As the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) considers sweeping constitutional amendments in 2025, it is crucial to revisit the foundational principles of the Lutheran Reformation—the Five Solas—and assess the implications of these changes for our confessional identity and mission. The Five Solas—Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), Sola Fide (faith alone), Sola Gratia (grace alone), Solus Christus (Christ alone), and Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be the glory)—are not merely historical slogans but enduring guideposts for Lutheran faith and practice. Recent proposals within the ELCA threaten to compromise these pillars at a time when clarity and fidelity are most needed.

Sola Scriptura and the Authority of God’s Word

The move toward gender-neutral and nonbinary language in ELCA governing documents, as proposed in the November 2024 Church Council actions, raises significant concerns about Sola Scriptura. While inclusivity is a worthy goal, altering biblical terms such as “brothers and sisters” risks detaching the church from the clear witness of Scripture, which affirms humanity as “male and female” (Genesis 1:27, Matthew 19:4). The authority of Scripture, upheld by the Lutheran Confessions, must remain the foundation for doctrine and practice. When church language is shaped more by cultural trends than by God’s revealed Word, we risk undermining the very principle that sparked the Reformation: that “God’s Word shall establish articles of faith” (Luther).

Solus Christus and the Marks of the Church

Another critical issue is the proposed expansion of voting rights to synod assemblies for non-congregational ministries—such as camps and nonprofits—that do not regularly offer Word and Sacrament ministry. The Augsburg Confession defines the Church as the assembly where the Gospel is purely taught, and the sacraments rightly administered. To broaden the definition of “church” to include organizations whose primary mission is not the proclamation of the Gospel or the administration of the sacraments risks severing the church from its Christological center. Solus Christus reminds us that Christ alone is the head of the Church, and it is His presence in Word and Sacrament that constitutes the true church—not organizational structure or social activism.

Soli Deo Gloria and Church Governance

The Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church (CRLC) has proposed streamlining the constitutional amendment process by eliminating the second Assembly vote, thereby centralizing authority and reducing congregational input. Such a move contradicts both the spirit of the Augsburg Confession and the principle of Soli Deo Gloria, which insists that all church governance must ultimately glorify God, not merely serve institutional efficiency. Furthermore, the lack of proactive communication about these amendments undermines transparency and trust, violating the church’s commitment to open dialogue and discernment.

Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, and the Marginalization of Confessional Voices

Perhaps most troubling is the increasing marginalization of confessional and conservative voices within the ELCA. Sola Fide and Sola Gratia teach that all are justified by faith and saved by grace alone—not by ideological conformity or prevailing cultural opinions. When traditional perspectives are dismissed or excluded from meaningful dialogue, the church risks replacing genuine unity with superficial consensus, undermining the mutual respect and forbearance to which we are called (Romans 14:1, Ephesians 4:3). True inclusion, rooted in the grace of Christ, embraces the full spectrum of faithful Lutheran convictions.

A Call to Faithful Reformation

The proposed constitutional changes present a pivotal moment for the ELCA. To remain faithful to our Reformation heritage, the church must:

• Ensure all amendments are publicized directly to congregations, upholding Sola Scriptura.
• Reject fast-tracking governance changes that bypass congregational discernment, preserving Soli Deo Gloria.
• Host open forums to discuss amendments through the lens of the Five Solas, especially Solus Christus.
• Appoint confessional leaders committed to upholding Reformation theology.

The ELCA cannot credibly champion inclusion while sidelining conservative voices and obscuring governance changes. Only by realigning with the Five Solas can the church preserve its confessional integrity and witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sola slide with list of solas and German church, courtesy of Paul Fleming.

Six years. That was the length of time St. John’s Lutheran Church of Nanticoke, PA, went without a called pastor. For six years, this incredibly close-knit group of strong lay leaders worked hard to keep their church family together and to remain an active congregation.

Why so long? While it would be nice if there were only one reason, such as only having one pastoral candidate offered to them over those six years, sadly, that was not the case. As time passed, several factors ultimately led to their decision to consider alternative Lutheran church bodies with which to affiliate.

