At the LCMC Gathering this week I had two thoughts confirmed: Thought #1: We need to be around more mission-minded churches. Thought #2: Everything must change.
Here are some vignettes of the conversations I had.
Jamie is second year student at Luther Seminary in St. Paul. He has two years left. He was the only Luther student recognized this year at the Gathering. Why? Because students serious about the bible are fleeing denominational seminary programs because of run away biblical revisionism by many faculty members. What does this mean? It means that in the mid-term, it will become increasingly harder to find young pastors who love God’s word and are faithful to it in the mainline denominations. A tectonic shift is well underway.
What kinds of seminaries are students now going to? Their were about 20 seminarians recognized this year. The majority of them are going to Bethel Seminary where are very own Brent and Tina also attended. No one should be shocked by this. Our friends on the west side, Lutheran Church of Hope, has well over a dozen students at Bethel. These days it isn’t a question of “you must attend a seminary of your denomination,” it’s more “you need to attend a seminary that is faithful to the word of God.” How did mainline Protestant Christianity wind up in such a sorry state of affairs in the US? Because we lost the battle for the seminaries long, long ago. Making our master’s degrees count in the eyes of the world means that seminaries have to be accredited by the world. That immediately requires them to compromise. I was taught in seminary by admitted heretics. They weren’t nasty people by any means, but they didn’t hold with the historic teaching of the church and they were bold enough to tell you so. Because of accreditation, they are all tenured and cannot be removed no matter they teach. How weird is that? Many people insist we send our students to denominational seminaries so that they will have a strong denominational identity formed in them. But the denominational seminaries cannot form a strong denominational or even Christian identity any more and haven’t been able to for years. There were also a lot of students going to church run programs like The Master’s Institute (http://www.themastersinstitute.org/ )in the TC and the brand new, LCMC endorsed, Beyond the River Academy (http://www.beyondtheriveracademy.org/ )which runs special programs for older, more established students.
Jamie is currently involved in planting a new church (http://www.thecruxlife.org ) As he’s learning in the classroom is he able to put what he learns into immediate practice. The seminary didn’t set this up, he was asked to help out by a LCMC church in the Twin Cities. He’s a self starter who has decided to answer the call of Jesus and turn his worldly experience toward kingdom work. Jamie is from Des Moines and has been working with our homeless population for years, preaching at the Bethel Mission. Jamie wants to come back to Des Moines after seminary and plant a church for the homeless. Now, I ask you: isn’t that extraordinary? Here is a guy who isn’t looking for a soft landing. He’s not looking for a nice little church somewhere. He wants to do mission. That’s what LCMC is like because it is full of men and women and churches who have that same heart for mission. People and churches who aren’t afraid to change everything and even die to previous ambitions for the sake of mission.
Met another pastor named Dana from northern LA. ( http://www.firstlutheran.org/ )He’s been working at his church in an urban center for 27 years. These days, if you want the church to thrive, the leadership tends to stay a long time. He’s now lead pastor. His church and school sit on 7 acres of urban land across from a major medical center that wants to buy them out for millions and millions. Those millions could move his church and school out to the ‘burbs and build a really, really nice campus. But God spoke to Dana in a dream. They are staying downtown. And now, everything must change.
Post war, Lutheran churches in California grew because so many Lutherans from the midwest and east coast settled there. Bill Vaswig, our guest at Zion 2 weeks ago, reportedly said told a Zion member who was visiting him in California, “See that white stuff on the mountains over there? It isn’t snow. Those are all the letters of transfers from Lutherans moving to California.” But now, California has changed. It is incredibly diverse and many, many people have never been to church. So Dana’s church decided that if they were going to stay in the city and minister to the city, they would change their name. No one in their city knew what a Lutheran was so they removed it from their name. Then they selected a new name for their church, one that they felt would reflect their new reality as an urban mission center: LifeHouse Church. Now the new name probably won’t bring in people in droves. But it will change the way that Dana’s church thinks about itself. In the Bible, when people had been changed by God, they frequently got a new name. Jacob became Israel. Saul became Paul. A new name to signify a new way of being: mission. Everything must change.
Met an old seminary classmate of mine. He was always very popular. He could have any church he wants. He’s got it together. But he was white as a sheet for much of the conference. Why? Because my old colleague left the comfort of the established church and the salary and the benefits and is now planting a church in California. There is no safety net. He and his ministry are entirely in God’s hands. It’s been three weeks now and he’s a bit freaked out. Why did he do it? For the sake of the mission. Because everything must change.
I’ll close with this. At the Gathering we learned about 20 new house churches planted by two Iowa LCMC pastors in Vietnam and Cambodia. They are both humble, unassuming men. They love their Thai Dam brothers and sisters and risked imprisonment to bring them Jesus. Because they love Jesus. Because everything in this world must change and will change, when they hear about Jesus. That’s the mission for which he’s invited us along. And I am overwhelmed to see how it plays out in the lives of the people and churches of LCMC.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Observations from the LCMC National Gathering
I’m in Fargo, ND, at the LCMC National Gathering. It’s wonderful. It’s like coming home. You can watch the Gathering until 10/7 at noon CST via web streaming at www.lcmc.net Here is my brief report.
Personally speaking, my time her has been incredible. It has been a time of personal and professional renewal. I have laughed long and hard and sung and prayed with over 700 of my brothers and sisters in Christ. The keynote speakers have been fabulous. The break outs have been informative and very, very relevant. It’s been a joy connecting with these mission minded brothers and sisters.
Here are my observations:
This is where the happy Lutherans have gone. I know this will offend some of you but from my perspective this is true. The worship was songs we know by heart both traditional and contemporary. There was swaying, lifting hands, spontaneous applause... such a sense of joy dominates the environment here. There is laughter everywhere.
The business part of the meeting was brief. There is no bureaucracy to support. Get this, the numbers part was brief, all the motions were passed, all but one unanimously, and the real focus was on the state of the association. And the state of the association is growth. 20 new house churches in Vietnam and Cambodia have been planted. I wept at this because those churches were planted by LCMC pastors who were denied permission by the ELCA to plant those churches. Why were they denied permission? Because it’s illegal to spread the gospel in those countries. Praise the Lord that LCMC exists to empower mission. LCMC churches continue to grow in Belarus, Russia, Canada and Mexico as well. So the business we discussed was about hope, life, and kingdom growth. It was amazingly refreshing.
There was little to no anger at the ELCA. Sure there were some new members who needed prayer in dealing with difficult situations, but overall I found the attendees to be about doing mission in the here and now and leaving the past behind them. LCMC seems to be an organization for those who want to devote themselves to mission, not anger. The quote of the day from a Canadian pastor: “I want to be light. I don’t want to fight.”
I have never met a friendlier group of over 700 strangers anywhere. In the crowded halls they all laughed and talked and greeted each other. So many new friendships were created. There is a real sense here of “being on the same page.” And, just so I’m clear, it’s a unity that comes from where we’re going not from where we’ve been.
The Bible teachings by pastors and by such names as Walt Wangerin and Walt Kallestad was biblically sound and built up all who heard.
The breakout sessions were amazing. Nearly as good as the breakout sessions at a Willow Creek conference. They are mostly congregations sharing what’s working with other congregations. It’s done with such humility and, I’ll say it again, a real sense of having the same mission.
