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East Falls

Redeemer’s Good Friday Litany of Loss

Loss within the church is a theme this week.

Kenneth J. McFayden lists ten losses to the church in an article posted on the Alban Institute Roundtable.

On this Good Friday, as the members of Redeemer approach a third Easter locked out of their house of worship by SEPA Synod, we examine McFayden’s list.

  1. Loss of Members: Redeemer was growing. 52 members had joined within the 18 months prior to SEPA’s interference.
  2. Loss of Centrality: Redeemer was an integral part of our members’ lives. Our membership had quickly assimilated to its changing demography—not always possible, but accomplished seamlessly at Redeemer—a tribute to good leadership.
  3. Loss of Pastors: Redeemer had difficulty getting the attention of SEPA in calling a pastor. Redeemer believes this was intentional neglect, a way of purposely creating conditions to allow synodical interference. Nevertheless, Redeemer had many good relationships with pastors who supplied our pulpit regularly and long term. We had asked to call a rostered Lutheran pastor and had reached agreement on terms. Bishop Burkat ignored the congregation’s request.
  4. Loss of Traditions: Redeemer never lost its traditions, even when accepting new members. We embraced many new traditions but never asked any existing members to sacrifice what was important to their faith—again, a tribute to good leadership.
  5. Loss of Structural Support: This was a challenge for Redeemer made all the more difficult by SEPA. Bishop Almquist’s administration encouraged Redeemer leaders to resign and refused to give attention to the congregation’s wishes to call a pastor. Bishop Burkat worked with Epiphany, a congregation in covenant with Redeemer, to break its covenant and close, thereby removing pastoral services from both congregations and forcing Redeemer to restructure its council with ten days notice. Eventually, Bishop Burkat simply declared Redeemer’s council to not exist — by letter, not by any process of mutual discernment.
  6. Loss of Status in the Community: Redeemer always had the respect of the community and was a leading force in interdenominational initiatives. This was made difficult by SEPA locking the building for three years to both members and the many community groups who enjoyed easy access to our facilities. Now SEPA is working in our community supposedly toward opening a new church at Redeemer — one that would exclude Redeemer members from full participation.
  7. Loss of Stability: Redeemer had worked very hard on creating a plan to assure a stable future. We were working with many new members and it takes time to develop giving and stewardship among the newly churched, but we had a solid stewardship outreach in place as well as plans for supporting our ministry with our school and other outreach projects. We’d stand our ministry plan next to any  SEPA congregation’s. Our plans were ignored.
  8. Loss of Confidence: Redeemer remains confident even under intimidating circumstances.
  9. Loss of Energy for Ministry: Never a problem at Redeemer! How many other SEPA congregations would still be functioning after five years of multiple and personal lawsuits?
  10. Loss of Identity: We know who we are? Do the churches that voted to take our property know us? Did Bishop Burkat take the time to know us? (The answer is NO!)

Redeemer “lost” nothing. We had much taken from us. There is a difference.

That’s why no service was ever held in East Falls to “celebrate our ministry” and “mourn the loss” of this congregation.

The loss is among SEPA leadership. It’s a loss of integrity and conscience.

The impact of our loss will be felt across the denomination as time moves forward and SEPA leadership now has a mandate to exercise powers not given them in their constitutions.

The losses imposed on us cloud our vision of the wondrous cross. We are left this Good Friday repeating the words of Psalm 22.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? …
Why are you so far from saving me,
But you, LORD, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.

Usually, the despair of Good Friday is quickly replaced with the joy of Easter. Redeemer will remain locked out of God’s House by SEPA Synod.

06 Apr 2012

Significant progress made in healing SEPA/Redeemer conflict

Redeemer is happy on this joyous Palm Sunday to report significant progress in reconciling  all differences with the bishop and representatives of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

In a lengthy arbitration process, SEPA leaders agreed to drop all lawsuits against the congregation and its individual members and work together toward peace. It was noted with pride that SEPA is a reconciling denomination.

In a statement read by a SEPA representative, it was further noted that the Bible recognizes that differences will arise within the church, but by following biblical remedies, peace can be attained with love and mutual respect. “How can we expect to reconcile with people of different faiths if we cannot reconcile with our own people?” a SEPA spokesperson asked.

It was announced that the congregation will worship in the sanctuary (that has been locked for three years) beginning this Easter. The service will be presided over by a clergy representative from SEPA’s roster, chosen by the congregation. The service will follow both African and East Falls worship traditions within a traditional Lutheran liturgical structure, reflective of Redeemer’s congregational makeup.

A series of biweekly meetings will be held to include the congregation’s remaining church council, Redeemer members, and synodical representatives. Regular worship and the reopening of the congregation’s day care and after-school programs will be first on the each meeting’s agenda with projected revenues supporting Redeemer’s ministry.

