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Redeemer Ambassadors

Ambassadors Visit Saints United, NE Philadelphia

We’ve had a tough week with the loss of one of our ambassadors this week, but we decided the best thing for us was to be together this morning and get back in the saddle.

The list of churches we haven’t visited is getting shorter. Today was our 74th visit. We were back in the Northeast part of the city again.

Saints United is another church in transition. Sometimes it seems like they are ALL in transition. Today they were saying goodbye to their nine-month interim pastor, Rev. Dr. Laurie Andersen. I think we saw her last fall at St. John, Mayfair, too. She gets around.

There were between 40 and 50 people present for worship. There were about six children. All but one small girl seemed to be of grade school age. They were all engaged in worship. For the most part, younger children, youth and young adults were absent. The general demographics, like most churches, is older.

The children were dismissed for Sunday School but returned for communion which allowed barely a half hour for instruction.

They greeted us warmly, although we didn’t talk to many. We are somewhat in shock, still grieving, and not feeling very talkative. But they were quite welcoming and invited us to stay for refreshments.

Today’s service centered on saying goodbye to two people, Rev. Dr. Andersen and their church organist, Judith Lovat, who recently resigned. They look forward to a period of substitute pastors and organists, beginning with one of Redeemer’s former pastors, Jesse Brown, who will preach in October.

The service differed from other services we have attended in a fifth Sunday of the month custom of augmenting communion with optional “stations.” Worshipers could stay at the rail for prayer, visit the baptismal font for prayer or walk to the back of the church and light a candle with prayer.

saintsunitedThe sanctuary is long and narrow but they had an adequate sound system. They had artistic reliefs on the wall. On another day I might have taken photos. But we aren’t ourselves at the moment. The only photo I took was the photo of our first impression—a large and imposing fence around their educational wing.

One of our ambassadors has some familiarity with the congregation and told us that they came from a Missouri Synod Lutheran background and once had a school there serving grades 1-8. The school has been closed for a while, he said. We hope they consider reopening, especially since it could help their financial picture (if not their mission).

They have a Kids Club, but I couldn’t find out too much about it. The website has some pictures but no explanation that I found.

Like many church web sites, Saints United uses its website primarily to communicate with  members. They will discover that a website’s worth is in communicating with nonmembers. Little Redeemer, deemed too small to be worth our own property, has 1000 visitors every week to our website. We’re betting we reach more people in mission than any other SEPA congregation.

One thing that struck me was the generality of prayer. Perhaps this was especially noticeable as we have been in touch all week with the Christian Church in Pakistan. Last Sunday, a congregation was attacked by terrorists. A suicide bomber struck during worship. 85 worshipers were killed including 17 children. 156 were seriously injured. They commented to us that they feel the western church doesn’t care about them. I suspect they are correct. That’s because we are unaware. A tragedy like this should be mentioned in worship. We, as small as we are, are collecting money to send to help with ongoing medical expenses of members. We looked to see if there was an ELCA companion synod we could piggyback. Pakistan is not on the ELCA’s Companion Synod map.

Well, we’ll make them OUR Companion Church. We’ve been online friends in ministry for nearly two years. If you’d like to contribute to our effort, here are the addresses.

Right now, Pakistani Christians are living in fear, but we are sure they will soon surface. They went through something similar earlier this year when a video ridiculing Islam went viral. A Lutheran church burned during that uprising. The only way we know is our Pakistani friends told us.

Imagine what the response might be if one of our churches here in Philadelphia had been blown up during worship—or in Alabama—or any of our United States.  The casualties would be lower as there are few churches with 250 in attendance. But the outrage would be real.

We wish the people of Saints United well. As always we hope that they might consider helping Redeemer be as great a church as they are. All the churches of SEPA Synod are responsible for what is happening in our neighborhood—whether they know it or not. They can turn things around if they speak up.

29 Sep 2013

Ambassadors Visit Redemption, NE Philadelphia

RedemptionRedemption 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.

redemptionpaintingThey 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!

08 Sep 2013

Ambassadors Visit Immanuel, Norwood

Immanuel, Norwood muralSmall Church Faces Demographic Change

Three Redeemer Ambassadors set out on a new adventure this Sunday morning. We hadn’t been in this area for a year or so. We never plan our trips before the prior Saturday afternoon, so it’s always a surprise to us.

Immanuel Lutheran Church, Norwood, Delaware County is celebrating 125 years. We told them they are just a bit older than we. We are in our 122nd year.

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

We read their Trend statistics and website thoroughly before our visit. This was very interesting to us. It is one of the many enigmas we encounter on our visits.

Redeemer was falsely represented to the Synod Assembly and in court as having only 13 members (they counted only our white members). Our situation in the courts, without any opportunity for us to witness otherwise, has been repeatedly termed “dire.” We were not operating with a deficit budget. Synod was!

