Most groups in decline are in a stage of development where they are presently being led by bureaucrats. What is needed are entrepeneurs, gunslingers, if you will. The evolution of the church long ago removed these kinds of leaders. Yet, this is what they need to re-vision their organization. The ELCA will continue to decline. Most groups do. When confronted with what it takes to change their future, the leadership will choose to die.—Bill Blair
We’ve heard the adage before. It is presented in today’s church almost as if it were romantic. There are hints that it might be biblical.
It is not biblical—at least in the way it is being used to justify self-serving actions by regional bodies and church leaders.
This month in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), this thinking was passed on to the rank and file.
Good idea to have an outsider reinforce the ideas that are hurting so many SEPA member churches.
From SEPA’s web site:
Jay Gamelin urged congregational leaders to focus on making disciples instead of taking care of members and warned that sometimes new life requires death to occur first. “What needs to die in your church?” he asked the Assembly. “Because you know what God does with death? He makes an empty tomb out of it.”
Actually, that was not Christ’s approach to mission. True, his Resurrection saved us, but He didn’t tear down the people He encountered. He taught. He nurtured new leadership. He counseled established leaders. He empowered ordinary people—people who had no wealth to give but were welcomed all the same. He cured. He encouraged. He gave hope to the marginally served in society and within the religious structures of the day. He loved.
Christ wanted sin to die. Not churches.
He didn’t teach taking financial assessments of congregations and abandoning the weak. In fact, the sense of economics in His parables often puzzles us. He found strength and promise in places no one else did!
This death-oriented ministry philosophy may create an occasional statistical success story, but church statistics don’t reveal that resulting success is the norm or automatic or has longevity. Of course, time will tell.
Something must die. Any volunteers?
Why is it that our church leaders look to find somebody else to do the dying? Why is it the efforts of lay people that are targeted?
This is an abuse of the Resurrection story. Why do we embrace this thinking? Why do we sit in Synod Assembly and listen to it being taught?
Noble-sounding words mask a dangerous idea. The Church is playing with power—group power and some individuals’ sense of power.
Power doesn’t take much encouragement before it runs seriously amok. The idea that one person or group knows better how to use another person’s or group’s assets is the root of much crime.
ELCA documents protect us from this misuse of power, but they are routinely ignored.
This pseudo-resurrection concept is rooted in a sense of superiority. It masks leadership failures. “We didn’t fail as professional church leaders. It was their time to die. We’ll help them grieve on the way to the bank.”
They are playing God.
The temptation to play God when exercised by mortals results in skewed or lazy assessments of ministries, with property and cash assets the focus — not mission.
Christ’s power grew from humility. It has no time for arrogance.
When money is a problem for everyone, including the regional body and national church, things get crazy fast. No one looks for mission solutions. We look for easy answers that won’t take work, time, or commitment or an investment of any kind. We find it easy to judge others as unworthy of God’s blessings. We stop providing mission services and tell ourselves it’s OK. We decide which congregations will die (not “might die” but “will die”) in ten years. TEN YEARS!
The dereliction of duty is intentional and horrific. We not only do nothing but we plot to speed the process. We provide a “caretaker” minister. This caretaker expects to be paid as if he or she were actually doing ministry, but they are there to do nothing more than hold hands while resources and spirit are drained. They are there to facilitate the conveyance of assets.
Let’s look at what can happen in ten years.
Ten years — enough time to fight most wars, including World Wars. Enough time to reverse a serious recession. Long enough to see a high school student through seminary. Time enough for the Civil Rights Movement to begin to see results. Ten years—the entire history of social media!
What could happen in a church in ten years?
Endowments might be enriched. New populations could move in. Mission initiatives might take hold. Community outreach might take root. New housing might be built. New businesses might move in. A new generation will be born.
If the Church’s attention is on fostering failure, they will miss out on important mission opportunities.
One Bad Idea Leads to Another
This philosophy quickly jumps to even more erroneous thinking.
“You are not here to serve your membership, you are here to serve God.” Jay Gamelin concludes.
Serving your members IS serving God. Your constitution probably spells out your duties and it undoubtedly mandates care of members.
We ARE here to serve members. Their needs and preferences DO count. It is THEIR expression of worship and ministry. They are not the only thing that counts but they DO count. Love would tell us that.
The minute we give our leaders permission to NOT serve members, we devalue our message to all. Problems will result. They may not be immediate, but they will result.
Where there is life there is hope and there is God. God can play God all He wants.
And He will.
