bensalem, Pa., which is part of SEPA Synod. I recently attended a charity event in Philadelphia and met a woman from a church in Lansford, Pa. We got into a conversation about Redeemer Lutheran Church and Bishop Claire Burkat and how sad that their church was taken from them and how their valiant fight to regain their spiritual home was knocked down by the Pa Supreme Court, citing “church vs. state.” The woman I sat with told me that her church belongs to the Slovak-Zion Synod and that their Bishop (Rev. Wilma S. Kucharek) was investigated by the authorities for making improper withdrawals from a congregation’s accounts, causing the downfall of a church in New Jersey. She locked them out of their own church, like Burkat, and then sold their properties for a huge sum of money, forcing the congregation to now worship in a rented facility when they already had a mortgage-free church and parsonage of their own. She heard this from some people she knows that had attended a Synod Assembly cruise. Are you even aware of this in Chicago?
What kind of organization allows the taking of church properties that were built and paid for by the members of these congregations without any help from their synods. Just because you have hidden clauses in your constitutions that allow Synod Bishops to abscond with properties does NOT make it morally right. It is actually criminal to take by force another’s possessions for your own profit or gain. These clauses do not appear in the congregation’s constitution (I checked) but appear in the Synod’s constitution. How sneaky. Why didn’t you put this language in the congregations’ constitutions and spell it out more clearly so the average parishioner can understand the language? “That the Synod Bishop may close, at his/her discretion, the congregation’s church, seize their property, sell it, and then distribute the funds as he/she sees fit.” Wouldn’t that be more befitting to a religious organization to be honest and more forthcoming with the followers. You should also point out to the congregation to NOT come to you with their problems because you are an “interdependent” organization.
I am ashamed of how the ELCA has disgraced the Lutheran religion by ignoring Martin Luther’s principles of fair play for all. He would never condone abusing the weak by taking their possessions to further enhance one’s already lofty standing. Greed is a terrible sin. God knows who these bishops are. They can’t fool him with their empty prayers and their false justifications that they are doing this for the overall good of the Synod. These thefts of properties will be seen for what they are by the Lord.
Bishop Hanson, I’m sorry to say, the ELCA is now being run by bureaucrats and lawyers who don’t know what it’s like to honor the Lord by doing what is right in the Lord’s eyes and not the courts. There can be a happy medium but right now there isn’t. By the interdependent nature of the ELCA, you’ve divorced yourselves from your followers (the mass that supports the organization) by taking away their right to a fair an unbiased hearing regarding the closing of their churches. They can’t go to the courts because of the “separation between the church and state.” The Synod assemblies are a joke. The people who sit on these assemblies have no training in judicial matters in order to make proper judgments. They are just parishioners of local churches who volunteer to attend a yearly gathering and are clueless as to what’s going on. They are heavily influenced by the bishops, plus I don’t think that the bishops even need their approval to close a church.
It’s just so wrong that just one person can decide the fate of so many. At least the Catholics can go the Vatican Council in Rome where they have already overturned church closings in places like Cleveland, Ohio, by over-ruling local Bishops. The Lutherans have no such recourse.
Claire Burkat may have sued some members of Redeemer for standing up to her abuses, but she will not be able to sue me.
Signed, Disgusted
Here are a Few More Supporting Points
This writer describes the problems fairly accurately. The interdependent constitutions leave parishioners vulnerable to various self-serving interpretations, putting anyone who raises an issue at risk. Parishioners are the most vulnerable.
The writer also does not mention the founding Articles of Incorporation of ELCA Synods. These foundational documents forbid bishops from taking property and limit the power of the Synod Assembly. The writer is dead right that Synod Assemblies don’t know enough about church law to make decisions. Also, about a third of the Synod Assembly (the clergy) have a built-in bias. They owe their next call to their relationship with the bishop.
