Recent Old Testament lessons in the Revised Common Lectionary have been featuring the story of Abraham and his family. In the Judeo-Christian tradition this features Sarah and their son, Isaac.
Abraham’s life is foundational in the relationship we have with God today. It is also foundational to great friction which has much of the world dancing on eggshells today.
God kept his promise to build a great people from the seed of an old man and woman. With all those children there is bound to be some sibling rivalry.
There are several great Abraham and Sarah stories. There are
the visit from three angels who announce God’s intention to provide an heir
Sarah’s willingness to encourage other unions to produce an heir
the birth of Isaac
the sacrifice and salvation of Isaac
All of these are subplots to God’s demand that Abraham uproot his little empire and travel to a new land. He will not be the father of a great nation in Ur.
Today’s artistic choices are by contemporary artists. Each focuses on the elderly Abraham holding newborn Isaac in his arm. This new nation will be built upon love.
Here is another contemporary work by Tom White. It is a bronze sculpture of the same subject. The joy of sculpture is dimension. Every angle tells a slightly different story. Visit Tom White Studios.
To remind us that this story is part of an epic, we’ll include this painting from 1880 by Jozsef-Molnar. There’s a lot going on here. Sometimes we forget that because we can read the story of Abraham in one sitting that it all took place quickly.
The move from Ur to start a new nation was an act of faith, love and courage for all of Abraham’s household. It was likely to have been a logistical nightmare with only the incredible and unlikely promises of God as a reward.
We live today in the shadow of this great movement. You see, there was this other son of Abraham.
In yesterday’s post we talked about Bishop Claire Burkat’s tactic of bypassing clergy and church council leadership and taking issues dear to her heart directly to the congregation, who under the circumstances would be voting having witnessed the horrific treatment of their leaders.
Although this is always presented as democratic, it is a violation of church structure and a form of bullying. Sue the leaders; then ask others, whose collective knowledge of church procedure is likely to be low, to do the voting. (And if that doesn’t work, just issue an edict.)
It’s an irritating problem for church leaders. When pride and power reign and the possibility that you won’t make payroll looms on the horizon, it’s worth a try—constitutional or not. Bishop Almquist had tried it before at Redeemer (and failed).
This first Sunday of the month, as Redeemer heads out to worship in our own community, passing our locked church building (now equipped for the first time in its history with a security system), on our way to meet in the upper room of a local theater, we can’t help but wonder:
What would happen if SEPA bypassed the bishop, Synod Council and Synod Assembly and took the issue of Redeemer directly to the people of SEPA Synod?
Same strategy. Who knows what the results would be?
No worries.
It will never happen. Bishop Burkat would never stand for such a violation of church procedure. 😉
First eliminate clergy from the congregation. Wait for a change or force a change.
Second, cut the lay leadership down to size or eliminate them entirely.
Today’s post is about the third part of the Strategy—dealing with the congregation.
When both Bishop Almquist and Bishop Burkat decided to go directly to the people of the congregation they did so with an air of democracy. They were taking an issue directly to the people. Noble-sounding, indeed.
They were really manipulating the situation, using the congregation, and side-stepping the constitution.
The people they were approaching had followed their constitutions and elected leaders to—well—provide leadership. These leaders were authorized by the congregation to speak for them.
The pastor, too, had been called and could represent the congregation if he or she had the backbone.
The congregation doesn’t expect to be called together to deal with the regional body. They aren’t prepared and their interests have wide range—much of it personal, not corporate in nature. Leaders do a better job of sifting through the layers of congregational life to represent the “whole” people.
The bishop knows this. That’s why she needed these levels of leadership gone!
Redeemer knows it too. We have experienced it with both Bishop Almquist and Bishop Burkat.
In truth the congregation was being called together because the bishop and regional body knew that what they were proposing was not likely to be approved by the elected and called leaders of the church.
In Redeemer’s case, the congregation had just witnessed the inexplicable disappearance of pastors they had invested in both monetarily and emotionally.