The synod will assign a pastor to visit every Redeemer member to extend an olive branch of peace and reconciliation.

Redeemer will be restored to the list of active congregations with full voice and vote in Synod Assembly with its rightful number of delegates as a multi-racial/cultural church under SEPA’s constitution.

A summer outreach will be conducted focusing on a two-week Vacation Church School, led by members and local college students. The school will feature a major community service project. Redeemer has worked on this concept during its three years of exile from the Lutheran Church.

The congregation will approach the neighboring public school to work on a flex-time religious education offering.

A long-term plan for settling the debts incurred from four years of litigation will be negotiated. A low-interest loan will be sought to pay off the congregation’s high interest loan, thus ending third-party claims against the church and the synod. The congregation’s loan has been in default since January 2010 after SEPA was granted the deed to Redeemer’s property by Commonwealth Courts in a suit which resulted in a split PA Commonwealth Court decision favoring SEPA. Redeemer will repay the loan under 20-year terms.

A first congregational meeting will be held a week after Easter to restore Redeemer’s  council and government. Semi-annual meetings will be held with SEPA leadership to monitor progress in reestablishing the congregation.

The congregation’s comprehensive mission plan, presented to SEPA in 2007, will be revised to take into account new realities. The congregation will vote on the revisions at a meeting to be held within six months. A SEPA staff person who recently approached East Falls community members requesting ideas for use of the Redeemer property was pleased with the careful thought put into the plan by Redeemer members.

A pastor skilled in multicultural outreach will be sought with input from Redeemer members. The search process will begin immediately.

A Reconciliation and Atonement service with transfer of the property to Redeemer Lutherans will be scheduled to be held after the details of Redeemer’s government are worked out.

Redeemer and SEPA leaders, in a joint news conference, announced that they were pleased to be working together in mission and to the glory of God. “Forgiveness and compassion are key qualities of the church,” a spokesperson for Redeemer said. “We long to take any and every step possible to reach out to our brothers and sisters in Christ in the spirit of Christian unity.”

A SEPA representative noted that Palm Sunday, the day the people of Jerusalem lauded Jesus as King and begged for salvation, was a fitting time to exercise the teachings of the Church and to begin working together interdependently in the Lutheran tradition.

Happy April Fools Day!
(A Church can dream, can’t it!)

And if all of this doesn’t happen today, on April 1, it never will!

01 Apr 2012

East Falls Weighs In on How to Use Redeemer’s Property

What is SEPA’s mission in East Falls?

Redeemer members attended the East Falls Community Council meeting to listen to Rev. Patricia Davenport attempt to make inroads into the East Falls community with SEPA’s plans to use the property they seized from Redeemer. The discussion lasted 18 minutes. That’s 18 minutes more than Rev. Davenport gave the people of Redeemer before she came to our door with a locksmith back in February 2008.

Her timing was off. She told the community the building has been empty for four years. It’s not quite two and half. (September 27, 2009). She applauded when someone mentioned parking. Bishop Burkat used lack of parking in her opening volley against Redeemer back in 2006. Parking has never been an issue at Redeemer!

She claimed repeatedly that she very much wants a Word and Sacrament church there, but didn’t explain why they locked out the Word and Sacrament church that had been there for 103 years.

Her presentation was more noted for what she didn’t share about their involvement with the property. We thought for a moment she might attempt some candor when someone asked her when they were going to start using the property. She deflected this by coyly saying — if I say when, you’ll hold me to it and so I won’t say when.

As for the community, one member who was active in the children’s choir hosted by Redeemer suggested that the discussion was premature. Others stated that they missed the arts program which Redeemer used to host. Pastor Davenport talked about having a school . . . as if Redeemer had never had a school and wasn’t about to open a new one when they evicted us. So far every idea mentioned Redeemer had already done or planned to do. We doubt Pastor Davenport noted that.

The local newspaper editor thought the education building should be senior housing. That wouldn’t affect parking. Sounds like Redeemer should become a parking lot!

There was one suggestion so insulting that we almost forgot. It was the first one offered. Our church should be made into a dog park.

No one asked the BIG questions.

If SEPA’s oft-stated passion is to have a Word and Sacrament church on the corner of Midvale and Conrad, why don’t they just open a church?

Why did they work for a decade to destroy the church that was there?

Why are they making overtures to the community, if they know their mission?

It was an evening at the theater. SEPA has no money or resources for dog parks or art centers and it is not about to enter the kind of renovations necessary for housing anyone — especially when none of these are within their mission as a Synod. Any of these peripheral uses would side-track and delay their supposed mission and protected tax status.

