It will take a while for the Church to recognize that they can no longer control the voice of the faithful. The reason for this delay is that congregations and individual Christians do not yet realize that we have more power than ever before in history.
We are accustomed to abiding in silence, accepting what we are told and assuming that the powerful within the church have godly interests.
This is not always true.
Martin Luther took a huge risk when he hammered his list of 95 complaints onto the cathedral door. The response was predictable. Luther was forced into hiding for fear of his life. Fortunately, he made a few well-positioned friends who helped him over this rough spot. He emerged to become a respected preacher and teacher of the Word.
Martin Luther wasn’t the first to raise many of the issues he cited. He was the first to survive. He was the first with the power of a printing press to amplify his voice.
The old tools of intimidation still work. Clergy who are beholding to hierarchy are easily silenced.
During the extended conflict between Redeemer Lutheran Church and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod has anyone wondered why it is the lay people who have been dragged through courts? The clergy who were working with the congregation, voted with the congregation, and encouraged the congregation headed for the hills after private meetings in the synod office.
Today, each individual within the Church has far more power than Martin Luther.
We have a voice that will be more difficult to control.
Eventually, our voices will have influence.
Redeemer, excluded from participation within the church, started a blog. We are one of very few churches who have taken this step and use this tool for weekly outreach. It has both changed and shaped our ministry in ways we never expected.
Blogging builds community. We have encountered dozens of individual bloggers who write from a spiritual point of view. They are poets, photographers, parents, writers, artists, and adventurers. They are all over the world—Thailand, Armenia, Scandinavia, Africa, the Mideast. Some of them have church connections. Others do not. They tend to represent the age demographic that is missing in the church on Sunday morning—20-40.
They have discovered that within the Church, they have little voice, but outside the Church, they can grow.
The ability to grow as individuals is a key factor that is missing in many church communities.
Modern youth have been reared in a world where they must constantly reeducate themselves. They are involved in an ongoing process of self-discovery. In the past this discovery period ended at about age 30, when we settled down. This will no longer be true for any of us, regardless of age.
Self-rediscovery tends to be discouraged within the Church. We are likely to be assigned a task that Church needs to have accomplished. We will be told how to do it—how to teach, how to sing, how to fix the altar, and how to distribute the offering plates. Once we accept one of these jobs, it may be ours for life!
It is no wonder that people turn away from the Church. They seek community where their voices can be heard—their ideas and talents recognized.
If the Church does not find a way to welcome the voice of the people and adapt to modern expectations, they will find their churches to be empty on Sunday mornings.
Church leaders who face this change in society with tenacious resistance will enjoy fleeting successes.
A storm is coming. A wise church would nurture voice if they want transforming change.
March 4 is the date that commemorates my coming of age at Redeemer. It is the date of the funeral of a senior member of our congregation. It’s easy to remember. March Fourth — the answer to an old riddle—the calendar date that is an order.
I was happy being a peripheral member of Redeemer back in 1985. I was 31 years old and was just becoming active. I taught the adult Sunday School class. The members of the class were all senior women. They were part of the capable old guard in this neighborhood church. Redeemer had accepted women as leaders well ahead of the national church.
I had just been elected to the congregation council. I joined in the congregation’s shock when one of the long-time leaders announced he would no longer continue. Our pastor recommended they nominate me as president. I felt unqualified. It wasn’t that I didn’t know church. I was a seasoned preacher’s kid from a long line of Lutheran preacher’s kids. Families of clergy are accustomed to viewing church from the outside. Ministry is the family job. Add to that the fact that I was a country gal in an urban church. A guppy out of water.
I accepted the role of president on one condition—that Elmer Hirsh, one of the seasoned leaders, serve as co-president and teach me the ropes. Deal! The annual meeting at which I was elected was the last Sunday in February.
Elmer died on March 1. From that moment, it was trial by fire.
I took the job seriously and tried with success to lead the family church in facing the changing demographics of the neighborhood.
I convinced the congregation to stay open in the summer instead of ceasing all activity in East Falls and merging worship with Grace in Roxborough. Summer is when people re-organize their lives and the church should be open, I argued.
I was president when Redeemer received its fateful endowment in 1987. This large infusion of cash made it possible to call a full-time pastor once again. I saw the shift in attitudes among clergy that occurs when it is known that a small congregation suddenly has means.