Our true statistics laid beside Immanuel’s make us look rich indeed. We had an endowment three times theirs in 2009 and more than 15 times theirs in 1997. Legal fees dealing with the Synod in 1997 and 2008-2013 ate up a lot of our resources. The Synod has cost our community dearly and they aren’t finished with us yet, we suspect.

Immanuel’s membership and attendance are dropping at the same rate as most other churches. In contrast, Redeemer was growing. We accepted 52 members in the 18 months prior to Bishop Burkat’s interest in our assets. They didn’t count. “White Redeemer must be allowed to die. Black Redeemer . . . we can put them anywhere,” said Bishop Burkat to our stunned East African members—some of whom had been members for a decade. Some were born and baptized into our faith community. As one young lady commented at the time, “This synod is great on supporting Tanzanian ministry as long as we Tanzanians stay in Tanzania.”

A difference is that Immanuel has a pastor. SEPA strategy in dealing with Redeemer was to isolate us from the standard relationship of church/synod. Bishop Burkat chased two of our pastors. Bishop Almquist chased one and refused to help us find a replacement for six years.

In 2008, we had just presented a resolution to the bishop to call the pastor we had been working with successfully for seven months. After months of trying to reach the bishop to ask for an assignment without so much as a returned call, he suddenly was given an interim job in the northern frontier of the Synod. Redeemer continued to find our own leaders. One of them was with us this morning.

This was our Ambassador’s 70th visit. It amazes us that more than a third of the churches we visit are no stronger than we, but they still felt comfortable voting to take our property.

They are in the same boat. We’ll hand them an oar! We’ve been down the rapids that they are about to take!

We are very familiar with the challenges they face.

  • Astronomical utility bills. Immanuel is already soliciting contributions for an anticipated $10,000 winter heating bill. Ours was $8000 when we used the building daily and about $6000 when we heated the building only a couple of times a week.
  • Enormous insurance bills. These bills are crippling a lot of small churches— the price we pay for living in a litigious society (including church culture).
  • Changing demographics. We actually solved this problem!

They have a two-story educational building with a gym. We had one without the gym. It was a good source of ongoing revenue for us until SEPA Synod interfered. Redeemer was very much self-supporting.

I asked why they weren’t hosting a school. It seemed to be an obvious solution to their financial problems. The building, a member shared, isn’t handicapped accessible and they couldn’t open a school without that. They said it was just too costly to make it accessible.

If this is the only thing keeping a church from worthwhile programs that would contribute to their mission and ministry, one might think that all churches, through their hierarchical interdependence, would find a way to help older congregations solve this problem. Instead, our leaders wait for their older neighborhood churches to die so they can benefit from the spoils. They discourage the use of equity to solve problems. They offer no solutions. This relieves every church’s burden of supporting hierarchy and gives them a false sense of strength and prosperity. They sit smugly in their buildings, like spiders in their webs, waiting to assume the resources of older churches. Their buildings are up to code only because they were built more recently.

Redeemer’s school, by the way, was handicapped accessible. We were trying to renovate it to bring other things up to date, but the biggest expense in making it accessible had already been met. This is a resource to our church and community that has been squandered by SEPA.

Immanuel had just finished a week of Bible School and remnants of the busy week were still adorning the walls. About 45 children attended, the pastor said.

Yet, there were no children in church. There’s a challenge for them.

Redeemer, on the other hand, often had more children than adults in church. Many of our new members learned of our church through our six-week summer programs and day school.

The people were quite friendly. Many approached us for conversation. Even the pastor, The Rev. Gerald Faust, talked to us a little. (This is unusual!).

There were about 50 in church. They seemed to like to keep to a schedule. The organist announced that they would truncate the opening hymn, because the announcements were longer than usual.

Their Education Chair gave a talk about their various education opportunities which seemed to be extensive. They are preparing for their Fall Rally Day. We hope they can get some of those VBS families interested.

One of our Ambassadors was happy that they used the hymnal (LBW and WOV) and not the bulletin for worship. It’s his pet peeve. The hymns were all familiar. One was our Vacation Bible School hymn years ago and I still know it by heart. (Each year we memorized a different standard hymn.)

Singing was strong. A seven-member choir sang an offertory.

They sang the Lord’s Prayer at the appropriate time. It’s not the first time in our visits that the Lord’s Prayer was sung, but we have encountered a church where the pastor refused to allow the singing of the Lord’s Prayer during worship! Redeemer did this on special occasions. Maybe that’s what bugged the bishop! 😉

immanelnorwoodThe sermon was about division in the church in keeping with today’s lectionary. Sometimes we think the point of this passage gets lost. Division is to be expected. We are not asked by Jesus to lie down and let adversaries walk over us. Instead, we are encouraged to be prepared. Redeemer was prepared!

The most amazing thing about the sanctuary was not noticeable until we turned around to leave. There is a beautiful mural on the rear wall, painted by a woman and member, now deceased (see above). Their own Violet Oakley! (She painted murals on the walls of the Harrisburg state capitol and on church walls in our neighborhood.) Small churches are filled with talented and passionate people.

