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ELCA

Measuring Diversity in the Church

“We Are Diverse”

One of the more frequent exclamations coming from SEPA Synod Assembly is the boast, “We are diverse.”

Just keep saying it and people might believe it.

Diversity in SEPA Synod is an illusion. Cloaks and mirrors.

The Synod Assembly is rigged to display diversity. Congregations are given extra votes and representation if they can prove diversity. A small church with darker skinned members can have more votes than small pale congregations.

Ecclesiastic gerrymandering also distorts gender and age. Most churches have a predominance of women in attendance, but congregations are required to send one female and one male member . . . creating the illusion of gender equality.

From the number of youth present at the Assembly, you’d think our churches were filled with energetic and engaged young people. They are not.

Diversity Within Diversity

When addressing diversity, the Church tends to fixate on skin color. Skin color alone, is broader than black and white and diversity is so much more than skin color. Skin color is easy to see and count  . . . and so we do!

Redeemer’s Ambassadors have visited more than 60 of SEPA’s 160 congregations, We began our visits in the city where racial diversity is likely to be more prevalent than in the suburbs. As we continue our visits, reaching into the suburbs, we doubt we’ll see more diversity than we already have. So far, we haven’t seen much!

We see many white congregations with a few assorted “others” and a few black congregations with a few assorted “others.” Of all the congregations we have visited we can count only about five that have a substantial representation of people from different racial or ethnic backgrounds. Each of these was a smaller congregation.

This includes Redeemer — who SEPA has excluded from Lutheran fellowship for five years. Redeemer had grown to be very diverse. We were diverse racially, culturally, linguistically, ethnically, economically, philosophically, and in gender and age. 

Our diversity didn’t earn us extra votes. In fact, we were denied any voice or vote in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (SEPA ELCA) by decree of the bishop—a flagrant denial of congregational constitutional rights.

SEPA attempted to divide our congregation along racial lines. SEPA reported only our white members in reports to Synod Assembly. They further decided for our black members where they ought to go when they claimed our property—as if our black members were somehow too feeble to determine for themselves where they’d like to worship. It was OK if white Redeemer just disappeared. In fact, that was the plan.

“White Redeemer must be allowed to die. Black Redeemer . . . we can put them anywhere,” Bishop Burkat said in 2007.

Truth be told, there was great diversity among both our black and white memberships. We had African Americans, East Africans and West Africans. The Africans spoke many languages—French, Swahili and various tribal languages. We had white members born in England, Germany, Asia and America. We had regular visitors from India, France and South America and students from East Falls’ three universities. 

We don’t count.

Do Some Research

You don’t have to visit as we have to get a true picture of diversity. Just add the numbers in the parish reports available on the ELCA Trend site. The demographics of Lutheranism are very white and very aging.

Our visits reveal that most worship services are typically attended by women over 65.

More often than not, there are no children present in the sanctuary for worship. Children’s choirs, a rarity, tend to be very small and very young.

Youth are scarce. It will be 20 years (if ever) before the few young people will come to be of an age to support the church financially in the manner of previous generations. They will be saddled with college debt.

Leadership has a hard time recognizing reality when they look across the Synod Assembly and see the hand-picked representation that gathers to decide the future of the church.

SEPA has often chosen to let congregations die, providing minimal services for as long as 10 years rather than help congregations when a little help might have made a big difference.

This should be a serious concern to SEPA. Two decades could decimate dozens of congregations. It may be too late and far more costly than if this had been addressed 20 years ago.

Some Parting Questions and A Plan

Should diversity in the Church be measured at all if there is no way of recognizing it?

Is diversity so important that we create false impressions? What is to be gained?

We are one in the Lord.

The fact is diversity will soon be the new norm in most neighborhoods. We are ill-equipped to serve the changing population.

Lest you think we criticize without venturing solutions, check out vbsaid.com. It outlines a plan which 2×2 would love to sponsor and pioneer. It could help the many small, aging churches reconnect with their neighborhoods.