Don’t expect this philosophy that results from our leaders playing God to spread without problems.
Do you do your job today, whatever it might be, the same way you did it 10 years ago. How about 20 years ago? Or 50?
How about 2000?
This Sunday we will celebrate the birthday of the “Church.”
Let’s consider this Pentecost to be one of those important birthdays — like reaching 30 or 40, when we take stock of our lives and consider what the last years have meant and what will carry us into the future.
Pentecost marks the occasion when all the gathered disciples came to understand that what they would do from this point on mattered. They were no longer just followers. They were leaders.
We’ve drawn a great deal from that Pentecostal experience over the centuries. Lots of roles and structures were defined. Some of it was good, efficient and served the Pentecostal mission. Some of it made life easier and richer for those in control.
Let’s give ourselves the benefit of the doubt and assume that every Church custom or procedure is rooted in God’s love. Let’s also assume that the people who created the structure of the Church were doing the best they could with the resources, tools and environment they had to work with. That includes their understanding of their mission.
So here we are in Pentecost 2013. Everything in every aspect of our lives has been dramatically restructured in the last two decades—the workplace, the family, community and international relations, education, leisure—everything.
Everything except Church. In Church, we continue to assume that systems have to be the way they are—even as we witness wholesale failure in many aspects of Church life.
This Pentecost could be a pivotal birthday for the Church.
It is good time to reflect on what the Church might become if we could reassess what we do—all of what we do.
Start with the basic message. God loves us. Pay attention to the biblical mandates. Go into all the world. Preach the Gospel. Baptize. Make disciples.
The Church may think it does this already. They assess and examine, but mostly they do their assessments within tightly drawn parameters and expectations — and support of the hierarchy — keeping things running smoothly — is a key expectation.
Can we put aside centuries of assumptions?
In the next few posts we’ll take inventory on the customary Church. What’s good? What’s not so good? What can we do better?
Part of the Pentecost story that we gloss over is the list of hometowns of those who heard the commotion that followed the descent of the Holy Spirit like tongues of fire.
The eleven were meeting privately when the Holy Spirit struck. But things changed very quickly.
Jerusalem was crowded with Jews celebrating the ancient Jewish holiday of Pentecost. Pentecost was a harvest festival. This particular Pentecost would surely have been charged with excitement at the recent two months of gossip, which included the crucifixion of Jesus and the many reported sightings of the risen Lord.
There was a new account. Jesus had recently disappeared into the heavens.
Now, perhaps, things would settle down.
What was that noise?
People came running. They encountered a lot of people speaking strangely but they heard the din in their own languages.
They heard. They understood. Their understanding led to bewilderment.
Then comes the list of foreign regions and our modern ears turn off. The reader may stumble over the names. We graciously jump ahead, mentally putting the lector out of misery.
All the confusion is to fulfill a prophecy.
It is an inclusive prophecy.
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Everyone.
It’s high time we work at it!
Today’s object is the list of foreign places in the reading from Acts 2:1-21.
Read the list (vv. 9-11) and have your congregation repeat the names after you. They may think you are giving them a lesson in pronunciation.
When you reach the end of the biblical list extend the list to include neighborhoods your congregation will recognize and needs to serve. Continue the list just as if your local neighborhoods were listed in the Bible. Have them continue to echo the names of the local neighborhoods or groups of people—the ones they know how to pronounce!
How does a denomination reach diversity goals when diversity is so difficult to measure?
Here’s what probably won’t work:
assigning a pastor who brings along personal friends who fit diverse criteria and adds them to a congregation’s membership roster without going through the constitutional membership process.
pigeon-holing already diverse populations and directing them to churches where you think they will be happier.
assuming that individual personal worship preferences are dictated by skin color or ethnicity.
assuming that one congregation can serve only one demographic—the one they served 40 years ago.
trying so hard to appeal to new populations (that might not even be local) that the long-time supporters feel like strangers.
locking out an already diverse community, which has made major contributions to the denomination, with a stated goal of replacing them.
Each of these tactics was tried by SEPA leadership at Redeemer. Each failed.