This was followed by disregard and disrespect of the leaders they elected to act in their interest. One church council member who had approached a Synod Council member on the congregation’s behalf had already been threatened. “Get out while the getting is good. We have no intention of negotiating with you.”
Now synod leadership was coming to them!
The message was clear: Vote our way or else.
Of course, the congregation was intimidated.
This was actually voiced by Redeemer members during Bishop Almquist’s tenure. When he called for a THIRD vote on a call question, the people said, “If we don’t vote the way he wants, he’ll shut us down for sure.” Fear would have controlled the situation, not reason.
Redeemer recovered from that time with able lay leadership taking the time to heal the congregation.
But in 2007, under Bishop Burkat, the Synod was resurrecting the same familiar tactics.
Bishops do not have the right to call congregational meetings. If they want to meet with congregations they are supposed to work with local leadership in doing so. That’s the way the constitutions are written.
Bishop Burkat never asked the local leaders for suggested meeting times. She just wrote letters saying she was coming. In her world, lay people are waiting for her to find a convenient time to pay attention to them once every decade or so.
The first time she tried this, in September 2007, she chose the local back-to-school night. Redeemer members decided they wanted to attend their children’s back to school events.
This was interpreted as resistance.
When we finally met in November, the meeting went very well. Bishop Burkat agreed to review our ministry plan and resolution to call a pastor. She promised we could work with the newly appointed Patricia Davenport. “You will love working with her,” she told us.
We were never given the opportunity. Bishop Burkat broke the promises made to us in her only meeting with our leaders.
Once again, Bishop Burkat scheduled a visit to Redeemer with no consultation with the congregation. This time she chose the Sunday of our Annual Meeting and luncheon and an afternoon birthday party for our pastor.
First, she announced the outcome of the meeting before the meeting was held. She was closing Redeemer with no congregational vote or consultation. NONE!
We informed her immediately upon notice that the date wouldn’t work. We reinforced this by email, fax and letter. We had hoped that she would meet with our leaders and work through any issues. But then NO issues had been raised.
The fabricated report that was read at Synod Assembly was written just a few days before Synod Assembly, three months after this. It was NEVER shared with Redeemer. It was inaccurate and untrue and would not have withstood scrutiny.
What happened at Redeemer was a property grab facilitated by pure bullying. It set the stage for all litigation.
Not exactly the atmosphere for an honest congregational vote.
Bishop Burkat was embarrassed that her plan to lock us out that day was thwarted in front of her company of witnesses. Any reasonable person could not have imagined it going any other way—but then they thought no one from Redeemer would be present. They could change the locks and surprise us the next Sunday when we all arrived for worship.
Had Bishop Burkat respected our leaders, this embarrassment would never have happened. Every subsequent action was face-saving and vindictive.
Bishop Burkat boasts of empowering laity. We have seen the opposite in her dealings with our congregation. Empowered laity are laity who comply.
Next: We will examine why Lutheran congregations own their own property.
This is the second post in a series that revisits the last five years of court actions involving the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (SEPA / ELCA) and member church, Redeemer in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pa.
Understanding the Legalities
Five years of costly and hateful litigation have shed little light on the legalities of the land grab in East Falls.
The courts are far from united in the various rulings in all the cases of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America against member church Redeemer in the East Falls neighborhood and carefully selected members of the congregation.
The early rulings were that courts have no jurisdiction in church affairs.
This first ruling was upheld by a split decision of the Pennsylvania Appellate Court. Two dissenting judges strongly supported Redeemer. If the law were applied, they concluded, Redeemer should be heard.
Keep in mind that all this litigation was just about HEARING the case. It has never been heard.
A similar case WAS heard at the very same time involving a Presbyterian denomination and a member congregation in western Pennsylvania. That judge took five days to hear the case and ruled in favor of the congregation. The ruling came five days after the Redeemer “no jurisdiction” ruling. This decision has held through the appellate process and was last heard at the state supreme level this April with a decision due any day.