We dont want to see any more Lutheran property in the city, provided by the sacrifices of dedicated lay members, permanently sacrificed to plug short-sighted budget holes.

The plan requires cooperation within the church and between various expressions of the church, but we think it is worth the effort and will benefit all. Right now, all these expressions are struggling in isolation.

We know the perfect hub to implement this program. Midvale and Conrad in East Falls.

12 May 2013

Tracey Beasley, Redeemer Trustee, Elected VP of SEPA

Journalism 101: The incoming (not outgoing) leader is the news.

We heard a rumor that Tracey Beasley of Reformation Church in Mount Airy was elected to replace the outgoing Vice President of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We looked for confirmation but came up with a story that said she was one of two candidates.

The story that comes up on SEPA’s web site is all about the outgoing vice president.

The people of Reformation are congratulating Tracey on their Facebook page. It must be true!

What do we know about Tracey Beasley? What can we expect from her leadership?

Tracey Beasley was influential in the creating the mess in East Falls that severely hurt our Christian community and neighborhood and has saddled SEPA with a costly and unnecessary five-year court feud.

She was one of four trustees appointed by Bishop Burkat to make our community wards of the bishop and convey our property and cash assets to benefit the synod, while locking out the Christians that provided this Care Package to plug the Synod’s deficit. She was co-chair, along with The Rev. Lee Miller, who left SEPA Synod last fall for New York’s green pastures.

She visited Redeemer in July 2007 along with the other three trustees. Rev. Lee Miller had demanded the meeting with only a couple of days notice — never telling us why. Only two of our council members could attend. Summer vacation season made getting people together quickly for an undesignated purpose difficult. 

The four visitors from SEPA Synod, never identified themselves as trustees nor did they inform us that we were under Involuntary Synodical Administration (a made-up term that does not appear in the constitution, but has taken on legal weight by virtue of it being tossed around often enough). Apparently, we had been under synodical administration for some time. No one told us! Not even the trustees sitting with us in our fellowship hall.

They came to our door and asked for a room where they could meet in private. Odd. 

They then sat with us and we told them about the mission plan we were drafting. It was a good discussion. At the end, they thanked us for being candid. I remember commenting, “Yes, we have been forthright, but something tells me you are not being candid with us.”

They glossed over the observation and assured us that they were there to help. We were unaccustomed to SEPA showing any interest in our ministry, so even that was odd.

The four trustees then did nothing to help us. We didn’t see or hear from them again until November 2007, when our congregation council met with the Bishop. This is when they told us about the synodical administration — some five months after it was supposedly imposed.

Tracey Beasley did not attend this meeting. The other three trustees were present. Larry House and Ray Miller said nothing but took copious notes. Lee Miller seemed to be excited by our reports of our ministry and said “I’m with you guys.” Closing the church was never mentioned at this meeting. We gave Bishop Burkat a copy of our 24-page mission plan and a resolution to call one of the ELCA pastors who had spent seven months helping us draft and implement the plan.

We were excited by the progress our congregation had been making. The meeting was concrete proof that our membership had grown steadily in the last ten years, during which SEPA was largely absent. Bishop Burkat promised that we could work with the newly appointed Mission Developer, Rev. Patricia Davenport.

Four months of silence from SEPA followed. Repeated phone calls to the Synod from our leadership, who were eager to follow up on the promising meeting, were ignored.

We were not to see Tracey Beasley again until February 2008. She was with the bishop and her party when they came to our church one Sunday afternoon with a locksmith and lawyer waiting behind the church, out of sight. She was instrumental in spreading the gossip that we tried to have the bishop arrested at this encounter. This is untrue.

We objected frequently to this false representation, but it continued to appear in court documents for five years.

Tracey Beasley spent no time with our congregation outside of that first encounter in which she lied by omitting her true purpose. She presented a report to the 2008 Synod Assembly about our ministry that was wholly inaccurate. Some of the information was just plain false. Some was so outdated that it created a false impression. And that’s what the trustees needed to sway the Synod Assembly—a false impression.