There are many seminarians who are finishing various programs at different seminaries and who will be coming on board in the next year. It was exciting to see them brought forward for prayer. I was astounded by the large number of pastors who joined the association this year as well.
There were so many visitors! Over 300 more than expected. They represented churches checking out LCMC. Word on the street is that most are planning to join.
I couldn’t believe the number of my former seminary classmates I ran into. It seems that everyone I went to school with who loves the word of God and wants to tell people about Jesus is either in LCMC or soon will be. Amazing.
We hope to get all 16 LCMC churches in Iowa into a working relationship. There are many things we can do together and we can support and love and build up one another. Next year at this time Des Moines will host the LCMC National Gathering and Lutheran Church of the Cross in Altoona will be the site. We’re excited to be a part of this great organization. Thanks for reading. PJ
Personally speaking, my time her has been incredible. It has been a time of personal and professional renewal. I have laughed long and hard and sung and prayed with over 700 of my brothers and sisters in Christ. The keynote speakers have been fabulous. The break outs have been informative and very, very relevant. It’s been a joy connecting with these mission minded brothers and sisters.
Here are my observations:
This is where the happy Lutherans have gone. I know this will offend some of you but from my perspective this is true. The worship was songs we know by heart both traditional and contemporary. There was swaying, lifting hands, spontaneous applause... such a sense of joy dominates the environment here. There is laughter everywhere.
The business part of the meeting was brief. There is no bureaucracy to support. Get this, the numbers part was brief, all the motions were passed, all but one unanimously, and the real focus was on the state of the association. And the state of the association is growth. 20 new house churches in Vietnam and Cambodia have been planted. I wept at this because those churches were planted by LCMC pastors who were denied permission by the ELCA to plant those churches. Why were they denied permission? Because it’s illegal to spread the gospel in those countries. Praise the Lord that LCMC exists to empower mission. LCMC churches continue to grow in Belarus, Russia, Canada and Mexico as well. So the business we discussed was about hope, life, and kingdom growth. It was amazingly refreshing.
There was little to no anger at the ELCA. Sure there were some new members who needed prayer in dealing with difficult situations, but overall I found the attendees to be about doing mission in the here and now and leaving the past behind them. LCMC seems to be an organization for those who want to devote themselves to mission, not anger. The quote of the day from a Canadian pastor: “I want to be light. I don’t want to fight.”
I have never met a friendlier group of over 700 strangers anywhere. In the crowded halls they all laughed and talked and greeted each other. So many new friendships were created. There is a real sense here of “being on the same page.” And, just so I’m clear, it’s a unity that comes from where we’re going not from where we’ve been.
The Bible teachings by pastors and by such names as Walt Wangerin and Walt Kallestad was biblically sound and built up all who heard.
The breakout sessions were amazing. Nearly as good as the breakout sessions at a Willow Creek conference. They are mostly congregations sharing what’s working with other congregations. It’s done with such humility and, I’ll say it again, a real sense of having the same mission.
There are many seminarians who are finishing various programs at different seminaries and who will be coming on board in the next year. It was exciting to see them brought forward for prayer. I was astounded by the large number of pastors who joined the association this year as well.
There were so many visitors! Over 300 more than expected. They represented churches checking out LCMC. Word on the street is that most are planning to join.
I couldn’t believe the number of my former seminary classmates I ran into. It seems that everyone I went to school with who loves the word of God and wants to tell people about Jesus is either in LCMC or soon will be. Amazing.
We hope to get all 16 LCMC churches in Iowa into a working relationship. There are many things we can do together and we can support and love and build up one another. Next year at this time Des Moines will host the LCMC National Gathering and Lutheran Church of the Cross in Altoona will be the site. We’re excited to be a part of this great organization. Thanks for reading. PJ
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Belief vs. Belonging
So there is a lot going on in my head these days and it isn’t really fully formed yet but since this blog exists to share those thoughts with you, I’m going to go ahead and do a brain dump here so I can get some extra space between my ears to think about other things.
I was reading another blog by Trevin Wax that I read regularly. Check it out at:
http://trevinwax.com/2009/09/23/jim-belchers-third-way-for-the-church/
I’m thinking about how and why we do church and I’m thinking about the collision between two predominate and colliding philosophies: believing and belonging.
Belonging has to do with community and is therefore very people focused. We want people to feel connected to our church body. We talk a lot about our “church family.” It’s important that people feel welcomed, safe, and comfortable when we are together. These are all really good points. We wouldn’t want to attend a church where we felt constantly threatened. We wouldn’t want to attend a church where we didn’t think that somebody cared about us.
The downside to emphasizing belonging is that you probably don’t emphasize teaching what Jesus wants you to believe because it will make people uncomfortable. I know that sounds weird to some of you but it’s true: Jesus makes people uncomfortable. Many times, Jesus himself destroys community. He himself admits it: Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. (Mt 10:35-36)
So that leads us to believing. More than anything else, Jesus taught about himself and who he was. He said we must believe in him. He said we had to leave family and friends and preconceptions and possessions for him. In other words, our relationship with Jesus is predicated upon belief. Shouldn’t the reason we do church, stay church together, bring people into the church, everything we do as a church, be because we want ourselves and other people to know Jesus and grow in their belief in him? (In other words, shouldn’t our beliefs be the reason we gather, the reason we do mission?) Shouldn’t our association with a church be determined by whether or not we believe the same things about Jesus?
I was reading about a division in one of America’s premier churches, Coral Ridge Presbyterian in Florida. They have a new senior pastor after 50 years of following their founding pastor. Read about it at this link: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/1243679.html
The long time members were upset with the new members and the new pastor because they didn’t “pay their dues.” They just walked in a took possession of something other people had built. The ones complaining have put tradition, belonging, membership, history, above what they as an evangelical church are supposed to believe: that everyone needs to come and meet Jesus and believe in him.
Check out the senior pastor’s op ed piece in a local paper to apologize for the bad witness all this was creating:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-opedonlinecoralridgechurch091809,0,6104431.story
I think this conflict between believing and belonging is played out everyday in many churches. I think pastors wimp out because they don’t want to deliver a message that people don’t want to hear. They don’t want to tell their churches what to believe because that will somehow violate community. What that means is that their churches are built on a foundation of belonging and not believing. Keeping people happy and together is more important than teaching them what they need to believe. It means that whenever some big issue that God has something to say about comes roaring in from the world, these churches are silent.
I think what this means overall is that instead of influencing and changing the world for Christ, many churches allow themselves to be changed by the agenda of the world. They bow to a membership that demands: “You must change what you believe in order to accommodate me and make me feel like I belong.”
Does the church of Jesus Christ exist to make people feel good or to tell them the truth about Jesus, themselves, life and eternity?
Jesus himself has been the one who always issued the invitation: come to me and be changed. We teach what it is that has been handed down for centuries by the saints who have gone before us - we call it the apostolic teaching. The church has been the place that changes the world and its beliefs. Where the church has been changed by the beliefs of the world and has changed to accommodate the world, reformation and revival breaks out, led by the Holy Spirit, to take the church back to the Bible and the apostolic teaching. I believe very strongly that the result of the ELCA churchwide assembly will be reformation and revival in the Lutheran church. I doubt the ELCA will survive as an institution, but Biblically faithful Lutheranism will thrive and grow and perhaps even fully take root in the soil of America.