SEPA wasn’t satisfied with their default win. They wanted Redeemer to pay more. They went after individual members.
They held the cards now and they fixed the deck. The ace up their sleeve is “Contempt of Court.”
Synod locked the members of Redeemer out of the church within 36 hours of the ruling. Redeemer members had no access to anything in the church. Synod (again with no consultation with Redeemer members) sued members for contempt of court for not supplying things we still think ARE IN the church.
If they couldn’t find something they were looking for, they could have asked. But no! Straight to litigation where they are immune from the law and church members are not.
Redeemer members are in the position of not being able to prove that the items are in the church building.
Note to other SEPA congregations: They are likely to use this tactic again. Protect your church leaders now.
In the Redeemer case, subsequent judges have shown growing sympathy for Redeemer.
First, let’s ask, Where were the clergy?
Clergy fled at the first sign of trouble.
The pastor who had been serving us for nearly two years when Bishop Burkat was elected and who was well-liked, disappeared after a private meeting with Bishop Burkat and a congregation (Epiphany) who had been in covenant with Redeemer and was sharing our building. That church never discussed breaking the covenant with us, but after a private meeting with the bishop, they announced they were closing. The pastor gave 10 days notice by email (not the constitutional 30 days notice.) He never planned to talk with us about his decision. He left the Synod.
Epiphany continued to share Redeemer’s property outside of the covenant for six months, rent free. They were never locked out!
Redeemer found a pastor to replace him. Redeemer hand-delivered to Bishop Burkat the congregation’s resolution to call him in November 2007. In February 2008, he had just encouraged Redeemer members to “stand firm” in our ministry. He visited the bishop’s office hoping to talk things through.
This pastor had shared with us that he had been trying to talk to the synod for a year and couldn’t get a return call or a response to correspondence. (We had the same experience!).
So now he goes to talk to the Synod about serving Redeemer.
He never sets foot inside Redeemer again.
He suddenly has an interim call in Bucks County.
Clergy are out of the way.
Next. Lay leaders.
Let’s make this quick! All lay leaders, having had no hearing with Bishop Burkat on the subject of closing the church, were dismissed by letter from the bishop in February 2008. She had promised to work with us just four months earlier at a meeting which closing the church had not been discussed. No grounds were ever cited.
OK, lay leaders are out of the way.
There is still the congregation to deal with.
We’ll tell you how that went in our next post.
Hint: Any claim that there was a process of mutual discernment is a lie.
Why do people rob banks? That’s where the money is. Why should churches use social media? That’s where the people are.
The web is the most powerful medium the Church does not use.
The web is no longer new. It’s been part of our lives for 20 years. With each passing year it is more integral to our society and lifestyle. And still a good number of churches have NO web site—not even a billboard presence.
The majority of churches WITH web sites don’t use them for anything but posting the most basic parish information. They are narcissistic. “We’re great! Come to us!”
It is not unusual to hear older people argue, “I don’t do computers. I’m not going to learn. I don’t want to spend the money.” It is often followed with, “Do you mind looking this up for me?”
Apologizing for not using computers is like explaining that you don’t brush your teeth.
There is no excuse.
Any arguments will fall on modern ears like this:
You don’t have a web site. That means you aren’t serious about your mission. Why should anyone take a second look at your ministry?
The web is how you reach people in today’s world. It may be the only hope for smaller congregations. Done correctly, it’s not a “Hail Mary” by any means.Done correctly it can be the catalyst of a whole new ministry. There are some basic questions to ask before you commit to a web presence or revise the site you now have.
Who do you hope to reach? If you are hoping to communicate only with members, you are wasting your time. You have the ability to reach thousands of people you never thought might find their way to your pages, but who do you see as your audience?
How are you going to announce your presence and spread the word? Turn to your members—especially your younger members. You will need them. (Knowing they are important to mission beyond their pocketbooks will boost morale.)