The most consistent factor was a lack of support from the Synod. Initially, the congregation had two or three pulpit supply options, but it later dropped to just one: a pastor who was dying of lung cancer. Ironically, this pastor was once their called pastor, whom they put under a one-year review and eventually dismissed because her sermons were highly volatile, divisive, and not centered around the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Over time, conditions worsened as the Synod could no longer provide or guarantee bi-weekly or even monthly pulpit supply, leaving St. John’s to fend for itself. St. John’s had no choice but to seek support from other Lutheran groups that could assist fellow Christians in need on an occasional basis. Rotating between lay leaders and occasional visiting supply pastors, church leadership started to question the future of the ELCA and whether they wanted to stay in it.

What about their interim? Their decision to consider other Lutheran bodies had nothing to do with her. They felt sorry for her because she had her own congregation and was also serving as an interim at St. John’s and a few other parishes simultaneously. She did what she could to support them.

In 2018, the congregation was surprised to learn that an eight-year-old, who had transitioned from his biological sex to the opposite with parental permission, was a featured speaker at the national youth gathering.

That same year, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton was interviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times, where she expressed her opinion as a representative of the most prominent American Lutheran Church body, suggesting that she believed there may be a hell, and in her view, it would be empty. Her publicly expressed opinion, as a representative of the ELCA, constitutes a denial of her ordination vows, which state that the ordinand is to affirm what the Church confesses, accepts, and teaches concerning the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. The ordinand is then asked, “Will you therefore preach and teach in accordance with the Holy Scriptures and these creeds and confessions?” How can an ordained Lutheran Pastor confess the Creeds and then say something that could cause others to doubt the existence of hell, contradicting the authority of Scripture? When someone no longer believes Scripture to be the norming norm, it is easy to understand such an answer.  

While I could continue, events like these prompted St. John’s church council to reach out and start discussions to find which denominations might be a good fit. As they learned more about the denomination they once proudly belonged to, the council shared their findings with the congregation. During the last three years of their pastoral vacancy, the congregation—which considers itself a church family—held many conversations and came together as one.

Feeling fed up, they took the necessary steps to initiate the vote process for disaffiliation. On November 19, 2023, they held their first vote. Afterwards, a representative from their Synod conducted a building inspection and asked whether the congregation had ever received a loan or grant to meet its church needs, which it had not. Following the constitutional rules, they held their second vote on February 18, 2024. Both votes were unanimous, and that is how St. John’s Lutheran Church of Nanticoke, PA, became the 500th congregation to join the North American Lutheran Church. By August of that year, they had completed their paperwork and gone through the call process. I was ordained and installed as their pastor on October 24, 2024. They prayed and worked to keep their church family together and are all the stronger for it.  

Editor’s Note: The author is writing about the outlandishness of the 1994 draft.  It promoted same sex relationships and masturbation.  And it was released to the press before it was released to ELCA pastors which caused an enormous uproar. 

Several of us on the current board of Lutheran CORE have been tasked with sharing where we are in our journey in or out of the ELCA. 

It was the early 1980’s and my then first pastoral “boss” (I was his associate) and mentor used to say things like, “In the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., everyone has a puke point. You’ll know it when you reach it.”  He often said graphic things like that such as, “Stay somewhere long enough and you can outlast your bastards” and “The milk of human kindness flows sparingly in the church.”  Wow, burned out much?  Please Lord, don’t let me get that hopeless.  A newly ordained still aglow with the infused idealism of stepping into the role I was wondering if I’d make a mistake learning from him.  But (and you knew that was coming) in some ways the years proved him correct.  Stay somewhere long enough that you form deep, abiding relationships with your members and it’s amazing what you can accomplish together.  Leaders shape culture and over time the character and competence of the Pastor will inform the priorities of a congregation’s mission and ministry.  People who don’t like the direction will drift out, sometimes with all the finesse of a toddler’s tantrum, but they’ll go. Hint: you know you’ve achieved that when you want to weep at members’ funerals because you’re now burying friends and not just people who called you to the role. That’s an important dynamic for this article, deep connections versus doing what’s right.  Relationship while feeling the tug of responsibility.

As per the “Puke Point” teaching that was harder to nail down.  In sitting down to write this tome I searched in vain about the internet’s nooks and crannies to substantiate the quote, but I couldn’t, but the notion is something I carried for years.  I didn’t reach that point when the 1994 draft on human sexuality was released.  While most reacted strongly to the call on the church to recognize same sex unions, something that started rattling around in the ELCA since its inception in 1988 so no surprise there, I noted that our confirmation instruction should now include the positive aspects of masturbation.  Where did that come from and why the sudden interest in budding adolescent sexuality? When the church started paying for abortions one exiting pastor wrote his Suma, “Real churches don’t kill babies.”   During my brief stint as an assistant to the bishop of Sierra Pacific Synod an openly gay pastor was called to be chaplain at UC Berkeley and several churches in Oakland held joint youth group activities with an openly gay seminarian leading. That should have been my early clue. Like a magician’s sleight of hand, adult relationships were waved in front of us but in my opinion the real target was children.