The clauses in the Synod constitutions have been altered over the years. The original model Synod Constitution calls for synodical administration to be temporary in nature and with the consent of the congregation. It was intended to help struggling congregations. Tweaks here and there presented to unsuspecting Synod Assemblies have reversed the intent of the constitution and violate the Articles of Incorporation—which was further compromised by Judge Lynn’s order regarding Redeemer, issued without hearing the case. Saint Paul knew what he was talking about when he advised church people to stay out of court!
Consequently, a clause intended to help congregations find their way through difficult times is now used to seize assets and help the synod through troubling times.
In Redeemer’s case, Redeemer appealed the issue of Synodical Administration to the Synod Assembly. The Synod Assembly never voted on the issue we appealed. Synod officials used our appeal to present a question allowing them to take our property (which we had not addressed in our appeal). Like lemmings the Synod Assembly voted on an entirely different issue—and an issue over which they have no constitutional authority. All SEPA Lutherans were victims of bait and switch.
Because of Synod Assemblies unquestioning decision, no Lutheran congregation really owns its own property anymore. A long-standing Lutheran tradition is gone. Your bishop needs only to make a claim on your property and your congregation is toast. There are no standards to be met. If Bishop Burkat needs your property to meet her budget (including her salary) she can claim it.
Back when Redeemer’s money was taken (1998) we were told the money would go to a Mission Fund. It was later reported that Mission Fund money is tapped by the Synod to fill deficits. When our Ambassadors visited Holy Spirit in NE Philadelphia, the week before they closed, their pastor explained that their money would go the the Bishop’s Discretionary Fund. At least that’s more transparent if not nobler. We suspect there is even less control over that fund than the misnamed Mission Fund.
We hope there are more letters written and we encourage you to sign them. Send them our way. As long as they are factually accurate, we will consider publishing them. At least you’ll know your letter has a chance of being read. Right now, the ELCA’s circular files are wide and deep!
The best people to put an end to the travesties of SEPA Synod are SEPA Lutherans. Ask your Synod Assembly to revisit the issues with Redeemer. We are still alive and well. We have grown a base of support during our years of exile and are ready to resume our ministry with our property— if SEPA Lutherans can ever manage to deal with the issues for which they have accepted responsibility.
It should be obvious to SEPA Lutherans that the sad story of Redeemer’s lack of viability was always a crock. Redeemer, even with many of its members in hiding, is stronger today than ever. We reach more people each week than any church in SEPA. We are positioned to restore our endowment to its 1990s high point—before SEPA cast its line over our waters (and they weren’t fishing for men).
There is more economic potential in open churches than in closed churches.
Organizations that thrive in the 21st Century will be distinguished by two attributes: entrepreneurship and organizational foresight.
He suggests that the word innovation be replaced with the word “entrepreneurship.”
He notes these subtle but significant differences (the bullets are quotes):
Innovation requires creativity but, unlike entrepreneurship, does not address issues like tolerance for risk, organizational agility, improvisational ability and speed.
Innovation often comes in bursts after focusing on discrete ideas and issues, while entrepreneurship requires cultivating a certain kind of culture, defined by a set of practices and attitudes that are infused throughout an organization.
Innovation implies the creation of something new, while entrepreneurship can mean dramatically improving what is already working with new vision and processes.
This sounds impossible. It is not. Even small churches can follow it.
The problem is that church hierarchies don’t recognize the potential. Armed with an impenetrable sense of entitlement and a tradition that supports it, they measure their congregations by ancient standards. These standards are failing almost everywhere!
The entrepreneurial church is not about making money for money’s sake, but is more about creating revenue streams with ministry projects. More lucrative ministries will provide funds for ministries that will never be self-supporting.
People today hesitate to give offerings, especially when they can’t see their offerings at work. More and more, congregations are begging for offerings just to help them survive — not to help them serve. It’s a losing proposition.
Less committed people of faith are not going to see this as a good investment of their time or tithe. They are more likely to contribute both money and energy to projects when they see them making a difference. They are not seeing this in churches that have budgets that are top-heavy in overhead.