Here’s what we don’t want to happen: we don’t want our desire for community to trump doctrine (what we believe). Why? Because community that isn’t built on true doctrine won’t survive anyway. But community that is built upon a shared belief system will flourish and thrive. Look at China, Vietnam and North Korea where the church is exploding. Those Christians are brought together by shared beliefs and truly enjoy a type of community that is an authentic community of those who could be arrested, tortured or killed at any moment. It’s biblical community. They come from different social and economic positions, different backgrounds, different politics, but the thing that makes them a community together is what they believe about Jesus.
I guess I’m saying that believing (what we believe) must form our community and not vice versa. A community that has no doctrine or determines doctrine by consensus of the community is really nothing more than a mob.
Where do we get this “doctrine” in which we are to believe? The Bible. That’s where we learn about Jesus, life, ourselves and eternity.
So what does this mean for us and the way we do evangelism and welcome guests? It means that we proclaim what it is that we believe and teach and it means that we’re certain that when people join our church they understand and recognize that these beliefs are not negotiable, even if they bring discomfort. It means that we must make sure that our desire to create community never trumps our desire to share what we believe with others. What we believe (about Jesus) has to be what holds us together. Not our fear of people leaving.
The ELCA made a decision to elevate making a segment of it’s community feel comfortable over and above what it professed to believe (biblical doctrine). A community that violates it’s own doctrine is no community at all and will factionalize over every issue imaginable. Without belief being the reason for community, community is never sustainable.
I was reading another blog by Trevin Wax that I read regularly. Check it out at:
http://trevinwax.com/2009/09/23/jim-belchers-third-way-for-the-church/
I’m thinking about how and why we do church and I’m thinking about the collision between two predominate and colliding philosophies: believing and belonging.
Belonging has to do with community and is therefore very people focused. We want people to feel connected to our church body. We talk a lot about our “church family.” It’s important that people feel welcomed, safe, and comfortable when we are together. These are all really good points. We wouldn’t want to attend a church where we felt constantly threatened. We wouldn’t want to attend a church where we didn’t think that somebody cared about us.
The downside to emphasizing belonging is that you probably don’t emphasize teaching what Jesus wants you to believe because it will make people uncomfortable. I know that sounds weird to some of you but it’s true: Jesus makes people uncomfortable. Many times, Jesus himself destroys community. He himself admits it: Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. (Mt 10:35-36)
So that leads us to believing. More than anything else, Jesus taught about himself and who he was. He said we must believe in him. He said we had to leave family and friends and preconceptions and possessions for him. In other words, our relationship with Jesus is predicated upon belief. Shouldn’t the reason we do church, stay church together, bring people into the church, everything we do as a church, be because we want ourselves and other people to know Jesus and grow in their belief in him? (In other words, shouldn’t our beliefs be the reason we gather, the reason we do mission?) Shouldn’t our association with a church be determined by whether or not we believe the same things about Jesus?
I was reading about a division in one of America’s premier churches, Coral Ridge Presbyterian in Florida. They have a new senior pastor after 50 years of following their founding pastor. Read about it at this link: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/1243679.html
The long time members were upset with the new members and the new pastor because they didn’t “pay their dues.” They just walked in a took possession of something other people had built. The ones complaining have put tradition, belonging, membership, history, above what they as an evangelical church are supposed to believe: that everyone needs to come and meet Jesus and believe in him.
Check out the senior pastor’s op ed piece in a local paper to apologize for the bad witness all this was creating:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-opedonlinecoralridgechurch091809,0,6104431.story
I think this conflict between believing and belonging is played out everyday in many churches. I think pastors wimp out because they don’t want to deliver a message that people don’t want to hear. They don’t want to tell their churches what to believe because that will somehow violate community. What that means is that their churches are built on a foundation of belonging and not believing. Keeping people happy and together is more important than teaching them what they need to believe. It means that whenever some big issue that God has something to say about comes roaring in from the world, these churches are silent.
I think what this means overall is that instead of influencing and changing the world for Christ, many churches allow themselves to be changed by the agenda of the world. They bow to a membership that demands: “You must change what you believe in order to accommodate me and make me feel like I belong.”
Does the church of Jesus Christ exist to make people feel good or to tell them the truth about Jesus, themselves, life and eternity?
Jesus himself has been the one who always issued the invitation: come to me and be changed. We teach what it is that has been handed down for centuries by the saints who have gone before us - we call it the apostolic teaching. The church has been the place that changes the world and its beliefs. Where the church has been changed by the beliefs of the world and has changed to accommodate the world, reformation and revival breaks out, led by the Holy Spirit, to take the church back to the Bible and the apostolic teaching. I believe very strongly that the result of the ELCA churchwide assembly will be reformation and revival in the Lutheran church. I doubt the ELCA will survive as an institution, but Biblically faithful Lutheranism will thrive and grow and perhaps even fully take root in the soil of America.
Here’s what we don’t want to happen: we don’t want our desire for community to trump doctrine (what we believe). Why? Because community that isn’t built on true doctrine won’t survive anyway. But community that is built upon a shared belief system will flourish and thrive. Look at China, Vietnam and North Korea where the church is exploding. Those Christians are brought together by shared beliefs and truly enjoy a type of community that is an authentic community of those who could be arrested, tortured or killed at any moment. It’s biblical community. They come from different social and economic positions, different backgrounds, different politics, but the thing that makes them a community together is what they believe about Jesus.
I guess I’m saying that believing (what we believe) must form our community and not vice versa. A community that has no doctrine or determines doctrine by consensus of the community is really nothing more than a mob.
Where do we get this “doctrine” in which we are to believe? The Bible. That’s where we learn about Jesus, life, ourselves and eternity.
So what does this mean for us and the way we do evangelism and welcome guests? It means that we proclaim what it is that we believe and teach and it means that we’re certain that when people join our church they understand and recognize that these beliefs are not negotiable, even if they bring discomfort. It means that we must make sure that our desire to create community never trumps our desire to share what we believe with others. What we believe (about Jesus) has to be what holds us together. Not our fear of people leaving.
The ELCA made a decision to elevate making a segment of it’s community feel comfortable over and above what it professed to believe (biblical doctrine). A community that violates it’s own doctrine is no community at all and will factionalize over every issue imaginable. Without belief being the reason for community, community is never sustainable.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
A Confusion Between Love and Hate
Jesus says: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” John 15:18-19 NASB
This is what I wonder: if the Church of Jesus Christ isn’t being persecuted, called names, tortured, driven underground, hunted, put to death, short of funds, etc., is the Church being the Church? If Jesus warns us that the world will hate us because it hated him, should we even desire a relationship with society in which the Church is encouraged, respected, revered, etc.?
Sometimes those of us in church work wonder aloud if it wasn’t a terrible thing that the Emperor Constantine made Christianity not only legal, but the state religion of the Roman Empire. Oh, I don’t doubt that God can work good in just about any situation men muck up, but it does make you wonder if the Church (at least in some parts of the world) hasn’t lost her edge and grown soft and complacent.
Now this softness is definitely not found in areas of the world where the Church is hunted down and persecuted. Places like Vietnam and North Korea and China and Saudi Arabia see enormous growth and incredible miracles. Without the support of the world, the Church flourishes because it cannot help but to rely solely on the power of Christ.