At the June 2018 national ELCA Youth Gathering a chemically and surgically mutilated child was paraded across the stage as an inspirational symbol of acceptance.  Adults who make such decisions are one thing.  I think they need therapy and not surgery, but that’s on them.  A child, one whose prefrontal cortex was not yet fully developed, was subjected to irreversible medical procedures and revealed as blessed by God. I was done.  I’d finally reached that unverifiable quote point. Six months later I announced my early retirement.  Relationships kept me in, but a quad bypass and the potential stress of taking out the entire congregation wasn’t something I could do, although much to his credit, my replacement soon had them out the door.  This is a short article, and the full story is more nuanced, but such is my journey.  I know you have your own.  May you find community and peace of Christ outside the ELCA.

I was amazed but not surprised over how little information was coming from the ELCA regarding the momentous decisions that will be made by and the potentially momentous changes that will be coming from the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, which will be held July 28-August 2.  My impression is that the ELCA is saying as little as possible so that there will be as little conversation as possible before the assembly, so that when the decisions are made and the actions are taken at the assembly it will be a fait accompli and nothing can be done.  And the ELCA is counting on what will most likely be the case – that the people who will be voting members of the assembly will be people who will overwhelmingly vote in favor of the proposed actions and changes.  The only question is whether the voting members will feel that what they will be presented with to vote on will go far enough.

The ELCA has resumed offering “Living Lutheran” magazine in print form.  I recently received the Summer 2025 issue in the mail, which contains three articles regarding the Churchwide Assembly.  Admittedly that is something, but I wonder how many across the ELCA will receive it and read it.  In talking with people I find that the general consensus is that most people in the ELCA have absolutely no idea what is coming.

The first of these articles is entitled “A preview of actions” and can be found on page 11.  There are a total of ten words concerning proposed amendments to the ELCA constitutions – fewer words than are used for the required opening land acknowledgement.  Only ten words – in spite of the fact that the proposed amendments do many things including increase the mandated or desired level of participation of persons from “historically underrepresented groups” and fast track the approval process for amendments that come from the floor.  I have identified and evaluated many of the proposed constitutional changes in my April 2025 letter from the director.  A link to that letter can be found HERE. 

The second of these articles is entitled “Revisiting ‘Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust’” and can be found on pages 16-17.  The article continues what the ELCA has consistently been doing in downplaying the significance of the changes in this first phase of the reconsideration process.  It calls them “text updates without changing the meaning of the social statement.”  It quotes Ryan Cumming, ELCA program director for theological ethics, education, and community development, as saying, “The hope is that folks can be clear these are edits and not substantive changes right now and focus on the way in which the wording brings the 2009 social statement up to date.”  Please see my article regarding the Human Sexuality Reconsiderations Task Force in the January 2025 issue of our newsletter.  A link to that article can be found HERE.  As I pointed out in my article, I do not see how moving from merely approving publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same sex relationships (PALMS) to a full embrace of every form of gender identity and sexual orientation can be called mere edits and not substantive changes.  The article in “Living Lutheran” does have the honesty and integrity to conclude with a warning of what is to come.  It discloses the fact that the next step is a process that could lead to “substantive changes” in the section of the social statement that “names the ELCA’s recognition of four conviction sets that Lutherans can faithfully hold about same-gender relationships, typically referred to as ‘bound conscience.’”  That process is expected to begin this fall and conclude with action taken by the 2028 Churchwide Assembly. 

