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southeastern pennsylvania synod

SEPA Synod Assembly Gears Up for Annual Meeting

shutterstock_174573782Time for a Troubled Synod
to Make Hard Decisions

Will They?

It’s almost time for the 2015 Annual Assembly of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. They’ll meet May 8 and 9 at the outskirts of the synod territory in convenient Franconia. You know where that is, don’t you?

 

We’ve been excluded from the SEPA’s Annual Assembly by decree since 2007. That’s not supposed to be possible, but who can stop it? Not Synod Assembly!

 

We still care!

 

ELCA Synods meet annually for business. Truth be told, not much business is done. The limited amount of time will be spent

  • listening to reports
  • engaging in impressive worship
  • chatting with colleagues
  • rubber stamping a few pre-packaged resolutions
  • showboating, to distract attention from the dire state of SEPA and many of its congregations

 

SEPA Synod AssemblyDebate will be limited. Those raising questions will get a minute or two at a microphone.

 

In better times, Synod Assemblies were working meetings. There were actually ways to raise issues and be heard. Today, with ministry failing and SEPA scrounging for money, the Assembly will divert attention from serious problems with featured feel-good moments. Grand organ music will fill voids. A guest speaker will be brought in to inspire.

 

There will be lots of talk about mission. Talk.

 

SEPA—The Synod that sues its members

SEPA is in survival mode. Congregations need their dwindling offerings. They don’t have money to send to distant and ineffective hierarchy. Will SEPA consider serious down-sizing as their congregations have? Or will they seek other sources of revenue?

 

Today, SEPA Synod devotes a lot of resources to the Real Estate business.

Disposing of valuable congregational property keeps the office running and salaries paid. SEPA operated with significant deficit budgets for years, making up as much as 10% of their expenses by selling properties of member churches. In a move toward transparency, they now operate with a balanced budget and report “budget shortfalls.”

 

Way back in 2005, our pastor who was serving on Synod Council, told us about SEPA’s Church Closure Team. Church Closure Team? Aren’t they there to support their congregations.

 

We would soon encounter this team as have other congregations. It consists at least of a lawyer, a former SEPA treasurer, and an archivist. Others are enlisted to do the upfront dirty work. Scouting.

 

SEPA relies a great deal on its relationship with this team. There is a problem here. Bishops are supposed to lead with love and respect, nurturing congregations. Lawyers look at the world in a far more black and white way. We heard synod’s lawyer refer to the Synod as the good guys. Guess who were the bad guys! Lawyers don’t care about nurturing and mission. They are not working for the congregations (even though congregations employ them). They are working for the Synod. Congregations are the enemy.

 

Can bishops lead effectively with a lawyer seated on their right side?

 

This same cast of characters, The Church Closure Team, goes about assessing congregations not for mission but for the prospect of closure. This should be repugnant to the rank and file of SEPA, but they are slow to connect the dots about what this means to the overall health of their organization—and to their own future. Judging from the criteria we’ve seen used, as many as a third of the congregations voting at Synod Assembly may be the next targets—any congregation that cannot afford $80,000 a year for a full-time pastor.

 

This creates another problem. How do congregations influence Synod Assembly to forsake this management strategy if it brings attention to them, making them the next target of the Church Closure Team.

 

Congregations are targeted.  SEPA officials will object. “There is no list.” But there is.

 

SEPA Attorney John Gordon said so in court with our congregation. “Redeemer is the first of six.”

 

Are you on the list?

 

Don’t expect the list to be published. Look for the signs. Here’s how they work.

The ideal prospect is a small, debt-free church in a neighborhood where land values are high. Endowments are nice, too!

 

  • A synod representative will appear unannounced at worship. He or she will spend little time talking to anyone. They may or may not introduce themselves. If they do, they will say they are making routine visits. It’s just something they do.
  • They will report what they see. In many churches that will be fewer than 30 in worship. They will not be looking for strengths. They are looking for weakness—any excuse to interfere for their own enrichment.
  • Relax if you have an old graveyard. No one wants a property with an old graveyard.

 

OK. The ground work is laid.

 

Now for the strategy. How to get congregations to abandon mission, faith, and love for their community and convince them to hand over their property and bank accounts?

 

We write from experience. SEPA Synod delegates may think Redeemer was an isolated attack. SEPA is in court today even as I write—suing lay people.

 

SEPA delegates should address their leaders’ behavior.

 

SEPA Synod’s attorney once flew to Chicago to share his strategy for church closure with all ELCA lawyers. Save the air fare. Here it is for free!