There are many opportunities that are entirely in keeping with the mission of the Church.
One of Redeemer’s strengths is the ability to recognize opportunity.
There would be no conflict between Redeemer, East Falls, and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, if Redeemer had been nurtured and granted the freedom their constitution gives them to shape and fund their ministry in less traditional ways. Are we not regularly implored to “transform”?
Our Christian Day School, which was ready to open as a Christian School for the first time in 25 years, would be providing upwards of $6000 per month for ministry—and creating a Christian witness in a neighborhood which is losing its Christian schools.
Our aid to immigrant families would be producing $100,000 per year. Redeemer had a plan in place that would help immigrant first-time home buyers. The expertise of our members would ease the path to home ownership and the congregation would gain some money in the real estate transaction, which would then go to help another immigrant family.
Our website would generate another few thousand per month for ministry. The website reaches out to small churches all over the world.
More than enough resources for a neighborhood ministry.
This is no different from religious publishing houses making their living publishing books or religious social service agencies tapping into government revenue streams. And it doesn’t camouflage mission to meet government requirements.
Unfortunately, our regional body has no vision for its small churches. They are waiting for them to die.
What kind of content should congregations include on their web site?
Social media rules the internet and content is king!
There is untold power in using social media, but churches tend to lose interest in using the power at their fingertips.
Take some time to review typical church websites. Big church, small churches . . . they are all pretty much the same. They provide little more than basic information. They are called “brochure” web sites.
Typically, the opening page lists worship times and has a few photos of the church on Easter or Christmas.
Fancier church websites run some javascript and have photos fading in and out. Happy kids. Happy families. Choirs. Activities.
The links from the home page point to bios on clergy and staff and lists of programs offered by the church.
Somewhere there might be a nod to a mission statement or a Bible verse or two.
Job done. “We’re on the internet.”
This type of website may do no harm, but it doesn’t help a church stand out. Your members will take a look now and then. But the community and the unchurched are unlikely to ever stumble upon your church web site unless they are newcomers planning to spend a few Sundays church-shopping.
Your web site can be so much more!
But how? Where to you start?
The “brochure” web site is a start. But as soon as you can, attach a blog to it. It can be part of the same web address or it can be separate.
The blog has many advantages. It is easy to update. You won’t need to outsource this. The content you create for the church blog, will reflect your congregation’s personality. You might even find that the discipline of blogging will shape your congregation’s mission.
Filter the jargon. Don’t assume that your audience knows about church.
Show that you are part of your community. Include articles about secular organizations that share your mission. Link to their sites. Advertise events at the public library, local schools and parks. If your members are active in a local charity, ask them to write about their involvement. True, the focus is not the church, but the church will have positioned itself as being a spiritual hub in a vibrant community. Newcomers looking to learn about all sorts of things in your neighborhood will find your website — even when they weren’t looking for a church.
Have multiple voices. This is tough for churches. Church is accustomed to the pastor being the voice of the whole congregation. This was once a necessity—back when clergy were the only educated people in town. That is long ago, indeed. Have your pastor introduce other contributors, so there is a sense of teamwork and shared authority. The world expects this in the secular world and the unchurched are likely to find it welcoming in the religious world. Don’t exclude youth. They understand the power of the web.
Feed your lambs. Provide some spiritual food. The temptation is to reprint the sermon. There is nothing wrong with this — except it is not likely to be effective. One sentence excerpts from a sermon would be more effective. You might even ask your congregation to tweet a thought from the sanctuary as the sermon is being delivered! One-minute videos (easily produced with a smartphone) would also be good. Present this content so that it can be tweeted or shared on multiple social media channels.
Revamp the newsletter. Another temptation is to post a 16-page PDF of the congregation’s newsletter. This creates a barrier. Readers will think twice before down-loading the PDF. Only members are likely to do this. Pull the articles out of the newsletter and feature them as posts. You might find you have no need for a newsletter!