I helped the congregation transition from running their own parish school to working with the Lutheran agency, Ken-Crest, to operate a school that could help even more children. This worked well for 25 years — until SEPA interfered behind the backs of the congregation.
I married into an old Redeemer family in 1988. I left for five years when the endowment began to cause tension with clergy. I didn’t want to be part of what was happening. My old guard husband stayed on — ever loyal, but growing disillusioned. We had just reunited at Redeemer in 1997 with a change in pastors when my husband suffered a catastrophic stroke. He was to live the last nine months of his life totally dependent.
His death coincided with Bishop Almquist’s first attempt to seize Redeemer’s assets. Had Bishop Almquist made his move a couple of months earlier, he might have prevailed.
I had been absent from Redeemer for nearly a year, caring for my husband—a 24/7 job, and for five years before that. Only a few weeks after my husband’s funeral, a Redeemer member called — a woman I barely knew—asking for my help with a situation that was brewing with the Synod.
I was recovering from a horrific year. I hadn’t been working. Newly widowed, I was the sole family bread-winner and raising an 8-year-old boy solo. Even so, I agreed to help the church that had become my family church. We reorganized to face Synod’s threats.
Thus began two years of needless fighting (1998-2000).
Redeemer had already taught me a lot about what makes people work well together. I learned from Redeemer that it is OK to fight. One older member explained to me: an occasional verbal bench-clearing is good for the team. I learned that these people knew each other well enough to fight and reconcile at the same meeting. There was no shame in insisting on what you thought was right.
One Sunday, there was a momentous argument. (I DO remember what it was about!) As is typical at Redeemer, the air soon cleared and everyone sat down at the same table to work together as if nothing had happened. I noticed our pastor’s wife standing off to the side, observing and grinning. I asked her why she was smiling. “That kind of reconciliation doesn’t happen in every church,” she commented.
It was the norm at Redeemer. What comes as a surprise to us is that others are incapable of arguing, standing ground, and reconciling. We still don’t understand why this is impossible with SEPA.
Bishop Almquist gave up the always unnecessary “synodical administration” and a year later returned most of the assets the synod had seized. But his actions did lasting damage.
The current feud was made possible by his precedent. It fueled gossip within the insulated environment of church hierarchy. Redeemer became fair game. It was OK to abuse and ignore us. They’d done it before!
Today’s six-year feud could have been resolved before it started with a good, bench-clearing debate, followed by reconciliation. We are all on the same side, really. The control of property and assets — which is clearly defined in our founding documents — stands in the way of reason and ministry.
Redeemer members are trying to uphold historic Lutheran polity. Lutherans are interdependent, not hierarchical. More and more Lutherans (including clergy) don’t know that!
Fueled by clergy gossip, the Synod views Redeemer’s fortitude as a threat to their power. We see our position as doing the job of lay people.
Lutherans believe in equality of and cooperation between laity and clergy. I learned this in Confirmation Class and from the examples set by Elmer Hirsh, my husband, my adult Sunday School class, and both the old and new leadership of Redeemer. They are all saints in my book.
Somewhere in the last 25 years of the new ELCA, this strength of Lutheranism has waned and may be totally lost as we seek to emulate the structures of other denominations. Logically, other denominations should be emulating us—we have the tradition of reformation. But the concept of hierarchy is once again attractive to those who crave power.
Congregations are expected to comply with whatever the regional body sees as best. The regional body’s vision is muddied with self-interest and waning support across the board. Its information, especially from under-served smaller congregations, is often dated. Still, it’s comply or die.
And so, at least in my mind, this week commemorates the death of old Redeemer and my inauguration as one of many leaders of a new Redeemer. We went in directions none of us foresaw (and SEPA wasn’t looking). We constantly reassessed our neighborhood, our resources and our pool of talent. We were on a solid course, which still shows more promise than anything SEPA has in mind.
We remain ready to work together toward reconciliation however unlikely it seems.
In 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.
Today Bishop Claire Burkat of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will gather her little chicks under her wing at Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in NE Philadelphia and celebrate its closure. They’ve been moving toward this date for the last year, since they sold the property to the United Church of Christ—and probably still longer.
