4/7InkzHVUEQeEdU9vpc1tikzEhChrKmPfvXI-FSDBrBQ

SEPA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod)

2×2 to Undergo Some Changes

2×2 will be undergoing some changes in the next few days. They are structural in nature but over time, will allow us more flexibility in our outreach.

You won’t see a big change at first. We might be adding less content for a few days. But eventually, 2×2 will be easier for our readers to navigate and to find the types of content they are seeking.

We thank our readers and ask for your patience during the process. We are not quite sure what to expect as we work with the experts.

2×2 is growing quickly. Our monthly traffic is more than three times what it was last year at this time. We now have more than 4000 unique visitors every month and a growing subscription list. Last year we had 13,000 unique visitors. In the first two months of this year we’ve had 6,500 visitors, putting us on track to reach 40,000 by year’s end. This figure does not count subscribers who read our posts in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or in email feeds. Combining subscribers with new visitors we are reaching close to 10,000 readers every month. It is probably fair to say that Redeemer, through 2×2, reaches more people than any other Lutheran congregation in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (SEPA / ELCA).

Not bad for a church that doesn’t exist.

The 2×2 Story

The Church likes roadmaps. They like to be able to say, “If you do X, your congregation will achieve Y.”

It’s been a while since formulas like these worked in the Church. It is a source of frustration and conflict.

There is no roadmap for where the Church is going. Societal and technological changes have created unchartable challenges.

The methods of the past aren’t working. There is no time or patience to test new ideas. Everyone at every level is feeling an economic pinch. The easy way out: Blame the congregations. Close them down. Salvage their property for the use of the regional body. Make sure the national church gets their share of the loot.

Redeemer was a congregation willing to try new things, willing to take some risks, even willing to sacrifice today’s statistics for tomorrow’s ministry—a concept that was widely discussed in our planning meetings.

We were beginning to see significant success, but our cash-strapped regional body was impatient and preferred to see failure. A couple of small church failures each year would fund the synod’s six-figure annual deficit—until there are no more small churches to plunder.

The expectation was that little churches would not have the stamina or resources to resist. It made sense. Full-time paid professionals fighting part-time volunteers. Easy pickings.

Then came Redeemer. We had presented a 20-page ministry plan we had researched for six months and asked to call a minister who had helped us write the plan. SEPA ignored us. They never even discussed our plan with us, while they represented publicly that they were working with us.

SEPA strong-armed Redeemer out of their property in defiance of their own governing laws. The conflict is now some seven years old.

We took our ministry online which was always part of our ministry plan, although it was not Step 1. Step 1 was opening an income-producing Christian Day School, which was projected to produce upwards of $6000 per month for ministry. The empty building has earned nothing for nearly four years under SEPA’s “administration.”

Online ministry requires no property and not a great deal of money—less than $200 each year. We had no idea what to expect. We just started to write about our experiences and presented the types of resources we use regularly in our worship. We have a lot of experience as a small church. We share it.

Our resources are driving our traffic. The Easter play we posted last year had about 200 downloads last year and 3000 downloads so far this year. Our continuing series on adult object lessons also has steady readership.

The followers of our commentaries are an eclectic group and mostly young people—the very demographic that eludes the mainline church. They tend to be passionate, artistic, creative and they are all over the world.

We will continue to build the 2×2 platform for ministry and share the concepts we are pioneering.

Thanks for visiting us now and then. Feel free to contribute or let us know what type of content would benefit your small church. We’ll try to supply it.

18 Mar 2013

The Church’s Missing Silver Bullet—Dialog

The Church Is Ill-prepared for the 21st Century

The Church is coming kicking and screaming into the Digital Age.

It carries historical baggage that is making the journey very difficult—and is causing the Church to miss out on tremendous opportunity.

The Church is entering the Social Media Age with a long tradition of one-way dialog.

Most of us know that by definition “dialog” is two-way.

But the Church does not know this. That’s why it seems perfectly natural for a pope to Tweet to his followers but announce before clicking “Enter” on his first message that he has no intention of following.

Church leaders tend to think that when they are standing in the pulpit they are engaging their listeners. That’s their idea of dialog.

Church leaders tend to extend the pulpit to all other interaction with congregations. Meetings and Assemblies are carefully managed.

Ridiculously short time restrictions prevent dialog.

There is a vetting process for who will engage in church dialog. Clergy get first access. Lay people with a proven track record of support for clergy get second place. There is no third place.

In our region and denomination, it was the custom of our present and last bishop to bypass the elected leaders of a congregation and request to speak to the whole congregation. Request is not the right word—demand is more accurate.

The strategy sounds so open and democratic. It is in fact manipulative.

