Redemption is Small But Big in Mission

Four Redeemer Ambassadors visited this neighborhood congregation on Bustleton Ave. in NE Philadelphia. This was our 72nd visit to our sister SEPA congregations.

The congregation is in what the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod calls “transition.” Their pastor of 17 years recently retired and they will be seeking a new pastor. SEPA requires congregations to go through a transition process before the search for a new pastor begins.

This congregation will not have one synod-assigned leader during this time. They will have two. Rev. Christian McMullen will lead the transition process. He explained that he will be visiting with the congregation at least once a month. The bridge pastor will be Rev. Ghislaine Cotnoir.

Two interims for a big job?

Probably not such a big job. The Ambassadors have never encountered a friendlier congregation or a more self-confident congregation. We were approached personally by at least a third of the 50-60 people present for worship. Each seemed to be comfortable as a member and church leader. During the service, when Pastor McMullen asked questions, many shouted out answers. There seems to be adequate lay leadership ready and willing to do the work of the church.

They confidently refer to their lay leaders by title. One man introduced himself as Deacon John. Their newsletter identified several others by the title deacon. This is a common custom in nonLutheran denominations but rarely used in the ELCA.

They already seem to have a bead on who they are and what their ministry is all about. They are active participants, along with a Presbyterian congregation (who use the term deacon), in an after-school program called Turning Points. Youth (grades 6-12) can come to do homework or take classes in the arts or take part in social activities. They also have a pre-school.

Our pastor had supplied their pulpit twice in the last month and he told us he was impressed with their prayer ministry. He described it as specific, intentional and intensive. (We come from a strong prayer tradition, too.)

There were a couple of children and a few youth present for worship. All seemed comfortable with one another and with us as visitors.

Pastor McMullen changed the day’s scriptures from “take up your cross” to “I am the vine and you are branches.” He concentrated on the pruning metaphor. Seems to be popular as it was preached at the Churchwide Assembly in August, too. The church needs a little less sharpening of the pruning shears and a little more fertilizer!

He is not the first pastor we have heard talk about the transition process. Alarming congregations about “vulnerability” during transition seems to be part of the spiel. I lost track of the number of times the word was used in worship at their neighboring church, St. John’s. But the region has lost two churches in recent years, Calvary and Holy Spirit, so they are probably well aware of vulnerability.

He talked about his own experience in a synod that did not have interim pastors and the difficulty of dealing with “baggage.”

One of our Ambassadors was a career pastor. He was called to a small-town parish that was divided bitterly over a relocation question. He did not follow any interim. He walked into the fray. He spent the first few months visiting with every family in the church, making sure every voice was heard. He helped them build the new church and went on to serve about 30 years. No one did this for him. He earned the respect of the neighborhood by doing it himself. Good pastoral skills make dealing with baggage a lot easier. Today that parish, a small neighborhood church in 1965, is one of the largest and most influential churches in their region, supporting at least two pastors. No interim hand-holding. Just solid, unselfish, love-directed ministry.

We found Pastor McMullen’s explanation of the five-step transition process to be interesting. There was no such process between Redeemer and SEPA. No exploration of our past. No discussion of vision. No attempt at reconnecting with the greater church. SEPA used force and trickery from the get-go in achieving their goal in East Falls. The goal was to acquire our property and endowment funds. Getting rid of the owners was the tactic.

I had to laugh when Pastor McMullen advised the congregation to be honest with the synod. He said he had heard horror stories about the transition process when the congregations were not honest with the synod. I pointed out to him after worship that SEPA was anything but honest with us and that false impressions run rampant when pastors speak only to other pastors about the congregations they serve. There are always two sides. We have horror stories in abundance! (Not just our own.)

Pastor McMullen also talked about the importance of reconciliation. This is a concept no one in SEPA Synod seems to care about in their treatment of our congregation. They just want us gone!

I pointed him to our Ambassadors story in parable form. Undercover Bishop describes the transition process from the lay point of view.

But Pastor McMullen promises to be encouraging and supportive of the people of Redemption. We wish them all the best. We visited Immanuel, Norwood, just a few weeks ago, where he had served his first interim ministry about six years ago. They seem to be doing fine.

Redemption lacks a web site, which seems to be a frustration for some. We offered to help.

Today was the ELCA’s Day of Service to celebrate 25 years as the ELCA. We did not stay for their social and service project. They were doing some clean-up and some delivering of fliers in the neighborhood.

We enjoyed our visit with Redemption. Good work!