This is also the fifth anniversary of Bishop Claire Burkat’s attempt to stealthily seize Redeemer’s property in East Falls. It was on February 24, 2008, that Bishop Burkat invited herself to our church supposedly to plan a closing service for a congregation that had never even discussed closing much less been given an opportunity to vote on it as is constitutionally necessary. She brought about nine or ten people with her with no notice, despite the fact that the congregation had warned her that the date she had chosen with no consultation with church leaders was already booked and that the congregation did not wish to meet at that time. The two members of Redeemer who met her that day were soon to discover that her plans had nothing to do with planning a worship service. Among her posse was SEPA’s lawyer who was waiting behind the building and out of sight in a locksmith’s van. When their strategy called for the lawyer and locksmith to make their presence known we don’t know. We had been forewarned by someone in Chicago that she was intending such a move and so when we saw the locksmith van go by, we were prepared.
The bishop’s embarrassment that day, which sparked five years of vindictive law suits, has cost mission and ministry in our neighborhood dearly.
There was never an attempt to work with us — we were not valued enough to be part of the discussion of our future. The names of our lay leaders were dragged through the mud—an attempt to validate Synod’s actions. The work of the laity was treated with total disregard. The people of Redeemer deserved the opportunity to work with and be in discussion with SEPA just as the people of Holy Spirit have been.
SEPA’s Articles of Incorporation forbid the Synod from confiscating congregational property without the consent of the congregation.
The more SEPA congregations allow this very important foundation of Lutheran polity to be ignored, the more endangered each congregation is.
Redeemer’s Ambassadors have now visited 56 SEPA congregations. We know that many of them are no stronger and more than a few are weaker than Redeemer. If Redeemer’s statistics were the reason for closing, about ten to twenty percent of the remaining 160 congregations should also be closed with more suffering the same fate within a decade or two if innovative steps aren’t taken.
We have always known that Redeemer’s property and endowment were the real attractions. In April of 2008, we discovered that Bishop Burkat had offered our property for sale to a Lutheran Agency without a word to our congregation. We learned this from a letter from the agency, dated in early April (only about 40 days after the February 24 showdown), informing us that they had done an extensive site evaluation and were denying the offer of sale. The timing suggests that the property, owned by the congregation, had been offered for sale even before Bishop Burkat came to the congregation—all without the knowledge of the congregation. Clearly NOT Luthean polity.
SEPA needed our money—quick and easy. This devious situation fueled the character assassination, personal attacks and refusal to work with Redeemer that has characterized the court battles. But SEPA seems to be unable to check and balance their leadership — as their constitutions call for.
In September 2009, Bishop Burkat at last achieved her goal. She locked out the members of Redeemer.
Undaunted, Redeemer continues its mission, achieving its greatest success with our online ministry. We have broken new ground in mission which is being recognized by other denominations if not our own!
While some members of SEPA Synod are celebrating the closure of a church, others are meeting on this date in Lansdale and on Monday in Burholme to talk about communications. Redeemer and its website, 2x2virtualchurch.com, could contribute a great deal to a discussion with church communicators. We have a ton of experience!
The 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.
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.
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.
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.
Many congregations are interested in adding Social Media to their ministries. And so they dabble. They find someone to start a Facebook page. They lean back and relax. That’s done. Innovation isn’t so hard, after all!
Here’s the thing about Social Media.
Social Media is more than Facebook. Much more!
If your congregation embraces Social Media it will mean everything changes.
Social Media, fully embraced, is not a simple add-on — like adding an extra worship service.
It is transforming.
Transforming? Isn’t that what our church leaders have been demanding of congregations for the last decade with little definition of exactly what they mean?
Social Media—fully embraced—will affect every aspect of your ministry in positive and profound ways.
People need to be prepared. The only way to prepare people is to involve them and encourage flexibility. It helps to actually get started!
My family had lunch today in a historic inn along the famous Lincoln Highway. We got to talking about the history of the highway. It seems the opening of this newfangled cross-continental roadway that followed the introduction of the automobile came with no small amount of angst.
The big fear was that the horses of the early 20th century would not be happy.
Unhappy horses meant unhappy drivers.
A plan was developed.
Step 1: Prepare the horses. Warn them. Something new is coming.
Early drivers of horseless carriages were encouraged to carry flares with them. Upon approaching a horse-drawn carriage, they were to shoot up a warning flare. (Bet that went over big!)
Step 2: Protect the horses’ sense of security.
If horses were not reassured by flares (and why would they be?), then drivers were encouraged to carry camouflage. At the sight of a distressed horse, they should be prepared to pull to the side of the road and drape their automobile with a sheet designed to make the car disappear into the surroundings. What the horse doesn’t see will not be scary.