In 2008, Redeemer immediately asked for the record to be corrected. We followed up with detailed monthly reports of our growing mission and ministry. All of these were copied to Tracey Beasley and all the trustees, as well as the bishop.

There was never any response to any of our letters.

Tracey Beasley read the same fabricated report, unaltered, to the 2009 Synod Assembly.

The next time we were to see Tracey Beasley was on Mother’s Day 2009, just hours after the close of the 2009 Synod Assembly. This is the Assembly at which Redeemer appealed Synodical Administration. The Assembly never voted on our appeal. Synod leaders substituted a question allowing the Synod to take our property—a topic our appeal had not addressed. The vote was predictable. Almost everyone voted to take our property. They have NO constitutional authority to vote on congregational property.  

Tracey Beasley came to our worship that Mothers Day with Larry House. They sat through the worship service and before the service concluded they walked to the front of the sanctuary and announced, “We are in control now.”

What happened next was beautiful. The people of Redeemer rose united from the pews and surrounded the two trustees who had represented themselves as working with Redeemer but had done nothing. There had been no plan, no strategy. It just happened. I watched from the back of the church, talking to the visitors. (Redeemer had visitors almost every Sunday.)

Redeemer members confronted the two trustees about their behavior. Most notably, someone pointed out that Synod’s interference in our ministry had cost us a 25-year relationship with Ken Crest. This interference had not only cost our congregation a strong source of income, it had deprived our neighborhood of an excellent service.

Tracey Beasley claimed that Ken Crest did not leave because of them. We pointed out that Ken Crest had just signed a five-year lease with us but abruptly whited out their names. We had a letter from Ken Crest stating that they were leaving because they didn’t want to be in the middle of a property dispute.

Tracey Beasley claimed to know nothing about this and demanded to see that letter. The letter indicated that she had, in fact, been copied.

The courts ordered the property given to SEPA — not under the law, but under Separation of Church and State. They couldn’t get involved in church matters. They did not order that the church members be locked out, but Synod accepted the court win as entitling them to do exactly as they please. There is no authority in the church or out of the church to stop them (unless SEPA Lutherans follow their constitutions).

In December 2011, we read in the local news that Redeemer was opening again. There was to be a service a few days before Christmas. All welcome.

We were suspicious. Suddenly, we are open again! A public announcement. No effort to tell Redeemer’s members.

It ended up to be not so much a worship service as a gloating fest. The service, never to be repeated, was conducted by the Rev. Lamont Anthony Wells, pastor of Reformation in Mount Airy, where both Tracey and her predecessor are members.  The watchful eyes of East Falls reported that about seven people showed up and seemed to be very uncomfortable in their presence.

There was never any real intent to “open Redeemer.” The group that seemed to be from Reformation marked their territory, locked the doors behind them, and moved on.

Tracey Beasley, as a trustee and as a member of synod council, was in a position to represent the interests of the congregation. She demonstrated no inclination to do so.

She was clearly an extension of the bishop. Now she is an official leader of all congregations. Will she do so with independence? Will she now represent the interests of the congregations—as her position suggests? Will she check the power of the bishop — as is the responsibility of synod council?

If past behavior predicts future behavior, your leaders are comfortable in their view that congregational property is theirs for the taking. Because Synod Assembly seems to be powerless in enforcing their own rules, there is nothing to stop them.

Small churches (and most SEPA churches are already small or getting there) should be alarmed. You now have leadership that has shown they are capable of plotting to take your property. They have a track record using secrecy, intimidation, and deceit in doing so. They have demonstrated a clear sense of entitlement. They will not hesitate to attack lay people in court if they dare to oppose their views within the constitution. 

You elected them! 

When they knock on your doors, remember—we warned you.

09 May 2013

Winning Friends and Gaining Influence in East Falls

SEPA has had control of Redeemer’s property for nearly four years. It sits there unused— vacant with its paint peeling. Unused property in an urban neighborhood is quickly claimed by dog lovers.