One of our Ambassadors is an architecture buff and commented on the older Sunday School area, now a fellowship area, at the rear of the church. This was common church architecture in the 1920s and was part of the Sunday School movement. Classes would meet in partitioned sections around the perimeter and the partitions would open for a closing ceremony. It’s a good concept, but the numbers in Sunday School rarely support it any more.

We wish this good-spirited congregation the very best as they celebrate their 125 years in September. We encourage them to find a way to open a school, so they can concentrate more on mission and less on heating and insurance bills. There has to be a way!

As we left the pastor asked us to sign the guest book. We did. We assured him we are loyal Lutherans.

18 Aug 2013

Ambassadors Visit St. Andrew’s, Audubon

Beautiful Pentecost Service

We weren’t the usual Ambassadors but three Ambassadors from Redeemer spent this Pentecost at St. Andrew’s, Audubon.

St. Andrew’s pastor, the Rev. William Mueller, writes a blog. He is the first pastor of now more than sixty we have encountered to make any attempt to reach out regularly on the internet. Kudos. Here’s a link.

This is the first church website (excepting Redeemer, East Falls) to use blogging as the focal point of a web presence. It looks like they have tried both Twitter and Facebook with less frequency, but at least they are trying. Both Twitter and Facebook are harder to maintain and require a lot of babysitting. That’s why we favor blogging as a starting point for churches wanting to use social media.

It looks like St. Andrew’s started blogging in March and kept at it pretty regularly through April with activity dropping a bit in May. We hope they keep it up! We’ve been at it for more than two years. Our experience is that it takes at least six months to begin to see results. Things move remarkably quickly when you start blogging more than three times per week. (We now, after some 750 posts, have as many as 4000 readers each month.)

Pastor Mueller’s sign-off is reminiscent of one of Redeemer’s former pastors. He often ended his pre-internet sermons with “See you at the Acme.” Pastor Mueller signs off with “See you at church.”

A friendly man greeted us as we came through the door and told us about their ministry to the homeless in Pottstown. He was the only member to speak to us. He told us about their group of guitar enthusiasts who center a ministry around music.

Music and the arts are key elements in worship at St. Andrew’s. They recently produced The Wizard of Oz. They are justly proud of their modern stained glass windows and their altar cross.

Musical offerings were varied and rich from a solo (“Day by Day”) to a bell choir prelude of a hymn which had been running through my head all week, prior to today’s worship, (“Oh, How I Love Jesus”) to still another prelude or introit (“This Little Light of Mine”). The choir anthem brought a smile, the tune was borrowed from Les Miserables. Much of the music was modern but the final hymn was by Hildegard of Bingen, dating back a thousand years. Great breadth of church tradition. This was the first church we’ve encountered in a long time that sang the psalm. (Redeemer always sang the psalm.)

The opening hymn was one Redeemer often sang in Swahili. I was surprised that four years after all of us were locked out of our multicultural church that I still remember the Swahili words. I sang them. The organ was so loud no one could notice and it felt good. Besides, it’s Pentecost, a day for many languages.

St. Andrew’s confirmed ten young people today in a nice ceremony. Even though our visits are totally random, we’ve encountered several confirmations and this was the largest group of youth. 

The church was well-attended with families of the young people filling several pews.

The ceremony featured family members participating in the laying on of hands. Two of our Ambassadors, both pastors, compared that to how they conducted confirmation. They liked the custom, although one commented that he considered confirmation to be the young people standing on tbeir own in their faith—as they may have to some day.

How well we know!

The sanctuary is wide with two rows of long pews. For the first time in many visits, the ushers actually passed the plate. It seems like many churches are afraid to let go of the plate, requiring worshipers to reach across several people. This is always a bit awkward and kind of insulting. It felt good to be trusted to pass the plate. (We didn’t take anything of yours!)

There were about a dozen children present for a children’s sermon delivered by the Christian Education director. This is the first we’ve seen children at worship in a while! I doubt the children understood that the balloon represented the Holy Spirit. Object lessons appeal more to adults. They seemed to still be interested in last Sunday’s sermon which apparently focused on their Ascension stained glass window. One child commented, “We were going to say goodbye but we never did.” That seemed to stick with them!

Pastor Mueller gave a sermon that was interesting to us. He spoke about church persecution and mentioned this also in the prayers.

Once again, we see a disconnect. Why is it that SEPA clergy do not see what is happening at the hands of their leaders in East Falls as bullying and persecution?

82 men, women and children are locked out of their church home—built and paid for with their offerings and the sacrifices of their families. Allegations are made but never documented or discussed with the congregation. Although court accusations reference  “church discipline,” no matters of church discipline were ever raised with our congregation. We were paying our own way and had a very active and innovative ministry, with which no fault was ever found. SEPA claimed every available asset with no discussion whatsoever. They used our assets to pursue us in court. They are still looking for more. They stripped Redeemer members of all rights within the Lutheran Church, also with no discussion and no constitutional basis. They vilified our people when we dared to stand up for our faith — as our church taught us to do when we studied for confirmation. Our clergy were intimidated and left. This was designed to leave the laity lost and vulnerable. Instead, Redeemer’s lay leaders (which included two retired clergy) picked up the pieces and successfully grew our church community with no expectation of pay. SEPA personally attacked individual church members in court for five years, putting us in a position where we couldn’t just submit; we had to stand up for what we thought was right. Court accusations of fraud never held up. The latest judge repeated with exasperation, “Where’s the fraud? They were doing what they thought was right. Where’s the fraud?”