 

11 Tactics for Having Your Way
with Church Transformation

TACTIC 1
Pretend to help

Offer the church “mission status.” Sounds good. The overworked church council sighs with relief. Finally, someone in the synod office cares.

Watch out! They are betting that you do not know that churches accepting Mission Status forfeit property rights. Accept Mission Status for one day and your property will be claimed by Synod a hundred years from now if you decide to close. With Mission Status they are likely to send in a pastor that will answer to them, not your council. Their appointed leader might do an evaluation that (no surprise) indicates investment in your congregation is not good use of their resources after all.

 

TACTIC 2
Offer Synodical Administration

The original constitution allows for congregations to ask for administrative help. It is supposed to be a temporary option to assist congregations experiencing difficulty. It must be approved by the congregation. The constitution does not detail how you get out of it!

 

TACTIC 3
Ignore Congregational Leaders

Do not return phone calls. Ignore letters. Make public claims that the congregation is not cooperating.

 

TACTIC 4
Remove the pastor

Your pastor will suddenly disappear. He or she may get a plum assignment a good distance away. They may flee the synod entirely. We’ve seen both happen. This hurts morale, wears members down, and makes everyone feel vulnerable. There is more work for the laity, who are probably already doing most of the work.

 

TACTIC 5
Bypass Congregational Leaders

A favorite tactic. Both Bishop Almquist and Bishop Burkat employed this tactic at Redeemer. If the Congregational Council objects to what Synod wants, demand a congregational vote. They’ll  make it sound democratic.

Democracies do not put every issue to popular vote. They rely on selected people to take special interest in issues and act for the whole—like Synod Assembly! In most congregations there are a healthy number of people with equal vote but who are less involved, want to avoid unpleasantness, and can be more easily swayed.

This bullying tactic makes it very difficult for local leaders. That’s the idea!

 

TACTIC 6
Impose Involuntary Synodical Administration

Pastors, who know something about church procedure, are now out of the way. Congregational leaders, already bypassed, are now replaced by synod-appointed trustees, pledged to serve the interests of the synod—not the congregation. Those words have actually been added to the constitution even though they violate the founding charters. Involuntary Synodical Administration is a thief’s workaround! The word Involuntary is not in the constitution. All such actions are supposed to be with the consent of the congregation.

There are certain criteria that must be met to employ this strategy. There is no reliable way to assess or verify. Our congregation experienced this tactic twice. We had grown six-fold between the first instance and the second. It didn’t matter. It was deemed that we were scattered and diminished when almost all our 82 members lived within four miles—most within two. Ask the bishop how far she lives from her congregation.

 

TACTIC 7
Declare the church closed.

Synod is now in charge. They will lose no time declaring your congregation closed. The congregation wasn’t voting the way they wanted, so they took the vote out of their hands. This is constitutionally murky, but no one outside the targeted congregation will question it. The courts don’t want to be bothered. Members are now denied voice, vote and access to the church lawyers their offerings paid for. All fellowship with other congregations is denied. Lutheran shunning.

 

TACTIC 8
Change the locks

Shut out the legal owners of the property. Be as sneaky as possible, then act outraged when members seek legal help. Get the deed transferred to the Synod before the congregation can organize to stop you. This isn’t as easy as it sounds!

 

TACTIC 9
Sue the congregation

Pastors are out of the way. Sue the lay people. Shooting fish in a barrel. Name those with the most congregational influence personally. This scare tactic, actually escalates conflict. Dialog is shut down. The lay people are forced to defend themselves.

 

TACTIC 10
Rely on Separation of Church and State

Cry First Amendment! There may have been no doctrinal or discipline issues, but it will help in court if the synod makes lay people appear to be “bad guys.” Quick, create some issues. Personal attacks are fine. Filing criminal charges is not going too far. Anything to win! Synod is exempt from the law. Lay people aren’t.

 

TACTIC 11
Allow the constitutional appeal process

Up until now, the synod has probably been stonewalling lay leaders’ attempts to work within the rules. But they don’t want to appear in court without having followed their constitution. Only now, when the prejudice, defamatory rhetoric and self-interests have peaked, permit the congregation to approach the Synod Assembly. Make the congregation appeal to the body that is suing them. Make sure things go Synod’s way. Change the question at the last minute if you have to. Substitute an unrelated issue. In the hyped-up atmosphere of a SEPA Synod Assembly, no one will notice.