Neither people or dogs are welcome in God's House by order of SEPA Synod.Redeemer occasionally had to remind the neighbors that the yard is used by children. Mostly they respected that. No big deal. But now it’s different. When we worshiped this Easter on the sidewalk we watched one dog owner after another shortcut through the yard.

The people of East Falls were quite upfront at the Community Council meeting SEPA attended more than a year ago. SEPA was putting their best foot forward, trying to impress the locals with their concern for the neighborhood—something they failed to show their own supporting members in East Falls. Rev. Pat Davenport was all charm as she gratuitously asked the community what they would like to see on that corner. The members said, “a dog park.”

The absentee landowners are now peeved. Ever-accustomed to wielding a mighty arm  without resistance, SEPA now resorts to signs on every corner. Signs on the signboard. Cardboard signs propped up on folding chairs (at least they haven’t taken ALL our folding chairs).

Clearly, they mean business!

They warn the neighbors that they don’t intend to clean up after their dogs.

That should make mowing the yard very interesting.

Their attitude toward dogs is similar to their attitude towards Redeemer’s people.

East Falls is not going to take well to it.

Sometimes neighbors just have to put up with neighbors. If SEPA ever wants to open a word and sacrament church in East Falls — as Rev. Davenport claimed, but we doubt — they should adjust their attitude. Fallsers have a long memory. As new owners of old East Falls land they are already, in East Falls vernacular, considered “squatters.” (And in SEPA’s case, they are squatters who showed no mercy on the people of East Falls in pursuit of our community’s riches for their gain.)

A little advice from Redeemer on how to get along with your neighbors:

The only thing that draws more flies than dog dirt is honey. :-)

It isn’t Redeemer members you are dealing with now. It is all of East Falls.

04 May 2013

Has the Culture of Church Changed?

Today, Seth Godin, renowned marketing blogger, quotes an organization he supports. In doing so he is exploring the impact of the mission statement.

Churches, these days, are heavily “into” mission statements.

There is more to mission than writing statements. Seth likes the term “manifesto.” It’s a stronger, more action-oriented term. Your manifesto defines your culture, while your mission statement collects dust. (Click to tweet).

Here’s the manifesto he quotes from an organization called Acumen:

Acumen: It starts by standing with the poor, listening to voices unheard, and recognizing potential where others see despair.

It demands investing as a means, not an end, daring to go where markets have failed and aid has fallen short. It makes capital work for us, not control us.

It thrives on moral imagination: the humility to see the world as it is and the audacity to imagine the world as it could be. It’s having the ambition to learn at the edge, the wisdom to admit failure, and the courage to start again.

It requires patience and kindness, resilience and grit: a hard-edged hope. It’s leadership that rejects complacency, breaks through bureaucracy, and challenges corruption. Doing what’s right, not what’s easy.

Acumen: it’s the radical idea of creating hope in a cynical world. Changing the way the world tackles poverty and building a world based on dignity.

Love the phrase “hard-edged hope.” It describes Redeemer.

The problems Redeemer has faced in the ELCA is that the ELCA has become a complacent church. Congregations seem to be increasingly self-focused. As long as things are fine for them, what problems can there be?

The problem is that this complacency quickly defines our culture.

Our culture is worshiping together in a fairly defined way. It is friendly chatter around coffee before or after worship. It is choosing from a fairly short list of acceptable public charities to support (Habitat for Humanity seems to be the most popular). Some congregations support or operate food pantries and nursery schools. Ladies Groups knit prayer blankets and fix meals. Toys are donated at Christmas. Cookie cutter ministries.

The church that grew from the biblical teachings of Martin Luther was anything but complacent. 

Lutheranism grew from the ability of Christians to question authority and to fashion ministry with scripture as a guide — not pronouncements from hierarchy. The whole structure of the Lutheran Church, which focuses on the congregation is designed so that congregations can look at local possibilities for mission and respond independently, without carrying the weight of bureaucracy.

The ELCA uses the word “interdependent” to define this structure. The intent is that each level of church might draw strength from one another. Our regional body has reinterpreted this to mean that they are authorities unto themselves. No one can question them. There is no structure above them to check their power. The churches below them are supposed to do that — but that has proven to be ineffective at best and risky at worst.