The Church persecutes its own.

Well, at least St. Andrew’s prayed for the persecuted, even if they don’t recognize us in their midst.

The Holy Spirit at Work in East Falls this Week?

In other Redeemer news, two leaders of Redeemer’s community music programs chanced to meet three times this week.

SEPA is not the only religious authority raping East Falls Christians of the use of their sacred property! Hierarchical need and greed are running rampant. St. James the Less was locked to members about eight years ago. SEPA locked Redeemer in 2009. St. Bridget’s Roman Catholic School just down the street was locked in 2012. Their leaders thought this fairly healthy school should bolster a struggling church a couple miles away. Both ended up closing.

We discussed how to restore Christian music education for the children of East Falls. Hard to do without property, but we hope not impossible. Redeemer had hosted a community children’s choir and summer music camp and St. Bridget’s School had a strong musical tradition. Our worship leaders had worked together before.

Three chance meetings in three days! Perhaps the Holy Spirit is at work this Pentecost!

20 May 2013

Ambassadors Visit St. Mark’s, Clifton Heights

st. mark clifton heights
It’s Mothers Day! The Ambassadors had some business in Upper Darby, so we chose to visit the early service at St. Mark’s in nearby Clifton Heights. This way we’d have most of the day to spend with family.

One of our Ambassadors is from a church which merged with St. Mark’s. He is a bit upset that they have dropped the name. It is officially St. Mark’s Temple, he told us.

St. Mark’s is one of those back door churches. Most people seem to enter from the back door into the narthex. We didn’t see the expansive front of the church until we left.

The narthex was full of tables with various offerings. The sanctuary is long and narrow. We Ambassadors usually sit in the back. The back in this case is quite far from the front. Our new Ambassador, who is familiar with the church, chose a seat close to the front.

The early service is listed as the Praise service and they used the Praise hymnal. These modern hymns are not particularly meaty and most have just one verse. They are meant to be chanted or repeated multiple times, building emotion. Lutherans have a hard time repeating more than twice, so that leaves hymn-lovers a bit wanting. Short on theology and emotion.

It was a bare-bones liturgy with the words projected on a screen. The screen tends to replace the altar as the focal point.

The people were friendly and some recognized our Ambassador whose family has a long history at Temple. He asked about some of the historic portraiture. Apparently, they have already archived the Temple side of the merger.

The organist and her daughter did an interesting anthem that combined the Shaker Hymn, ’Tis A Gift to Be Simple, with Pachelbel’s Canon in D. Two voices managed at times to sound like more!

The congregation is in the interim pastor process. It’s been nearly a year and a half. Interminable interims! The congregation seems to have a pretty strong sense of identity and purpose. Their statistics, at least as presented on their web site, seem to be growing. We wonder why they have endured such a long interim period.

Pastor Arlene Greenwald followed the congregational custom of gathering the entire congregation at the altar for the Eucharist. There were about 30 present. As a visitor, I find it to be a bit awkward—communing with people who represent the church that has worked so hard to destroy our congregation and attacked me personally in court. So I usually sit out communion. I actually enjoy the quiet time.

We have been made very unwelcome within the church of our heritage. There has never been any attempt to reconcile with us, which makes the offering of communion seem disingenuous.  All of the congregations we visit have it within their power to make a difference. All seem content to do nothing. Year after year. Weekly communion seems to be a pacifier to the communal Lutheran conscience—along with empty offerings of prayer that substitute for action.

Potted posies were given as gifts to the mothers. So nice. Our pastor wanted one to put on his mother’s grave.

One of our Ambassadors asked for a detour on the way home to view some sculpture. It was worth the drive.

We had a Mothers Day Breakfast together.

Of course, at Redeemer, we all remember Mothers Day 2009, when SEPA Synod representatives visited our church and attempted to commandeer our worship service.

12 May 2013

Loyalty and the future of the Church

dog is not so sure1The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (SEPA / ELCA) has become a disciple of Seth Godin, the leading authority on marketing and societal change with a voice on the web. They have quoted him to their congregations.

Seth’s blog today should interest them.

Confusing loyalty with silence

Some organizations demand total fealty, and often that means never questioning those in authority.

Those organizations are ultimately doomed.

Respectfully challenging the status quo, combined with relentlessly iterating new ideas is the hallmark of the vibrant tribe.

SEPA begs its congregations to innovate and change. When they don’t change the way the synod has predetermined that they SHOULD change, they close them down and claim their property.