The third of these articles is entitled “Called to renew” and is about the work of the Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church.  It can be found on pages 18-19.  A link to my article in the May 2025 issue of our newsletter on the Final Report of the Commission can be found HERE.  The 2022 Churchwide Assembly, which called for the formation of the Commission, had grand and glorious ideas regarding the work of the Commission, even that it might lead to a special, separate assembly that would reconstitute the ELCA.  But it seems that reality prevailed (as it has a habit of doing).  The Final Report of the Commission calls for many amendments and changes, but not for a totally new, reconstituted church formed at a separate reconstituting convention.  In the article Carla Christopher Wilson, Commission co-chair, is quoted as saying, “The only way to rewrite and restructure the entire constitution in one go would essentially be to dissolve the churchwide organization.”  Therefore the Commission has proposed a “phased approach, recommending amendments rather than dissolution” and the Church Council has responded by “forming tasks forces and committees to continue the work.”   Personally I find the language in the article toned down compared with the language in Recommendation 1 in the Final Report.  In that Recommendation the Commission shows that it is still thinking big time when it states that if all the constitution and bylaw amendments needed for the ELCA to become a “truly welcoming church” that realizes “authentic diversity” are not developed in time for consideration by the 2028 Churchwide Assembly, then the ELCA Church Council needs to call for a special meeting of the Churchwide Assembly to evaluate and enact the necessary constitutional revisions. 

The other part of this article that caught my attention is in the next paragraph, which tells how the ELCA Church Council responded to the Commission’s recommendation which “urged immediate accountability structures and compliance incentives to center equity across the ELCA.”  The Council responded by “strengthening the Strategy Toward Authentic Diversity Advisory Team and mandating DEIA standards development for congregations and synods.”  Whenever the ELCA uses any form of the word “mandated,” all confessional Lutherans still in the ELCA need to get really nervous.  In this sentence what is mandated?  Is the development of standards mandated or are the standards that will be developed mandated?  And if it is the standards that will be developed that will be mandated, what will happen to congregations that are not in full compliance? 

I am glad that the ELCA at least communicated something about the upcoming Churchwide Assembly in the Summer 2025 issue of “Living Lutheran.”  But I wonder how many will take the time and put forth the effort to read and understand it, and how many will remain blissfully unaware.  I will be attending the Churchwide Assembly as a Visitor and look forward to telling you about it in my August letter from the director.  

Many thanks to Stephen Heath for providing a video summary of his new book, “A Christian Worldview Primer for Twenty-first Century Americans.”  A link to Stephen’s video can be found HERE.   A link to our You Tube channel, which contains fifty-nine video reviews of books and discussions of topics of interest and importance, can be found HERE.

Stephen describes himself as “a Christian layman who was raised in the faith and has strived to convey to his children and grandchildren what has been entrusted to him.”   His professional life has taken him through a career as an Air Force legal officer specializing in Government contract law.  After serving in the military, he continued to use his legal expertise in the private sector.

This primer begins by introducing the basic concepts of worldview.  It then outlines Christianity’s answers to the worldview questions of origins, purpose, and destiny.  Stephen writes –

“Christianity’s understanding of the universe and life and law within it is unique, comprehensive, and coherent.  In every age, the Christian worldview confronts a competing worldview which wrests authority from God and claims autonomy for humanity itself.  At this time and place, the world on its own opposes the Christian worldview in many ways. These ways include matters of authority, truth, ‘rights,’ sex, ‘social justice,’ the relationship between religion and politics, and society’s dependence on three basic independent institutions: the family, a religious institution, and a civic one.  This primer seeks to make the believer aware of these relationships and the differences between Christianity’s understandings of them and those of ‘the world.’  It ends on a note of hope, remembering the words of our Lord, ‘Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.’”

At Confirmation Camp the girl had scrawled across her forearm four pagan runes. Most folks would look past these symbols as mere doodling. But the images are pagan prayers every bit as a worn cross or scripture tattoo is a prayer to Christ.

While movies like “Harry Potter” or “The Craft” or the show “Charmed” make witchcraft seem innocuous and glamourous, Wicca is a real religious movement, especially resurging among young women and teenage girls. Pagans do not worship the God of the Bible, but rather rely on a pantheon of gods and goddesses. They see the divine living in everything including people. So everything is a “god”. They don’t believe in gods of judgment, but do call on gods to punish their enemies. These gods are capricious, impersonal and ahistorical. The sexuality and fertility of the gods is emphasized, in particular the amorphic, can-mean-what-you-want goddess. Pagans are clear: their gods are not compatible with the LORD Almighty.

Even though some have a fallacy of “Christian Witches”, actual Wiccans would say you can’t be Christian and wiccan. Note that “Christian”- being a Christ follower –is modifying the noun to be a witch. Whenever an adjective at odds with the Word of God is used to modify the noun of being a Christian that perspective is pagan.