Serve. Provide links to organizations that can help troubled people. Does your church support a food pantry or shelter for homeless or abused people? Do you know of senior centers, day cares or counseling or support groups? Post that information on your web site. The organizations do not have to be church-sponsored or religiously affiliated. People looking for help don’t care about that. They might remember where they found help . . . and tell others. (It’s a good idea to ask permission. That step creates a contact for you with your neighborhood. Make friends. They might link to you!)
Teach. The Sunday School is all but dead. But people still have an interest in understanding their faith. Have a monthly theme and post something small about that theme each day. The modern attention span is short. A paragraph or two is sufficient. Done well, these snippets might lead to a live event where you can meet people.
Curate. Link your readers to interesting photos, articles or videos you find online. Have them open in a separate window so your readers don’t lose you. You will be not only sharing the Good News but you’ll draw some search engine traffic.
Help other churches. What? Isn’t that self-defeating? No! It’s called goodwill. Don’t be afraid to tell your readers about interesting things going on in other churches. They just may reciprocate.
This week’s Gospel revisits the concepts of call and commission. The structure of the Church today grows from Jesus’ threefold exchange with Simon Peter.The concept of call among clergy can be profound. Pastors discuss with passion the moment or process that brought them to “their call.”The process is a bit fuzzier for lay people and it often comes with less recognition and respect.The concept of call is not limited to clergy. Each person sitting in your church has a call. Some answer it with ease. Some struggle to discern and follow it. Tell the story of Simon Peter’s call. Remember, Jesus was talking to an ordinary man — a fisherman. He was meeting with him in his place of work—the seaside. Jesus and Simon Peter have a threefold exchange. We view this conversation as atonement for Peter’s threefold denial of Christ as he waited in the courtyard prior to the Crucifixion.
Do you love me?Yes, I love you.Feed my lambs.Do you love me?Yes, I love you.Tend my sheep.Do you love me?Yes, I love you.Feed my sheep.
Jesus packs a lot into a few short words. His message to us today is also told in three short words.
Love one another.
Put a person’s name in front of his two-word quote and you have another three-word quote.
Talk with people about their sense of call. Listen to their “call” stories. Chances are no one has ever asked them about their “call.” Your object today can be a cell phone. Ask two or three members in advance to leave their cell phones on.Call them right there during your sermon. Tell them you have a biblical message for them and a question. The biblical message: (Person’ name), follow me. The question: How will you follow the Lord? Consider finding ways to recognize the call of lay people. It can only make the Church stronger!
Congregations and clergy, including regional leaders, are often strangers to one another.
Regional leaders can know very little about the congregations they serve or the people who support them with their offerings.
It is not likely that they visit often with lay leaders. Even if they did, lay leadership shifts every couple of years or so.
Regional leaders have only two sources of information.
Annual parish reports (completed and submitted by clergy)
Pastors’ firsthand accounts which can not help but be delivered with self-interest.
Regional leaders are likely to come into contact with congregations at pivotal times in a congregation’s history.
When they need to call a new pastor for any number of reasons.
When there is some form of conflict, which often involves a pastor.
Consequently, regional leaders are likely to have a very biased view of a congregation.
When they don’t know what’s going on they fall back on numbers — not seriously considering what the numbers represent.
They might send someone to visit a church and report their findings. That visitor reports there are only 14 in worship. They have no way of knowing that 50 usual attendees are really upset about something that might involve the pastor. They are not going to hear about this from the pastor! They come to the conclusion that the church cannot survive. They never deal with the problems. When the regional body is hungry for assets, it is easy to reach this lazy conclusion.
The congregation then has a reputation among clergy. The memory for this reputation is quite long. Clergy might comment: “Wasn’t there trouble in 1960?” The congregation has no idea what they are talking about!
Lay people are often unaware of the power of the clergy gossip mill. They are unlikely to be part of the conversation that can spin out of control with no way to correct misunderstandings.