It is disrespectful to the elected leaders who know the congregation’s issues the best and are elected to represent the interests of the congregation—the whole congregation.

It engages congregational members with less knowledge of issues and various levels of commitment to the total mission of a congregation. As they view the disrespect shown for the congregation’s leaders, they are appropriately fearful of speaking out.

Dialog is shut down.

Church leaders are fooled into thinking they have led people. They have intimidated people.

What might happen if the church leaders came to congregational leaders with one simple question—How can we help?

What might happen if they then sat back and listened?

It may be the single most important step in achieving transformation.

This has never been easier or more possible—however unlikely.

The Church needs to buy a pair of listening ears. They are rare but not expensive.

18 Mar 2013

In the interest of fuller disclosure . . .

Issues between SEPA and Redeemer Are Not Fully Resolved

2×2 has been sitting on this post for a few weeks.

It is uncertain that the member churches of SEPA will give any regard whatsoever to this report. They are likely to continue to believe everything their leadership tells them — which is how this mess started.

Several weeks ago Bishop Burkat issued a letter to clergy and rostered leaders claiming all matters regarding Redeemer are settled. Although generally true, an important detail was left unmentioned.

As your 2013 Synod Assembly approaches, SEPA congregations should not be assuming that the litigation involving them and Redeemer Lutheran Church in East Falls is over.

The ruling in January was made without prejudice and awaits decisions in several other court matters. The current judge has retained jurisdiction over future litigation, a step that would not be necessary if the issues were in fact settled.

A full and correct report from your leaders would have included these details which affect you. Partial truths and even untruths have often fueled this conflict, which never had to be.

If you don’t know whom to believe, look into it for yourselves.

17 Mar 2013

Why Small Churches May Solve Mainline Problems

The Church’s Food Chain

FishChain2

Here is an interesting analysis of problem-solving potential.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest, imagine you are a person with a level 2 strength of character and attitude looking at a level 5 problem. Would this problem appear to be big or little? From a level 2 perspective, a level 5 problem would seem like a big problem.

Now imagine you’ve grown yourself and become a level 8 person. Would the same level 5 problem be a big problem or a little problem? Magically, the identical problem is now a little problem.

Finally, imagine that you’ve really worked hard on yourself and become a level 10 person. Now, is this same level 5 problem a big problem or a little problem? The answer is that it’s no problem. It doesn’t even register in your brain as a problem. There’s no negative energy around it. It’s just a normal occurrence to handle, like brushing your teeth or getting dressed.

~ T. Harv Eker Quotes from Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

Let’s look at how this might relate to churches—most of which face similar multiple problems with varying degrees of urgency. Let’s say Big Church A and Little Church B both face thm same Level 5 Problem. Because we live in a society that considers bigger as better, smarter and more desirable, we are tempted to think Big Church A won’t find a Level 5 Problem to be any challenge. Similarly those who represent the big churches assume that Little Church B will find the Level 5 Problem to be insurmountable. The Management-minded Solution: Close Little Church B down and reallocate their resources to Big Church A who faces the same challenge. In reality Big Church A will have a more difficult time solving the problem.

  • It can avoid facing foundational problems longer. (The largest congregations in our denomination and region are showing large statistical losses, but are still viewed as more viable than small congregations that are holding their own.)
  • They have a process they must follow to solve any problem. Creativity is less likely to enter the picture.
  • Staff may be more bountiful, but problem-solving isn’t on any of the job descriptions.
  • Lay talents are viewed with suspicion.
  • New talents take longer to gain notice and acceptance.

The Level 5 Problem is likely to continue unrecognized for years. Taking on problems that few people recognize is asking for trouble.

On the other hand Little Church B is truly threatened by the Level 5 Problem. Their very existence depends on finding solutions. They start looking for answers. They evaluate the few resources and people they have and go to work.

And here is the magical nature of Little Church B. Every new person who walks through the door is a resource that can immediately be put to work. Leadership is cultivated. The roles of laity can change as problems force them to develop new skills.

The status of Little Church B, therefore, can change dramatically in months. Resilience.

Understand this. There are many more Little Church Bs than there are Big Church As. They are a valuable resource in themselves that is being squandered as we worship church size.

Management-minded regional bodies easily get stuck with prejudices — often fostered by years of disgruntled pastors who failed in leadership roles. They have rare interaction with smaller churches and view them as stagnating—lying in wait for the regional body to save them.

In reality, they haven’t given this notion a moment’s thought.

There is a prejudice that Little Church B cannot support professional services and therefore must be controlled or closed. No small churches have as their mission statement—We exit to support the clergy and contribute to the regional and national church. Yet this is the priority when evaluating viability.

This threat is felt at all levels of church leadership. They just don’t know what to do with Little Church B. Clergy hear God calling them only to congregations that ensure a comfortable living. The result is a form of cannibalism.