Redeemer is a case in point. Redeemer was growing quickly when SEPA saw their longed-for chance at claiming our property slipping away. Bishop Almquist had made an attempt to close us and seize our assets in 1998 and backed off after two years. But he refused to work with us in ministry if we didn’t accept the part-time pastor he had chosen for us. His call or no call.

We continued to grow without his help.

SEPA has a mission plan for small churches. They call it triage — shoving the smallest churches to the side and waiting for them to die, while attention is spent on larger churches with more promising prospects for supporting the hierarchy. Property values and assets DO enter the equation. A small congregation is better off if it has no assets than if it has an endowment! Compare Redeemer’s story with Faith/Immanuel in East Lansdowne.

Bishop Burkat loves to call Redeemer “former Redeemer.” We are not sure if she means Redeemer of the 1960s, Redeemer of the 1980s, or the Redeemer she visited with a locksmith in 2008 and spent the last five years suing. We exist if only so we can be sued!

Or maybe she thinks because Synod Council voted to close Redeemer in 2010, never bothering to inform the congregation, that Redeemer is closed. We notice in the latest ELCA yearbook that we are still contributing to the national church! Sounds like we are open!

Synod Council does not have the power to vote congregations out of existence. They’d know that if they read their founding documents. We reserve our constitutional right to challenge synod council’s actions when SEPA can provide a fair forum for hearing a challenge. 

We recall very well our appeal in 2009 — which the Synod Assembly never voted on, substituting a vote about our property (not within their authority) when we were appealing Synodical Administration. Check the Synod Minutes and read the question that was voted on. It had nothing to do with our appeal!

Bait and switch. Then claim immunity from the law to pull it off in court.

Redeemer still exists in every way. Redeemer meets weekly — sometimes more often. Redeemer worships weekly —sometimes more often. Redeemer’s efforts to continue ministry— even as SEPA locked us out of the church we built and excluded us from all rights and fellowship within its fold—have grown our congregation in reach and influence despite persecution.

Redeemer is a vibrant tribe. We were always a viable, innovative congregation and our experience of the last five years has only made us stronger in innovation. We will relentlessly iterate our innovations for the good of all.

SEPA congregations are not powerless. They can still turn this around for the good of mission. But they have to respectfully challenge the status quo and demand peaceful reconciliation.

But what we’ve heard for the last five years is silence.

Redeemer is not closed.
Redeemer is locked out of the Church by SEPA Synod.

photo credit: WilliamMarlow via photopin cc

15 Feb 2013

Ambassadors Visit St. David’s, NE Philadelphia

St David's Lutheran Church, Philadelphia

Ambassadors Visit 55th SEPA Congregation

Today’s visit was our first visit to a new congregation since we visited Trinity, Lansdale, in early January. We have made a couple of repeat visits—we don’t count them in our tally.

We attended St. David’s 11 am service, which their website claims is popular. It is a praise style worship service with a two-piece band. Nine church members sat together in the front and helped lead the music—all of which was of modern style. We knew a few of the praise songs but not all.

The service skipped a good bit of the liturgy although most elements were present. The Old Testament lesson, Psalm and Epistle lessons were skipped. So was the creed, although it was listed in the bulletin and was probably skipped by accident.

Replacing these were many praise songs.

The sanctuary is small and Spartan but tasteful in decor. Some Christmas imagery remained, appropriate for the last Sunday in Epiphany. The pastor, The Rev. Kevin Hilgendorf, explained that the angels and lights would disappear by next Sunday and the beginning of Lent.

There were about 60 in worship—just one family with young children and a few older youth. Generally the mix of ages was good. 60 fills the sanctuary pretty well.

The band leader led most of worship and did well. The congregation seemed to be very appreciative and cooperative.

This church seemed to have very close ties to the synod, which we frankly don’t see very often. Pastor Hilgendorf is a dean, a position which was once volunteer but is now paid by the synod. We think this is a major flaw in the reorganization of the 1980s as the deans are no longer independent and serving the congregations but are on the synod payroll and are thus biased.

There was a photo of Bishop Burkat in the narthex. It would never occur to anyone at Redeemer to put a bishop’s portrait in the narthex.

The pastor announced an upcoming event to meet the bishop.

Their website states that it was updated in January, but the most recent photos on the site were several years old.

There was mention of a generous gift that would help them with a certain expenditure and a deficit was mentioned. (Redeemer was not operating with a deficit.)\

Communion—Celebrating Unity — Except . . .

There was a scene at Communion. One of the children—Joshua, about three years old— insisted on being served communion. The pastor explained after the fact that although this is against the rules, there really was nothing wrong with it. It was easily accepted by the congregation. We say, way to go, Joshua!