Clergy are sometimes so self-absorbed that they even come up with trendy slang. Years ago, pastors talked among themselves about alligators. “Who is the alligator in your church?” they might ask one another. An alligator in clergyspeak is a lay person who lurks in the congregational water ready (in this clergy person’s mind) to snap its jaws on a pastor’s throat. Paranoia? Perhaps! It reflects neither love nor respect for their flock. It does untold damage to a congregation within the Church—all the less fortunate when it voids the congregation’s reputation outside of ecclesiastic circles.
Every congregation has a reputation in its community. Clergy can influence it or they can exist totally unaware of it.
This reputation spans longer periods of time—generations—and takes in the community’s knowledge of the congregation’s participation and response to community needs and the lives they have touched that may not be part of the congregation’s membership or collected statistics.
The community measures churches with a different yardstick.
They work together on community projects.
Their children attend schools and programs sponsored by the church.
The community can count on the congregation to share their facilities generously.
The community remembers a congregation’s response to a local disaster.
They may have acquaintances and family members whose lives were touched in some small but significant way.
The community knows nothing and cares less about denominational involvement or reputation. They only know what they see and that’s the local congregation and its members.
A regional body has no way of measuring this, except as filtered through the clergy. Too bad. This reputation is an asset to the entire denomination. It is far more powerful than slogans or logos or even press releases.
The challenge to the Church is to know a congregation’s reputation and protect and nurture it. It must learn to separate the truth from the gossip. This becomes difficult when the regional body’s interests are limited to placing pastors and accumulating assets.
2×2 published a parable about this division between clergy and lay leaders and how it impacts the small church and the mission of the church. It is based on our 60 visits to local congregations—most of them quite small. It is meant to spark discussion on how clergy and laity can work together and advance mission with the limited resources (both human and financial) which define today’s church.
Read Undercover Bishop. Share its short chapters weekly with your congregation. Ask if they see themselves anywhere in the story. Study questions are included at the end of the book.
The hurdle of getting a musical instrument out of the closet and out of its case every day is an obstacle to the much-needed practice.
This applies to other skills, too. If you put away the brushes, the next painting may never happen.
Our attics and basements tend to filled with things we carefully stored, never to be used again.
The temptation in church work is to put aside small church communities, while we wait for things to improve on their own.
Leaders neglect them. They tell us there is a plan. They are waiting for more people to show up—for donors to appear (or die) — for the right pastor with the right chemistry.
This is the ministry philosophy of many denominational leaders. They wait for ideal conditions for ministry—conditions they think they can control.
They want to avoid conflict, so they avoid ministry altogether.
They want pastors to be happy and fulfilled. They don’t want them to experience the angst that is best friends with creativity.
Creativity is necessary for transformational change. Transformational change will make everyone unhappy at least a little and for a little while. So let’s keep the small church on ice.
It will take a while for the Church to recognize that they can no longer control the voice of the faithful. The reason for this delay is that congregations and individual Christians do not yet realize that we have more power than ever before in history.
We are accustomed to abiding in silence, accepting what we are told and assuming that the powerful within the church have godly interests.
This is not always true.
Martin Luther took a huge risk when he hammered his list of 95 complaints onto the cathedral door. The response was predictable. Luther was forced into hiding for fear of his life. Fortunately, he made a few well-positioned friends who helped him over this rough spot. He emerged to become a respected preacher and teacher of the Word.
Martin Luther wasn’t the first to raise many of the issues he cited. He was the first to survive. He was the first with the power of a printing press to amplify his voice.
The old tools of intimidation still work. Clergy who are beholding to hierarchy are easily silenced.
During the extended conflict between Redeemer Lutheran Church and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod has anyone wondered why it is the lay people who have been dragged through courts? The clergy who were working with the congregation, voted with the congregation, and encouraged the congregation headed for the hills after private meetings in the synod office.