Regional bodies, strapped with their own survival problems, are tempted to manage small congregations. They usually manage them out of existence. Even so, small churches vastly outnumber large churches. They always will.

If the cannibalism (closing small churches and assuming their assets as their own) continues, the entire denomination will become a relic. There will be a few larger congregations sitting in suburban outposts with no real ability to serve the neighborhoods they stripped of their assets.

Fewer churches means there will be fewer traditional jobs for church professionals which will result in fewer seminaries, fewer service initiatives and much less need for the regional body.

Pretty soon, the larger churches who were content to watch as neighboring congregations were managed out of existence will feel something nibbling at their own toes.

Let’s end with another quote from a 20th century genius.

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.—Albert Einstein

16 Mar 2013

At Home in the Church

There’s No Place Like Home

Redeemer Ambassadors have now visited nearly 60 churches. We are perennial visitors. If there is such a thing, we are experts. Practice makes perfect.

Our status is unique. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America locked us out of God’s House. What they expected to happen as a result is unclear. We started visiting churches.

We are learning the strengths and weaknesses of churches and their hospitality efforts.

Some congregations are more welcoming than others.

  • Many churches have no hospitality program.
  • Some congregations have welcome teams who are ready to tell you all about their ministry.
  • Two gave us a token gift — a mug and a candle.
  • Most think they are very warm and inviting, even those who don’t say a word to us.

Some have a genuine sense of caring that permeates the entire community. Three of the most welcoming churches we visited had no pastoral presence.

Some say “welcome” but seem a bit suspicious. We understand. There’s a lot of gossip out there. The bishop even sent a letter warning churches that we visit—including a number to call if we cause trouble. How welcoming can you get!?

That was three years ago and we’ve done no harm. None was intended.

The bishop’s unwelcoming tone trickles down. Think what the opposite might do. Clergy could play a big role in setting a welcoming example. They often do not.

We have noticed that pastors are rarely present during fellowship and often stay in the sanctuary or hallway, talking to a select few. That translates in the fellowship room to pockets of people talking to one another with no effort to include visitors.

In three years and 56 visits only one pastor wrote acknowledging our visit afterwards. When we followed up, the conversation stopped. One pastor called and met with us. His church ended up leaving the ELCA. Another pastor returned a call when one of our ambassadors called with a question. Pastors don’t want any part of the situation they helped to create.

In general, the welcoming approach of churches tends to be self-centered. They have a product to sell — membership. And with the purchase of this product you get the following benefits. The list that might follow is a little unclear.

  • Salvation?
  • Love?
  • Acceptance in our community?
  • The right to contribute?
  • The right to vote (until the bishop takes your vote away)?
  • The right to be part of something bigger?
  • The right to take the blame?
  • The responsibility but not the power to move the church forward?
  • The pleasure and satisfaction of doing things our way?

This may sound pessimistic and cynical but it is precisely the uncertainty that lay people face. If visitors are new to church, it is even more unsettling.

The approach of the church with every encounter — with individuals or with groups — should be filled with questions. Gracious, non-judgmental, questions.

  • How did you find us? What brought you here?
  • Where are you from? What is your work?
  • Do you have family? How can we serve your family?
  • How can we help you?
  • How can we get to know you?
  • Do you have a special burden we might be able to lift?

The approach toward visitors should not be list of “talking points”—programs offered, your congregation’s wish list.

It is the job of the church to love others. We can’t do that when we are always looking in a mirror.

In general, although our Ambassadors enjoy our visits, we very much look forward to our own worship once a month. There is no place like home, even if home is borrowed space in a local theater. We can sing the hymns we want to sing, pray the prayers we need to pray, know that the people we are communing with are not attacking us or taking what is ours or looking at us with judging and critical eyes—without ever talking with us outside a court room.

Putting a WELCOME sign by your front door is a promise. Keeping that promise is work that each member needs to be trained to do.

15 Mar 2013

Small Church vs Large Church — Looks Are Deceiving!

trinity-redeemer

Comparing SEPA’s Largest Congregation
with the Church SEPA Says Doesn’t Exist

What do Trinity, Lansdale, and Redeemer, East Falls, have in common?

We both engage with more than 700 followers each week.

According to Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Trend reports, Trinity, Lansdale, stands alone among Southeastern Pennsylvania churches in numbers. It has nearly 5000 members and an average worship attendance of 725. Most other large churches in SEPA — and there are only a few — average around 400.

Most SEPA churches are much smaller with about 100 or fewer at worship (many much fewer). ELCA Trend  measures only membership, attendance, income and expenses (in various configurations).