_____________________________

Some variation of this is in the experience of most of the churches who have encountered the imposed closure process and land/asset grab. Some give in earlier than others. After all, nobody goes to church to be treated like this! Most lay people can find better things to do with their time.

 

SEPA Synod Assembly has the ability to address the on-going foul practices perpetrated in their names, but they will be kept busy. No time for business—or justice.

 

Please rise as you are able for the benediction.

 

Go in peace. Serve the Lord.

23 Apr 2015

A “What If” Good Samaritan Story

You all know the story of the Good Samaritan—how the authorities of society, the priest and the Levite—passed by the man in need.

Here is a new —only slightly different—scenario to ponder.

What if the priest (the first to run away) was actually the person who robbed and beat the victim?

What if the Levite (the keeper of religious law) were the interdependent church entities of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)?

What if the victim was a little church in East Falls?

We have one question for SEPA Lutherans (and the whole ELCA) on this upcoming Good Samaritan Sunday.

Who is your neighbor?

We know who our Good Samaritans are and thank them.
12 Jul 2013

Winning Friends and Gaining Influence in East Falls

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

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

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

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

Clearly, they mean business!

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

That should make mowing the yard very interesting.

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

East Falls is not going to take well to it.

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

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

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

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

04 May 2013

The Resilience of Small Congregations

shepherdlrSmall Church Resilience: A Squandered Asset

Today’s Alban Institute blog post addresses church resilience. It includes the thoughts of Judith Jordan who describes resilience as not so much an “intrinsic toughness” but more as an ongoing process of nurturing and fostering of relationships. 

All churches can be resilient. We notice resilience more when the stakes are higher—but both large and small churches can rebound. They can redefine their missions. They can survive.

Resilience grows from love.

That’s what the Church is supposed to be good at. Wealth gets in the way.

The Church at every level is challenged today. Almost all church activity is funded by the contributions of individuals. That quarter that clinks in the offering tray must fund the local church, a regional body, the national church and all church agencies.

It is getting harder for church entities more distant from the members’ pockets to survive. Power is their only tool.

In the Lutheran Church with its interdependent structure, there is very little power assigned to church hierarchy. They are supposed to exist as servants of the congregations. But the economy has hit them hard. They crave more direct access to the wealth of congregations.

They start to stretch their powers, tweaking their constitutions a little here, a little there, until they are wielding powers that were never bestowed upon them in their founding documents.

The sense of mission begins to fade. It becomes replaced with pageantry. Pageantry makes things look better—for a while.

The mission of most churches today is funding their budget.

In this atmosphere it is harder to see resilience. The message of love is lost.

Love breaks down barriers. It opens hearts.

Resilience is hindered in a culture of criticism and judgment. That’s what many congregations experience within the structured church. The list of judgments against small congregations can be long and fabricated. The claims are difficult to prove, but few care as long as they are not personally affected.

  • Lay leaders are too strong.
  • People are resistant to change.
  • People are living in the past.
  • People are unwelcoming.
  • People can’t support clergy.
  • People can’t accept new ideas.

Says who? The people who want to claim church assets.

Funny, the faulty lay people who are “destroying their churches” with their backward thinking are thriving in the secular world which changes more frequently and at a faster rate.

Much of the criticism of congregations reflects denominational needs.

Running a denomination is expensive.  Offices are expensive. Staffing an office is expensive. Keeping up illusions is expensive. The ONLY source of income for denominations is congregational members.

The poor, the needy, the sick, the young and old dependents, the infirm or visionaries need not apply.

Constitutionally, in the ELCA, no congregation is required to give to the denomination. Withholding support for a denomination may be the only voice a congregation has.

But denominations can ignore the voice and interpret the lack of support as the congregation’s failure—never its own.

It should be a huge red flag within a denomination when criticism focuses on lay people to the point of naming them and suing them. Any denomination that puts limitations on the laity’s ability to serve denies the example of Christ, who nurtured a ragtag group of peasants and spent most of his time with the needy.

You don’t hear limiting words from lips of Christ. All that comes later. It echoes through the centuries and may be the undoing of the mainline church.

Both clergy and lay leaders are all capable of leading congregations in renewal. But if their view of a congregation is only a measure of dollar signs for the denomination, then there is real trouble.

Any denomination that seeks to limit any individual’s talents is doing a disservice to their message.

God is love.

01 Apr 2013

Small Church vs Large Church — Looks Are Deceiving!

trinity-redeemer

Comparing SEPA’s Largest Congregation
with the Church SEPA Says Doesn’t Exist

What do Trinity, Lansdale, and Redeemer, East Falls, have in common?