They were trying to create the illusion that they care. They have demonstrated very well that they don’t.

Someone asked about desanctifying the land. It has already been defiled by Synod’s behavior.

They are waiting for clear title to the land they seized. That could take years in the courts. Then they are likely to sell the property — their plan from the start. Would you house Aunt Nellie in Redeemer’s education building only to uproot her when the day comes for SEPA to hightail it out of East Falls, cash in hand, once and for all?

SEPA told Redeemer in 1998, “Ministry in East Falls is not good use of the Lord’s money.”

Dog parks? That’s another story.

We video-taped the discussion. The EFCC allowed us to distribute a flyer.

12 Mar 2012

When a Church Makes Mistakes

“There will be dangers, and we will surely make mistakes.”

Bishop Claire Burkat of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church  in America (SEPA, ELCA), wrote these words to rostered leaders a couple of weeks ago.

She is talking about the future. It is also part of SEPA’s past.

Bishop Burkat’s message warned leaders that they don’t quite know what they are doing or where they are going in today’s religious climate. We suspect that has been the case for a while. There have been needless and costly casualties as SEPA leadership reached their newfound epiphany.

We all make mistakes. Church members, clergy, congregations, and yes, even bishops make mistakes.

Our question for the bishop and other SEPA Lutherans is this: When, at last, you’ve identified an action as a “mistake,” what are you going to do about it?

Redeemer and 2×2 are in an excellent position to predict the future.

When leadership mistakes happen within the part of God’s Kingdom called SEPA, the rostered clergy are protected at all cost. The volunteer laity shoulder the blame. We cannot move comfortably into the uncharted future as long as this continues.

By now, it should be dawning on SEPA congregations that the actions they endorsed in East Falls— if not by vote, by neglect — are a huge mistake. And now SEPA is warning that more mistakes are likely.

So far, SEPA congregations have behaved as if they are powerless. The annihilation of one little congregation has been a focal point of Bishop Burkat’s entire term. By setting out to destroy one expendable congregation, she has weakened the whole Church.

The Church must practice four pillars of church community—repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation and atonement. Without these, the church will crumble.

What might have happened if SEPA and Bishop Burkat had practiced the techniques of listening and discernment she references in her latest letter to clergy? What might be happening in East Falls if SEPA actions had been motivated by love — which is the primary message of the Gospel? What might be happening in East Falls if SEPA had worked with Redeemer in the interdependent relationship their constitutions call for?

The Redeemer/SEPA conflict was needless. Once started there were numerous roads toward peace. Redeemer suggested many possibilities in letter after ignored letter. Every decision made by SEPA leadership for the last four years regarding Redeemer has escalated conflict with no end in sight. Faithful laity were treated as enemies from the get go.

We do not have to polish our crystal ball to predict that this is what SEPA congregations can expect if they are the victims of anticipated synodical mistakes.

  • Your clergy will disappear. Laity will be blamed for all consequences and have no one to speak for them.
  • Members will be named in personal lawsuits, their lives affected for years after being banished from their church.
  • Property and assets will be valued while people are thrown away.
  • Your congregation and its members will be called names, mocked, threatened, strong-armed, and dragged through the courts with every expectation that you submit to bullying.
  • No stone will be left unturned in pursuit of evidence to justify actions — after the fact.
  • Your members will be treated as if their faith and dedication are subservient to synod’s wishes made in greedy isolation.
  • Your denomination will use the full power of the courts in their attack against your members, while taking full advantage of their First Amendment protection of “separation of church and state.”

Maundy Thursday is eight weeks away. The imagery of Maundy Thursday is Christ in humility.

Church leaders like to display their humility ceremonially on this sacred occasion.  If this humility is genuine, the doors of Redeemer should be unlocked and our bishop should preside over a service, kneeling to wash the feet of Redeemer members. That would be the start of a new Church that practices what it preaches — repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation and atonement.

IMAGE SOURCE PAGE: http://laughing-listening-learning.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html
10 Feb 2012

A New Year, A New Vision and A New Journey

This is the headline of an e-letter recently sent to the professional leaders of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America by Bishop Claire Burkat.

Bishop Burkat announced that she and the church were having an epiphany.

“The age of the mainline Church as many of us have known it has passed, and there is no blueprint for our journey in this next, rapidly accelerating age.”

The epiphany may have struck sooner and taken fewer casualties if Bishop Burkat had taken time to get to know congregations when she took office. Heart to heart dialog at the time might have helped her hear things we congregations were trying to tell her. We could have helped her lead. That’s the Lutheran way. Interdependence.

It has taken almost every day of her six-year term, but Bishop Burkat has discovered some things for herself.