There are new statistics that will mean more in the emerging church. Churches don’t have to worry about collecting the data. The internet tracks results for you. This is where Redeemer is breaking ground no other SEPA church seems to be seriously exploring.

Redeemer is no longer listed in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Trend reports, although the congregation never voted to close. We’ll take that up with the ELCA later.

Redeemer was growing quickly although we were still among the SEPA churches with fewer than 50 in average weekly worship attendance—the only engagement most churches measure. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod seized Redeemer’s property and locked our doors in 2009—something about inability to fulfill mission. (They approved a $275,000 budget deficit at the same time they claimed our property.)

There was plenty to question at the time, but no one did. There is more to question now!

Redeemer has continued its ministry without our property. There is no rule that a congregation must own property.

Locked out of God’s House in East Falls, we took our ministry online with our blog, 2x2virtualchurch.com. We now have an average weekly following approaching 800 in new traffic and about 150 who subscribe to our site daily. We engage between 1000 and 2000 readers each week.

Redeemer may have the largest engagement of any SEPA congregation! The potential for effective mission is huge.

While the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the ELCA has tenaciously tried to destroy our ministry, we adapted — and grew!

2×2 is written with lay leaders in mind. Our experience as a small church is that lay leaders are the innovators in ministry. Most have part-time pastors. Growing churches is not part-time work. The passion of lay people (an undervalued resource) is keeping many churches going.

Small churches need resources that don’t rely on paid skills.

We had an additional challenge. Redeemer is multicultural and multilingual. No single age group dominates. That means we can’t just turn to a choir or a youth group or a Sunday School class to create interesting activities. We developed materials that could be adapted to any eclectic grouping.

When we still had our building we posted these resources on generic ministry websites.

Two years ago we began posting them on 2×2.

We posted an Easter play Redeemer performed for all East Falls churches in 2009. It was downloaded 300 times last year and 3000 times this year.

This tells us how we can further serve the large audience of small churches. Search engine analysis shows us that people are beginning to find our content by specifically plugging in terms specific to our site (“2×2 Easter play” — not just “Easter play).” Our content is gaining a following.

We post at least two features a week which congregations can adapt. Early in the week we post an object lesson intended for adults based on the week’s lectionary. Mid-week we post an analysis of art that complements the week’s theme. These can be adapted to multimedia presentations that some churches now show before worship (just as Redeemer did). We will continue to build on this foundation.

In addition, we offer our experience in using social media with dozens of how-to posts.

One large church recently wrote to us: “A lot is written about social media and the church, but you are the only church actually doing it.”

In all likelihood, Redeemer has the widest reach of any church in SEPA Synod with followers all over the world. We engage with them one-on-one. We share ministry problems and successes and rely on one another for prayer.

What does this mean for ministry in East Falls? It means our worldwide reach can now benefit our local ministry. We have a new potential source of funding for ministry.

Redeemer always was viable despite SEPA’s self-interested reports. Our day school, locked since SEPA interfered, would be generating upwards of $6000 per month. (That’s nearly $300,000 of squandered potential over the last four years.) The web site could begin to generate several thousand a month within a year of nurturing—plenty of resources to fund a neighborhood ministry without a single coin in an offering plate.

Redeemer has never had more potential.

If mission is the goal in East Falls (and it is definitely our goal) the best potential for ministry is to make peace with the Lutherans who have steadfastly maintained and grown mission during the last six years of conflict. The property should be returned to Redeemer. This would be in keeping with Lutheran polity.

Our journey has been a leap into the future of the church. We could still be a small neighborhood church serving a few, focused on survival and paying a pastor—as is the case of so many small churches.

We’ve learned that it is possible for a small church to grow. We are very aware that 2×2 can grow beyond our own vision.

Meanwhile, the largest church in SEPA and Redeemer, the largest online church, are both fulfilling their mission with impressive results.

God is doing something new at Redeemer, East Falls.

Can you perceive it?

10 Mar 2013

Transparency in the Church—That’s a Toughy

Tough, but not impossible.

People in today’s world expect transparency. We are emerging from a world where business was conducted in back rooms, managed by a few bosses with self-interest as a core motivation.

That’s not working so well anymore. It’s truly a new business environment. Management must listen to employees and employees must listen to customers. Failure to operate openly and honestly in a considerate manner (transparency) can quickly spell disaster.

Recovery from a gaffe in this new business model is all the harder if  shortcomings are not readily admitted and corrected publicly and promptly.

The Church lives in the same world, but it has a tougher time adapting. Church leaders sense that things aren’t going well, but they are reluctant to make any changes that might right our course.

Churches teach trust. Sometimes the trust that we intend for God and His Son, is projected onto church leaders—who are often quite willing to accept the surrogacy.

Recent events in the Church have proven this trust to be ill-placed. There is little evidence that we are learning from the exposed mistakes.