We both engage with more than 700 followers each week.

According to Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Trend reports, Trinity, Lansdale, stands alone among Southeastern Pennsylvania churches in numbers. It has nearly 5000 members and an average worship attendance of 725. Most other large churches in SEPA — and there are only a few — average around 400.

Most SEPA churches are much smaller with about 100 or fewer at worship (many much fewer). ELCA Trend  measures only membership, attendance, income and expenses (in various configurations).

There are new statistics that will mean more in the emerging church. Churches don’t have to worry about collecting the data. The internet tracks results for you. This is where Redeemer is breaking ground no other SEPA church seems to be seriously exploring.

Redeemer is no longer listed in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Trend reports, although the congregation never voted to close. We’ll take that up with the ELCA later.

Redeemer was growing quickly although we were still among the SEPA churches with fewer than 50 in average weekly worship attendance—the only engagement most churches measure. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod seized Redeemer’s property and locked our doors in 2009—something about inability to fulfill mission. (They approved a $275,000 budget deficit at the same time they claimed our property.)

There was plenty to question at the time, but no one did. There is more to question now!

Redeemer has continued its ministry without our property. There is no rule that a congregation must own property.

Locked out of God’s House in East Falls, we took our ministry online with our blog, 2x2virtualchurch.com. We now have an average weekly following approaching 800 in new traffic and about 150 who subscribe to our site daily. We engage between 1000 and 2000 readers each week.

Redeemer may have the largest engagement of any SEPA congregation! The potential for effective mission is huge.

While the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the ELCA has tenaciously tried to destroy our ministry, we adapted — and grew!

2×2 is written with lay leaders in mind. Our experience as a small church is that lay leaders are the innovators in ministry. Most have part-time pastors. Growing churches is not part-time work. The passion of lay people (an undervalued resource) is keeping many churches going.

Small churches need resources that don’t rely on paid skills.

We had an additional challenge. Redeemer is multicultural and multilingual. No single age group dominates. That means we can’t just turn to a choir or a youth group or a Sunday School class to create interesting activities. We developed materials that could be adapted to any eclectic grouping.

When we still had our building we posted these resources on generic ministry websites.

Two years ago we began posting them on 2×2.

We posted an Easter play Redeemer performed for all East Falls churches in 2009. It was downloaded 300 times last year and 3000 times this year.

This tells us how we can further serve the large audience of small churches. Search engine analysis shows us that people are beginning to find our content by specifically plugging in terms specific to our site (“2×2 Easter play” — not just “Easter play).” Our content is gaining a following.

We post at least two features a week which congregations can adapt. Early in the week we post an object lesson intended for adults based on the week’s lectionary. Mid-week we post an analysis of art that complements the week’s theme. These can be adapted to multimedia presentations that some churches now show before worship (just as Redeemer did). We will continue to build on this foundation.

In addition, we offer our experience in using social media with dozens of how-to posts.

One large church recently wrote to us: “A lot is written about social media and the church, but you are the only church actually doing it.”

In all likelihood, Redeemer has the widest reach of any church in SEPA Synod with followers all over the world. We engage with them one-on-one. We share ministry problems and successes and rely on one another for prayer.

What does this mean for ministry in East Falls? It means our worldwide reach can now benefit our local ministry. We have a new potential source of funding for ministry.

Redeemer always was viable despite SEPA’s self-interested reports. Our day school, locked since SEPA interfered, would be generating upwards of $6000 per month. (That’s nearly $300,000 of squandered potential over the last four years.) The web site could begin to generate several thousand a month within a year of nurturing—plenty of resources to fund a neighborhood ministry without a single coin in an offering plate.

Redeemer has never had more potential.

If mission is the goal in East Falls (and it is definitely our goal) the best potential for ministry is to make peace with the Lutherans who have steadfastly maintained and grown mission during the last six years of conflict. The property should be returned to Redeemer. This would be in keeping with Lutheran polity.

Our journey has been a leap into the future of the church. We could still be a small neighborhood church serving a few, focused on survival and paying a pastor—as is the case of so many small churches.

We’ve learned that it is possible for a small church to grow. We are very aware that 2×2 can grow beyond our own vision.

Meanwhile, the largest church in SEPA and Redeemer, the largest online church, are both fulfilling their mission with impressive results.

God is doing something new at Redeemer, East Falls.

Can you perceive it?