I see a real change in the way that the Church has engaged society in North America over the years. The Church was a huge leader in drawing together 13 very different Colonies and giving them a sense of shared identity and a common view of liberty. The Church was the leader in the movement to abolish slavery. The Church was the leader in the prohibition movement (OK, maybe that didn’t go so well, but hey, we were definitely pushing society). The Church was the leader in the Civil Rights movement. When the lack of available health care was an issue during the last century, the Church led the way in establishing hospitals and clinics to provide needed medical services. The Church cared for immigrants and widows and orphans before the social welfare net even existed. For nearly 300 years the Church has led the way in teaching people how to read (so they can read the Scriptures - the original Sunday School). I saw a glimmer of leadership from the Church after 9/11, during the invasion of Afghanistan, when hundreds of Christian workers arrived to help the new government and establish schools, radio stations, women’s centers and help to write a new constitution which includes freedom of religion. But those were mostly ‘undercover’ operatives from non-denominational fellowships that were ready to go and minister to the people who lived in darkness. Conversely, when the Iron Curtain came down and many countries became open again to receive the Gospel afresh, most of the historic denominations in the US were unprepared for the event and had no plans or people in place and ready to go. Cuba could open any day, and yet, I very much doubt whether any of our Mainline Protestant Churches are ready to go with Spanish speaking evangelists and mission workers.
Lately, all I see from the Church in North America is a kind of whiney complacency. I think this is especially true in Mainline Protestantism. Gone are the days of standing boldly against a sinful society in need of the redemption of Christ. Gone are the days of the talk of sin and how society is going astray. Gone are the days of a radical dependance upon the grace of God in Christ. Instead of initiating bold new initiatives to advance the Gospel, the Church has settled for following along with the rest of society. Instead of opening hospitals and clinics, some denominations hire lobbyists in the vain hope that Congressmen will be impressed by their denomination’s declining membership statistics. Instead of taking a stand against society, conversely, some expressions of the Church have taken a stand against the Bible’s view of marriage and have joined society in advancing alternate views of marriage between a man and woman. Instead of seeking ways to evangelize new arrivals to our shores, these denominations seek ways to nullify their historic beliefs in a vain attempt at accommodation. In many churches, care of the earth and recycling are considered of much greater value than making disciples of Jesus.
In a phrase: instead of the Church remaking society in the image of God, the Church has given in to the remaking of the image of God by society.
What should be done? It’s time to get back to our first love, as Revelation has it. It’s time to get back to a passionate love for Jesus Christ. A love that will spur us on to share him with our neighbors, our society and our world. It’s time to get back to being disciples. Oh, by the way, that means that the world will hate you. Are you ready for that? You might just find it’s worth it.
This is what I wonder: if the Church of Jesus Christ isn’t being persecuted, called names, tortured, driven underground, hunted, put to death, short of funds, etc., is the Church being the Church? If Jesus warns us that the world will hate us because it hated him, should we even desire a relationship with society in which the Church is encouraged, respected, revered, etc.?
Sometimes those of us in church work wonder aloud if it wasn’t a terrible thing that the Emperor Constantine made Christianity not only legal, but the state religion of the Roman Empire. Oh, I don’t doubt that God can work good in just about any situation men muck up, but it does make you wonder if the Church (at least in some parts of the world) hasn’t lost her edge and grown soft and complacent.
Now this softness is definitely not found in areas of the world where the Church is hunted down and persecuted. Places like Vietnam and North Korea and China and Saudi Arabia see enormous growth and incredible miracles. Without the support of the world, the Church flourishes because it cannot help but to rely solely on the power of Christ.
I see a real change in the way that the Church has engaged society in North America over the years. The Church was a huge leader in drawing together 13 very different Colonies and giving them a sense of shared identity and a common view of liberty. The Church was the leader in the movement to abolish slavery. The Church was the leader in the prohibition movement (OK, maybe that didn’t go so well, but hey, we were definitely pushing society). The Church was the leader in the Civil Rights movement. When the lack of available health care was an issue during the last century, the Church led the way in establishing hospitals and clinics to provide needed medical services. The Church cared for immigrants and widows and orphans before the social welfare net even existed. For nearly 300 years the Church has led the way in teaching people how to read (so they can read the Scriptures - the original Sunday School). I saw a glimmer of leadership from the Church after 9/11, during the invasion of Afghanistan, when hundreds of Christian workers arrived to help the new government and establish schools, radio stations, women’s centers and help to write a new constitution which includes freedom of religion. But those were mostly ‘undercover’ operatives from non-denominational fellowships that were ready to go and minister to the people who lived in darkness. Conversely, when the Iron Curtain came down and many countries became open again to receive the Gospel afresh, most of the historic denominations in the US were unprepared for the event and had no plans or people in place and ready to go. Cuba could open any day, and yet, I very much doubt whether any of our Mainline Protestant Churches are ready to go with Spanish speaking evangelists and mission workers.
Lately, all I see from the Church in North America is a kind of whiney complacency. I think this is especially true in Mainline Protestantism. Gone are the days of standing boldly against a sinful society in need of the redemption of Christ. Gone are the days of the talk of sin and how society is going astray. Gone are the days of a radical dependance upon the grace of God in Christ. Instead of initiating bold new initiatives to advance the Gospel, the Church has settled for following along with the rest of society. Instead of opening hospitals and clinics, some denominations hire lobbyists in the vain hope that Congressmen will be impressed by their denomination’s declining membership statistics. Instead of taking a stand against society, conversely, some expressions of the Church have taken a stand against the Bible’s view of marriage and have joined society in advancing alternate views of marriage between a man and woman. Instead of seeking ways to evangelize new arrivals to our shores, these denominations seek ways to nullify their historic beliefs in a vain attempt at accommodation. In many churches, care of the earth and recycling are considered of much greater value than making disciples of Jesus.
In a phrase: instead of the Church remaking society in the image of God, the Church has given in to the remaking of the image of God by society.
What should be done? It’s time to get back to our first love, as Revelation has it. It’s time to get back to a passionate love for Jesus Christ. A love that will spur us on to share him with our neighbors, our society and our world. It’s time to get back to being disciples. Oh, by the way, that means that the world will hate you. Are you ready for that? You might just find it’s worth it.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
A Meditation on the Future of Zion Lutheran Church
I have recently shared with you a lot of my thoughts as to why the ELCA vote to nullify the Word of God at the recent Churchwide Assembly is wrong and cannot be support by the Bible, by the Lutheran Confessions, the historic teaching of Christianity for the last 2,000 years, nor the context of first century Judaism, in which Jesus lived and ministered. Now I simply want to do this: I want to paint you a picture of what the ministry of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church would look like if the congregation decides to sever ties with the ELCA.
First, a pre-supposition: since Zion is already a member of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC - www.lcmc.net) I am going to presuppose that we will continue in our relationship with this denomination/organization. In other words, I’m going to assume that we will not have to shop for another Lutheran body outside of the LCMC. You may recall that we joined the LCMC in 2007 in order to be able to call Pastor Chris Magnell, a member of LCMC and not the ELCA, as our associate pastor.