What does work?
consciously welcoming whomever walks through the door.
consciously creating a fellowship that draws newcomers in. (Just setting up a coffee urn and snack table isn’t enough.)
empowering all to invite others. (Find a way to model this to make it part of your congregation’s personality.)
providing a quality worship experience despite numbers. (This doesn’t mean hiring a lot of professional musicians. It means nurturing the worship experience, not always going with the obvious, expanding the experience so that there is something for new worshipers to connect with and something for older members to own and cherish.)
expanding or changing the worship experience incrementally, not all at once.
fostering participatory worship every week. (Let go of the reins. Really engage worshipers and give them a leadership role in planning worship.)
not forcing old ways on new people.
not forcing new ways on old people.
using repetition. (Introduce new elements slowly and repeat them often until they are accepted.)
re-examining the “givens” in our worship life to determine if they are understood and appreciated by the current group of worshipers or if a change might make an overall difference. (Example: Are an opening hymn, sermon hymn and closing hymn enough musically? Is the frequency of communion attracting people or keeping them away? Would shorter or longer sermons be appreciated? Should children be excused for most of the service? Is the time of worship interfering with attendance?)
listening to newcomers to understand their worship preferences.
Redeemer used these methods with success. We didn’t know all this when we started. We worked at it. We made mistakes. What we learned from mistakes makes us more certain of our success.
My mother died in 2008. Her memory lives. Here are some of the words I spoke at her funeral.
Eulogy for Mom, A Preacher’s Wife
Let me tell you about my mom, Norma Louise Burkholder Gotwald.
Although as a preacher’s wife Mom was known to hundreds perhaps even more, I’m not sure how many people actually knew her. Things may be changing, but in Mom’s time there was a barrier around the preacher’s wife. It’s a barrier of respect and so it was not all bad, but it also was a barrier that for Mom created frustration, a sense that she was not appreciated. She wasn’t accepted as clergy yet she didn’t fit in with the lay members. It was a lonely place to be. Mom was known to many but befriended by few.
These days there is a term for what my mom faced in her adult life. It’s called the glass ceiling. Expectations were placed before her and she was conscientious and dutiful about meeting those expectations, but the personal rewards that most of us seek and expect to gain through our life’s work were not available to her. She was always around people who were following her dream and many of them became her good friends. The area pastors who met at our breakfast table for ministerium meetings valued her input and opinions. She considered them friends. But attaining the status, prestige and full ability to serve in her own right was always within sight but out of reach.
Dad was for most of his professional life a faithful parish pastor. Mom was his wife.
Although it was not discussed, I suspect that if Mom had been born 30 years later, after women were finally recognized by the world as having God-given skills capable of Christian ministry, that Mom would have been the first to enroll at Gettysburg Seminary.
Mom was a biblical scholar. She wore out Bibles preparing Sunday School lessons. She devoted an entire day, week in and week out, for decades to lesson preparation. We can remember many weeks when she fretted that the lesson wasn’t coming together the way she hoped and she wondered if it would be understood and received well by her classes. She had a biblical education that rivaled theologians.
Her granddaughter, Katie, commented that once she had a Bible question which she intended to take to her grandfather, the preacher. Her mother, Sarah, said, “Ask Nomie. She’ll know the answer.”
Mom was a stay at home Mom — a stay at home Mom with a full-time volunteer job of preacher’s wife.
She ran the household and raised a family of which I am proud to be part. Her children grew to adulthood without straying and all have fine families of their own and meaningful careers. We remain close.
All of the grandchildren are friends despite some distance. In her later years, Mom longed for the family closeness of her childhood days when all the cousins, aunts and uncles would gather at Grandma Ebersole’s house on Sunday afternoon. Extended family relations are difficult for preacher’s families.
Most family holidays center around church. Holidays are the hardest work days of the year for pastor’s families.
The concept of holidays as consisting of worship preceded or followed by a family feast was something I had to learn as an adult. In our family, Easter and Christmas services were so stressful that our family went home, crashed in the living room, and helped ourselves to bologna sandwiches. Keeping up with extended family was all the more difficult for us since most of my uncles on both sides of the family were also ministers. Sundays at Grandma’s was another dream that was out of reach.
Mom was ahead of her time in a way that perhaps can be symbolized by “the hat.” Fifty years ago, women in church were expected to wear hats. Mom hated hats. As a young girl, I knew well that Mom had one hat. It was kept in a dusty round box on the highest shelf of the most remote closet in the house. (Where some parents might hide a firearm.) I remember the fuss that accompanied the occasion when the hat would have to be brought down. It was not a pretty sight.