“The most apparent changes in our congregations and denominations so far see us shifting our focus from relying on professional staff, planning programs, keeping-up buildings, and preserving institutions toward engaging people inside and outside our churches in spritual conversation, as well as creating caring communities, collaborative service, and collective discernment.”

Redeemer was trying to tell her that. We had forged our way, with very little reliance on professional leadership. We had fostered good relationships with neighborhood organizations. We had relied on the gifts of the laity. We recognized that God was at work in our community in a new and creative way.

Now SEPA has a new blog to share ministry stories of its member churches. Although the site invites us to Tell Our Story, we doubt that our story would make it past moderation. So we will tell our story here. Feel free to tweet or reblog or post it on God Is Doing Something Good Blog for us.

  • Redeemer had a growing outreach ministry to East African immigrants. They had found a church home in East Falls and were growing in participation and leadership. Redeemer of the 20th century had welcomed the 21st century, adapting our traditions—not forsaking them—to welcome many new people.
    Bishop Burkat and SEPA discouraged our ministry and locked us all out of God’s House.
  • Redeemer was concentrating on developing lay leadership.
    That need is the topic of Alban Institute’s Roundtable this week. Redeemer had been working at this for a decade. 
  • Redeemer had a plan to help immigrant families locate starter homes, obtain mortgages and make necessary renovations.
    Bishop Burkat and SEPA made this impossible.
  • Redeemer had a plan to pioneer congregational use of the web. The fact that we were locked out of our church home made this a priority.
    If you are reading this (along with our more than 100 daily readers) you have discovered our ground-breaking blog.
  • Redeemer recognized that our property, rented to a Lutheran Social Service agency, was contributing to a valued neighborhood ministry. This was a mission alliance that served a church agency, our congregation and neighborhood. If money were our sole objective, we could have rented our property for more.
    Bishop Burkat and SEPA’s interference put the agency in the middle of a property dispute. They chose to shut down their 25-year presence in our community.
  • With this long-standing mission project ruined by SEPA, Redeemer worked for a year to develop a school that would serve the community in a way which would also foster religious values.
    Bishop Burkat and SEPA evicted the school just as it was about to open.
  • Redeemer recognized that a neighborhood ministry to immigrants, while valuable and God’s apparent plan for us, was not likely to be funded from the offering plate. Neither would an outreach mission to college-aged youth and young professionals, also a large part of East Falls neighborhood. Both were obvious missions for any church in East Falls. We worked to develop alternate income streams using our assets.
    Bishop Burkat and SEPA sued us to obtain our property and endowment funds for their own use.

God continues to work through Redeemer.

In our excommunicated state, we began visiting other Lutheran churches. We started to see firsthand many common challenges. We are responding.

  • We are creating a model for a program that would help small congregations create an eductional outreach and reconnect with their neighborhoods. VBS-aid is getting inquiries from all over the coutnry. It’s an idea that could bring many benefits to the emerging 21st century church and to SEPA. It needs start-up funding.
  • Abandoned by our own denomination, Redeemer is forming new relationships with other Lutheran groups and other denominations. We are pioneering an educational model for congregations that would not be expensive and would create ongoing dialog and community—another good idea with growing support.

If SEPA hadn’t taken our money, we could fund our projects with our own money.

Bishp Burkat ends her missive to SEPA professional leaders:

“Let’s perceive this journey into uncharted territory as a great adventure. There will be dangers, and we will surely make mistakes.”

Bishop Burkat is right. Mistakes will—and have been—made.

It is not too late to admit that SEPA’s actions in East Falls were just that—a mistake. The art of leadership, especially Christian leadership, is to recognize mistakes and take actions to reconcile.

This is a leadership quality all churches must foster. Congregations must be free to make mistakes without hungry big brother/sister Church waiting to take advantage.

The road into the the future would be smoother if SEPA could admit their mistakes. Instead of counting coup on the neighborhood congregations, try respecting that God may be at work in ways you have yet to understand. That’s the value of an epiphany.

Redeemer may be SEPA’s most valuable congregation — and we’re not talking about land and endowments. Assigned an excommunicated status, declared to be dying, Redeemer has been trail-blazing.

It’s not too late to make things right in East Falls. We are ready for reconciliation. Are you?

As Bishop Burkat points out, “God is God and we are not.”

31 Jan 2012

Hierarchies and Neighborhood Ministries

A basic message of the Bible is “love one another.” It’s so simple. Why is it so hard, even for the people who are supposed to be experts?

The East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia may have an unusually strong experience with church hierarchies and how they can ignore their own teachings.

East Falls is a working class neighborhood that has enjoyed a strong quality of life even through decades of urban turmoil. Its well-kept properties have become valuable. Others covet what East Falls has.