How are you going to respond to your online community?
What will appeal to your prospective readers visually and content-wise? Looks matter on the web. If your site is crafted in awkward HTML , it broadcasts that you are not serious or knowledgable. This does not mean you need tons of training or that you need to hire an intermediary. It is VERY possible to look very professional with only a day’s experience.
What do you expect visitors to get out of your site? Do you expect them to take any action? You have to ask them!
How do you want them to feel when they leave?
If your web site is nothing more than a list of worship opportunities and a list of staff these are not concerns for you. But if this is the type of site you have today, you are squandering a valuable resource.
Here’s our experience. Keep in mind as you read this that our regional body considered our ministry dead. We had no professional support and dealt daily with hierarchical hostility. All our property and monetary assets had been seized. Any church reading this is going to be in a stronger position than we were in!
Redeemer’s Social Media Ongoing Adventure-2×2
2×2 started this experimental site in February 2011—about a year after our regional body took our property and locked our members out. The Holy Spirit knows its way around locks!
Our property had already been empty for 16 months. We had been meeting in members’ homes, which was frustrating because we felt isolated and unable to serve as we had been. (Isolating us was part of the power game.)
We had a pretty comprehensive mission plan before all this happened. We revised it.
We no longer had a physical site we could invite people to visit, so we made the web site as welcoming as possible.
We built on our strengths. Redeemer worship was very inclusive and somewhat innovative. We had minimal pastoral presence for decades and had learned to do many things as lay workers. We expanded on this experience, drafting ideas for small church worship.
We began offering the same types of resources we shared weekly in our worship. Art. Music. Poetry. Plays. Worship ideas.
Since we were exploring Social Media, we reported regularly on our Social Media experiment and sharing what we learned.
As a congregation of immigrants (both historically and recently) we explored multicultural ministry.
Redeemer was always a small neighborhood church. We had no illusions of ever being a large congregation. 2×2 has changed our vision. We now have about 1000 readers a week. We have formed mission partnerships all over the world. We have gained authority in the areas we addressed. We lead search engine traffic in many of them.
Embrace Serendipity
If you implement this type of ministry, it will take you to places you never expected. You cannot control who reads you, likes you, or friends you on the web. You can prompt them to share, but you can’t make them!
You can control how you react. It will reshape your ministry.You may find that you didn’t just add a new feature to your existing ministry. You may be changing the whole way you approach ministry, allocate funds, and how people work together.
They go ahead and put things in motion and discover that instead of two churches with 100 members each merging to form one church of 200, they now have one church with 50.
Here’s another math problem for churches. Which is more reliable? One voice or thirty?
Imagine a controversial issue. The Church’s usual response is to form a committee of 30, choosing the best minds of people representing all sides of an issue. Finding the right committee members could take months!
Next, schedule meetings and discussion groups. Fly committee members all over the country, if necessary. Add a few more months to the process. At last, write a social statement that defines the group’s resolution. Attach a disclaimer to the end that negates everything the paper says to satisfy the minority and trust that no one will read that far.
Publish the committee’s report with fanfare. Post it on the web. Forget about it.
The issue usually remains unresolved, but at least there is something to provide to curious outside parties. They probably won’t read the whole thing.
Nobody is really happy. The most disgruntled will leave. Life will go on as if the committee had never met in the first place.
Some issues are not for group resolution. They are for us to resolve as individuals with our consciences open to God. Kudos to the founders of the ELCA in recognizing this with their constitutional “interdependence.”
The problem is they failed to provide a structure to support the goal of interdependence.
When individuals resolve issues in their own minds, their ideas take on power. Passion results and passion is high-octane fuel.
Committees have power only when there is a dynamic leader. Otherwise, they sputter along on watered-down low octane.
Sometimes the majority is wrong.
There aren’t too many examples of majority voting in the Bible.