Step 3: Dismantle the horseless carriage.
If a horse is still disturbed by its new competition, drivers should be prepared to dismantle their automobile and hide the pieces along the side of the road until the horse passes as if nothing has changed.
All of this is, of course, absurd — especially to us Pennsylvanians who share the roads with our Amish neighbors. The horses seem to have adapted!
But this is a typical agenda for those who fear change.
Warn people of innovation.
Protect them from innovation.
Be prepared to dismantle all the progress and benefits possible from innovation at the first sign of distress (real or imaginary).
Churches intent on incorporating social media must be prepared to meet the same sorts of resistance.
It will mean doing things very differently — across the board. The very structure of church will change.
Expect something like this:
Social Media is clearly too much work for one pastor. But pastors are used to controlling communication in the church. Lay people cannot be expected to handle so much responsibility. Best to wait. And wait. And wait.
What do we do if Social Media actually works and lots of new people join a church? (This was a problem Redeemer was dealing with as 49 people joined in one year.) What if those 49 people become a voting block with the potential to ruin any plans made before they joined. Our congregation was dealing with this issue head-on and making progress. But our denomination, intent on Redeemer failing so they could claim our property, couldn’t deal with change they hadn’t orchestrated. They skipped right to Step 3: Dismantle everything! They kicked out the 49 new members along with the 25 or so older members and locked the church doors.
These are real problems but they are good problems that need solutions. Dismantling everything because things aren’t like they used to be is just plain silly—and it is counter to Christian mission.
Fortunately, there are real solutions waiting to be discovered.
The automobile is now the norm.
The new church that arises from the use of Social Media will soon be the norm, too — and it all may happen just in time to save the mainline church.
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
Bishop Claire Burkat justifies her actions in East Falls, citing a process of mutual discernment that she suggests was long and involved, having spanned both her term and that of Bishop Almquist.
We’ve provided two illustrations of how the mutual discernment (1 and 2) process excluded the members of Redeemer.
Here’s a third illustration. In this case Redeemer was not only never consulted, we were totally unaware that another congregation was engaged with the bishop in discussions that affected Redeemer’s future and property.
In 2005, Redeemer was approached to help a neighboring congregation, Epiphany in Upper Roxborough, more than two miles away.
Epiphany had to vacate their building. It had been condemned because of termite damage. They had been sharing space unhappily with a neighboring Episcopal Church. Rev. Timothy Muse, their mission developer pastor, was a member of SEPA Synod Council.
We agreed to work with Epiphany and jointly drafted a covenant that we hoped would lead to the merger of our two congregations within a few years. We were careful to put no timetable on the covenant. We wanted both groups to be confident of any decision to merge and such confidence could not be fostered with mandated deadlines.
The covenant called for Redeemer to share Epiphany’s pastor. Epiphany would provide most of the salary. Redeemer contributed. Epiphany would have free access and use of Redeemer’s property, for which Redeemer would continue to bear the expenses. We would worship separately and consider joint worship on special occasions as a starting point.
This system worked well for 18 months. Our councils met together every other month. Individual councils and leaders occasionally met with Pastor Muse separately to discuss matters that involved only one of the congregations. (The trustees represented this period of time to Synod Assembly as if Redeemer’s council was not meeting and decisions were being made by a few in isolation. Not true. The minutes of meetings were kept by Epiphany’s secretary. They never asked for them.)
Redeemer bided time for the first year as Pastor Muse was admittedly preoccupied with Epiphany’s need to sell their condemned property. We were encouraged when the sale at last was completed with a benefit to Epiphany of about $600,000.
Epiphany expressed an interest in moving the merger ahead a bit more quickly. Redeemer was looking forward to a bit more of Pastor Muse’s attention. The worship committees met jointly during the summer to explore merging worship. We wanted to preserve the traditions of our East African members which we had incorporated into our worship for several years and we wanted consensus on decisions as Epiphany was not only larger in number but they had worked with Pastor Muse for much longer than Redeemer had. They had an advantage in their long-term relationship while we were just getting to know him.
We recognized that Epiphany had been through a lot with the loss of their building. Their lay leadership appeared to be much more dependent on Pastor Muse, while Redeemer who had not had a pastor for years, was used to lay leadership. We discussed this with Pastor Muse. He encouraged us. He said that Redeemer’s strong lay leadership was a gift to the covenant.