  • The local Episcocal Diocese moved in on St. James the Less a decade ago in a dispute with a bishop.
  • In 2008. the bishop of the local synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America decided she knew what was best for Christians in East Falls.
  • Now the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church has decided that the best economical decision for the faithful of East Falls is for them to send their children to school in another neighborhood.

These are management decisions and are made with hierarchical interests in mind — not neighborhood interests.

When parishes lose their schools, they lose their lifeblood. The schools create a hub of activity in the community. They train the faithful. They create passion and loyalty. They foster love, faith and mission. Similarly, when neighborhoods lose their churches, they lose a strong source of hands-on leadership and labor, working with the interests of the community in mind.

If non-members of neighborhood churches think these decisions made by outsiders don’t affect them, they are wrong. People move to neighborhoods because of schools. People remain in neighborhoods because of church community. The economic value of church can be measured and it is impressive.

In both Catholic and Episcopal traditions, property is owned by the diocese. The Lutheran tradition is that property and its management belong to the people. Lutherans reference the practice of the more hierarchical churches in court as if they are part of their own governance. They are not — but the courts don’t want to sort this out.

Land and asset grabs by church hierarchies are making regular news. The economy tanked. Offerings dropped. Hierarchies must find new sources of revenues. Developing programs and ministries that create revenue are a lot of work. Those nice, paid-for properties in desirable neighborhoods like East Falls become awfully attractive. It becomes so easy to set aside the 10 Commandments. 8, 9, and 10 go out the window right away and some of the earlier commandments are hurt in the process.

Debt-free churches are the most-attractive.

The Redeemer situation is prime. This congregation was experiencing exciting growth despite the fact that the “hierarchy” had not supplied it with pastoral services in years. We had a healthy endowment and solid plan for the use of our property.

But synod practiced an intentional policy of neglect which made considerable efforts of the lay workers futile. Do not waste time and resources on small churches that may die in ten years. This is the published philosophy of Bishop Claire Burkat.

Ten years! That’s more than enough time for dedicated people to turn things around if you try. There are many churches of the same size and resources as Redeemer so she will be able to practice her philosophy of neglect again and again.

After locking East Falls out for more than two years, they are approaching the community for ideas on how to use the buildings that are vacant.

They are vacant because they made them vacant.

How would any organization feel if the community were invited to weigh in on how to use the resources that were seized by force without regard for the well-being of the people who provided the resources? The people of Redeemer can tell you. It feels like violation.

We suspect our Catholic neighbors are feeling the same way this weekend. We hope the community helps them fight.

08 Jan 2012

SEPA-ELCA Rethinks Its Attitude Toward East Falls Ministry

  • “Ministry in East Falls is not good use of the Lord’s money.”
  • “A church with no parking lot has no chance of survival.”
  • “Mission outreach? You’re not allowed to do mission outreach.”
  • “White Redeemer must be allowed to die. Black Redeemer . . . we can put them anywhere.”
  • “There are no ministers for you.”

These are quotes from SEPA leadership regarding Redeemer in the last 15 years. Apparently the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is changing its attitudes and platitudes. They have hinted a new ministry is about to begin to the people of East Falls (while they are still pursuing the people who sacrificed for the old ministry in court).

Are they admitting they were wrong all along!? The Lord’s money (provided by the people of East Falls) can be well spent in East Falls?

Are they really planning a new ministry for this neighborhood which they have bullied and abused for nearly two decades? Or . . . is this a pre-election move to satisfy those voting for bishop in 2012 that SEPA’s motives in East Falls were part of a well-planned strategy with God’s Love at its core?

Will SEPA suddenly stop suing East Falls Lutherans and welcome them back into their church? Or will the “new ministry” in East Falls welcome only new and better Christians who have no baggage in life — and therefore little need of a church?

Will this new church in East Falls be the only Lutheran Church that does not own its property and is totally managed by outsiders? Will this new community of Christians be divided from the outset by those “allowed” to serve as leaders and those who, by virtue of being part of Redeemer in the past, will be banned from full participation. This (which has no constitutional foundation in Lutheranism) is precisely what SEPA recommended in court.

Is SEPA a reconciling denomination? Time will tell.

Today’s scheduled “Clean Out” of Redeemer Lutheran Church, announced as a preparation for a new ministry to this neighborhood, did not draw a crowd. We counted three or four adults and a couple of youth. By noon they had mostly carried armfuls of items and placed them in the trunks of their cars. Hmmm. If these items are worth saving, shouldn’t they be saved for the newer and better Lutheran Church planned by the Synod?

We’ve already watched as other things were carried from Redeemer. Ten folding chairs were placed in someone’s hatchback. Four cartons of records went into another car. The neighborhood reports.