That being said, this is what I see as our future: freedom and joy. Allow me to elaborate:
Zion will have the freedom to believe. Throughout it’s 150 year history, Zion has been characterized by a high view of Scripture. A century ago, Zion left another Lutheran denomination (which doesn’t exist anymore) over a dispute regarding whether or not the theological concept of millennialism was biblically faithful or not. Zion felt strongly that it was not and separated itself, joining another denomination which eventually became the ALC (American Lutheran Church which merged with others to form the ELCA). In other words, we believe that the Bible is the word of God and that the Lutheran Confessions are an accurate interpretation of that word. This means that the Bible is to be the standard by which we measure our lives and faith. The ELCA does not share our high view of Scripture. In Synod gatherings and pastor’s meetings, in the books and curriculums put forth by the denominational publishing house, in The Lutheran magazine itself, the ELCA continues to broadcast that it’s beliefs that place human reason and experience above the word of God and demand that the word of God be subject to human wisdom. Increasingly this has led to “agenda politics” culminating in the passing of that latest social statement and it’s resulting ministry changes. Without the ELCA, Zion will be free to continue its time tested beliefs in the authority of Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions without interference from its own denomination.
Imagine what it will be like never again to have to apologize because one’s own denomination has made a decision that our church doesn’t agree with and wound up on the front page of the local paper. Imagine what life will be like without the endless march of ELCA social statements telling us what we are supposed to believe about everything. Imagine what it will be like not to have one’s own denomination publish a document like the “Use of the Means of Grace” which dictates how often we have to have communion in order to be Lutheran, and which liturgies and resources we have to use and the words we have to say.... Imagine what it will be like not to ever have to worry about our denomination making an agreement with another denomination which violates our own Lutheran teachings and requires our pastors to be ordained a certain way by certain people in order to legitimize their ministry like the ELCA did to us in the agreement with THE Episcopal Church in “Called to Common Mission.”
Zion will have the freedom to choose it’s own pastors for the future. One of the best benefits in being something besides ELCA is that Zion will be able to choose it’s own pastors based on what those pastors believe about the word of God and the Lutheran Confessions and about whether or not they practice that teaching in their own life. I know that some of you will argue that Zion has chosen it’s own pastors and that I am an example of that and so is Pastor Chris. But I want to tell you that the days of that kind of freedom are coming to an end. We have enjoyed a period of time of liberty lately because many of the ELCA’s own bishops (including our former bishop) were in violation of ELCA standards for ministry because they refused to bring disciplinary action against pastors who performed same sex blessings or who were actively engaged in lifestyles contrary to Scripture. But those days are quickly ending and I believe there will be more emphasis placed upon local Synod involvement in the call process (which the rules call for already) and that churches will be compelled to choose between candidates supplied by the local bishop who may very well wish to remake a congregation in a different image using a pastor whose beliefs are contrary to that congregations culture. We already see this kind of “top down” management in many Synods.
Zion will have the freedom to participate in ministry projects of our choosing with other congregations. I know one objection I’ve heard to leaving the ELCA has been that we lose the opportunity to participate in all those wonderful missions the ELCA does. But, rest assured, in LCMC, there is a lot going on already. Mission is done not at the national level, but at the local congregational level. In other words, we can work with any congregation, LCMC or otherwise in any mission project we choose, locally, nationally, or globally. Zion’s current relationship with Redeemer Lutheran Church (a member of the AALC - American Assoc of Lutheran Churches) required the approval of our former bishop. Now we won’t need permission to engage in mission with any congregation of our choosing, whether Lutheran or not. There will be no need for complicated ecumenical statements or verdicts or the reading of speeches. We can simply do mission with whom we choose to do mission.
In Des Moines already there are two other LCMC churches. Ephphata Deaf Lutheran Church and Lutheran Church of the Cross. Both have opportunities for us to engage in mission. We simply need to take the time to fellowship with them, learn what they are doing, and join in. I forecast that there will be at least two other formerly ELCA congregations joining LCMC in Des Moines. They also have opportunities to do mission and so do we. There are a total of 16 LCMC congregations already in Iowa.
Some of you might be concerned about our relationship with the ELCT (the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania) and our sister congregations in the Pare Diocese. Believe me when I say that the ELCT will be in sympathy with our decision to move form the ELCA as the ELCT bishops are already on record before the vote as condemning this action as unbiblical. The ELCT may very well end its relationship with the ELCA.
Check out further mission opportunities at LCC - www.churchofthecrossonline.org .
Zion will have the opportunity to join in joyous fellowship with other congregations. One thing about ELCA gatherings: they aren’t joyous. Did you know that we don’t order any materials from our own ELCA publishing house, Augsburg Fortress? Why not? Well, they don’t print the kind of things we think are appropriate for our people to read. They offer a mere human view of the Scriptures. Another interesting fact about Zion: we haven’t attended an ELCA youth event for a decade. Why? We don’t think it’s good for our youth to be exposed to what the ELCA is exposing them too. In the LCMC our youth will have the opportunity to be with other believers and learn things that will strengthen their faith and spur them on to live lives as witnesses for Jesus Christ.
Each year, the LCMC has a National Gathering. Pastor Chris tells me that they are really wonderful, edifying events. I will confess to you that in some 14 years as an ELCA pastor, I have never been edified by our Synod or ELCA events. I have been called names for quoting Scripture, told that my congregation was unfaithful and that I stood in the way of progress. I’m looking forward this October to seeing if Chris is right. I think he is. Turns out I know so many of the pastors in LCMC already. They are extraordinary men and women with amazing gifts who used to be in the ELCA but whose congregations simply couldn’t abide being told that what they believed about the Bible was uninformed and not in keeping with the times.
You should know that LCMC also has a district structure. That means that congregations group together by shared emphases or passions. We are free to join as many “districts” as we want. We currently belong to the ERD - the Evangelical and Renewal District, which Pastor Chris helped to found. There are fellowship and mission opportunities also available through districts. Further, if more churches in Des Moines join LCMC, as I believe they will, we have the opportunity to form our own local district. But none of this is mandatory, which means that it is pure joy.
Will things be different if we vote to leave the ELCA? Yes. But I wonder if they won’t be better, more joyous, and if we won’t be more eager to serve together.
Thanks for reading my ramblings. God bless you. PJ
First, a pre-supposition: since Zion is already a member of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC - www.lcmc.net) I am going to presuppose that we will continue in our relationship with this denomination/organization. In other words, I’m going to assume that we will not have to shop for another Lutheran body outside of the LCMC. You may recall that we joined the LCMC in 2007 in order to be able to call Pastor Chris Magnell, a member of LCMC and not the ELCA, as our associate pastor.
That being said, this is what I see as our future: freedom and joy. Allow me to elaborate:
Zion will have the freedom to believe. Throughout it’s 150 year history, Zion has been characterized by a high view of Scripture. A century ago, Zion left another Lutheran denomination (which doesn’t exist anymore) over a dispute regarding whether or not the theological concept of millennialism was biblically faithful or not. Zion felt strongly that it was not and separated itself, joining another denomination which eventually became the ALC (American Lutheran Church which merged with others to form the ELCA). In other words, we believe that the Bible is the word of God and that the Lutheran Confessions are an accurate interpretation of that word. This means that the Bible is to be the standard by which we measure our lives and faith. The ELCA does not share our high view of Scripture. In Synod gatherings and pastor’s meetings, in the books and curriculums put forth by the denominational publishing house, in The Lutheran magazine itself, the ELCA continues to broadcast that it’s beliefs that place human reason and experience above the word of God and demand that the word of God be subject to human wisdom. Increasingly this has led to “agenda politics” culminating in the passing of that latest social statement and it’s resulting ministry changes. Without the ELCA, Zion will be free to continue its time tested beliefs in the authority of Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions without interference from its own denomination.