Mom was courageous. I will always remember grocery shopping with her as a girl. Mom always shopped on Thursday, so it was probably a hot summer day that I accompanied her to the Weiss Food Market. Meat workers were picketing the front of the store, actively discouraging shoppers from buying meat. I don’t remember whether or not Mom bought meat that day. But it wouldn’t be like her to change her plans because of a strike. The checkout people were placing meat purchases deep in the grocery bags so as not to be easily seen by the angry strikers. When we came out of the store, a burly meat worker approached my mom and started rummaging through her cart full of grocery bags. That husky fellow had met his match. I saw my mother’s full powers unleashed for the first time. I was ten years old and I was in awe.
Mom was a detail person. Perhaps this was God’s way of ensuring some sanity and balance in our family.
Anything that she undertook she did thoroughly and exactingly. Her handwriting was perfect and beautiful. Her sewing and craft work were precise.
There is a passage in the Diary of Anne Frank, which always reminds me of Mom. Anne writes about her father, the capable professional man, forced to huddle in hiding in a Dutch attic. She describes him peeling a potato with great care, precision and love. That was my Mom. Would she rather be doing something else? Undoubtedly! But what she found herself doing would be done with perfection.
When Mom peeled a potato it was a work of art. I can’t recall her ever complaining about cooking, but when the last of her children left home, she abandoned cooking suddenly and completely. She had cooked dinner every day for 30 years, she told us, and she hated every minute. She wasn’t doing it any more, she declared. Characteristically, she kept her word. For years, the words “Mom’s kitchen” in our family meant The Jolly Roger Restaurant.
Mom was an idealist. She was excited when she was elected to the board of Gettysburg College. She envisioned helping to shape the educational experience of a new generation. She was frustrated when she found that board meetings were mostly about real estate holdings and endowment funds and became particularly disillusioned when several meetings were spent discussing programs to teach students responsible consumption of alcohol. “I feel absolutely no obligation to teach young people to drink,” she told the board and she did not run for reelection.
Mom was a church teacher. She loved her students and there had to be hundreds of them, having served four congregations for forty years, teaching children’s Sunday School, midweek schools, adult Sunday School and running two-week Bible Schools in the summer. Mom had a remarkable memory for her students and to her last days if you asked about a child she had taught 50 years ago, she could tell you about him or her, share a story or two, recount who the family members were, who else was in the class and often the path that child had pursued. Later in life she taught the seniors at St. David’s and gave them the same carefully prepared instruction she had once devoted to the parish children. She participated in Women’s Groups, but was less enthusiastic about this as she got older. Focusing on church work by gender irked her. Even so, she wrote several programs for use by women’s groups which were broadly used. She also wrote for the Lutheran children’s devotional, The Home Altar. Mom took teaching seriously. Rest assured, if Mom taught you in Sunday School, you were noticed, loved and remembered.
Mom was a musician. She loved music, especially choral music and instilled in all of her children an appreciation for music in general and sacred music in particular.
Mom was remarkable in pursuing her education in an era where many girls did not advance academically beyond high school. This was all the more extraordinary as it was a personal quest of a girl whose father died suddenly when she was 12 (almost exactly 69 years ago — two weeks before Christmas) and whose mother, ill with cancer, died when she was 17. Newly orphaned she became the first in her family to pursue a college degree. She wrote to Gettysburg College, filled out an application and left her Hummelstown home for good. She paid her own way, working a campus job and getting summer employment at the Hershey chocolate factory and later as an aide in the Harrisburg capital building. She borrowed some money from various aunts and uncles, kept a careful record and repaid them all. She studied history and prepared to be a school teacher. Her proudest college achievement was her involvement in the renowned Gettysburg Choir. She cherished the memories of singing under Professor Parker Wagnild and was proud to introduce all of us to him as we were growing up. She learned a great deal from him and used it in her own unsung musical ministry. She sang in choirs, taught children’s choirs, youth choirs and was particularly happy when St. David’s hired her as choir director. This did not come about easily. It was a difficult decision for the church. The church had to wrestle with a new concept.
This job had long been a paid position. But this was the preacher’s wife applying for a paid job and you don’t pay preachers’ wives. Finally, and Mom remembered, Clarence Moore was among those who spoke on her behalf. “I think if Mrs. Gotwald wants this job, she should have it,” he said.
For the first time in decades of church service Mom received a modest pay check. She threw herself into this work and spent countless hours researching music for the enrichment of the parish. I would call and invite her to things in Philadelphia. “I can’t” was the usual response. In the middle of the week, she had choir practice. On the weekends, she had church. When she managed to visit me in Philadelphia she headed straight to Fortress Press where she combed the stacks of anthems. She loved this job. It was her dream job, but sadly this was to be her undoing.
After she served a few years as choir director, Dad left the parish ministry to serve in the bishop’s office.