The result in our region is SEPA Synod—a collection of 160 congregations that instead of drawing strength from one another, tends to exist with each member church living in its own little world. The way to avoid challenge is to never stray from conventional ministry. Just keep doing the same thing as the world around us slips into history.

Redeemer, on the other hand, had fashioned a ministry around new challenges. This was made all the easier by SEPA’s refusal to provide pastoral leadership. Our priority was not in maintaining good relations with leadership. It was in exploring ministry possibilities. We continue to do so.

Redeemer’s manifesto addressed many of the same points as those quoted above. It was the mission plan we created in 2007.

We were fashioning multi-cultural ministry in a new way. Diverse cultures were joining together in ministry, worshiping  and serving together. We weren’t just sharing a building.

We were investing our resources in this ministry. Our resources. Not SEPA’s resources.

We were recognizing something that the rest of the Church does not want to admit. We cannot serve needy populations when the expectation for every congregation is to support a building and professional staff at a minimum budget of $130,000 before a dime is spent on mission or outreach. This model is creating a church where only the rich and middle class can expect to participate fully. This worked in a culture where everyone attended church and knew what was expected of them. It doesn’t work when you are trying to reach the vast and growing population of unchurched people.

Redeemer was responding to this economic challenge, not by pleading for stewardship. We taught stewardship, but we recognized that it would take decades to develop personal giving. (This was made much more difficult by SEPA raiding our bank account in 1998.)

The only way toward fiscal viability was to develop our own funding streams.

We were unafraid of failure. We learned from it. Our early attempts to reach the diversity of our neighborhood were not particularly successful. Our pastors were not comfortable with multicultural ministry, so evangelism was difficult. Our success came when we were free to find professional leadership who could actually further our mission beyond status quo Sunday worship. It came into full flower when we put outreach leadership into the hands of our immigrant members.

SEPA was so intent on seizing our resources that they never really looked at what was going on in our community. They ignored our success and dwelt on ancient failures.

The past five years have proven that they really don’t care about their congregations and their missions. They certainly don’t care about the people.

Our suggestion for congregations:

Spend more time writing your manifesto and less time on your mission statements. Let’s regain our Lutheran culture!

 

24 Apr 2013

Easter 2013: Four Years Locked Out of Our Church

RedeemerEaster2013lrCan No One Roll the Stone Away?

Redeemer members gathered this Easter on the sidewalks of our forbidden house of worship. Our pastor led us in a song. We took turns singing verses of I Know That My Redeemer Lives. Redeemer still is a church full of soloists.

We then went to a member’s home for Easter Fellowship. Ham and kielbasa. Delicious.

We had changed our Easter time to accommodate the plans of our members. So when two carloads passed by the church at the normal time for Redeemer worship (10 am) they found an empty church (as opposed to an empty tomb).

We caught up with them later and took a second photo.

Fortunately, we can resurrect our sign which our bishop was so intent on destroying. It’s looking better than the church!

Take away the name. Take away the heritage. Destroy the church. Control the wealth.

SEPA, let the people who love a church, care for it. That’s the Lutheran way.

RedeemerEasterBaptism

01 Apr 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

Happy Anniversary to 2×2!

Long Live Redeemer in Mission!

It may be Groundhog’s Day in Punxatawny but February 2, 2013, is 2×2’s second anniversary. Our experimental web site has been quite an adventure. Our ministry has gained influence and reach we never imagined and is poised to be an income asset for our host congregation, Redeemer.

In February of 2011, 2×2 had just one visitor for the whole month (and it may have been one of us). Last month we had more than 2100 first time visitors and that doesn’t include a growing number of subscribers and those who receive our posts via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Our cyber statistics make us one of the largest congregations in the ELCA. And we’re just getting started!

Our primary mission is to help small congregations with ministry challenges. We hope to do this even more in 2013. The Easter Play we posted last year has had 1000 downloads this year. Our weekly Adult Object Lessons has a regular following. And several church organizations have contacted us for help with web sites.