The majority voted to create a Golden Calf.
The majority voted for King Saul.
The majority voted for Barabbus.
The Bible is largely a record of the power of individual faith—self-discernment. God usually spoke to individuals in the Bible. It’s mankind that strives for the validation of numbers.
This true story is about a company who routinely spends significant money on product research. focus groups and consumer surveying. They were proud of their process and product.
Then one day one person said something that made a difference.
Fortunately, he was heard and the company acted on it. It wasn’t popular. The company was making big changes based on a comment of just ONE person. There was plenty of grumbling.
Read the story. In the end, they were all thankful they had listened.
How does the church treat the lone voices out there?
Church people are like any organization. We discuss. We vote. We follow majorities. Sometimes we work toward consensus. Sometimes we follow orders. Sometimes when the numbers aren’t going our way, we look for ways to bypass our rules.
Rarely do we find a place for that lone voice that persistently says, “Wait a minute. This may not be the way we ought to go.”
Sometimes one person is right and the majority is wrong. It can be a very uncomfortable pew!
The Rich Fool is not a favorite topic of serious artists. Many of the depictions are illustrative or blatant cartoons (not that we have anything against cartoons).
Here are two from classical art.
Rembrandt painted the rich fool surrounded by books. Books in Rembrandt’s day symbolized vanity. They were a sign of wealth as well. The rich fool is happily surrounded by his treasures, totally unaware of the darkness surrounding him. His candle is about to be snuffed out!
Here is an etching by Hans Holbein the Younger who lived in the 16th century and was active during the years of Reformation.
Death surprises the rich man and sweeps away the riches along with the man’s life.
Our featured artist today is Jim Jannegt. We’ve featured his work before including just a few weeks ago with his Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jannegt is a contemporary artist, working on a series of paintings depicting the parables.
His painting shown below, which looks so very modern, is based on a medieval art style and careful interpretation of the scripture.
Go to this website and enjoy five short videos of Jannegt describing how he created this painting.
Share the link with your congregations (on your web site before Sunday, if you can). His videos will help your congregation understand this Sunday’s lessons.
Today’s story starts with a brother asking for his share of the inheritance.
Today’s object is a box filled with modern “stuff” and a photo of a storage shed. If you can project images use a photo (or several) like this one. Just google storage unit/images to find tons of them.
This is a parable about modern America. It is a parable about values and relationships—priorities.
Some ideas for what to put in the box: A collection of remote controls, a collection of knickknacks, t-shirts, cans from the garage, old sports equipment or toys, old trophies—the types of things we hang on to for reasons we can’t explain.
Use a collection of different things or a collection of same things. We all have multiple remote controls for equipment that died long ago. A collection of one teenager’s T-shirts can fill a dresser drawer.
As you talk about this parable, take the items out of the box. Just holding the things up may cause your congregation to smile.
The modern storage unit will resonate with your congregation. People have so much “stuff” they rent a shed to store it. Often they pay the rent for a few months and then walk away. They forget about the stuff when they have to pay to own it. After a few months, all that stuff isn’t worth the trouble to retrieve it.
On our own, we don’t think of giving it away. In the end, stuff is worthless.
We know that Jesus is asking us to think about our values.
Today even intangible things have value. We can fight over ideas in court for years! Who thought of Facebook first? Who first used the word “muggle” as in the Harry Potter stories? Once success is obvious, we all want a piece of it. We want to transform ideas to gold.
How many of us would fight for what we believe in court?
True success is in building relationships and remembering priorities. Relationships give us something to hang on to. That’s why we make the effort to get home for Thanksgiving—to remember to phone on birthdays or holidays—to show up for worship on Sunday morning—to pray daily.
We don’t need a storage shed or a bigger house. We just need to value the blessings God gave us and show our appreciation.
Heaven is where the heart is.
The painting above by British artist, Arthur Hughes and was painted in 1881. It is called “Saying Grace, The Skipper and His Crew.”