Shortly after all the farewell festivities for Dad had ended, St. David’s Church Council sent Mom a letter firing her . The reason — Dad was no longer the pastor.
Mom never recovered from this. It was a source of bitterness the rest of her life. Our mother who had always been a giving, outward-looking person began looking increasingly inward.
She was hurt, angry and a depression set in which only the grandchildren seemed to be able to break through. A few members of the parish spoke up in her behalf and she deeply appreciated their efforts. On the surface that job may have seemed like a little insignificant part-time job, but to Mom it was her first and only validation as a professional church worker. When it ended the way it did, it confirmed what she had always sensed — that she was valued only as her husband’s wife. Without her husband she was completely expendable.
These last years have been difficult for both our parents. Mom’s declining health was evident to all of us. Dad was absolutely devoted to her and we take this occasion to thank him for his care and for the model of patience and love he has shown to the rest of us. Pastor and Mrs. Gotwald, Norma and Luther, Mom and Dad, Nomie and Pop, were a team. Together they headed our family. Together they served churches in Northumberland, Emigsville and Davidsville. Together they had a faithful and effective ministry. On this day, we want to remember Mom’s part of this yoked ministry.
I am glad that today we live in a world where talented women with gifts of the spirit are given more opportunity and recognition. I wish my Mom could have grown up in such a world. As it is, she lived a valued life. Perhaps her sacrifices helped pave the way for today’s young women. I know that Mom’s life had an impact on the lives of many others. She was a faithful servant. She was doer of the Word, a sower of the Seed. She was a good and faithful servant. Mom, well done.
It’s Mothers Day! The Ambassadors had some business in Upper Darby, so we chose to visit the early service at St. Mark’s in nearby Clifton Heights. This way we’d have most of the day to spend with family.
One of our Ambassadors is from a church which merged with St. Mark’s. He is a bit upset that they have dropped the name. It is officially St. Mark’s Temple, he told us.
St. Mark’s is one of those back door churches. Most people seem to enter from the back door into the narthex. We didn’t see the expansive front of the church until we left.
The narthex was full of tables with various offerings. The sanctuary is long and narrow. We Ambassadors usually sit in the back. The back in this case is quite far from the front. Our new Ambassador, who is familiar with the church, chose a seat close to the front.
The early service is listed as the Praise service and they used the Praise hymnal. These modern hymns are not particularly meaty and most have just one verse. They are meant to be chanted or repeated multiple times, building emotion. Lutherans have a hard time repeating more than twice, so that leaves hymn-lovers a bit wanting. Short on theology and emotion.
It was a bare-bones liturgy with the words projected on a screen. The screen tends to replace the altar as the focal point.
The people were friendly and some recognized our Ambassador whose family has a long history at Temple. He asked about some of the historic portraiture. Apparently, they have already archived the Temple side of the merger.
The organist and her daughter did an interesting anthem that combined the Shaker Hymn, ’Tis A Gift to Be Simple, with Pachelbel’s Canon in D. Two voices managed at times to sound like more!
The congregation is in the interim pastor process. It’s been nearly a year and a half. Interminable interims! The congregation seems to have a pretty strong sense of identity and purpose. Their statistics, at least as presented on their web site, seem to be growing. We wonder why they have endured such a long interim period.
Pastor Arlene Greenwald followed the congregational custom of gathering the entire congregation at the altar for the Eucharist. There were about 30 present. As a visitor, I find it to be a bit awkward—communing with people who represent the church that has worked so hard to destroy our congregation and attacked me personally in court. So I usually sit out communion. I actually enjoy the quiet time.
We have been made very unwelcome within the church of our heritage. There has never been any attempt to reconcile with us, which makes the offering of communion seem disingenuous. All of the congregations we visit have it within their power to make a difference. All seem content to do nothing. Year after year. Weekly communion seems to be a pacifier to the communal Lutheran conscience—along with empty offerings of prayer that substitute for action.
Potted posies were given as gifts to the mothers. So nice. Our pastor wanted one to put on his mother’s grave.
One of our Ambassadors asked for a detour on the way home to view some sculpture. It was worth the drive.
We had a Mothers Day Breakfast together.
Of course, at Redeemer, we all remember Mothers Day 2009, when SEPA Synod representatives visited our church and attempted to commandeer our worship service.
One of the more frequent exclamations coming from SEPA Synod Assembly is the boast, “We are diverse.”
Just keep saying it and people might believe it.