The reason? The Church just doesn’t know how to change. The existing structure is perceived as right, proper and necessary. So what if it is no longer effective!

If the Church is to continue as a viable influence in society, it must provide transparency. People expect this—especially the young who are unfamiliar with old ways of operating. They are looking at their parents across a dinner table discussion about church and thinking, “And we are expected to tithe to support this?”

They are not going to trust that their offerings and other tangible sacrifices for their church are put to good use. They will want proof—real proof. They will no longer trust the Church — just because. There simply have been too many abuses of their trust.

We are referencing an article written by Brian Honigman and published at this link.

This article posts a short bulleted list of the qualities of transparency.

  • Transparency means that you are not afraid of feedback.
  • Transparency means that you have nothing to hide.
  • Transparency means your employees’ personal and work persona blur.
  • Transparency means you like to have conversations with your customers.

The Church fails at each of these.

  • The Church discourages feedback.
  • The Church operates in secrecy.
  • Clergy and hierarchical leaders remain distant in maintaining relationships with congregations and with individual lay members.
  • The Church likes to give orders. Dialog is controlled, when it exists at all.

Illustrations follow.

The Church is facing the same new demands for transparency. But the old ways of doing church are hard to break. Progress is slow.

  • In our region, we have a synod council that constitutionally represents the congregations in leadership within the synod. The names of the representatives are listed on the regional body’s web site. There is NO contact information.
  • The dates of synod council meetings are not publicized to the congregations that have the right to attend them.
  • Synod council’s published minutes include fairly frequent “executive” sessions that are not reported.
  • Synod deans, who lead regional clusters of congregations, were once volunteers, representing the group of congregations to the regional body. Today they are paid — an extension of the bishop’s office.
  • It is almost impossible for a congregation to initiate conversation with the regional body.

The national church, too, has transparency problems.

  • They respond to correspondence from congregations (who fund their budget) when they feel like it. One of our members, after months of attempting to contact the national church, received a letter from its legal department stating that they felt no obligation to respond. Ten monthly letters to our regional body and the national church went totally ignored. We gave up.
  • The denominational magazine, The Lutheran, plays at social media. It allows comments on its website only if you pay. A lot of Lutherans read the denominational magazine via subscriptions paid for by their congregations. Others share a subscription within the family. The result: the forum in the Church is controlled.
  • Most people in the congregation have no clue what might be discussed (in the limited time allowed for discussion) at the tightly controlled Synod Assemblies.

The article we are referencing goes on to list ten suggestions for achieving transparency. We’ll adapt them to church life.

  1. Treat members right. Genuinely interact with them. One devoted Lutheran once shared that he was eager to attend an evening with the bishop. He expected to be part of a dialog. He sat through an hour-long monologue, got discouraged, and walked out.
  2. Don’t come on too strong. Show respect. Bringing legal counsel and a locksmith with you to a meeting with a congregation might be seen as coming on too strong. Dismissing all the elected leaders of a congregation with no discussion is disrespectful.
  3. Always listen to church members. Our synod failed to return phone calls or respond to correspondence for more than a year.
  4. Continue to satisfy. Offer support. Our regional body failed to provide even minimal services for nearly a decade.
  5. Treat congregations and lay leaders as valued partners—even when you disagree. You might be able to learn from one another, but only if communication is two-way.
  6. Build trust. Trust is a process. Start by keeping little promises and staying in dialog. One-way email broadcasts are not dialog.
  7. Admit mistakes. This is impossible if you never make mistakes. But that’s unlikely, isn’t it?
  8. Follow through on your word. Keep promises.  We have a long list of promises broken by our regional body.
  9. Recognize responsibility. The congregations may not always be right — but they probably are more often than not. Certainly regional bodies are not necessarily right just because they are regional bodies.
  10. Always say Thank You. Our regional body seized our property and financial assets. No please. No thank you. Just five years of litigation.

The modern Church will find its strength not in bolstering the clergy and hierarchy but by enabling lay members (upon whom they rely for support).

Failing to answer the modern expectations from rank and file church members will result in the failure of the Church. Transparency must be addressed. The sooner the better. 

The good news. It’s not too late.

07 Mar 2013

March 4th—That’s an Order!

soldiering on

Onward Christian Soldiers

March 4 is the date that commemorates my coming of age at Redeemer. It is the date of the funeral of a senior member of our congregation. It’s easy to remember. March Fourth — the answer to an old riddle—the calendar date that is an order.

I was happy being a peripheral member of Redeemer back in 1985. I was 31 years old and was just becoming active. I taught the adult Sunday School class. The members of the class were all senior women. They were part of the capable old guard in this neighborhood church. Redeemer had accepted women as leaders well ahead of the national church.