10 Mar 2013

The Modern Story of the Good Samaritan

. . . or should we say Samaritans

200px-Cl-Fd_Saint-Eutrope-vitrail1In the story of the good Samaritan, the religious people (the priest and the Levite) find reasons to pass by the poor soul who has been robbed and hurt. In each case, their failure to act with compassion is prompted by fear for their own hides.

It is the Samaritan—the outsider, the person at whom the religious people of the day would collectively thumb their noses—who offered help—ongoing help, not just a quick fix.

We lived the Good Samaritan story this week. We needed help. One of our good members faced the imminent loss of her home and income due to the reign of terror inflicted on Redeemer and its members by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Our little church, which SEPA insists doesn’t exist, rallied.

We asked for help from churches who helped create this situation. They were prayerful but unhelpful.  It’s so easy to find excuses to do nothing.

“We’ll pray for you” is the universal excuse of SEPA Lutherans. Their prayer, we suppose, is that someone else will fix the mess they created. How tiring all that prayer must be!

We went to unrelated Lutheran churches. We don’t do that sort of thing, was their answer.

At last we found the help we needed. One local church who has been helping us for the last four years offered major assistance with no expectation of return. A church some 200 miles away (and smaller than Redeemer!) both contributed and guaranteed what we couldn’t raise locally. Four individuals also helped graciously. As far as we know, only one has any church affiliation.

Two of them used the same phrase: “A wrong has been done and it must be righted.”

And so little Redeemer, raised the money we needed to satisfy Redeemer’s debt—twice what SEPA expects to pay. This debt would never have been a problem to anyone if our school were operating for the last four years and contributing to mission and ministry in East Falls. But SEPA, hungry for our assets, interfered with and ruined our 25-year relationship with a Lutheran agency and stopped us from opening our own program. They have kept the doors locked on both the sanctuary and school for nearly four years—no ministry is better than a neighborhood church they can’t control.

SEPA Synod took our property under questionable legality. A court split decision ruled in their favor, saying the courts could not be involved in church issues. The dissenting opinion pointed out that the legal arguments seem to favor Redeemer and the case should be heard by the courts. In five years, court room after court room, the case has never been heard.

We have always claimed that SEPA’s interest in our property was entirely a result of their failing finances and mission—not Redeemer’s.

This week is further proof.

We’ve been saying in our posts on social media that the power in the church is shifting. There was a day when congregations had to band together to provide services and perform effective mission. Individuals now have the power to do much more on their own. Support of hierarchy is more expensive than effective.

Redeemer (and yes, we do exist) proved that this week.

Don’t get us wrong . . . we appreciate prayer. But we appreciate even more those who help find answers to prayer.

Thank you to all who cared enough to do more than pray. You are a living parable.

Bwana awabariki!

03 Mar 2013

Social Media Is Church Work

Value the skills of church communicators.

We’ve written this over and over.

Social Media is the greatest evangelism tool the Church fails to embrace.

It’s never a priority, so it never gets done.

If it is attempted, it is relegated to volunteers who follow their interests and skills in their available time. There is no plan or accountability. If your congregation has an especially skilled volunteer with dedication, you are lucky.

We live in the information age. It is time for churches to recognize that church communicators are people with valuable and specialized skills. They have the best potential to help congregations of any size to grow.

Communications has become a skilled specialty. Church communicators should be key members of any ministry team. Compensation should be considered. Otherwise, the work is likely to be inconsistent and potentially detrimental to ministry.

But churches are structured to pay pastors, organists, musicians, secretaries and sextons first. There is rarely money left for other skills—no matter how vital they have become as the world has changed.

In the day of the mimeograph or photocopier, communications was expected to be a skill set of the pastor with the assistance, perhaps, of the church secretary and maybe a committee that might meet once a month. Most communication took place before well-filled pews. It became the Church way because it was the ONLY way. Good-bye yesterday.

Communications today requires daily attention. This is good news!

The potential for Church Communicators to influence ministry has grown beyond exponentially.

It is beyond the skill set and/or time availability of most pastors. Without a plan or structure and only the expectations of volunteer efforts, effective communications mission work is unlikely. Congregations will wallow in unfulfilled potential.

A major mission of any congregation is to TELL THE STORY of Jesus and His love AND to tell THEIR STORY.

That requires planning and skill.

We’ll tell part of our Communications Story in the next few posts.

08 Feb 2013

SEPA Embraces the Wisdom of Seth

Lutheran Synod Embraces Marketing Advice

A newsletter from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) today begins with a quote from futuristic thinker, Seth Godin.

There is the mistake of overdoing the defense of the status quo, the error of investing too much time and energy in keeping things as they are.