Diversity in SEPA Synod is an illusion. Cloaks and mirrors.
The Synod Assembly is rigged to display diversity. Congregations are given extra votes and representation if they can prove diversity. A small church with darker skinned members can have more votes than small pale congregations.
Ecclesiastic gerrymandering also distorts gender and age. Most churches have a predominance of women in attendance, but congregations are required to send one female and one male member . . . creating the illusion of gender equality.
From the number of youth present at the Assembly, you’d think our churches were filled with energetic and engaged young people. They are not.
Diversity Within Diversity
When addressing diversity, the Church tends to fixate on skin color. Skin color alone, is broader than black and white and diversity is so much more than skin color. Skin color is easy to see and count . . . and so we do!
Redeemer’s Ambassadors have visited more than 60 of SEPA’s 160 congregations, We began our visits in the city where racial diversity is likely to be more prevalent than in the suburbs. As we continue our visits, reaching into the suburbs, we doubt we’ll see more diversity than we already have. So far, we haven’t seen much!
We see many white congregations with a few assorted “others” and a few black congregations with a few assorted “others.” Of all the congregations we have visited we can count only about five that have a substantial representation of people from different racial or ethnic backgrounds. Each of these was a smaller congregation.
This includes Redeemer — who SEPA has excluded from Lutheran fellowship for five years. Redeemer had grown to be very diverse. We were diverse racially, culturally, linguistically, ethnically, economically, philosophically, and in gender and age.
Our diversity didn’t earn us extra votes. In fact, we were denied any voice or vote in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (SEPA ELCA) by decree of the bishop—a flagrant denial of congregational constitutional rights.
SEPA attempted to divide our congregation along racial lines. SEPA reported only our white members in reports to Synod Assembly. They further decided for our black members where they ought to go when they claimed our property—as if our black members were somehow too feeble to determine for themselves where they’d like to worship. It was OK if white Redeemer just disappeared. In fact, that was the plan.
“White Redeemer must be allowed to die. Black Redeemer . . . we can put them anywhere,” Bishop Burkat said in 2007.
Truth be told, there was great diversity among both our black and white memberships. We had African Americans, East Africans and West Africans. The Africans spoke many languages—French, Swahili and various tribal languages. We had white members born in England, Germany, Asia and America. We had regular visitors from India, France and South America and students from East Falls’ three universities.
We don’t count.
Do Some Research
You don’t have to visit as we have to get a true picture of diversity. Just add the numbers in the parish reports available on the ELCA Trend site. The demographics of Lutheranism are very white and very aging.
Our visits reveal that most worship services are typically attended by women over 65.
More often than not, there are no children present in the sanctuary for worship. Children’s choirs, a rarity, tend to be very small and very young.
Youth are scarce. It will be 20 years (if ever) before the few young people will come to be of an age to support the church financially in the manner of previous generations. They will be saddled with college debt.
Leadership has a hard time recognizing reality when they look across the Synod Assembly and see the hand-picked representation that gathers to decide the future of the church.
SEPA has often chosen to let congregations die, providing minimal services for as long as 10 years rather than help congregations when a little help might have made a big difference.
This should be a serious concern to SEPA. Two decades could decimate dozens of congregations. It may be too late and far more costly than if this had been addressed 20 years ago.
Some Parting Questions and A Plan
Should diversity in the Church be measured at all if there is no way of recognizing it?
Is diversity so important that we create false impressions? What is to be gained?
We are one in the Lord.
The fact is diversity will soon be the new norm in most neighborhoods. We are ill-equipped to serve the changing population.
Lest you think we criticize without venturing solutions, check out vbsaid.com. It outlines a plan which 2×2 would love to sponsor and pioneer. It could help the many small, aging churches reconnect with their neighborhoods.
We dont want to see any more Lutheran property in the city, provided by the sacrifices of dedicated lay members, permanently sacrificed to plug short-sighted budget holes.
The plan requires cooperation within the church and between various expressions of the church, but we think it is worth the effort and will benefit all. Right now, all these expressions are struggling in isolation.
We know the perfect hub to implement this program. Midvale and Conrad in East Falls.
One of the joys of being excommunicated from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is the freedom to not only think outside the Lutheran box but to explore religion and the concept of church beyond what is expected of the traditional congregation.
Here’s an interesting quote from a prominent blogger in the Jewish community, Rabbi Hayim Herring. He addresses many of the problems the Christian church faces but from a Jewish point of view. Do they have different solutions?