Imagine what it will be like never again to have to apologize because one’s own denomination has made a decision that our church doesn’t agree with and wound up on the front page of the local paper. Imagine what life will be like without the endless march of ELCA social statements telling us what we are supposed to believe about everything. Imagine what it will be like not to have one’s own denomination publish a document like the “Use of the Means of Grace” which dictates how often we have to have communion in order to be Lutheran, and which liturgies and resources we have to use and the words we have to say.... Imagine what it will be like not to ever have to worry about our denomination making an agreement with another denomination which violates our own Lutheran teachings and requires our pastors to be ordained a certain way by certain people in order to legitimize their ministry like the ELCA did to us in the agreement with THE Episcopal Church in “Called to Common Mission.”
Zion will have the freedom to choose it’s own pastors for the future. One of the best benefits in being something besides ELCA is that Zion will be able to choose it’s own pastors based on what those pastors believe about the word of God and the Lutheran Confessions and about whether or not they practice that teaching in their own life. I know that some of you will argue that Zion has chosen it’s own pastors and that I am an example of that and so is Pastor Chris. But I want to tell you that the days of that kind of freedom are coming to an end. We have enjoyed a period of time of liberty lately because many of the ELCA’s own bishops (including our former bishop) were in violation of ELCA standards for ministry because they refused to bring disciplinary action against pastors who performed same sex blessings or who were actively engaged in lifestyles contrary to Scripture. But those days are quickly ending and I believe there will be more emphasis placed upon local Synod involvement in the call process (which the rules call for already) and that churches will be compelled to choose between candidates supplied by the local bishop who may very well wish to remake a congregation in a different image using a pastor whose beliefs are contrary to that congregations culture. We already see this kind of “top down” management in many Synods.
Zion will have the freedom to participate in ministry projects of our choosing with other congregations. I know one objection I’ve heard to leaving the ELCA has been that we lose the opportunity to participate in all those wonderful missions the ELCA does. But, rest assured, in LCMC, there is a lot going on already. Mission is done not at the national level, but at the local congregational level. In other words, we can work with any congregation, LCMC or otherwise in any mission project we choose, locally, nationally, or globally. Zion’s current relationship with Redeemer Lutheran Church (a member of the AALC - American Assoc of Lutheran Churches) required the approval of our former bishop. Now we won’t need permission to engage in mission with any congregation of our choosing, whether Lutheran or not. There will be no need for complicated ecumenical statements or verdicts or the reading of speeches. We can simply do mission with whom we choose to do mission.
In Des Moines already there are two other LCMC churches. Ephphata Deaf Lutheran Church and Lutheran Church of the Cross. Both have opportunities for us to engage in mission. We simply need to take the time to fellowship with them, learn what they are doing, and join in. I forecast that there will be at least two other formerly ELCA congregations joining LCMC in Des Moines. They also have opportunities to do mission and so do we. There are a total of 16 LCMC congregations already in Iowa.
Some of you might be concerned about our relationship with the ELCT (the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania) and our sister congregations in the Pare Diocese. Believe me when I say that the ELCT will be in sympathy with our decision to move form the ELCA as the ELCT bishops are already on record before the vote as condemning this action as unbiblical. The ELCT may very well end its relationship with the ELCA.
Check out further mission opportunities at LCC - www.churchofthecrossonline.org .
Zion will have the opportunity to join in joyous fellowship with other congregations. One thing about ELCA gatherings: they aren’t joyous. Did you know that we don’t order any materials from our own ELCA publishing house, Augsburg Fortress? Why not? Well, they don’t print the kind of things we think are appropriate for our people to read. They offer a mere human view of the Scriptures. Another interesting fact about Zion: we haven’t attended an ELCA youth event for a decade. Why? We don’t think it’s good for our youth to be exposed to what the ELCA is exposing them too. In the LCMC our youth will have the opportunity to be with other believers and learn things that will strengthen their faith and spur them on to live lives as witnesses for Jesus Christ.
Each year, the LCMC has a National Gathering. Pastor Chris tells me that they are really wonderful, edifying events. I will confess to you that in some 14 years as an ELCA pastor, I have never been edified by our Synod or ELCA events. I have been called names for quoting Scripture, told that my congregation was unfaithful and that I stood in the way of progress. I’m looking forward this October to seeing if Chris is right. I think he is. Turns out I know so many of the pastors in LCMC already. They are extraordinary men and women with amazing gifts who used to be in the ELCA but whose congregations simply couldn’t abide being told that what they believed about the Bible was uninformed and not in keeping with the times.
You should know that LCMC also has a district structure. That means that congregations group together by shared emphases or passions. We are free to join as many “districts” as we want. We currently belong to the ERD - the Evangelical and Renewal District, which Pastor Chris helped to found. There are fellowship and mission opportunities also available through districts. Further, if more churches in Des Moines join LCMC, as I believe they will, we have the opportunity to form our own local district. But none of this is mandatory, which means that it is pure joy.
Will things be different if we vote to leave the ELCA? Yes. But I wonder if they won’t be better, more joyous, and if we won’t be more eager to serve together.
Thanks for reading my ramblings. God bless you. PJ
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Redemption is God's Way of Inclusion
Today I was talking to our beloved scholar in residence and he reminded me what Church was all about. It’s odd how quickly we forget. It’s easy to turn Church into something that is really just an aspect of something Church is. Like focusing on one role a person plays as opposed to seeing the totality of that person. The Church, he reminded me, is the fellowship of the redeemed. I suppose it warrants capitalization: the Fellowship of the Redeemed.
Paul writes: “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor adulterers nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. BUT you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” The Church is the Fellowship of the Redeemed. We were something else entirely but we have been redeemed.
God saves. It is what he does and he’s good at it. He saved his chosen people from slavery and death and brought them to the land of the promise. He saved his chosen from exile in Babylon and brought them home to the land of the promise. In Christ, he saved his chosen ones, undid the curse of Adam, and opened the door so that all the lost might join his chosen people. And it all required a sacrifice and it all required a change in us: Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:14)
Change is the cost of redemption. Not that change for the sake of change can accomplish redemption, but that redemption itself, when done by Almighty God, brings about change in people. Few could break bread with Jesus and not leave the table changed and transformed by God’s redemption made flesh. They stopped being who they were, and they became something else; his people. They came away from the encounter forsaking their former way of life, their former constructs, their former prejudices. Redemption has a way of cleaning out the old and bringing in the new creation.
What we mourn in the decision of the ELCA last weekend is that it slammed the door on redemption because it told a group of sinners that they were “good enough” and had no need to change. But if they were made that way, why should they change? Because people are changed everyday by a radical encounter with Jesus. Every day, someone predisposed to addiction is liberated; every day, someone hooked on an activity which leads to death is set free and redeemed. Everyday, a very real Jesus brings healing, wholeness, and, yes, redemption to real people. Jesus said, “Go, back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” (Mt 11:4-6)
Christ desired that his redeemed ones, snatched from the devil, bought and paid for by his precious blood, should be in community together. Jesus founded the Church, died for her, cleansed her with his blood, that she might be the community of the redeemed, the Fellowship of the Redeemed. It is a community based upon redemption, upon change and transformation. “You once were... But now you are...”