We see many examples of Pagan Christianity around us today. While some Christians rant about alleged pagan influence from Halloween, Christmas, to Easter, the influence of paganism is much more invasive. An ELCA church in San Francisco even has a resident witch on staff.¹  Paganism is all around us and is the everyday air we breathe of our culture. We are tempted to give ourselves over to the elemental forces of mundane life (Gal 4:3, Gol 2:8).

When people dabble with these pagan gods or goddesses, they are not just doing religion ala carte. To be clear these pagan false gods are demonic. When people mess around with the occult they are opening the door to dark and demonic. These spiritual forces are real and harmful.

The Bible speaks clearly against witchcraft, sorcery and the occult. “Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.” (Deut 18:10–11, cf. Jer 27:9, Isa 47:9-13, Mal 3:5)  In the book of Acts sorcerers recognized the futility of their occult worship, burning their spell books and giving themselves to Christ. (Acts 8:9-24, Acts 13:7-12, Acts 19:19)

When Christians dabble with the gods of other religions they are engaging in blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Jesus warned Christians against defying the Holy Spirit (Matt 12:31). Requiring some other deity to modify or contribute to Jesus Christ means denying the full revelation of God in Christ that has come to us through the Holy Spirit. Christ is the fullness of God (Eph 1:22-23, Col 1:1-20). He has done everything for us in the cross and continues to bless us. We do not have to burn sage or have crystals to appease or bargain with Him, he has already paid the price of appeasement through his blood.  

We either are worshipping Christ alone or we are blaspheming against the Holy Spirit worshipping other false gods. As Paul says, the sacrifices and worship given to false gods is offered to demons, not to God. “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.” (1 Cor 10:21)

So we are encouraged to walk away from paganism and the occult. “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded / Come near to God and he will come near to you.” (James 4:8) When we repent from the death-dealing worship of the occult and turn towards God, he will come near to us and empower us for daily life.

To you who are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, May the grace and peace of God our Father and Christ our Lord be with you. (1 Co 1:2-3)

^#1 https://www.christianpost.com/news/elca-herchurch-promotes-goddess-worship-resident-witch.html, https://sfstandard.com/2023/11/15/san-francisco-herchurch-purple-twin-peaks-divine-feminine/

The events that put me at the front line of leading our church out of the ELCA began with an unexpected phone call from our founding pastor. Unbeknownst to him, I was frustrated with our congregation’s direction and the ELCA’s unbiblical stance on various issues.  Pastor wanted to know if I would be interested in being the Council President. Here I was ready to leave the church, and God provided a path to church leadership and fixing the problems that I saw. I agreed to his request, but it wasn’t with the fervor of ‘Here I Am Lord, Send Me!’

I had numerous discussions with the Pastor about leaving the ELCA, how to do that, and its impact.  He was led to believe that he would lose his pension if we left the ELCA. We now know this to be untrue, but it kept us in the ELCA for another decade.

Pastor retired during this period.  By this time, I was all-in on getting the right pastor to lead our church and made that known within the council and general congregational membership.  This led to my interest in serving on our church’s Call Committee. Now I was enthusiastically responding to ‘Here I Am Lord, Send Me!’  I knew that to save our church from the ELCA and lead us on a biblical path, we needed the right pastor.

I was asked to serve on the Call Committee the day after my father passed away. It was a blessing in a time of grief. I was relieved and grateful that I was part of that committee. We went right to work and started developing a questionnaire to ask our congregation what it wanted in a new pastor.

During this process I had an opportunity to attend the Synod Assembly. I left home expecting to be filled with the Holy Spirit while there. I could not have been more wrong. I was fed lectures on white privilege, listened to poems from young black activists about why my whiteness was a problem and why I should ask for forgiveness, The list goes on. Nothing about Christ, nothing about Christianity, nothing except a church manifesting itself as a  political organization and promoting LGBTQ agenda with no regard to sin.

I came back early from the Synod Assembly, reached out to the entire call committee and asked for a special meeting.  “Houston, we have a problem!” echoed in my mind. I put together a synopsis of my trip and all members of the call committee were speechless.  One member said, “Well, I thought I was a liberal but apparently I’m a conservative and didn’t know it.” We contemplated our next steps. Since our congregation asked us to find a pastor, should we go back to them and suggest looking outside of the ELCA?

