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power

Churches Exercise POWER in Philadelphia

The Church Knows How to Run an Airline

I happened to be in Philadelphia City Hall yesterday. I was there on business for once. No synod chasing me this time, although for a moment I wondered!

As I waited for my appointment on the fourth floor near City Council Chambers, I watched the security screening process. It was a slow day until about 3 pm when the line to pass through security started to grow.

Many of the people in line were clergy. A man with a camera labeled Channel 6 set up his equipment next to me. I thought I recognized one or two of the clergy from our Ambassador visits. They were carrying signs that said POWER. One in particular seemed to be taking charge to some degree.

So, I thought, the clergy do know their way to City Hall. So few showed up for all the hearings on the Synod’s lawsuit against Redeemer (something for which they were directly responsible).

I looked up POWER when I returned home.

POWER stands for Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild. 

They were in City Hall to influence the vote on airline leases with an interest for better pay for airport workers. The airlines are wealthy enough to pay their workers better, they feel.

Sounds like a good cause. And they may be right about the airlines. Everyone deserves good pay. I’m sure they know best.

The website has a list of 40 churches. Most participating POWER churches are Roman Catholic. Three are Jewish. There are some Baptist, Methodist and Episcopal congregations represented and a few others, too.

Only two of them are Lutheran (or at least have “Lutheran” in their name) and one of the two is closed. Our Ambassadors had visited both of them. My memory served me well. The two pastors were who I thought they were!

POWER’s mission in part (from their website):

POWER uses our belief in God’s goodness and compassion for the suffering to organize and empower the people of Philadelphia to live and work together so that God’s presence is known on every block, that people work together to transform the conditions of their neighborhood, and that life flourishes for all.

Shining a light on broken systems:

POWER has come together to lift up a new prophetic voice and bear witness to the fact that these systems no longer work for too many families in too many Philadelphia neighborhoods.

We at Redeemer know that we can count on clergy for one thing. They will always stand ready to hold other people accountable for decisions and policies. Shining a light on their own systems rarely happens.

If they could just hold up their protest signs at their own Synod Assemblies and address how their leaders, systems and policies are shaping our city.

One of the pastors I recognized is on Synod Council, a key policy-making body.

It looks to us like grabbing the property of city churches to benefit hierarchical salaries and suburban missions is their city-shaping policy. Part of that policy is neglecting urban congregations and allowing the laity to work hard with little help and no hope of recognition—even when their work is successful. Attacking lay members who raise an objection to this system is their idea of justice here and now.

However valid the objectives, let’s look at who is talking. The Church doesn’t pay minimum wage to its most loyal workers. They pay them NOTHING. In fact, in the Church, the workers are expected to give. The best ones aim for 10%. Entitlement? Tradition? Whatever, it’s free labor with no earthly benefits. (I’m not complaining about the decades of work I gave for nothing. I wasn’t serving them.)

Only a couple of Lutheran churches are represented in POWER—both from the city and one of them recently closed. One of the things our Ambassadors have noticed is just how powerless the Lutheran clergy are in running their own affairs.

POWER believes that people should have a say in the policy decisions that shape their lives and therefore should not shy away from the exercise of power to promote justice and advance the common good.

What is that old saying? Practice what you preach?

05 Jun 2013

Analyzing the Perception of Power in the Church

“I have the power!”

There is a lot of talk in the church today about power. There is even more posturing.

Constitutions are dusted off. It’s easy to find the denomination’s favorite passage that at first glance gives the bishop and synod council powers over individual congregations. Its pages are well-worn. The sections that support the current desire of leaders are easily quoted from memory. All other sections or even sections that further define the powers are ignored.

The constitutions define very specific powers and they are all to be read in the context of the church’s founding document — The Articles of Incorporation. Very few people in the church ever read these foundational documents. This includes bishops and synod councils. Delegates at Synod Assemblies don’t give them a moment’s thought. Does anyone at a Synod Assembly stand up and ask if they have the power to take votes on some issues?

The Articles of Incorporation define the scope of responsibility. They set the rules for the writing of constitutions and the altering of constitutions over the years. If they are never read, there is a danger of writing new church bylaws that conflict with founding documents. This has created the backdrop for church legal issues, including the ones the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) faces with Redeemer, that little passionate church in East Falls, Philadelphia.