It seems one of the Jewish initiatives is building network-based communities. Here’s a quote from a recent discussion.:
Established organizations are structured as hierarchies. They still have a command and control model, complete with organizational charts that visually portray a chain of command. But networks rest on platforms and platforms abhor hierarchies. They are self-directed and not directed ex machina. They rely on influence and not control, connections and not command.
This observation will benefit Christian community in the new information era.
The Church that will survive in the 21st century will master network-building. Social Media is the turbine for network building.
Network building means reaching out beyond who we already are.
Why think “networks”? Why now?
Because now we can. Now we have the tools to reach people like never before. Now we can think beyond our traditional membership base (which is waning). We can easily look beyond family, friends, and immediate neighbors. Now we can go directly to the people in society who can help us or whom we feel we can help without the gatekeeping of hierarchy or the institutionalizing of our efforts.
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all people.
Hierarchical thinking may have once facilitated the goals of Christianity. (It is debatable.) It may now be a handicap—an expensive handicap. Networks are not created by command but by nurture. We will not build networks effectively if we are looking over our shoulders for hierarchical approval.
Hierarchical thinking in today’s world will hinder the spread of the Gospel. As the self-proclaimed “Greatest Generation” fades, the new and as yet unlabeled generations will see no reason to submit to hierarchical thinking in most realms of life and certainly not in religion.
We, as Church, can spend the next decade trying to preserve the past, or we can start to build the platforms and networks that will keep our religion viable in a spiritually competitive world.
Every dollar spent preserving the past is a mission dollar squandered.
This should not be alarming. It is really what we have all been waiting for—a chance to open dialog with people who are not necessarily like-minded. (Don’t most churches look for people who will fit in and contribute in traditional ways?)
The new evangelist will listen and respond. Hyping the Church’s agenda will not build the networks and platforms. The new evangelical approach will return us to our mission of love.
Journalism 101: The incoming (not outgoing) leader is the news.
We heard a rumor that Tracey Beasley of Reformation Church in Mount Airy was elected to replace the outgoing Vice President of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We looked for confirmation but came up with a story that said she was one of two candidates.
The story that comes up on SEPA’s web site is all about the outgoing vice president.
The people of Reformation are congratulating Tracey on their Facebook page. It must be true!
What do we know about Tracey Beasley? What can we expect from her leadership?
Tracey Beasley was influential in the creating the mess in East Falls that severely hurt our Christian community and neighborhood and has saddled SEPA with a costly and unnecessary five-year court feud.
She was one of four trustees appointed by Bishop Burkat to make our community wards of the bishop and convey our property and cash assets to benefit the synod, while locking out the Christians that provided this Care Package to plug the Synod’s deficit. She was co-chair, along with The Rev. Lee Miller, who left SEPA Synod last fall for New York’s green pastures.
She visited Redeemer in July 2007 along with the other three trustees. Rev. Lee Miller had demanded the meeting with only a couple of days notice — never telling us why. Only two of our council members could attend. Summer vacation season made getting people together quickly for an undesignated purpose difficult.
The four visitors from SEPA Synod, never identified themselves as trustees nor did they inform us that we were under Involuntary Synodical Administration (a made-up term that does not appear in the constitution, but has taken on legal weight by virtue of it being tossed around often enough). Apparently, we had been under synodical administration for some time. No one told us! Not even the trustees sitting with us in our fellowship hall.
They came to our door and asked for a room where they could meet in private. Odd.
They then sat with us and we told them about the mission plan we were drafting. It was a good discussion. At the end, they thanked us for being candid. I remember commenting, “Yes, we have been forthright, but something tells me you are not being candid with us.”
They glossed over the observation and assured us that they were there to help. We were unaccustomed to SEPA showing any interest in our ministry, so even that was odd.
The four trustees then did nothing to help us. We didn’t see or hear from them again until November 2007, when our congregation council met with the Bishop. This is when they told us about the synodical administration — some five months after it was supposedly imposed.
Tracey Beasley did not attend this meeting. The other three trustees were present. Larry House and Ray Miller said nothing but took copious notes. Lee Miller seemed to be excited by our reports of our ministry and said “I’m with you guys.” Closing the church was never mentioned at this meeting. We gave Bishop Burkat a copy of our 24-page mission plan and a resolution to call one of the ELCA pastors who had spent seven months helping us draft and implement the plan.
We were excited by the progress our congregation had been making. The meeting was concrete proof that our membership had grown steadily in the last ten years, during which SEPA was largely absent. Bishop Burkat promised that we could work with the newly appointed Mission Developer, Rev. Patricia Davenport.