Today, each individual within the Church has far more power than Martin Luther.
We have a voice that will be more difficult to control.
Eventually, our voices will have influence.
Redeemer, excluded from participation within the church, started a blog. We are one of very few churches who have taken this step and use this tool for weekly outreach. It has both changed and shaped our ministry in ways we never expected.
Blogging builds community. We have encountered dozens of individual bloggers who write from a spiritual point of view. They are poets, photographers, parents, writers, artists, and adventurers. They are all over the world—Thailand, Armenia, Scandinavia, Africa, the Mideast. Some of them have church connections. Others do not. They tend to represent the age demographic that is missing in the church on Sunday morning—20-40.
They have discovered that within the Church, they have little voice, but outside the Church, they can grow.
The ability to grow as individuals is a key factor that is missing in many church communities.
Modern youth have been reared in a world where they must constantly reeducate themselves. They are involved in an ongoing process of self-discovery. In the past this discovery period ended at about age 30, when we settled down. This will no longer be true for any of us, regardless of age.
Self-rediscovery tends to be discouraged within the Church. We are likely to be assigned a task that Church needs to have accomplished. We will be told how to do it—how to teach, how to sing, how to fix the altar, and how to distribute the offering plates. Once we accept one of these jobs, it may be ours for life!
It is no wonder that people turn away from the Church. They seek community where their voices can be heard—their ideas and talents recognized.
If the Church does not find a way to welcome the voice of the people and adapt to modern expectations, they will find their churches to be empty on Sunday mornings.
Church leaders who face this change in society with tenacious resistance will enjoy fleeting successes.
A storm is coming. A wise church would nurture voice if they want transforming change.
Poor Thomas. What a scapegoat he has been for all of us these last 2000 years!
Thomas’s mistake was not so much his unbelief—he wasn’t alone in that—then or now.
Thomas made his mistake in boasting about his superior intellect. He was no fool to be caught up in fantastic rumors.
You guys can talk all you want about the risen Lord. I’ll believe it when I see it. Strike that! I’ll believe it when I can touch his wounds.
What might have happened at this point? Jesus might never have appeared to Thomas. Thomas might have lived the rest of his days as the obscure apostle who doubted something only a few people were taken in by. In his superiority, he might have spent his remaining life retelling his “I told you so” story.
Artists in depicting Thomas’s encounter with the risen Lord have done him a great disservice. They like to show Thomas reaching out to touch the wounds of Christ, still open and bleeding. It’s more dramatic than depicting a dumbfounded Thomas.
In fact, this Gospel telling of the story reveals a proud man caught in a self-made trap.
John, the Gospel writer, does not tell us
…and then Thomas placed his hands in Jesus’ side and he believed.
Instead, John tells us that Thomas backs away from his boast. He immediately is humbled. He confesses his faith, “My Lord and my God.”
Your object lesson today is a shell game. Have three paper cups (or walnut shells) and three peas/beans or a similar small object. Set up the game in advance placing a bean under two cups ahead of time. A real shell game operator will make a great show of each cup being empty before the game starts. But your people trust you, don’t they?
As you begin your talk about Thomas, place the third bean under the third cup. Have your congregations watch as you shift the cups around as you talk.
Talk about how our fear of being proven wrong is the root of our resistance to God’s message. At the end, have someone choose a cup and reveal that there is indeed a bean to be discovered. You can reveal the other beans if you like. The point is that God made sure Thomas believed so that we might one day believe too.
Thomas is believed to have carried the gospel story as far as India. He wrote his own account of Jesus’ childhood and his own “revelation” that did not make it into the Bible.
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.
Undercover Bishop will always be available in PDF form on 2x2virtualchurch.com for FREE.
Print or Kindle copies are available on Amazon.com.
For bulk copies, please contact 2x2: creation@dca.net.
Contact Info
You can reach
Judy Gotwald,
the moderator of 2x2,
at
creation@dca.net
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