It reminded us of one of our children, now grown. Redeemer made no issue of age at the communion rail. If a visiting pastor passed over a child, offering only a blessing, someone was likely to divide the host presented to them and hand it to the child. Our little member was not much older than Joshua when he was passed over by a pastor in a church the family was visiting. He returned to his seat with his family, fussing that he had been excluded. He made such a fuss that a stranger sitting in front of him turned and handed him a Tootsie Roll. The boy was doubly offended. “I don’t want that! he cried, refusing to be silenced with a bribe. He pushed his way into the aisle, intent on returning to the communion rail. He noticed that communion was over. “Oh, no!” he cried in despair. “Now they are putting it away, and I didn’t get any.” Redeemer members are spirited from the start!

Why do we teach exclusion? Communion really has little to do with understanding. The whole idea of communion passes all understanding. Joshua understood well enough! Redeemer knows how he feels! We’ve been excluded for four years — and not treated very well for years before that.

Passing the Peace

Before communion, as is usual, there was the passing of the peace. This is always difficult for our members but we are usually gracious in accepting the “Peace of God” from people who are part of the travesty the synod has visited upon our community, our congregation, and our individual members. Being passed the peace when there is no effort to work toward peace is troubling.

We know that the members of these churches often don’t know what’s going on. They accept without question what is told to them by synod officials. But the pastors know! We’ve made sure of that. It amazes us that the deliverers of the Good News have been content to let their actions, taken originally in ignorance perhaps, continue to go unchecked and unexamined while real pain is inflicted on the members of our congregation.

And so this morning one of our Ambassadors was overcome and left the sanctuary at the Passing of the Peace. When asked if she was all right, she said only, “I’m just fed up.”

And well she should be. This ambassador gave generously to her church, placing everything she has on the line to benefit the mission of the church. (Not unlike the story of the widow’s mite.) SEPA Synod walked in and scuttled the well-laid plans for ministry growth — eager to assume our assets in the face of their own $275,000 recurring deficit.

As the conflict grew — with never ANY attempt to try to work with our congregation — SEPA Synod has been content to allow her to suffer — to even lose her home and income as they smugly assert their rights which were not given to them by law but by the courts deferring to separation of church and state. The appellate court stated clearly that if the law were applied, Redeemer’s arguments should prevail.

Every SEPA congregation should be alarmed. But they are not under attack. It’s not happening to them, so they don’t care.

And so this good and caring Redeemer member, who sought NO personal gain, who wanted ONLY to help her church, has for the last four years faced the very real threat of losing her home. Her modest retirement income has been wasted by unnecessary legal fees (because SEPA can’t work with its churches without hiding behind the courts and separation of church and state).

This was our 55th visit. 54 churches have demonstrated that they do not care beyond the ritual words said in worship. 54 churches are among the 160 who followed leaders blindly. Several of them are now closed, too! And today this one Ambassador, when passed a meaningless peace, was fed up.

It’s a shame. The people of St. David’s seemed to be friendly and well-intentioned enough. But it is time for them and other churches (with equally kind-hearted members) to realize that it is up to them to control the actions of their leaders.

More Church Closings

Let’s Celebrate?

We saw in the bulletin that SEPA is closing another congregation. This one, Holy Spirit, was served by one of our pastor’s wives. The Rev. Sandra Brown serves on the Synod Council. Our last pastor, The Rev. Timothy Muse, also served on the Synod Council, disappearing shortly after Bishop Burkat was elected and shortly before she made her first moves on Redeemer. Pardon us for being suspicious of such connections. Caretaker ministries are an accepted strategy to wear down unsuspecting congregations who think they have called a minister to help them, while the synod’s understanding is that these caretakers will do nothing to help the church turn things around. They are serving as a prelude to closure — although its never described this way to the members paying the salaries.

We know nothing about Holy Spirit. We haven’t visited that church. They don’t have a web site and we tend to visit churches with web sites—as do most people, by the way.

We wonder if they have been neglected as so many small churches are. We wonder if they are victims of Bishop Burkat’s theory that churches have to be stripped of their heritage and started over under her control.

(A strategy is to give congregations “mission” status. The congregations think this is special help, but it really means that if efforts fail, the synod can claim their property. Clever! The congregations lose the rights to their property and they never saw it coming!)

Closing churches is not to be celebrated. It is usually caused by the failure of church professionals to provide the services necessary to grow a congregation.

The grand closing worship service has become a ritual to excuse poor performance.

10 Feb 2013

Ambassadors Visit Faith, Montgomeryville

Faith Lutheran Church, Montgomeryville

The sun was not cooperating with us and we didn’t bother to get both our Ambassadors in the picture this morning.

Congenial, Upbeat Worship Atmosphere

The Ambassadors were just two in number today with last minute cancellations from some of our usual number. We had decided to stall our visits until after the holidays as it is difficult for us to worship standing next to Lutherans who are suing us not only as a congregation but as individuals. But earlier in the week, the Ambassadors changed their mind and wanted a Sunday visit. This was our 53rd visit to a SEPA congregation.

Our choice to visit Faith Lutheran Church on Cowpath Road in Montgomeryville proved to be a perfect choice for us at this time.

We noticed on their website that the fourth Sunday is designated as “Old Time Gospel” worship. Other weeks of the month include Communion Sunday, a Sunday led by youth and a family Sunday.