Four months of silence from SEPA followed. Repeated phone calls to the Synod from our leadership, who were eager to follow up on the promising meeting, were ignored.
We were not to see Tracey Beasley again until February 2008. She was with the bishop and her party when they came to our church one Sunday afternoon with a locksmith and lawyer waiting behind the church, out of sight. She was instrumental in spreading the gossip that we tried to have the bishop arrested at this encounter. This is untrue.
We objected frequently to this false representation, but it continued to appear in court documents for five years.
Tracey Beasley spent no time with our congregation outside of that first encounter in which she lied by omitting her true purpose. She presented a report to the 2008 Synod Assembly about our ministry that was wholly inaccurate. Some of the information was just plain false. Some was so outdated that it created a false impression. And that’s what the trustees needed to sway the Synod Assembly—a false impression.
In 2008, Redeemer immediately asked for the record to be corrected. We followed up with detailed monthly reports of our growing mission and ministry. All of these were copied to Tracey Beasley and all the trustees, as well as the bishop.
There was never any response to any of our letters.
Tracey Beasley read the same fabricated report, unaltered, to the 2009 Synod Assembly.
The next time we were to see Tracey Beasley was on Mother’s Day 2009, just hours after the close of the 2009 Synod Assembly. This is the Assembly at which Redeemer appealed Synodical Administration. The Assembly never voted on our appeal. Synod leaders substituted a question allowing the Synod to take our property—a topic our appeal had not addressed. The vote was predictable. Almost everyone voted to take our property. They have NO constitutional authority to vote on congregational property.
Tracey Beasley came to our worship that Mothers Day with Larry House. They sat through the worship service and before the service concluded they walked to the front of the sanctuary and announced, “We are in control now.”
What happened next was beautiful. The people of Redeemer rose united from the pews and surrounded the two trustees who had represented themselves as working with Redeemer but had done nothing. There had been no plan, no strategy. It just happened. I watched from the back of the church, talking to the visitors. (Redeemer had visitors almost every Sunday.)
Redeemer members confronted the two trustees about their behavior. Most notably, someone pointed out that Synod’s interference in our ministry had cost us a 25-year relationship with Ken Crest. This interference had not only cost our congregation a strong source of income, it had deprived our neighborhood of an excellent service.
Tracey Beasley claimed that Ken Crest did not leave because of them. We pointed out that Ken Crest had just signed a five-year lease with us but abruptly whited out their names. We had a letter from Ken Crest stating that they were leaving because they didn’t want to be in the middle of a property dispute.
Tracey Beasley claimed to know nothing about this and demanded to see that letter. The letter indicated that she had, in fact, been copied.
The courts ordered the property given to SEPA — not under the law, but under Separation of Church and State. They couldn’t get involved in church matters. They did not order that the church members be locked out, but Synod accepted the court win as entitling them to do exactly as they please. There is no authority in the church or out of the church to stop them (unless SEPA Lutherans follow their constitutions).
We were suspicious. Suddenly, we are open again! A public announcement. No effort to tell Redeemer’s members.
It ended up to be not so much a worship service as a gloating fest. The service, never to be repeated, was conducted by the Rev. Lamont Anthony Wells, pastor of Reformation in Mount Airy, where both Tracey and her predecessor are members. The watchful eyes of East Falls reported that about seven people showed up and seemed to be very uncomfortable in their presence.
There was never any real intent to “open Redeemer.” The group that seemed to be from Reformation marked their territory, locked the doors behind them, and moved on.
Tracey Beasley, as a trustee and as a member of synod council, was in a position to represent the interests of the congregation. She demonstrated no inclination to do so.
She was clearly an extension of the bishop. Now she is an official leader of all congregations. Will she do so with independence? Will she now represent the interests of the congregations—as her position suggests? Will she check the power of the bishop — as is the responsibility of synod council?
If past behavior predicts future behavior, your leaders are comfortable in their view that congregational property is theirs for the taking. Because Synod Assembly seems to be powerless in enforcing their own rules, there is nothing to stop them.
Small churches (and most SEPA churches are already small or getting there) should be alarmed. You now have leadership that has shown they are capable of plotting to take your property. They have a track record using secrecy, intimidation, and deceit in doing so. They have demonstrated a clear sense of entitlement. They will not hesitate to attack lay people in court if they dare to oppose their views within the constitution.
You elected them!
When they knock on your doors, remember—we warned you.
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