And then there is the mistake made while inventing the future, the error of small experiments gone bad.

We are almost never hurt by the second kind of mistake and yet we persist in making the first kind, again and again.”

Words of wisdom. Except that SEPA has shown no inclination to follow them. Their decisions tend to be status quo-oriented at best—and remarkably retro overall.

Of course, we live in an age that if an idea is ten years old it is ancient. The playbook SEPA followed in East Falls was written in 2001.

Redeemer’s Ambassadors have visited 54 churches and we see the same ministry plan with few variations in most of them.

SEPA’s vision:

  • You will have a congregation led by a pastor which we will choose for you—but we will pretend it is your call —because that’s the church way.
  • You can worship any way you like, but if you aren’t celebrating communion weekly, you are just not with it.
  • Accepted worship innovations include drums and an audio-visual screen.
  • Your budget will maintain your building and pay for a pastor, organist, choir director, sexton and church secretary. If money allows, your next hires will be a youth or visitation pastor. That’s the church way. Employing clergy is your major missional purpose.
  • Your mission efforts will coordinate with our mission office (keeping us employed as well). Otherwise, any success will not count and your ministry will be judged as uncooperative
  • Your ministry will be supported by offerings from a dwindling number of supporters in a volatile economy. That’s the church way. Go ahead. Keep trying. We’ll wait a reasonable amount of time before we celebrate your failure. Pastoral help? Sorry, no one is available.
  • When at last our prediction of your poor ministry potential comes true, we will make sure any remaining assets benefit synod.

Redeemer’s members, most of whom are entrepreneurial in their private lives, determined that we had to have a different kind of ministry. We had worked with Synod’s plans for a decade. Some showed promise, but SEPA’s support for their own proposed ministry plans was self-serving and ephemeral. The interim pastor we agreed to call for 18 months was recalled by Bishop Almquist after three months. He was needed in Bucks County. The covenant we signed with Epiphany was broken with the support (and to the benefit) of SEPA.

Redeemer’s vision:

  • Relying on offerings will guarantee failure. Providing pastoral needs as a priority will deplete resources with no measurable benefit.
  • Serve the community with profit center ministries.
  • Use the educational building to operate a community day school (with religious instruction) which might also reach the neighboring public school. Projected revenue $6000 per month.
  • Invest the skills of members in ministry that would serve the immigrant community while generating income. Projected revenue $10,000 per month (anticipated to grow with experience).
  • Experiment with social media, sharing ideas and potentially creating an income stream. Projected revenue within two years ($1000 per month with much more potential).

So Redeemer set about reinventing its ministry. Redeemer presented a detailed plan to Bishop Burkat who never reviewed it with us before (or after) announcing her plans to close our church. No questions, no answers, no complaints, no discussion, no congregational vote — just a declaration of closure. SEPA had a six-figure deficit clouding its vision. Redeemer, on the other hand, was living within its means.

Redeemer was willing to take calculated risks with its own resources for the benefit of its own ministry. Redeemer asked nothing of SEPA except their approval of the pastor we hoped to work with and who was entirely qualified and agreeable to the plan. He disappeared after a private meeting with Bishop Burkat. He resurfaced with an interim call to good old Bucks County.

While reinventing our future, we were willing to make mistakes along the way and planned for careful monitoring to maximize success. We set about our new ministry by rallying the support of members, involving them in the planning and shaping of their own ministry.

Outsiders, with no interest in our assets, have commented that we were doing a pretty good job. (Some of them were Lutheran!)

But status quo SEPA, facing its own murky future, decided that they had better plans for Redeemer’s assets. And so there has been no SEPA-sponsored ministry in East Falls in four years—Redeemer’s assets serving no ministry purpose. A legacy of distrust growing daily.

Meanwhile, Redeemer continues as much of its ministry as we can, under hateful conditions, while SEPA uses our resources to sue us.

If only SEPA had come across Seth’s words of wisdom before they fouled the baptismal waters in East Falls.

Looking for Success in the Wrong Places

As it struggles, the Church tends to misidentify success. They look at the largest dozen or so churches that attract larger numbers. They can still afford a few pastors and a staff. Careful analysis will show that the larger churches are also struggling. It just isn’t as noticeable. So their “success” is emulated.

We are emulating failure.

The Small Churches and Laity Are Pivotal to Change

The ideas that are going to change the Church are most likely to come from the laity in the smallest churches. (Tweet)

Small churches are keenly aware that complacency endangers ministry. Most small churches have strong lay leadership. Synod shows no interest in serving them. It’s a waiting game. A death watch.