We entered the church to find happy people. At least four people greeted us in the narthex and a few more made a point to stop and say hello once we had found seats in the sanctuary.

We don’t know how much “Old Time Gospel” Sunday differs from other weeks, but we noticed a decidedly casual atmosphere that seemed to be accepted by all of the approximately 60 worshipers. We sat in the next to last row. Most of the worshipers in front of us were in our own age group. But behind us was a healthy group of youth and a section of the sanctuary devoted to the trappings of a  praise band—a trap set, an organ and a piano.

The casual atmosphere extended to the community wardrobe. Many of the worshipers were wearing Faith Lutheran sweatshirts or T-shirts with Bible messages on them. This included the pastor, the Rev. Joyce Nelson, who cheerfully led worship wearing a Faith sweatshirt.

Pastor Nelson opened worship by reminding the congregation to enjoy Christmas and Advent music on a different plane, looking beyond the familiar tunes to pay close attention to the words. Very good advice for all Lutherans — clergy and laity alike.

The stained glass windows are a tribute to the faithful, depicting the symbols of many of the early apostles, with bold inclusion of a modern-day memorial for more recent saints from their community.

The sanctuary already appeared to be partially decorated for Christmas, but part of today’s worship included transforming the festive trappings from Advent colors to Christmas colors. At each musical interlude, the youth appeared like elves, and added an additional touch to the sanctuary’s holiday decor. During the first hymn, the wreaths were given bows. Later the Advent banners were taken down and replaced with white Christmas banners. I like the one that depicted a Christmas tree as a cross. Poinsettias were carried in and placed along the communion rail. A display, which I couldn’t see was arranged in front of the altar and at last the blue Advent candles were carried out, replaced with white candles.

Some of the music was “old time” and people seemed to be enjoying the opportunity to clap and feel good. Some of the hymns were more standard and parts of the service were from the new “red” book, not to be confused with the Common Service Book and Hymnal which we still find in some of the churches we visit and which we at Redeemer kept around, mostly to reference the hymns. They used the choral benediction which I hadn’t sung since high school choir but they didn’t use the crescendoing Amens that I recall ended our rendition.

A playing of Jesus Loves Me was a cue for the children to leave, but we saw only one or two children in worship. (We often sang Jesus Loves Me in Swahili in our worship and the Swahili chorus still comes to mind now.)

We wonder if the family attendance is better for some of the other theme weeks and how the themes seem to work overall.

The sermon was a dialog between the pastor and a man depicting the prophet Isaiah. It appeared to be part of an Advent series of conversations with Isaiah.

The music team (they didn’t use the word choir) was very nice with good deep voices opening the anthem and strong women’s voices.

We were given a nice visitor gift on our way out. We weren’t clear whether there was fellowship scheduled after worship or not, so we left to enjoy our own Sunday morning fellowship.

We had an impression that there was some affluence in the congregation as they are promoting a trip to the Holy Land for $3500, but their treasurer’s report indicates that they are very similar to Redeemer, with a smaller endowment, similar mortgage debt and running a $4000 deficit, which will likely disappear with Christmas giving. So they really aren’t much different than Redeemer as far as their financial viability. So many congregations no stronger than Redeemer were asked to decide who should own our property and assets.

We enjoyed our worship, but we always wonder if the good people we meet on our visits know that they are part of ongoing harassment of a church which includes equally good Christians in East Falls.

This will be our fourth Christmas locked out of the Lutheran Church with the permission of the Lutherans of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod.

All the prayers, peace-passing, welcome messages and good wishes ring with a very hollow sound when they are backed up by years of apathy to a horrific situation which they contributed to—perhaps innocently at first—but with general avoidance of the consequences since.

Still, we had a great visit, enjoyed our time with Faith, and wish them well.

23 Dec 2012

Illustration 2: The Folly of Blindly Replicating Mission Strategies

Replication is King

During the six years of Bishop Almquist’s term, during which SEPA was all but absent in its relationship with Redeemer, the Rev. Claire Burkat was making a name for herself as an assistant to the bishop.

She had a success of which she was particularly proud. She worked with a failing church and devised a plan. Synod would close the church with its aging members’ cooperation and reopen it weeks later with a new name.

In 2006 in her early days as bishop, Bishop Burkat came to Redeemer eager to replicate the experience which had been so successful (by her reports) before her election. In truth, it was too soon to tell if the mission strategy was actually successful. There were no statistics to support whether or not it was a good idea.

We have checked the current statistics of this congregation. They are not impressive. Membership seems to be under 50. About half the statistics of Redeemer in 2007.

Nevertheless in 2006, the experiment was touted as a promising innovation. Bishop Burkat was eager to replicate it and add another “success” to her résurmé.

The problem was Redeemer was not at all like the congregation that had agreed to pioneer this technique.

Remember, SEPA had walked away from Redeemer six years before and their memory was that the congregation consisted of a dozen old ladies. Their waiting game strategy should have been ripe for implementation, in Bishop Burkat’s view.