This is the first post in a series that will advocate for revisiting SEPA Synod’s involvement with member church, Redeemer Lutheran Church, East Falls in Philadelphia, Pa.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA)of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) made claims on this congregation’s property in 2008. Their actions sparked five years of litigation.
There is ample room for revisiting the actions of SEPA today.
If ministry in East Falls is the goal, we are on the same side.
If attaining or protecting assets is the goal, the better economic decision might be to foster ministry as opposed to shutting ministry down.
Either way, the important point is that we should be on the same side. The stewardship of ministry and/or resources should be an objective. So should loving the people who make up our synod and upon whom all hope for ministry or the funding of ministry depends.
Why revisit Redeemer now?
Eight years passed between the time when Bishop Almquist looked at Redeemer in 1997-1998 and Bishop Burkat’s revisiting his decision. Things changed during those years but SEPA never adequately examined how they had changed. That was a mistake. Let’s learn from it.
Another five and one half years have passed since the 2008 land grab was attempted. Four years have passed since the court awarded SEPA our property — not on the basis of secular law or even on Lutheran law but on the basis of separation of church and state. Courts do not want to be involved in church issues. The dissenting opinion suggested strongly that the law and the church constitutions were on Redeemer’s side.
This means that justice in the Lutheran Church is the responsibility of each Lutheran. There is no room for even benign neglect of that responsibility.
Things have changed during this time too.
To not review the actions in this long and trying relationship would be another mistake. Great potential might be missed. The mistakes made in the Redeeme debacle will be repeated—over and over.
We’ll start the discussion in the five following topics (possibly more). We will look at how decisions made today will affect various aspects of many local congregations and neighborhoods, the Church as a whole, and the mission of all Lutherans.
These are some of the areas we plan to discuss:
Legality
Viability
Innovation
Community Impact
Short- and Long-Term Potential
We believe that the Redeemer situation poses questions that will impact dozens of congregations in the next two decades. Redeemer’s interests are also the interests of at least 30 other congregations we have visited who may be OK for today but face a very uncertain future as aging memberships lose their ability to hold things together.
Redeemer has learned a lot in the last six years. We will share what we see in a forthright manner. We will strive to leave the buzzwords and popular leadership jargon out of the discussion. The ELCA needs a frank discussion that focuses on the interests of the congregations — not the preservation of a system and protection of the interests of church professionals but the true reasons we bond together for mission in the first place.
As one of the beleaguered American Roman Catholic nuns, Sister Pat Farrell, commented tonight on 60 Minutes— “There doesn’t seem to be a safe place to talk about issues of differences. Where do people go?”
This is true in the ELCA, too. Redeemer has found no honest and open forum within the church. In fact, great effort was made to deny or control all discussion early on—when open and sincere discussion might have prevented five years of law suits and acrimony.
This forum will be open. We pledge to print any legitimate comment without any editorial response. Also, we invite guest posts on the topics we present.
Below is a form you can use to notify us of your desire to write a post on any topic we raise. Just let us know what topic you would like to address and how we can contact you. We will send you our editorial guideline (pretty simple).
Use the regular “Add your 2¢” comment box if you simply want to comment. There is no length limitation.
2×2 web site reaches about 1000 unique readers every week in addition to readers who subscribe by Facebook, Twitter or Email.
Today was the end of our third year of Ambassador visits. We stayed home and had worship, followed by a party. (68 church visits, BTW)
It was an especially joyous day as one of members was home from nine months overseas. It was good to be reunited.
We actually saw each other several times this week, bumping into each other just like the old days. It was especially good to see our young people trying to reconnect.
SEPA Synod’s view of Redeemer was that we were a bunch of old ladies who would be dead soon enough. We wouldn’t have the energy to resist. Need money? Easy pickings in East Falls.
But Redeemer’s demographics were actually the youngest of any Lutheran church our Ambassadors have visited. It was not unusual for children to outnumber adults on Sunday morning. We had very few people who could be considered old.