If SEPA Synod is sincere in wanting to foster innovation, they must turn to their smallest congregations and work WITH them.

Here’s why the laity are key to innovation.

  • Lay people do not rely on the approval of hierarchy for their career trajectory. They are more likely to take innovative risks.
  • Lay people tend to circulate among other churches, religions and denominations — fodder for creative ideas.
  • Lay people are dedicated to the church and the neighborhoods where they live. They have no plans to move on to a bigger church in seven years.
  • Lay people provide the funds that support ministry. They care about how THEIR offerings are spent.
  • Lay people collectively bring the wisdom of many disciplines to the Church. Clergy get similar training in whatever seminary they choose.
  • Lay people serve with no expectations of reward or credit.

It’s a good thing. We rarely get it.

15 Jan 2013

Can A Church Blog Make A Difference?

2×2 is nearing its second anniversary from the date of launch (February 2, 2011).

Can a small church blog make an impact?

Church blogs are a bit different from other forms of social media where the aim is often engagement. People don’t tend to engage in public forums in matters of faith. If we measured our impact by comments and likes, we’d be tempted to say no. Very little impact. Just over 100 comments in two years.

2×2 has learned that people don’t tend to respond ONLINE. We get many emails from readers that are not part of the public discussion. And that’s OK. We have not followed the engagement star.

Our first year was spent learning. 2012 was the year that the launch actually took hold. We started posting daily in mid-summer of 2011. It wasn’t until the end of 2011 that we saw any encouraging statistics. 2012, however, was a year of steady growth that is beginning to display exponential potential.

Redeemer, through 2×2, now reaches more people each week with the message of Christ than do the largest congregations in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (who claims we are too small to fulfill our missional purpose).

What Draws Readers to a Church Blog?

It is not pictures of your sanctuary and activities or messages from your pastor—all the standard stuff on most church websites.

Readers (seekers) are drawn by helpful content.

Our goal for 2012 is to develop more helpful content.

  • Last Easter we posted a play that Redeemer had created and performed in 2008, when we still had a sanctuary in which to practice our faith. Beginning on Christmas Day 2012, this play, offered for free to our readers, has drawn about 50 readers and downloads per day.
  • Our series on object lessons, designed for adult listeners but applicable to children as well, also draws regular weekly readers. One reader wrote a note of thanks last week. They mentioned that they work with Bhutanese refugees.
  • Our third and fourth biggest draws are commentary on any number of church-related issues and our series on using social media in the church (this was our biggest draw early last year but that is shifting).

We now have more than 2000 new readers each month and about 150 who subscribe through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Our followers tend to be young people (20s and 30s—the very demographic the organized church has trouble reaching). They represent many ethnic backgrounds. In any given hour, an average of 20 people read our site. Most visit more than the home page.

We’ve written before about the network of small mission churches that correspond with us regularly. This continues to grow.

There are many people of faith working in isolation and under hostile conditions in the world. Finding support for their efforts within the organized church is expensive and time-consuming. It can take years to be recognized as legitimate mission within denominational standards. Meanwhile, orphans, widows and needy cope, meeting in houses and open-air pavilions and along the banks of rivers, caring little about denominational structure—relying on faith and the bonds they forge on their own.

Their needs are simple. They want Bibles and friendship. They don’t want to walk their faith journeys alone. They really don’t care about denominational labels.

Our little church blog is making a difference in these places. Yours could, too.

09 Jan 2013

Ambassadors Visit Trinity, Lansdale

A Sad Day for Redeemer

trintiylansdale

The Ambassadors were out in unusual force yesterday visiting Trinity, Lansdale, one of the largest congregations in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod (SEPA) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). It was our 54th visit to a SEPA congregation.

It’s been a rough few days for Redeemer. Yesterday, Saturday, January 5, was particularly difficult.

At least a quarter of the people gathered in the large sanctuary on this cold Saturday afternoon claim Lutheran roots firmly planted in Redeemer, East Falls.

Tragically, the infant we gathered to remember and lay to rest was one of our family. Families at Redeemer have always been intricately interconnected. Remarkably, this has remained true even as we grow to become more diverse. One Redeemer member cannot itch without another scratching.

Indeed, we have a goodly heritage.

Part of the beautiful service was thanksgiving for baptism.

Our Jude was baptized as he was coming into the world. His chances for survival were known to be slim. When his parents learned early on that he was not likely to survive birth, they named him. His name breathed life into him. Jude Michael Boeh belonged.