The items they were salvaging from the people of Redeemer this morning included boxes and books and kitchen items and such treasures as Christmas stockings. Some hopeful Lutheran children, eyes bright with Christmas excitement, may receive a gift of four-year-old candy courtesy of the people of Redeemer.

Meanwhile Redeemer, “closed” by a constitutionally questionable edict, plans a Whoville Party to celebrate the third year SEPA has locked the neighborhood out of God’s House on Christmas Eve.

What did the Grinch do? He cleaned out Whoville just before Christmas. Yes, Virginia, there is a Grinch!

17 Dec 2011

Experiencing Multicultural Ministry: Part 1

2×2’s sponsoring church, Redeemer Lutheran Church, has broad experience in multicultural ministry. As we start a new series of posts, we’d like to share our experience. We doubt it is typical or even if there is any typical methodology to multicultural ministry.

(We invite you to share your experiences. This is a fairly new emphasis within many church bodies. We can probably learn more from each other than from books!)

Multicultural Mission Outreach changed our church enormously for the better. It enriched our worship, our sense of mission, our fellowship, our stewardship, our spiritual life and our individual lives.

We did, however, encounter difficulties we never anticipated and which were severe.

We discovered that the greater church does not understand Multicultural Ministry. Its view seems to be “same old church/different people.” While leaders have identified this as a worthy goal (even a necessity), it does not appear to have a plan to achieve the goal or leadership with training to help implement it. In our experience, lay leadership was pivotal to laying the groundwork.

We encountered something very different, exciting and refreshing!

A Little About Redeemer

Redeemer is a small congregation in a well-established Philadelphia neighborhood. East Falls is home to rich and poor. Up until about a decade ago, it was flanked on either end by government high-rise housing projects. These have been destroyed. New single family subsidized housing has been built where they once stood.  The presence of the “projects” in our neighborhood influenced attitudes toward different cultures for many years.

An outsider passing through would see tree-lined streets with well-kept homes. Some of them are sizable estates. Most are modest rowhouses. There are upscale apartments at opposite ends of town.

Redeemer sits at the economic and cultural crossroads of our community. Across the street is the public library and a K-8 public school. Down the hill is old factory worker housing. Behind Redeemer are middle class rowhomes. Above and across the street are the homes of many of Philadelphia’s movers and shakers, including a former U.S. Senator and Pennsylvania’s former governor.

East Falls is a university neighborhood. Philadelphia University, Drexel and Eastern Universities have campuses within our borders. Temple and LaSalle are also nearby. The local public school has struggled with academic achievement. Quaker and Catholic Schools are neighborhood options. Educational opportunities bring many newcomers to our town.

The buildings are of manageable size. A practical church layout, reflects the practical working class people who built it. In addition to a sanctuary/fellowship hall, our members built a seven-room educational building which proved to be an enormous asset to the congregation even after the loss of members following the turbulent 60s.

Redeemer was in a prime position to become a multicultural church, but it didn’t happen overnight.

A decade of poor leadership in the late 80s and 90s, left the congregation divided. We received little help from our regional body as they were having financial problems and any congregational problem was likely to be seen as opportunity to close a church for its assets. We struggled with our denomination for two years in the late 90s.

Eventually, our lay leaders identified a retired pastor who agreed to help. He came into a congregation that no longer trusted pastors. He spent three years with us, slowly restoring our congregation’s confidence with a weekly message of love. He invited many and a good number joined. He laid the groundwork for acceptance as our new members represented many parts of the world.

One family from Tanzania, began inviting their extended family and friends. Over a period of ten years, we developed a small East African community within our congregation.

In 2006, our congregation decided to concentrate our evangelism efforts on growing this segment of our congregation. We asked our part-time pastor to help us find leadership who could relate to Swahili-speaking East Africans. We talked about this for months. The regular report at council meetings: “There is no one.”

When this pastor resigned suddenly, our members within weeks identified two rostered Lutheran pastors from Tanzania. We started working with them.

Our members put every effort behind this outreach. We began by hosting a separate worship service entirely in Swahili. English-speaking members helped with music, putting together a worship bulletin, hosting fellowship and helping with child care. Leadership discussed that attendance at the English service might have to suffer while people, who normally supported it, helped with the Swahili Outreach.

Within a few months 49 members joined through this effort. At the suggestion of our Swahili-speaking members, we united our worship.

We were not prepared for the reaction of our regional body.

To be continued . . . 

08 Nov 2011

As congregations flee, ELCA Secretary Swartling has concerns

Sour Grapes?

The Lutheran Magazine recently reported on the hundreds of churches that have left the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America this year. At the August Synod Assembly, ELCA Secretary David Swartling reflected on the statistics, issuing a statement that smelled a bit of sour grapes. 54%, he noted, were congregations in communities of 10,000 or less.