Our secondary mission is to be the voice of Redeemer. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has done everything it can to try to silence us — even suggesting that one of our members, an ordained ELCA pastor, be censored for speaking out on issues everyone else veils in silence.

2×2 has been an effective voice.

A surprise along the way has been the number of international friendships we have made and the youthful readership who make up the majority of our followers. 2013 will also be a year for building/nurturing these relationships.

Through 2×2, Redeemer is poised to take ministry to new places. We’ve earned our place in the ELCA which refuses to recognize our ministry, preferring our physical assets to our membership. Where is St. Lawrence when we need him!? (Turn us over. We are done on this side.)

It is time for those who decided in 2009 that Redeemer couldn’t survive and therefore they should have the benefit of our assets to reconsider their actions.

The resulting law suits have depleted what reserves there were for them to enjoy. The building has been locked to all for three and a half year — serving no mission purpose whatsoever. Yet good can still be salvaged.

The church is not a building. It is the people. The people of Redeemer have continued our ministry despite every obstacle thrown our way.

Under Lutheran governance, any synodical administration is temporary in nature. It’s constitutional purpose is to help congregations. The Articles of Incorporation make it clear that property belongs to the congregation and cannot be taken without a congregation’s consent. Most of the people who voted to do this had never read the Articles of Incorporation.

There is no reason why Redeemer with its physical and cyber assets cannot fund a full ministry. With a little nurturing it could be quite lucrative.

It is time to for SEPA to reconsider its actions in East Falls, return our property as they should under their constitution and restore mission to this neighborhood.

If this was about money, problem solved. We can afford our own ministry. We always could.

…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.—Romans 5:3-5

02 Feb 2013

Ambassadors Visit Trinity, Havertown — Again

Today two Ambassadors revisited Trinity, Havertown. One of the Ambassadors had missed the last visit and had a special interest in visiting. In 1949, he had completed his seminary internship training in this parish. He didn’t expect to find anyone who remembered him from 64 years ago, although they have one congregational pillar who is about 101 who might recall him.

We found little had changed since our first visit. They still have a great choir which was about one third of the congregation, which numbered about 45. We were impressed with their dedication to their youth during our last visit. Today they were having a fund-raising spaghetti dinner to fund a mission trip for their youth to South Dakota.

So that’s why there is a picture of buffalo on their website!

Their web site has been upgraded in the last year and they are venturing into social media. Since December they posted about five blog entries. They seem to be posting them on their neighborhood patch.com, which we recommended to congregations some time ago.

We know social media ministry is work because we have done it. Web sites become effective evangelism tools when you post as close to daily as possible. (2×2 now has about 150 readers each day with 2000 new visitors per month. We’ve been posting daily for about 18 months now.)

The Book of Nehemiah Tells Our Story

The Rev. Dr. Dolores Littleton is Trinity’s pastor. For her sermon, she retold the story of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. She did a faithful retelling, but we noted that she left out the intrigue, which is what makes the book of Nehemiah so interesting to us at Redeemer.

The people of Redeemer were (are) intent on rebuilding the church in our community after decades of neglect. You might think our denomination might support the work of its members but over the years our only meetings with SEPA were intent on wearing down the people of Redeemer, while SEPA carefully calculated how our failure might benefit them.

There is a chapter in Nehemiah where those in opposition to restoring the temple try to trick Nehemiah. Understand that 140 years had passed with no one lifting a finger to restore the temple. They hadn’t cared a fig that the temple lay in ruins.

Nehemiah shows up and sets out to do the impossible. He enlists the support of people who are willing to sacrifice to see ministry restored. Many of them have no Jewish roots! Only now do we find people, including religious leaders, interested in cleaning up after 140 years of neglect. They intend to take advantage once and for all. Failing that, they want to stop Nehemiah at any cost.

Frustrated that their early attempts to discredit the temple rebuilders are unsuccessful, they at last try to arrange meetings to “talk.” Nehemiah sees through the ruse and refuses to meet with them.