I had just been elected to the congregation council. I joined in the congregation’s shock when one of the long-time leaders announced he would no longer continue. Our pastor recommended they nominate me as president. I felt unqualified. It wasn’t that I didn’t know church. I was a seasoned preacher’s kid from a long line of Lutheran preacher’s kids. Families of clergy are accustomed to viewing church from the outside. Ministry is the family job. Add to that the fact that I was a country gal in an urban church. A guppy out of water.

I accepted the role of president on one condition—that Elmer Hirsh, one of the seasoned leaders, serve as co-president and teach me the ropes. Deal! The annual meeting at which I was elected was the last Sunday in February.

Elmer died on March 1. From that moment, it was trial by fire.

I took the job seriously and tried with success to lead the family church in facing the changing demographics of the neighborhood.

I convinced the congregation to stay open in the summer instead of ceasing all activity in East Falls and merging worship with Grace in Roxborough. Summer is when people re-organize their lives and the church should be open, I argued.

I was president when Redeemer received its fateful endowment in 1987. This large infusion of cash made it possible to call a full-time pastor once again. I saw the shift in attitudes among clergy that occurs when it is known that a small congregation suddenly has means.

I helped the congregation transition from running their own parish school to working with the Lutheran agency, Ken-Crest, to operate a school that could help even more children. This worked well for 25 years — until SEPA interfered behind the backs of the congregation.

I married into an old Redeemer family in 1988. I left for five years when the endowment began to cause tension with clergy. I didn’t want to be part of what was happening. My old guard husband stayed on — ever loyal, but growing disillusioned. We had just reunited at Redeemer in 1997 with a change in pastors when my husband suffered a catastrophic stroke. He was to live the last nine months of his life totally dependent.

His death coincided with Bishop Almquist’s first attempt to seize Redeemer’s assets. Had Bishop Almquist made his move a couple of months earlier, he might have prevailed.

I had been absent from Redeemer for nearly a year, caring for my husband—a 24/7 job, and for five years before that. Only a few weeks after my husband’s funeral, a Redeemer member called — a woman I barely knew—asking for my help with a situation that was brewing with the Synod.

I was recovering from a horrific year. I hadn’t been working. Newly widowed, I was the sole family bread-winner and raising an 8-year-old boy solo. Even so, I agreed to help the church that had become my family church. We reorganized to face Synod’s threats.

Thus began two years of needless fighting (1998-2000).

Redeemer had already taught me a lot about what makes people work well together. I learned from Redeemer that it is OK to fight. One older member explained to me: an occasional verbal bench-clearing is good for the team. I learned that these people knew each other well enough to fight and reconcile at the same meeting. There was no shame in insisting on what you thought was right.

One Sunday, there was a momentous argument. (I DO remember what it was about!) As is typical at Redeemer, the air soon cleared and everyone sat down at the same table to work together as if nothing had happened. I noticed our pastor’s wife standing off to the side, observing and grinning. I asked her why she was smiling. “That kind of reconciliation doesn’t happen in every church,” she commented.

It was the norm at Redeemer. What comes as a surprise to us is that others are incapable of arguing, standing ground, and reconciling. We still don’t understand why this is impossible with SEPA.

Bishop Almquist gave up the always unnecessary “synodical administration” and a year later returned most of the assets the synod had seized. But his actions did lasting damage.

The current feud was made possible by his precedent. It fueled gossip within the insulated environment of church hierarchy. Redeemer became fair game. It was OK to abuse and ignore us. They’d done it before!

Today’s six-year feud could have been resolved before it started with a good, bench-clearing debate, followed by reconciliation. We are all on the same side, really. The control of property and assets — which is clearly defined in our founding documents — stands in the way of reason and ministry.

Redeemer members are trying to uphold historic Lutheran polity. Lutherans are interdependent, not hierarchical. More and more Lutherans (including clergy) don’t know that!

Fueled by clergy gossip, the Synod views Redeemer’s fortitude as a threat to their power. We see our position as doing the job of lay people.

Lutherans believe in equality of and cooperation between laity and clergy. I learned this in Confirmation Class and from the examples set by Elmer Hirsh, my husband, my adult Sunday School class, and both the old and new leadership of Redeemer. They are all saints in my book.

Somewhere in the last 25 years of the new ELCA, this strength of Lutheranism has waned and may be totally lost as we seek to emulate the structures of other denominations. Logically, other denominations should be emulating us—we have the tradition of reformation. But the concept of hierarchy is once again attractive to those who crave power.

Congregations are expected to comply with whatever the regional body sees as best. The regional body’s vision is muddied with self-interest and waning support across the board. Its information, especially from under-served smaller congregations, is often dated. Still, it’s comply or die.