When the ELCA Churchwide Assembly voted for inclusion without repentance and for leadership without surrender, they voted out the need for redemption. They said, “Sure, Jesus talks about marriage between a man and woman but what is more important is that Jesus would want everyone included, not that they should be changed.” They thought the point was that there should be this big crowd, not that the folks in the crowd should go away changed by their encounter with Christ.
What the scholar reminded me of was that nowhere in this debate in the ELCA is there talk about redemption. It’s absent. The talk is all about social justice, political correctness, inclusion, hospitality, etc. But what happened to redemption? Oh, yeah, it requires change. And change isn’t on the table.
Maybe that is why the ELCA is dying. I don’t say that lightly or with prejudice. I simply state the fact that the ELCA is shrinking and has been since even before the predecessor bodies merged. Soon, regardless of what the consequences of this vote will be, it will vanish from the earth. Why? Perhaps because somewhere along the way the ELCA forgot it was about redemption...
These are the statistics and can be found on the ELCA’s own website, www.elca.org look under ‘research and statistics’:
The ELCA represents 3% of the US population.
Non Christians also represent 3% of the US population.
ELCA average worship attendance is down 291,847 people between 1987 and 2008.
The average age of the person in worship on Sunday in the ELCA is 54.
Between 2001 and 2007, membership shrank 7.5% overall, from about 5 million to 4.7 million people.
The future trends, however, are more disturbing:
Between 2001-2007, the number of infants being baptized is down 19%;
the number of adults being baptized is down 30%; the reception of new members from other denominations is down 21.5%. In other words, we’re having fewer babies, fewer adult conversions, and fewer transfers.
Membership transfers from other ELCA congregations are down 33% from 2001-2007. Transfers from other Lutheran bodies are down 31% and transfers from non-Lutheran churches are down 20%. The total number of members added to the ELCA roles is down 24%.
Number of baptized youth being confirmed: down 20.9%
Average weekly attendance at ELCA churches is down 13.4% overall between 2001-2007.
The only positive news is that giving is up. 29.8%
God is busy doing his redeeming work. And maybe it is necessary for one denomination to die so that from that loss might emerge a new and redeemed people, a holy remnant, with a fire in their belly, to share with all who will hear: our God is in the redemption business; our God saves. And in saving, he changes lives and eternities.
Paul writes: “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor adulterers nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. BUT you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” The Church is the Fellowship of the Redeemed. We were something else entirely but we have been redeemed.
God saves. It is what he does and he’s good at it. He saved his chosen people from slavery and death and brought them to the land of the promise. He saved his chosen from exile in Babylon and brought them home to the land of the promise. In Christ, he saved his chosen ones, undid the curse of Adam, and opened the door so that all the lost might join his chosen people. And it all required a sacrifice and it all required a change in us: Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:14)
Change is the cost of redemption. Not that change for the sake of change can accomplish redemption, but that redemption itself, when done by Almighty God, brings about change in people. Few could break bread with Jesus and not leave the table changed and transformed by God’s redemption made flesh. They stopped being who they were, and they became something else; his people. They came away from the encounter forsaking their former way of life, their former constructs, their former prejudices. Redemption has a way of cleaning out the old and bringing in the new creation.
What we mourn in the decision of the ELCA last weekend is that it slammed the door on redemption because it told a group of sinners that they were “good enough” and had no need to change. But if they were made that way, why should they change? Because people are changed everyday by a radical encounter with Jesus. Every day, someone predisposed to addiction is liberated; every day, someone hooked on an activity which leads to death is set free and redeemed. Everyday, a very real Jesus brings healing, wholeness, and, yes, redemption to real people. Jesus said, “Go, back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” (Mt 11:4-6)
Christ desired that his redeemed ones, snatched from the devil, bought and paid for by his precious blood, should be in community together. Jesus founded the Church, died for her, cleansed her with his blood, that she might be the community of the redeemed, the Fellowship of the Redeemed. It is a community based upon redemption, upon change and transformation. “You once were... But now you are...”
When the ELCA Churchwide Assembly voted for inclusion without repentance and for leadership without surrender, they voted out the need for redemption. They said, “Sure, Jesus talks about marriage between a man and woman but what is more important is that Jesus would want everyone included, not that they should be changed.” They thought the point was that there should be this big crowd, not that the folks in the crowd should go away changed by their encounter with Christ.
What the scholar reminded me of was that nowhere in this debate in the ELCA is there talk about redemption. It’s absent. The talk is all about social justice, political correctness, inclusion, hospitality, etc. But what happened to redemption? Oh, yeah, it requires change. And change isn’t on the table.
Maybe that is why the ELCA is dying. I don’t say that lightly or with prejudice. I simply state the fact that the ELCA is shrinking and has been since even before the predecessor bodies merged. Soon, regardless of what the consequences of this vote will be, it will vanish from the earth. Why? Perhaps because somewhere along the way the ELCA forgot it was about redemption...
These are the statistics and can be found on the ELCA’s own website, www.elca.org look under ‘research and statistics’:
The ELCA represents 3% of the US population.
Non Christians also represent 3% of the US population.
ELCA average worship attendance is down 291,847 people between 1987 and 2008.
The average age of the person in worship on Sunday in the ELCA is 54.
Between 2001 and 2007, membership shrank 7.5% overall, from about 5 million to 4.7 million people.
The future trends, however, are more disturbing:
Between 2001-2007, the number of infants being baptized is down 19%;
the number of adults being baptized is down 30%; the reception of new members from other denominations is down 21.5%. In other words, we’re having fewer babies, fewer adult conversions, and fewer transfers.
Membership transfers from other ELCA congregations are down 33% from 2001-2007. Transfers from other Lutheran bodies are down 31% and transfers from non-Lutheran churches are down 20%. The total number of members added to the ELCA roles is down 24%.
Number of baptized youth being confirmed: down 20.9%
Average weekly attendance at ELCA churches is down 13.4% overall between 2001-2007.
The only positive news is that giving is up. 29.8%
God is busy doing his redeeming work. And maybe it is necessary for one denomination to die so that from that loss might emerge a new and redeemed people, a holy remnant, with a fire in their belly, to share with all who will hear: our God is in the redemption business; our God saves. And in saving, he changes lives and eternities.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Should We Leave the ELCA?
I want to begin by asking this question: Why do we have denominations? I came up with a short list which includes the following: For the sake of our identity; for the sake of our accountability and integrity; for the sake of doing ministry and mission; and finally, to provide "approved" or vetted pastors for congregations to choose from.
Perhaps there are more reasons and if so, I'm open to hear them. But now that we understand the "why" of denominations, let's look and see what the ELCA's recent decisions affect those "why" reasons.
1. For Identity. We are this and not that. Denominations are a way of how we see ourselves and understand our history. Sadly, the ELCA has never been able to provide a common Lutheran identity that applied satisfactorily to those who came out of its predecessor bodies. In other words, they were never able to galvanize a collective identity of what it meant to be an ELCA Lutheran. Lutherans have ALWAYS identified themselves as people of the Word. Our entire Reformation history is about freeing the Word and making it available to all. Now, with the passing of these new policies, our own denomination has betrayed our history. How can we who value the Bible as more than just another book possibly find our identity in this denomination?