This is precisely SEPA’s strategy in trying to destroy the ministry in East Falls.

The story of Nehemiah is the story of Redeemer.

After years of neglect from SEPA leadership, Redeemer found our leaders standing on the sidewalk in front of Redeemer with Bishop Burkat as she implored us to just meet with her and all would be fine. Meanwhile, she had a lawyer and a locksmith waiting out of sight ready to pounce. The people of Redeemer, like Nehemiah, didn’t fall for the trick, which only enraged the bishop.

The ensuing five years has been little more than attempt of Bishop Burkat to save face and punish the people of Redeemer for making her attempts to take our property and cash assets more difficult than she projected.

The people who supported Redeemer’s rebuilding have been taken advantage of — just like Nehemiah’s workforce. Nehemiah put a stop to this, demanding that the people toiling and sacrificing for the temple be treated fairly. Sadly, there has been no such voice in SEPA Synod.

It is OK with the Lutherans of SEPA Synod if the people of Redeemer are left homeless (a real possibility, folks!) as SEPA claims all the congregation’s assets and pursues them in punitive court cases, which they undertake as they plead immunity from the law for themselves.

Like the Book of Nehemiah, the opposition has no real plan for Redeemer’s property now unused for worship or any other good purpose for nearly four years. They simply don’t want someone else to succeed where they never bothered to try.

We only hope that the story of Redeemer ends with ministry restored and the people revalidated— just as the book of Nehemiah ends.

The hard-hearted SEPA Synod shows no sign of returning to the word of God. There is no passion and voice to defend the workers.

Here’s the difference between Nehemiah and SEPA leadership. Much of the Book of Nehemiah is a list of names that would otherwise be forgotten today. This difference is probably the reason most people don’t read this book very thoroughly.

Nehemiah valued the people. He carefully recorded the names of the workers who risked their lives to complete the restoration of the temple. Their ancestry and affiliations are recorded for all time. Nehemiah cared about the people and their relationship with God. They were worth his attention, his work, and if necessary, the sacrifice of his life. He did all he could to protect them as they served the Lord.

The value of Nehemiah is in its detail. A lowly servant in the court of a foreign king had the wherewithal to restore Jerusalem.

The Book of Nehemiah — all of it — it should be required reading for Lutherans!

27 Jan 2013

No More Mister Nice Guy

A friend wrote a note of encouragement this week to Redeemer, a congregation that continues to be abused by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (SEPA / ELCA).

He wrote that our situation reminds him of a song by Alice Cooper of the 70s. He quoted a song:

“I went to church, incognito, when everybody rose. The Reverend Smith, he … he recognized me, and punched me in the nose. I said, ‘No more Mr. Nice Guy.'”

That doesn’t begin to describe how the Lutherans of East Falls feel about the way their denomination has treated them. But it’s as close as anyone in the church has tried to get.

27 Jan 2013

Why do churches leave the ELCA? Why do they stay?

A retired pastor and former assistant to the bishop of the Metropolitan Washington DC Synod, Rev. Ronald Christian, wrote a short editorial view in the current issue of the ELCA’s denominational magazine, The Lutheran.

Why do they leave? he asks about the mass exodus of congregations in the last few years.

His question reveals just how clueless leaders in the ELCA are.

NOTE: Not all synods operate with a lack of conscience. We hope the horrific activities we recount are not as widespread as they seem.

Rev. Ronald Christian writes in the first hundred words or so (The Lutheran asks us to pay to read to the end, but I’ve given about all I can to the ELCA.):

The ELCA requires nothing of congregations. A congregation will not be removed from the roster for lack of giving, lack of diversity in membership, lack of a youth ministry, lack of mission activity, lack of social work in its community, lack of Bible studies, wrong vestments or secular music on Sundays.

It is possible to be removed if a congregation votes to disavow the constitution of the ELCA and the congregation’s own documents of affiliation with the ELCA. But then it has removed itself from the family.

He clearly has not heard about the cannibalism going on in SEPA, in Metro New York, in Slovak Zion and in New England Synods (the ones we know about). There is a plague of synod leadership moving in on congregations with stealth, deceit and all the power their awkwardly written constitutions steal from their Articles of Incorporation.