And so, at least in my mind, this week commemorates the death of old Redeemer and my inauguration as one of many leaders of a new Redeemer. We went in directions none of us foresaw (and SEPA wasn’t looking). We constantly reassessed our neighborhood, our resources and our pool of talent. We were on a solid course, which still shows more promise than anything SEPA has in mind.

We remain ready to work together toward reconciliation however unlikely it seems.

No more “March forth.” More’s the pity.

photo credit: The U.S. Army via photopin cc

04 Mar 2013

The Modern Story of the Good Samaritan

. . . or should we say Samaritans

200px-Cl-Fd_Saint-Eutrope-vitrail1In the story of the good Samaritan, the religious people (the priest and the Levite) find reasons to pass by the poor soul who has been robbed and hurt. In each case, their failure to act with compassion is prompted by fear for their own hides.

It is the Samaritan—the outsider, the person at whom the religious people of the day would collectively thumb their noses—who offered help—ongoing help, not just a quick fix.

We lived the Good Samaritan story this week. We needed help. One of our good members faced the imminent loss of her home and income due to the reign of terror inflicted on Redeemer and its members by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Our little church, which SEPA insists doesn’t exist, rallied.

We asked for help from churches who helped create this situation. They were prayerful but unhelpful.  It’s so easy to find excuses to do nothing.

“We’ll pray for you” is the universal excuse of SEPA Lutherans. Their prayer, we suppose, is that someone else will fix the mess they created. How tiring all that prayer must be!

We went to unrelated Lutheran churches. We don’t do that sort of thing, was their answer.

At last we found the help we needed. One local church who has been helping us for the last four years offered major assistance with no expectation of return. A church some 200 miles away (and smaller than Redeemer!) both contributed and guaranteed what we couldn’t raise locally. Four individuals also helped graciously. As far as we know, only one has any church affiliation.

Two of them used the same phrase: “A wrong has been done and it must be righted.”

And so little Redeemer, raised the money we needed to satisfy Redeemer’s debt—twice what SEPA expects to pay. This debt would never have been a problem to anyone if our school were operating for the last four years and contributing to mission and ministry in East Falls. But SEPA, hungry for our assets, interfered with and ruined our 25-year relationship with a Lutheran agency and stopped us from opening our own program. They have kept the doors locked on both the sanctuary and school for nearly four years—no ministry is better than a neighborhood church they can’t control.

SEPA Synod took our property under questionable legality. A court split decision ruled in their favor, saying the courts could not be involved in church issues. The dissenting opinion pointed out that the legal arguments seem to favor Redeemer and the case should be heard by the courts. In five years, court room after court room, the case has never been heard.

We have always claimed that SEPA’s interest in our property was entirely a result of their failing finances and mission—not Redeemer’s.

This week is further proof.

We’ve been saying in our posts on social media that the power in the church is shifting. There was a day when congregations had to band together to provide services and perform effective mission. Individuals now have the power to do much more on their own. Support of hierarchy is more expensive than effective.

Redeemer (and yes, we do exist) proved that this week.

Don’t get us wrong . . . we appreciate prayer. But we appreciate even more those who help find answers to prayer.

Thank you to all who cared enough to do more than pray. You are a living parable.

Bwana awabariki!

03 Mar 2013

Ten Reasons Churches Die

Why do churches fail?Churches Get Lots of Help Along the Road to Failure

I am adapting 10 observations drawn from David DiSalvo’s post published in Forbes Magazine.

He describes ten reasons businesses die. They apply to churches, too.

1. As Yoda said, you just don’t believe it.

Luke Skywalker says, “I just don’t believe it.” Yoda answers, “That is why you fail.”

For all the talk about faith and belief, the Church often acts as if we do not believe our own message. We don’t believe small churches can survive, so we do nothing to help. Our leaders see no economic incentive in helping small churches. Regional bodies see themselves as better managers of money. They often are not. When the assets of one closed church dry up, they look for another small church to loot. The altruistic promises made to justify the seizures, are quickly forgotten. No one really analyzes where the money goes.

Bishop Almquist told us our assets were being put into a Mission Fund. It was later revealed that the Mission Fund fills the synod’s own spending deficits (which were frequently in the healthy six-figures). A few weeks ago we learned that Holy Spirit’s assets would go to The Bishop’s Emergency Fund. Does anyone know what that means?

Belief in the purposes of church—as in life—is foundational to success. More, when we believe in an all-powerful, merciful and gracious God. If we in the pew don’t believe and the regional body has self-interest in our failure — we have a problem.

2. Other people have convinced you of your “station.”

This brings to mind the school principal who fired a teacher when she learned that the teacher had told students from poor urban neighborhoods that they would never amount to anything.