We felt this was a good course of action but eventually realized that we could not take that path…yet. We focused our search and questions on a path that would lead us to the right pastor…then we prayed…a lot! With God’s help and our listening, we finally found our pastor. But that was the beginning, not the end of our journey. I immediately approached our new pastor (before he was selected) to make sure he was willing to support our plan to leave the ELCA. He said the road would be tough, but we could do it if we wanted. 

When the ELCA announced that it would be a Sanctuary Church, there was a significant amount of publicity that went along with its decision. This worked in our favor because many more members became aware of what the ELCA was doing. Now I didn’t have to find people to talk to and convince them the ELCA was not aligned with our congregation’s beliefs. They started looking for me and saying we need to leave the ELCA.

 I started gathering signatures on a petition. It called for the formation of a Discernment Committee where we could prayerfully determine our church’s path forward. Over 25% of the active congregation members signed it; the council could not refuse our request.

We formed the committee with a mix of members who wanted to stay or leave the ELCA. This was harder than it needed to be because we wanted to hear all voices and concerns.  Pastor led four classes for the congregation which discussed issues within the ELCA and how it had strayed from Luther’s foundational beliefs. These meetings focused on:

These classes informed our congregation that the ELCA had changed. Our patience and plan worked out. Our first vote was 88% and the second was 89% in affirmation to leave the ELCA and become part of the NALC.

Editor’s Note: The image above shows soldiers harvesting and cooking a fallen horse. Brett writes, “While originally written in regards to Western culture generally, the thrust of this poem more particularly applies to the Christian orthodoxy at the heart of that culture suffering at the hand of theological progressivism within the Church.” Please also check out his blog, The Faith Conservationist.

The soldiers spit and then decry
The rottenness of all their feast,
Snarling as they’re nourished on
The living flesh of dying beast

Whose labor brought them hitherto
With much travail and sacrifice,
And spared their feet the journey so,
Though all its strength could not suffice

To keep its feet unfaltering
On treach’rous pathways sought afresh;
Each misstep now recounted as
They glut themselves on tired flesh.

The horse that drew the wagon to
The edge of revolution’s field
Though scorned by révolutionnaire,
In death its final strength does yield.

So nourished, soldiers soldier on
And never dream in their dull lives
How brave the heart that perished there
Beneath their cool, assuming knives.

The Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church (CRLC) finally released their final recommendations to the ELCA Church Council–and to the larger church, particularly in regards to the 2025 Churchwide Assembly and beyond.  In my estimation, it was an intentional kicking of the proverbial can down the road.

Missing from the recommendations to the 2025 Churchwide Assembly are any meaningful DEIA amendments to the ELCA Constitution and by-laws.  There is one recommendation seeking to increase the number of under-represented groups at assemblies, but none of the major changes proposed by the DEIA audit.

But that does not mean the CRLC is dropping DEIA. Not by a long shot.  In their report, their very first recommendation is “to immediately begin identifying and acting upon mutual accountability measures and compliance incentives across all expressions of the ELCA to ensure the proactive centering of dismantling racism within the denomination. These measures and incentives shall be guided by the recommendations outlined in the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Audit and the Strategy Toward Authentic Diversity.”  The CRLC further urged the Church Council to have amendment and by-law changes ready at the 2028 National Assembly. 

There is the can kick.

But there is a bit of an incongruous note in the commission’s rationale.  They say in their explanation, “The commission believes this work can wait no longer.”  They even suggest that a special assembly might be needed to implement changes.  This is a bit of a head scratcher given that they could have asked for changes to be implemented in 2025.  So, why wait?

Perhaps the answer lies in a recommended change in 2025 that has been proposed by the CRLC.  Recommendation number 11 is intended to “streamline” the process of amending the ELCA’s governing documents.  The changes to section 22:11 are worth reading in full:

This constitution may be amended only through either of the following procedures:

            a.  The Church Council may propose an amendment, with an official

            notice to be sent to the synods at least six months prior to the next

            regular meeting of the Churchwide Assembly. The adoption of

            such an amendment shall require a two-thirds vote of the

            members of the next regular meeting of the Churchwide Assembly

            present and voting.

            b.  An amendment may be proposed by 25 or more members of the

            Churchwide Assembly. The proposed amendment shall be

            referred to the Committee of Reference and Counsel for its

            recommendation, following which it shall come before the

            assembly. If such an amendment is approved by a two-thirds vote

            of members present and voting, such an amendment shall become

            effective only if adopted ratified unchanged by a two-thirds vote of

            the members present and voting at the next regular Churchwide

            Assembly or a subsequent two-thirds vote of the members of the

            Church Council taken within 12 months of adoption by the

            Churchwide Assembly.