2. For Accountability/Integrity. Denominations are supposed to maintain standards for member churches to follow. Denominations are supposed to be the guardians of “what we believe and why.” They are the ones who enforce discipline against heretics (wrong thinkers), who zealously guard the historic, orthodox Christian faith. In this case, the denomination has betrayed it’s own incorporating documents and its own historic teaching. The ELCA is not accountable to the majority of its members nor to the Word of God anymore and therefore lacks any integrity as a denomination whatsoever.
3. For Shared Ministry/Mission: Denominations, historically, have maintained that they can do mission better then individual congregations acting alone. Rather than each congregation supporting one missionary a little bit, denominations basically asserted that they could do mission better by collecting funds from member churches and then using the money in a directed way. Can we actually be a part of a ministry or mission done by a denomination with no Scriptural, historic or orthodox Christian integrity? In other words, if our own denomination doesn't adhere to Scripture, do we really want to support any ministry or mission that the denomination does because won't we possibly be propagating false faith and error? After the passage of this social statement and implementing policies, do we even believe that we share the same idea of mission or ministry with this denomination? At Zion we are currently participating in only one ELCA initiative: the Companion Synod Program that partnered us with the Mhezi Parish in Tanzania. Our contacts among the Mhezi can continue because we now have direct lines of communication and relationships with people on the ground in Tanzania. We currently lose nothing by not being a part of the ELCA mission structure. It's important to note here that bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania have gone on the record as saying that the passing of this social statement and it's ministry resolutions would cause them to break off relations with the ELCA. I wonder if this will apply to others of our more biblically conservative Lutheran partners in the Lutheran World Federation as well?
4. To Provide "Approved" Pastors: The ELCA has always tried to have a lot of control over who could be a pastor and where they could serve. Most congregations must wait up to a year to find a suitable pastor and most congregations are limited in the pool of candidates the local bishop will give them from which they can choose. That hasn't been an issue at Zion, but it is in other places who haven't felt confident enough to go outside the process. Since the ELCA has abandoned the historic, orthodox Christian faith, what kinds of pastors will it be able to supply to its churches in the future? Won’t those biblically faithful men and women considering becoming pastors decide to join a different denomination? I believe the pool of faithful pastors will dry up quickly in the ELCA which will leave Zion ultimately unable to find ELCA pastors who share our beliefs. What pastor who loves the word of God can abide a denomination which doesn't?
So we have a lot of work ahead of us. We must pray and seek the face of the Lord together but in short of repealing recent decisions, I don't see how we can proceed in the company of the ELCA. We simply don't value the same things any more.
This will be an incredibly hard parting for those of us who grew up in the ELCA and its predecessor bodies. We need to be very patient and understanding with each other. But this isn't about leaving the Lutheran Church. This is about finding our home in a Lutheran body which shares our love of Scripture and of Christ Himself. To quote an oft use phrase: In this case perhaps we have not left the denomination so much as the denomination has left us.
Thanks for reading. God bless you. PJ
For more information, please see the following links:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/augustweb-only/133.41.0.html (About the tornado)
http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Office-of-the-Secretary/ELCA-Governance/Churchwide-Assembly/CWAUpdate_4.aspx (Presiding Bishop Hansen's letter)
http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-Services/News/Releases.aspx#&&a=4253 (news releases about what was passed at the Assembly)
Perhaps there are more reasons and if so, I'm open to hear them. But now that we understand the "why" of denominations, let's look and see what the ELCA's recent decisions affect those "why" reasons.
1. For Identity. We are this and not that. Denominations are a way of how we see ourselves and understand our history. Sadly, the ELCA has never been able to provide a common Lutheran identity that applied satisfactorily to those who came out of its predecessor bodies. In other words, they were never able to galvanize a collective identity of what it meant to be an ELCA Lutheran. Lutherans have ALWAYS identified themselves as people of the Word. Our entire Reformation history is about freeing the Word and making it available to all. Now, with the passing of these new policies, our own denomination has betrayed our history. How can we who value the Bible as more than just another book possibly find our identity in this denomination?
2. For Accountability/Integrity. Denominations are supposed to maintain standards for member churches to follow. Denominations are supposed to be the guardians of “what we believe and why.” They are the ones who enforce discipline against heretics (wrong thinkers), who zealously guard the historic, orthodox Christian faith. In this case, the denomination has betrayed it’s own incorporating documents and its own historic teaching. The ELCA is not accountable to the majority of its members nor to the Word of God anymore and therefore lacks any integrity as a denomination whatsoever.
3. For Shared Ministry/Mission: Denominations, historically, have maintained that they can do mission better then individual congregations acting alone. Rather than each congregation supporting one missionary a little bit, denominations basically asserted that they could do mission better by collecting funds from member churches and then using the money in a directed way. Can we actually be a part of a ministry or mission done by a denomination with no Scriptural, historic or orthodox Christian integrity? In other words, if our own denomination doesn't adhere to Scripture, do we really want to support any ministry or mission that the denomination does because won't we possibly be propagating false faith and error? After the passage of this social statement and implementing policies, do we even believe that we share the same idea of mission or ministry with this denomination? At Zion we are currently participating in only one ELCA initiative: the Companion Synod Program that partnered us with the Mhezi Parish in Tanzania. Our contacts among the Mhezi can continue because we now have direct lines of communication and relationships with people on the ground in Tanzania. We currently lose nothing by not being a part of the ELCA mission structure. It's important to note here that bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania have gone on the record as saying that the passing of this social statement and it's ministry resolutions would cause them to break off relations with the ELCA. I wonder if this will apply to others of our more biblically conservative Lutheran partners in the Lutheran World Federation as well?
4. To Provide "Approved" Pastors: The ELCA has always tried to have a lot of control over who could be a pastor and where they could serve. Most congregations must wait up to a year to find a suitable pastor and most congregations are limited in the pool of candidates the local bishop will give them from which they can choose. That hasn't been an issue at Zion, but it is in other places who haven't felt confident enough to go outside the process. Since the ELCA has abandoned the historic, orthodox Christian faith, what kinds of pastors will it be able to supply to its churches in the future? Won’t those biblically faithful men and women considering becoming pastors decide to join a different denomination? I believe the pool of faithful pastors will dry up quickly in the ELCA which will leave Zion ultimately unable to find ELCA pastors who share our beliefs. What pastor who loves the word of God can abide a denomination which doesn't?
So we have a lot of work ahead of us. We must pray and seek the face of the Lord together but in short of repealing recent decisions, I don't see how we can proceed in the company of the ELCA. We simply don't value the same things any more.
This will be an incredibly hard parting for those of us who grew up in the ELCA and its predecessor bodies. We need to be very patient and understanding with each other. But this isn't about leaving the Lutheran Church. This is about finding our home in a Lutheran body which shares our love of Scripture and of Christ Himself. To quote an oft use phrase: In this case perhaps we have not left the denomination so much as the denomination has left us.
Thanks for reading. God bless you. PJ
For more information, please see the following links:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/augustweb-only/133.41.0.html (About the tornado)
http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Office-of-the-Secretary/ELCA-Governance/Churchwide-Assembly/CWAUpdate_4.aspx (Presiding Bishop Hansen's letter)
http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-Services/News/Releases.aspx#&&a=4253 (news releases about what was passed at the Assembly)
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