We need this principal’s kind of leadership in the Church.

Any church leader who goes to a small congregation, accepting a salary, with the message that the congregation will never amount to much should be history.

Redeemer was lucky. Bishop Almquist had left us to die. “You’ll die a natural death in ten years,” he told us. He refused to provide even a caretaker pastor. But we found a part-time pastor who served us for three years. He told us we could be a flagship church. We believed. While SEPA was waiting out the ten years, we began to grow.

DiSalvo quotes Tennessee Williams. “A high station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appalling experiences are survived with grace.”

3. You don’t want to be a disruptor.

DiSalvo writes:

Disruption means that consistency, stability and certainty might get jettisoned for a time, and that puts our hard-wired internal defense system on high alert. Sometimes, though, you have to override the alarms and move ahead anyway.  If you never do, you’ll never know what could happen.

Disruptive innovation is discouraged in the Church. We talk about innovation and change, but are ill-prepared for it.

Redeemer had put aside old expectations as we forged new ministry and began to experience success. SEPA allowed alarms to go off without ever sharing our successes.

 4. You think “what if I die tomorrow?”

We stop trying because we foresee our own demise. The Church feeds into this with its “caretaker ministries” concepts.  They use language like palliative care and putting the congregation on hospice. They use these terms and act appalled when people suggest they orchestrating the closing of churches. Meanwhile, we may be transforming into something the experts don’t yet recognize.

5. You wonder how you will be remembered.

We all want to leave a legacy. The Church feeds into this idea, too.

Our pastor in 2008 met with the bishop and never returned to our church. He sent word that rumors were being spread that he was leading a rebellion and he feared his reputation being ruined. A rebellion? A church defends its ministry and it is seen as rebellion! Bishop Burkat shamelessly used the fear of tarnished legacy to fuel her cause. She wrote in a letter to all pastors.

In the case of Redeemer, leaders did not cooperate with us and instead resisted tenaciously in an adversarial manner that publicly tarnishes the wonderful memory of ministry that has taken place in the East Falls community since 1891.

Small churches must learn to live in today’s world and guard against any appearance that protecting the past is mission.

6. You think there must be a pre-established role for your life.

This is part of the church model. We are who others tell us we are.  Don’t dare step beyond your role — even if the role you played historically no longer has a need in today’s world. Instead of using our assets to explore new ways of meeting needs, the Church attempts to find new places where the old ways might still work. They call this mission and celebrate it as innovative. It is not; it is replication. Chances are such replicated ministries will fail soon after the publicity value wears off.

SEPA’s vision of Redeemer was that of a small family church. Redeemer started to transform from a small white congregation in a working class neighborhood to an international church in a growing collegiate neighborhood. SEPA was unprepared to serve us. They had been counting on our failure for 10 years!

DiSalvo writes that these pre-defined roles (agency) “is a figment our brains rely on to manage difficulty with as little trauma as possible. The first thing to do is recognize that….”

7. Your career appears to be well-established and that’s good, right?

We all know the role of the small church. Serve the immediate neighborhood with the message of God’s love. Support a pastor to the best of our ability. Maintain the property. (Not necessarily in that order.) But what if you stepped out of that role and began to serve in new and innovative ways? How would the church react? (It isn’t always pretty.)

8. You are afraid of losing what you have built.

DiSalvo ponts out that this is beyond our control. There is always a danger of losing what we have built. It should not determine your ministry. Unfortunately, in the Church, there are people ready to help us lose what we have built. This fear of being a victim of hierarchical greed is actually crippling the potential of the church. Lutheran congregations used to be fairly independent. It’s written into our founding documents as “interdependent.” But lately, congregations are looking to the bishop’s office for approval of decisions that are constitutionally theirs to make independently. This is what happens when you start forcing church closures. Congregations start to live in fear.

9. You think “maybe I’ve hit my ceiling.”

Many small churches stop trying. Pastors often stop trying. Synods encourage this when they use terms like caretaker and hospice ministries. Small churches must fight this mindset. But that, we learned, can be dangerous!

Why do churches fail?10. Confusion about where to go.

This is a huge problem in the church because the Church really has no vision for where it is going. Frequently, the people we look to in the Church as visionaries are people who have found a way to preserve the concept of Church as we understood it in the past. They are few. These pastors write books about their successes, hoping they will help others. Some of them are pretty good books! These successes are, however, often the result of a serendipitous combination of personalities and circumstances that is hard to replicate.

The Church, I suspect, is headed someplace very different than what we have known. At 2×2, we are excited to be part of it—even as we have been made to feel so very unwelcome in it.

photo credit: komehachi888 via photopin cc
photo credit: Krissy.Venosdale via photopin cc
03 Mar 2013