If these recommendations pass, in 2028, a small group of people, 25, can propose any amendment.  It can be passed by a 2/3 majority, and then become effective with a Church Council vote 12 months later.  Synods potentially would have no input into the process or any chance to vote or send a delegate to challenge the amendment.  There would be no “bottom-up” structure of the church at all.  Everything would effectively be “top-down”.  Indeed the DEIA audit’s own words speak to the direction this amendment leads to: “ELCA’s leadership needs to be more vocal, consistent and strong on expressing commitment to, and visibly advancing, DEIA, from the top down.”

There is almost no doubt that the cultural winds are blowing a different direction when it comes to how most feel about DEIA.  When you are heading into a strong head wind, you have to find ways to make it easier to get through it.  It seems like the CRLC’s recommendations are intended to do just this; intentionally kick the can down the road so that the imposition of DEIA becomes easier and less resistance will be met.

Editor’s Note: Pastor Megan Ann Shaffer is writing for Lutheran CORE for the first time. She is an NALC pastor in Pennsylvania.

“Ugh, discipleship is so law-based.” Sadly, I frequently hear this as a disciple-maker. Quite frankly, I can understand why people hold such a position, which results in their hesitancy as Lutherans to begin making disciples intentionally.

However, this interaction got me thinking. What causes such hesitancy and resistance to discipleship? One answer is easy. For years, outreach and evangelism were a silo within the church. Tasks that fell into either of these areas were often left to a team and/or the pastor. As times have changed, that approach no longer works for most congregations. Gone are the days when we could safely assume our neighbors were Christian. Now such assumptions are invalid due to the diversity of our communities.

Secondly, individual faith in America has been a matter of privacy for hundreds of years. My grandmother taught me that there are two topics you do not discuss at a dinner party: politics and religion.

Additionally, Lutherans face another layer of complexity due to the proper distinction between law and the Gospel. As those justified by faith in Christ rather than by good works, we proclaim the Gospel. Why would we focus on something that could trap our parishioners in the cycle of the law?

As disciple-makers, we have a strong tide to swim against while working to reshape the culture in which we live—if we are truly going to live out our vocation to follow Christ’s command to go and make disciples of all nations. It’s a lot to think about, so where does one begin? That was the question I found myself asking as I began my call to a congregation eager to grow. Taking all of these and many other factors into account could easily have overwhelmed me.

When faced with something overwhelming, my seminary professors emphasized that those are the moments when we need to use our toolbox. As pastors and church leaders, we are blessed with a wealth of knowledge available to us in our Lutheran tradition and within the broader Christian community.

Recently, I listened to a podcast featuring an interview with Pastor Bill Hull, who commented on the relationship between preaching and discipleship. He stated what my Lutheran homiletics professors taught me: how we preach and the focus of our preaching forms our parishioners. The idiom ‘you get what you give’ perfectly sums it up. Pastors preaching legalistic sermons form legalistically focused Christians. Likewise consumeristic preachers shape consumeristic Christians, and so on.

What Bill is saying makes sense: “If you want your parishioners to understand their identity as disciples, you must preach the Gospel accordingly.” But what made even more sense was what he said next: “We don’t start the conversation on discipleship at ‘make disciples.’” How can we expect our flocks to go out and make disciples if they have not been discipled?

As an example, when I was a child, my grandmother never told me to crochet an afghan. That would have been absurd since I had no knowledge of how to go about doing so. Instead, she sat down with me and showed me the basics. As I watched, Grandma demonstrated to me how she created each stitch. Additionally, she showed me how to seamlessly join colors, so they looked like they naturally flowed together. As she worked, I sat with her and would repeat aloud what she was going to do next. Over time, I tried out simple stitches with her help. Eventually, I could also work on my own and seamlessly join colors, so they naturally flowed into a functional piece of art.

Similarly, the goal of discipleship is to empower others to follow the Great Commission, as my grandmother taught me to crochet on my own. She did this by spending time with me. Christ invested in his disciples by spending time with them. Telling our parishioners to go out and do something they have no clue how to do absolutely produces hesitancy and resistance. Conversely, if one has some familiarity with a concept because they have heard about it, it is less intimidating. So consider priming the pump of discipleship by introducing it through preaching.