I am privileged to know the family of both sides of one set of Jude’s grandparents. Many of the names bandied about in the narthex as the family gathered came alive again. Remember Clarence and George, Vicki, Tom, Emma and Jacob?

I wasn’t born into Redeemer, but I remember them well. It was good to hear their names again and to pass their stories on to the younger members of the family. Some belonged to Redeemer and some to the Presbyterian church across the street. But that was a formality. Redeemer members worshiped at Redeemer in the morning and attended services with their Presbyterian neighbors afterwards. Dual citizenship.

Jude’s mother, born Elizabeth Leach, gave a moving tribute to his short life and its powerful force.

Jude was named for the patron saint of lost causes. His life was a tribute to the value of any life-affirming cause, even one that appears to be facing hopeless odds.

We are so proud of his family, especially his mother whom we watched grow up at many Redeemer services and events.

Redeemer, East Falls, and Trinity, Lansdale, are worlds apart. Trinity’s narthex is about the size of Redeemer’s sanctuary. But it doesn’t matter how large a sanctuary is. A lot of good can come out of both large and small churches. As the history we read on the walls of Trinity attest, churches start small. Some grow in size. Some grow in spirit. All have worth.

As I participated in the memorial service for my step great-grandson, I thought of my late husband.

Jude’s great-grandfather, Andrew Leach, was the first baby baptized in Redeemer in 1909. Jude’s grandfather and many of his aunts and uncles of varying generations were also baptized at Redeemer.

He would have been proud of the courage his grandchildren displayed in their compassionate, faithful, heart-wrenching choices. Their willingness to share their heartbreak is a gift.

Jude’s great-grandfather was the heart and soul of Redeemer, devout in practical ways. He managed the church finances and was responsible for protecting and growing the endowment that tempted SEPA from the day of his death. He was universally respected in the church and community and set the tone of what could be called Redeemer’s personality.

He not only managed the church as a business but he had a superb voice, a legacy passed on to many family members. He was never so proud that he wouldn’t clean the sidewalks and scrub floors. His interest in the community made Redeemer the common meeting place for many community groups. When it came to Redeemer, there was no nonsense.

His great granddaughter, Hazel, (Jude’s older sister) was born shortly after Andy’s death. Hazel, at 14, shared with poise a heartfelt testimony of how her journey with her sister, mom, stepdad and baby Jude had awakened her faith. She reminded me of her great-grandmother.

Gertrude Trommer Leach was a member of the Sunday School class I taught at Redeemer. She worked hard with the ladies group, sang in the choir and played the piano. She was a deeply spiritual child of God, a true matriarchal cornerstone. Easy-going and loving, when she occasionally stood her ground, she was a force to be reckoned with.

Andrew’s youngest son, Nathaniel, is still a member of Redeemer. He was seated next to me in the sanctuary, singing with his father’s voice as we remembered Jude. I was reminded of his biblical namesake. Nathaniel in the Bible asks rather flippantly upon learning of Jesus of Nazareth, “Can any good come out of Nazareth?”

Is there any good to be found in trying circumstances, in facing difficult odds?

People of faith must answer yes.

Sometimes you have to dig through a lot of grime. Sometimes you have to wipe away the tears. Sometimes you have to struggle to get up in the morning. Often we have to withstand hurtful gossip and defend against questionable, self-serving advice. But there is value wherever there is life.

Jesus loves us. The Bible tells us so.

The service was beautiful, but as Sunday quickly rolled around, it would have been a comfort to many of the mourners to sit in the pews so familiar to our family, to kneel at the altar where our families knelt together for generations, to pass the font where five generations have been baptized, to shed a tear in our own sacred space—now desecrated with fighting that should have been resolved with love within the Christian family long ago, and to embrace other members of Redeemer who live in fear beyond their control. It would be a comfort to have some sense that in the community of God we have worth beyond the value of our assets.

Redeemer members continue to meet, worship and serve—and grow.

Faith gives us no choice. Affirming life is a part of our legacy.

Jude. The patron saint of lost causes.

Is there really such a thing for people of faith? Sometimes we just don’t know what the real cause is!

The name Jude, by the way, means PRAISE! That’s how I will remember Jude. With praise.

God bless our Jude. God bless Jude’s family. God bless the Christian legacy that brought us all together in the sanctuary in Trinity, Lansdale, on January 5, 2013.

May it continue to grow and affirm life.

And God bless Redeemer!

06 Jan 2013