These synods haven’t read their founding documents as Rev. Christian seems to have. They rely on no one else reading them either. They also rely on their protected status under the Bill of Rights to continue their activities without legal challenge—even as they use the courts to force their will on member churches.

Constitutionally, the synods do not have the power to remove a congregation from the roster unilaterally. This doesn’t stop them! If a congregation does not vote to close when asked to do so, the synods simply replace the congregation’s authority with their own. That eliminates the work of serving the congregations—their stated mission.

We found out we were closed a year after the fact when we googled our name and the SEPA Synod Council minutes came up.

There was no conversation, no congregational vote and no notification—just a Synod Council blindly following orders.

The national church is useless. Congregations pay for the infrastructure in Chicago. But Bishop Hanson and the ELCA legal offices refuse to deal with congregations. Congregations are lucky to get form letters in response to complaints. We wrote monthly to Bishop Hanson for almost a year back in 2008. He responded benignly to only the first letter.

There is no impartial place within the ELCA to turn.

How did this come about?

Giving is down. Attendance is down. SEPA synod staff is bigger than some of their congregations’ Sunday morning attendance. Synods are looking for money. Small congregations with endowments are tempting.

It’s all about assets. If the people dare to protest, a synod can identify the most influential lay leaders and attack them personally, pitting the combined resources of a couple hundred churches (failing as they may be) against the household incomes and life savings of individual volunteer church members.

It’s open season on the laity. We have no place to turn.

Laity who served faithfully all their lives are suddenly considered enemies by church leaders. Why? We stood our ground (like a certain forefather). We deserve anything that happens to us as a result is the attitude. That includes being ostracized, losing our church home, losing our personal homes, spending more money than we have on legal bills. Anything! And never an attempt to work with the congregation.

Where are the clergy? They flee. We had two pastors whom we never saw again after private meetings with the bishop. One of them had just encouraged us to “stand firm.”

As part of the merger, ELCA agreed to call our presidents bishops with the promise that the title change meant no change in power. In fact, it has changed attitudes and perceptions. As Dr. Phil says, perceptions are reality.

As a result it is increasingly difficult to recognize or participate in the ELCA. Do as you are told or be closed.

The people do not have access to their governing bodies.

  • Synod councils act in a vacuum getting all their data for making decisions from the synod office. No contact information is listed on our synod’s website.
  • Synod Assemblies are dummied down by the maze of quota voters (many of whom have no knowledge of the issues).
  • The time constraints of a weekend Synod Assembly has turned them into “feel good” showcases for the administration.
  • The entire structure is designed on paper to be representative. In practice it has become top down.

Bishops view their power differently than presidents. People respond differently.

Presidents can be questioned. Presidents represent the people who elect them. Bishops—not so much.

Clergy increasingly stay arms length—content to stick to their parish worlds and protect their standing with the bishop. They “cannot question the wisdom of the bishop” they repeat as an excuse for hiding their eyes.

OF COURSE THEY CAN! The Church relies on them questioning the wisdom of the bishops.

This has created a mess!

The question is not Why do churches leave? Rather, it is Why in heaven’s name do they stay?

Lutherans used to have something to be proud of. A little piece of me still is.

PS: Redeemer was one of the only growing congregations in SEPA in 2007 when Bishop Burkat, facing a $275,000 annual deficit, decided she needed our assets. Redeemer was cross-cultural, multi-lingual, and entrepreneurial with youthful demographics—all the things churches are looking to achieve. We were self-supporting. We had more money than synod. SEPA’s treasurer had just reported they were within $75,000 of depleting every available resource when it was suddenly determined Redeemer should die. We voted to leave. SEPA refused to engage in the constitutional process for leaving. You can’t leave; we are terminating you. (That way they get the money.) Several churches were similarly challenged before us. We were the first to say NO!

Redeemer is not closed.
We are locked out of God’s House by SEPA Synod.

07 Jan 2013