“Given the small size of these communities, profound questions exist about the long-term viability of many of these congregations and their capacity to be effective in ministry and to develop the kind of interrelationships that they had in the ELCA.”

ELCA, wake up!

Speaking from our own experience in Southeastern Pennsylvania, small churches can no longer count on the ELCA for interrelationships or support in ministry. Small churches are being written off.

Our denomination acts as if they can continue to get away with serving as if they are the only game in town. This is most noticeable at the synodical level, but frankly, the national church has also looked the other way when small churches asked for help.

In Redeemer’s case (which you can read about elsewhere on this site), Bishop Hanson responded to Redeemer’s first request for help in our now four-year conflict with SEPA Synod by telling us of his regard for our bishop and urging both sides to negotiate. (Record of correspondence) He ignored every other letter our congregation sent to him . . as did the bishop and the rest of SEPA leadership. We understand his regard for a colleague in ministry. We do not understand why this regard translates to no regard for the people they both serve.

Small churches are frustrated with good reason. Church leadership should ask how long corporations would remain profitable if (and Redeemer experienced each of these):

The corporate office did not return phone calls.
The corporate office did not respond to letters.
Requests for appointments were given dates 3-5 months away–which then became 11 months.
Decisions regarding local management and profitability were made with no interaction with local management.
Key leadership positions went unfilled for years. 
Customers and clients were totally ignored but expected to eagerly embrace every new product.
The workforce was asked to go through a grinding 12-18 months of interim limbo with every change of manager.
Sales initiatives for each branch had to be managed by one corporate officer serving scores of branches.
The manager had orders from middle management to placate workers until they grew discouraged and quit.
Corporate never visited the branches unless they wanted something from them. 

There was a time when congregations had no choice, but things have changed. New Lutheran denominations are emerging and time will tell if they are able to serve effectively.

More critically, small congregations now have mission opportunities outside the ELCA with organizations that pay more attention to them and are eager to work together.

If the ELCA wants to continue as an effective presence in our nation’s small towns and urban neighborhoods, they must find ways to help congregations face modern challenges. Meanwhile congregations are sending a message.

All those ELCA interrelationships — we aren’t feeling it!

17 Sep 2011

How Redeemer Met the ELCA Multicultural Ministry Goal

In our last post we noted that Redeemer Lutheran Church in East Falls had achieved the goal of expanding multicultural ministry. The national church recognized our success, but the regional church (SEPA Synod) totally disregarded our ministry.

At the last National Assembly, the leaders of our church reported poor progress on meeting this goal nationwide. We think Redeemer’s experience can shine some light on why these goals are not being met.

There are at least three roadblocks:

1. Regional bodies are not comfortable with the goal.

Small intercity congregations are strategically located to lead multicultural ministry. They need a plan.There seems to be no infrastructure for implementing this major change in the denomination. When it comes to multicultural ministry, most churches and leaders are experimenting. Many of the smallest churches are strategically located in neighborhoods with the most potential for multicultural ministry, but they have the least help in achieving this important goal and may very well be on a synod’s endangered list.

Regional bodies have a tendency to cripple congregations with labels. They see congregations in terms of the past. Congregations, led by professional leaders who are familiar with those names, have a hard time ministering beyond low expectations. Regional bodies are unconsciously saying NO to the potential for multicultural outreach by failing to provide leaders for neighborhoods experiencing cultural change. Caretaker pastors will ignore the cultural changes happening all around the congregation as they hold the hands of existing members, waiting for them to die. When regional bodies lose these neighborhood outposts, they lose valuable assets for achieving their goal of multicultural ministry.

What would happen if synods approached neighborhood churches with high expectations and gave them the help they needed to reach them?

Redeemer did not set out with multicultural ministry as our objective. We just welcomed all who came to our door. This was met with resistance from SEPA leadership, who had predetermined that slow death was to be our fate.

The first Tanzanian family who came to Redeemer in 1998 asked for their two infant sons to be baptized. Bishop Almquist had declared synodical administration. We were advised to NOT baptize the children or encourage new membership. (They had NOT declared us closed but that’s what they had in mind!)  The family shared only recently that a synod representative had visited them and discouraged them from joining Redeemer, which was only a few blocks from their home. “Why do you want to join a church with no black members?” they were asked. They suggested they join a church with black members several neighborhoods away.

This family joined Redeemer anyway. They were to play an important role in Redeemer’s multicultural future.