Bishop Claire Burkat reviews the constitution and finds the powers she seeks. She probably cited them to the other churches she closed with less trouble. No one challenged her.

She declared way back in 2008 (or even earlier). “I have the power to close that church and I intend to close it.”

Maybe she does. Maybe she doesn’t. The courts didn’t rule that she does. They deferred to the church to make that decision. In making that decision the church must follow its rules — which most people in the church have never read.

Five powers vested in the church

Let’s not argue any more about it. Putting all constitutions aside, we know very well that the bishop has significant power — should she decide to use it.

Let’s just look at powers the bishop and church leaders have.

Where would we be today if Bishop Burkat had cited the following powers?

  • “I have the power to help that church and I intend to help them.”
  • “I have the power to love Redeemer’s people and I intend to love them.”
  • “I have the power to forgive the people of this synod who disagree and I intend to forgive them.”
  • “I have the power to reconcile with the member churches of this synod who are unhappy and I intend to reconcile.”
  • “I have the power to be a peacemaker, if I value peace over acrimony.”

These are the powers given to Bishop Burkat and all the members of SEPA Synod as defined in our founding documents: the Books of the Bible.

Let’s dust them off for a change.

21 Jan 2013

Will Going to Church Make A Difference?

Church and the Modern Sense of Power

Jesus never used the word church. He didn’t tell his disciples to build churches. The idea of church just happened. For sure, the Spirit was involved.

The earliest church makers had a sense of power. They were fighting the establishment, undaunted by law or convention. They were doing a good thing, a revolutionary thing. They were changing the world. They had a very real sense that God was leading them.

But that was the beginning. It wasn’t long before the sense of power became centralized and the focus shifted. What’s in it for us?

This has been a temptation all along for both those who wield power and those who submit to power.

In the Church’s heyday, people flocked to church for many reasons in addition to and sometimes instead of faith.

    • Social acceptance
    • Guidance
    • Comfort and well-being
    • A carefully fostered sense of guilt
    • Business connections
    • Perceived access to God
    • Access to the power-makers of the day

powerSome of these factors are still in play, but there is a new social dynamic that the Church is not recognizing. 

The emerging citizens of the world have a new sense of personal power.

  • They have ready access to information. Have you had dinner with a 20-year-old lately? Make a claim and he or she will pull out a cell phone and fact-check you on the spot!
  • They don’t need the church for social networking.
  • Their secular educations have shielded them from a sense of inadequacy and guilt.
  • Books on any topic, including self-help books, can be streamed into the palms of their hands with one click. They can figure out how to accomplish complex goals very quickly.
  • They recognize that the Church has lost influence in the modern world. They won’t spend time wishing it weren’t so. They will live with reality.

There is less need for access to power-makers or power-holders or power-brokers because the new generations know deep in their bones that they have power. Every pimple-faced kid carries as much power in his or her jeans pocket as Napoleon.

One newscaster noted that an individual today has at his or her fingertips as many resources as an entire television network twenty years ago.

The Church tends to read the new sense of power as lack of respect. Some of this may be true. In many cases Church abuses have justified a fall from grace. But generally, the lack of respect is an illusion.

What they are sensing is not lack of passive respect. It’s a growing sense of power in the pews.

What does this say to the church?

Older people may go to church out of habit or for personal satisfaction or devotion.

Young people, if they are to connect with the church, want to use their power. They know they have it. There is no point in pretending it does not exist. They want to make a difference.

The Church has to accommodate this new reality.

The temptation for Church leadership is to take steps to hang on to traditional powers—squash anyone who doesn’t toe the line. The pope tried to rein in the American nuns. They shrugged and went on with their mission as they defined it.

As power shifts, the sense of entitlement grows among those in the Church who are accustomed to being viewed as powerful.

They are destined to lose their grip.

This realization may come hard.

The people the Church needs to reach (for its own sake if not for the sake of others) want to be part of activities that make a real difference. Not patchwork, feel-good social fixes. Their absence from church is impatience.

For the first time, perhaps, in the history of the world they really have power and they know it.

The Church must harness the “can do” spirit. Let go of the ecclesiastic reins. Trust in a new plan.

Let the Holy Spirit into the mix and stand back! Be prepared to say, WOW!

photo credit: happeningfish via photopin cc
10 Jan 2013