Things had changed at Redeemer. The elderly members who had met with Bishop Almquist had in fact gone to their heavenly reward. But there were now three times as many Redeemer members as when Bishop Almquist had released us from synodical administration—and that would soon double. Our members were mostly young families, most of whom had joined within the last ten years. Many were Tanzanian immigrants, but there were other new ethnic backgrounds new to Redeemer’s membership as well. Bishop Burkat even suggested removing the Tanzanian members to create statistics to justify the strong-arm tactics she planned to implement. Some had been members for a decade, some had been born into our community. This was (and is) insulting to Redeemer’s Tanzanian members as it should be to every Lutheran. As one young Tanzanian member noted at the time: SEPA is big on ministry to the Tanzanians — as long as we stay in Tanzania. (The statistics presented to Synod Assembly by the trustees excluded the Tanzanian members.)

Redeemer’s interest in working with SEPA was to build on its success. SEPA wasn’t listening. They knew best.

Closing Redeemer and reopening it under a new name was the only plan they would consider. Why?Their way gave them control of the congregation’s assets.

Here we go again! Mutual discernment at work!

Bishop Burkat made this proposal. She would close the church down, have a grand closing ceremony, and reopen it a few weeks later. Renaming the church was key to this strategy. There should be no confusion that the old church was dead and gone. The new name had to meet with her approval. Oh, and the current members would not be permitted any leadership roles. From where the new leaders were to suddenly emerge to take control of our ministry was not made clear. Meanwhile, Synod would reign with no one to answer to — hardly the Lutheran way.

Of course, this was offensive to a congregation that had worked hard to recover from the mess created by Bishop Almquist — and was succeeding.

The first proposal was the church should close for two weeks. That became six months by the time they saw us in court.

Well, in 2009, Bishop Burkat finally got her way and has control of Redeemer’s property. It has been locked to Redeemer and the community for three and a half years.

Redeemer remains active through 2×2 Foundation, waiting for the day that the Lutherans of SEPA recognize that maybe, just maybe, they were part of a big mistake.

The strategy of replicating one success in a different neighborhood has been disastrous for both East Falls and SEPA. Redeemer bears the popular blame, but SEPA with its selfish policies is responsible. Bishop Burkat defends her actions, citing the process of mutual discernment.

Once again, the definition of mutual discernment is “comply or goodbye.“

22 Dec 2012

It Is Well with My Soul

Our Ambassadors Advent Journey

Our Ambassadors are a loyal group of Lutherans. They amaze me with their fortitude. They amaze me even more with their spirituality and goodness.

They inspired our 52 visits. They go with open hearts, truly enjoying worship. They also feel true sadness and wonder at the way they have been treated within the church. They rarely talk about it. They are much more interested in the congregations we visit then the congregations have interest in us.

Keep in mind that The SEPA/Redeemer conflict is not a distant game to us to be trusted to others to solve. Eleven members of Redeemer stand to lose their homes and livelihoods because of this conflict which we entered with good grounds. The courts even agree on that. There was room for dispute. Had the church truly taken the time to hear and weigh the issues, a better solution would have been found that would have avoided five years of fighting in public. A few evenings or afternoons working with us would have pointed to so much good. Instead, the Church has opted for years of wrangling.

Sadly, the courts didn’t give the issues much time either. They thought it was the Church’s job.

I opened my email this morning and saw a note from one of our ambassadors — an 80-year-old woman, devoted to her church, who stands to lose her home and income because of synod’s greedy actions against our congregation. I opened it with concern.

There I saw the story behind the well-known hymn, “When Peace Like A River” or “It Is Well with My Soul.”

I knew this story, but it is good to hear it again, especially coming from someone facing similar circumstances.

As you read it remember that the problems facing Redeemer NEVER had to be and can still be curbed.

The song “It Is Well With My Soul” was written by a successful Christian lawyer. He had two daughters and a wife. The family planned a summer trip overseas. He had a lot of work to complete and sent his family ahead, planning to follow them on a later ship. While traveling, he heard the news that the ship his family had boarded had capsized. All souls lost.

On his return home, he found that his place of business had been destroyed by fire. Insurance ruled it an act of God and would not pay. Without a place to work, he soon lost his house. While pondering his plight, he turned to the Lord and penned the now familiar words— Whatever my Lord, you have taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.

What a testimony! Both from the hymn’s author, Horatio Spafford, and our Ambassador.

But acceptance of misfortune is not an excuse to take advantage of church members’ spirituality. We are supposed to help one another. This travesty can still be stopped.

Don’t offer to pray, although prayer is always welcome. It is so often an excuse for failure to act. Offer to do. (Click to tweet)

Our Ambassadors have decided to spend our Sundays enjoying seasonal spiritual offerings. Concerts. The Messiah, etc. It’s just too hard to worship with the Lutherans who are suing us. There’s a new year coming! We’ll be back!

16 Dec 2012