Redeemer drafted a proposal which we hoped would jumpstart working together. We presented it as a starting point. We modeled it on the proven success of two other ELCA congregations who had successfully shared a pastor and programming for many years. It called for even sharing of worship leadership, alternating Sundays, with joint planning of special events and one jointly planned service per month. We saw this as a honeymoon period that would help us grow to know and trust one another.
Pastor Muse reviewed our proposal. He mailed it to Epiphany members without our knowledge, although we would not have objected. Epiphany members mistakenly believed that Redeemer had sent it to them as an ultimatum for their acceptance, which was never Redeemer’s intent. There was a meeting to attempt to clear this up. Pastor Muse made it clear at this meeting that Redeemer did not know that he had mailed the proposal to Epiphany’s members.
It became clear at this meeting that Epiphany viewed Redeemer’s East African membership as not part of the merger. Conversation ended when we insisted our East African members were full members of Redeemer and their preferences for worship needed to be part of the discussion.
Pastor Muse suggested we let some time pass before we talk again.
Shortly thereafter Redeemer’s leaders received an email from Pastor Muse that Epiphany had voted to break the covenant and close. He would be gone within ten days (the constitution calls for 30 days notice).
Breaking the covenant was never discussed. We were given no opportunity to continue with Pastor Muse, whom everyone liked.
We learned that Pastor Muse and Epiphany’s president had met privately with Bishop Burkat.
Would it not be reasonable to assume that a bishop would encourage congregations in covenant to talk? Would it not be reasonable for synod, as leaders, to help facilitate such a meeting?
Redeemer was never part of any discussion about breaking the covenant.
Pastor Muse, true to his word, was gone in 10 days. He even left the Synod! Redeemer was abandoned.
Bishop Burkat would not meet with Redeemer until a year later and then only for a few minutes, promising to get back to us in three to five months. Eleven months of silence passed during which Redeemer drafted a mission plan and began to implement it with immediate success. Do the math. That’s nearly two years of non-involvement with Redeemer added to the six years of Bishop Almquist’s second term, during which he intentionally ignored our church. Claiming this is a time of heavy interaction and mutual discernment defies the truth.
What can explain this bizarre history?
SEPA’s recurring deficit budget is surely a consideration. SEPA needed money. It was easier to gain access to the congregation’s money by encouraging closure than to provide the services that would help a congregation grow and thereby foster long-term contributions.
All was going well until that $600,000 windfall from the sale of the property became a temptation.
The first sign of discontent from Epiphany brought encouragement to close — not to keep their ministry promises. And SEPA was to be the immediate beneficiary of $600,000.
Redeemer’s investment in the covenant—nearly two years of work down the drain! Epiphany’s covenant with Redeemer was broken with no consultation with Redeemer. NONE!
Synod, also with no conversation with Redeemer, allowed Epiphany six months to “wind down” their ministry. During these six months, Epiphany used Redeemer’s property as if it were their own — only now they were not contributing to the covenant any longer. Redeemer was left to coexist with Epiphany as non-contributing and somewhat hostile tenants.
Redeemer paid the freight for Bishop Burkat’s policies with Epiphany.
Even so, Redeemer cooperated without complaint.
Since we were not included in any discussions, we do not know exactly what transpired. But we’ve heard a few things since.
We learned during our Ambassador visits, that when Epiphany voted to close, they assumed they could allocate their assets to ministries and charities of their choice — which is Lutheran polity.
One ex-Epiphany member shared with us that Bishop Burkat had informed them after the vote was taken that SEPA would be the beneficiary of all but 5% of Epiphany’s assets. They were told this is an ELCA “rule.”
Synod’s Articles of Incorporation expressly forbid the Synod from conveying ANY congregational property without the consent of the congregation.
SEPA’s definition of “mutual discernment”: comply or good-bye.
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Redeemer’s Prayer
We were all once strangers, the weakest, the outcasts, until someone came to our defense, included us, empowered us, reconciled us (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 2).
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On Isaiah 30:15b
Be calm. Wait. Wait. Commit your cause to God. He will make it succeed. Look for Him a little at a time. Wait. Wait. But since this waiting seems long to the flesh and appears like death, the flesh always wavers. But keep faith. Patience will overcome wickedness.
—Martin Luther