A lot had changed in the eight years since Bishop Almquist nurtured that indelible impression and during which SEPA Synod ignored us.
And then another six years passed while Bishop Burkat tried to destroy Redeemer one way or another.
A funny thing happens in eight years, followed by six years (two thirds of the history of SEPA Synod). Our children grew up.
Since 2007. Redeemer’s cradle role members are now in first and second grade. Redeemer’s grade school kids are now entering high school. Redeemer’s high school youth are now entering graduate school or the work force.
Synod has been so focused on destroying the adults that they never stopped to think about how their actions in East Falls affect the children. Land and money remains their only consideration.
I’ll never forget the Sunday after Bishop Burkat followed four months of silence with a letter announcing she was closing Redeemer. Our last meeting with her had been all about working with Synod. She broke every promise made to us without a word.
Of course, when all this ugliness was going on, we did our best to protect our children. On this Sunday, following the edict (don’t believe the “mutual discernment” nonsense), two synod representatives appeared at worship. Rev. Patricia Davenport and the Rev. Lee Miller were sitting right beside the children as they gathered for the children’s sermon.
The children came forward wanting to talk. We usually let them talk during the children’s sermon. We typically asked them what was going on in their lives before we settled in for a message. This week they were upset. You see they had seen their parents crying. “Daddy got a letter and was crying,” one six-year-old said.
They were probably surprised and confused that on this morning, when they needed to talk more than usual, their concerns were deflected.
The sight of a parent crying, especially a father, is troubling to a child. We should have talked it through with the children right then and there. But then the people responsible for the family’s pain were sitting within arms’ reach. The word “smugly” comes to mind. They seemed clueless to what they were witnessing.
Awkward moments in worship.
But today the children are older. As we talk now, we make no attempt to hide anything from the young adults. At one point, I invited them to go off and enjoy kid talk.
“Nothing doing,” one boy said. “I’ve heard bits and pieces of this over the years, but this is the first time I’ve heard all this. This is really interesting.” And so we shared our story with a new generation — now old enough to vote in the church.
As the father told the son, I always thought that if our story were told, any reasonable person would side with Redeemer.
Lack of dialog has characterized this entire conflict. Reason has held little sway.
Redeemer is not closed. We are locked out of God’s House by SEPA Synod.
Our children still care about Redeemer. They will always know what it feels like to be shunned by their church leaders, excluded from the church that had once welcomed them in baptism, and how their parents were attacked in court for five long years.
We learned what they are doing. The young man who often helped lead Redeemer’s children’s sermons now holds a home Bible study. (Redeemer had no shortage of leaders and was grooming a new generation.) Another boy attends church with a school friend. Most remain unchurched as is typical of the membership of closed churches. Another falls back on his Quaker school upbringing. (A good number of Redeemer kids attended Quaker schools.)
Several families that were united at Redeemer are divided in exile.
Bishop Burkat was quite up front with her insistence that the memory of Redeemer be allowed to die. The church’s version of scorched earth policy. If the church was to reopen it had to have a new trendy name. The members of Redeemer could not play a leadership role in any “resurrection.” They would remain dead while SEPA searched for more compliant East Fallsers (good luck!) or shipped in outsiders.
She thought the death process would take six months. That was five years ago.
And now we know.
Redeemer’s spirit will live for another generation.
Let’s hope a resolution is reached that will restore our children’s faith in Christian community—for everyone’s sake. It’s high time.
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Redeemer’s Prayer
We were all once strangers, the weakest, the outcasts, until someone came to our defense, included us, empowered us, reconciled us (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 2).
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On Isaiah 30:15b
Be calm. Wait. Wait. Commit your cause to God. He will make it succeed. Look for Him a little at a time. Wait. Wait. But since this waiting seems long to the flesh and appears like death, the flesh always wavers. But keep faith. Patience will overcome wickedness.
—Martin Luther