2. Pastors are not comfortable in multicultural ministry.

As this family became active, they often expressed the desire to reach out to more of the East African immigrant community. Extended family and friends began joining. One was active in social work near our church and wanted to expand outreach to nearby Hispanic neighborhoods. This ministry direction had been discussed often at council meetings with our pastors, who admitted they were not equipped to lead this type of ministry. We asked them to help us find extra help. The report was always the same. “There is no one.” Redeemer wanted to move in a direction professional leadership was unable or unwilling to take us.

Within weeks of our last pastor’s resignation, lay members had identified two qualified Lutheran pastors with roots in East African culture who were willing to visit and invite. Within a few months, Redeemer had 49 new members. During this time, SEPA leadership totally ignored us. They had no interest in helping a church they perceived as dying. When we sent a resolution to Bishop Burkat to call one of the pastors who had been working with us for seven months, she declared Redeemer closed.

3. Congregations are not comfortable with multicultural ministry.

Congregations naturally will wonder what will become of their culture if you open the door to other cultures. Redeemer faced this challenge, too.

Multicultural ministry begins when we recognize that all congregations have multiple cultures within them.First, we made sure that veteran members were not neglected and were active in welcoming. The church service became a bit longer with the incorporation of other languages and music, but the old membership did not have to forsake cherished traditions. Strangers were not valued more than they. God’s love grows community; it does not neglect one community to lavish attention and resources on another.

In light of these three roadblocks, the ELCA has set a goal which few people share except in theory. Here is advice from our experience on how to detour these roadblocks.

Invite.

Being invitational must be taught not just preached. Pastors often say this is the congregation’s job, but in today’s climate it must start with the pastor. The pastor must model this for the congregation, especially if a congregation has been suffering. Members will be of low morale and unable to invite. Pastors should visit, talk enthusiastically about their visits, encourage members to come along, and make sure there are quality offerings for members to promote with enthusiasm. This will rebuild invitational confidence.

Don’t cut the roots.

Popular advice from church hierarchy touts allowing churches to die so that Christian community can be “resurrected.” This is a distortion of the Resurrection message. The Bible does not advocate evicting the faithful to invite new members. As cheery as this may sound, it is cruel in practice. Time will tell if these theories have longevity or if their cited successes are flashes in the pan.

We suspect the Church will not grow if you cut the roots. If veteran members are ignored, criticized, and evicted, the neighborhood will notice. Sensitive new members will ask themselves if one day this will be their fate. Make sure that old members are part of the process of welcoming new members. Change may be desirable but keep some things the same. New members will know that they are influencing a new chapter in a long tradition.

Ministry is not multicultural if cultures never mix. 

Redeemer began by offering a separate service for East Africans, but this lasted only a few months. Both “old” Redeemer and “new” Redeemer wanted to be in communion. Some congregations never move beyond this and become two congregations sharing the same building while calling it multicultural.

We faced the challenge of merging communities with FOOD.

Many churches have coffee hour. It was our observation that coffee hour does not create true fellowship. People grab their styrofoam cup and find a corner to talk to people they already know.

We began serving soup. One pasta pot of soup brought in from home will feed a small church fellowship. Easy to serve; easy to clean up. Soup encourages people to sit down together. Soup is multicultural. “Old” Redeemer tasted “banana” soup, a Tanzanian staple. A Puerto Rican vicar introduced us to sancocho beef stew — “not spicy, just tasty.” If conversation stalled, we talked about the soup, asking who made the soup and what was in the soup. Stories followed about how mother made the soup, how spices were chosen . . . and suddenly you have a proud congregation sharing traditions.

When the arts are explored, minds open.

We wanted the message that our congregation was welcoming to all cultures to be clear. It’s hard to change the stained glass windows, but we featured art and poetry from different cultures on our bulletins. We occasionally practiced the Taize traditions with icons and chants. Liturgical dance became part of our tradition. Drums were played by members sitting in the pew, but the church organ still whined away. Some of the art/music featured was traditional. We did not replace what was dear to people. We added to it.

Use the gift of language.

Foreign languages make Americans nervous. Our new members graciously recognized this and switched to English when others were present. It was a considerate, unsolicited gesture that helped create community.

In worship we alternated languages between verses in singing hymns. We said the Lord’s prayer in Swahili and English until Swahili-speaking members objected, saying God needs to hear our prayers in only one language. English-speaking Redeemer objected, saying “But we need to hear it in Swahili.” We didn’t debate; we alternated.

Soon, English-speaking Redeemer began adopting Swahili phrases in conversation.

Which brings us to our final point for today.

Be flexible.

In one way of thinking all churches are multicultural. Concentrating on the multicultural in ministry is forging new ground. Develop a welcoming atmosphere and follow your instincts.

If you’d like a team from Redeemer to make a presentation on our multicultural experience, please leave a comment and we will get back to you.

13 Sep 2011