I
was thoroughly blessed through reading the recently published memoirs of Dr.
Robert Benne.  Many thanks to Dr. Benne
for writing them and to the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau for publishing
them.  Reading Dr. Benne’s memoirs
reminded me of when I saw the 1989 movie, “Born on the Fourth of July.”  While watching that movie, and while reading
Dr. Benne’s memoirs, I felt like I was reliving several of the years of my own
life. 

I
was born ten years after Dr. Benne, but like him I grew up in a culture that
supported and encouraged the Christian faith. 
He grew up in a small town in Nebraska. 
I was born in Minneapolis and spent some of the formative years of my
life in a small town in Iowa.  At that time
the world was trustworthy and safe, America was great and good, and right and
wrong were clearly defined (page 77). 
Bob Benne met his first black persons in college.  I had my first Asian friend in seminary. 

I
experienced and was dramatically changed by the same social and cultural
dynamics that strongly affected him, though at an age of ten years
younger.  We were both influenced by the
liberal idealism of the early 60’s.  Like
him, I came to view the church mainly as an instrument of social transformation
(page 83).  I identified with his
self-description, “I tried to swim with the radical tide” (page 88).  I was amused by his comment, “I became a
‘social justice warrior’ before the term had been coined” (page 106).  He mentioned that while teaching at the
Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago he worked with the Ecumenical Institute,
an organization that offered introductory courses to the Christian faith,
workshops on anti-racism, and training in community transformation.  I remember while attending college near
Chicago hearing a presentation by one of the staff members of the
institute.  I was stirred by what he said
and was determined that that is what I wanted to do after graduating from
seminary.

I
could identify with Dr. Benne’s then sharing the story of how he came to
realize the spiritual bankruptcy of that view of the mission and message of the
church.  He described himself as a
“wanna-be radical” who got “mugged by reality” (page 90).  He came to see how, by viewing the church
primarily as a vehicle of social transformation, he had reduced its
transcendent message to merely human efforts (page 89). 

I
greatly appreciate the way in which Dr. Benne shares so personally, openly, and
honestly the story of his own spiritual and ministry journey.  He feels deeply and articulates boldly and
clearly the seriousness of the departure of much of American Lutheranism from
the historic Christian faith.  He feels
the pain, and he can articulate the issues. 

In
the final pages of his memoirs he describes the events of the last twenty
years, including the formation of LCMC (Lutheran Congregations in Mission for
Christ), Lutheran CORE, and the NALC (North American Lutheran Church).  He states wisely and accurately, “Though
church schisms are undoubtedly serious matters that should be undertaken with
trepidation, it has seemed clear to me that the schismatic party was actually
the ELCA.  It simply collapsed before the
‘progressive’ American culture, as did other mainline Protestant denominations.
. . . The ELCA bishops, whose first duty was to defend the orthodox truth,
failed miserably” (page 167).

I am very grateful to Dr. Benne for writing these memoirs and am very thankful for the opportunity to read them.  I also want to thank Dr. Benne for the role he has played in the formation and life of Lutheran CORE and the ministry that he continues to have. 

Dr. Robert Benne currently teaches Christian Ethics at the online Institute for Lutheran Theology. He was Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion and Chair of the Religion and Philosophy Department at Roanoke College in Virginia for eighteen years before he left full-time teaching in 2000.  He founded the Roanoke College Center for Religion and Society in 1982 and directed it until 2012.  He continues at Roanoke College as a research associate in its religion and philosophy department.  A link to the ALPB (American Lutheran Publicity Bureau) website where you can order a copy of his memoirs can be found here.

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On August 25, 2010, at a meeting of Lutheran CORE that would at its close give birth to the separate organization of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC), I wrote this in my blog:

What the upcoming internet broadcasts and book are sure to fail to convey, however, is the sense of hopeful expectancy that characterizes these proceedings. The Spirit is definitely doing something amazing, as seemingly just the right people with just the precise expertise needed to tackle the issues before us as a church have been assembled from the disparate corners of North American Lutheranism. Not only has this been an immensely satisfying—though extremely challenging—couple of days intellectually, it has also been so emotionally and spiritually. … Simply put, it is humbling to be here.

Because
I had just taken a call at an ELCA church whose statement of faith aligned with
that of Lutheran CORE but who needed to yet have the conversation about whether
they could maintain that position within the ELCA, I would not join the ranks of
the NALC for another 5 years.  When I
finally did become a pastor of the NALC, it felt nice to simply breathe easily
for a while; to not feel like I was fighting every aspect of the institution
that was supposed to help me proclaim the gospel just for the
opportunity to do so.

No More Easy Breathing

Nine years into the NALC’s
life, the time for breathing easy is over.

Oh, we seem to be handling
our inevitable disagreements healthfully, without a trace of the Politburo-style
ecclesiastical maneuvering we all experienced within the ELCA, where, to paraphrase
Orwell, it was clear that “some Christians are more equal than others.”  There is also no hint of doctrinal departure
from Great Tradition Christianity or the revisionist hermeneutics that breed
the same—yet.

I add the “yet” in that last sentence not because I see it happening now but can foresee it happening before my funeral liturgy.  I foresee this as I teach my confirmation class full of 7^th and 8^th graders and my Tuesday morning Bible study full of 70 and 80 year olds, because I see the vast distance between the experiential, intellectual, and imaginative worlds they inhabit.  The older group are largely unaware of how different the world the young live in is from the one they grew up in and they are shocked when I acquaint them with some of its contours.  The young are being trained by their schools, entertainment, and constant diet of technology to view the older as at best hopelessly out of touch with the self-evidently true and even scientifically “proven” categories of the new (liberal) orthodoxy.  At worst, they are being trained to view them as oppressors to be forcefully sidelined, re-educated—and if necessary, silenced.

Oh, the latter, rage-filled
part of that progression will largely not come until their thorough catechesis
into the new civic religion at the collegiate level, but the foundations are being
laid far earlier.  Six years ago, I had a
youth group member inform me that she was an “LGBT ally,” and many more former
youth group members have done the same. 
Some of these had attended the local evangelical Christian high
school.  Others were attending an
evangelical fellowship in college and were even engaged in active Christian
outreach on campus.

Could I have imagined such a reality, coming of age in the 1980’s?  Could my Bible study participants, doing the same in Eisenhower’s America, have imagined it?  Could the founders of the NALC imagine, less than a decade ago, that a local fire company would raise money by offering as bingo prizes not homemade jams and pies but sex toys or the billboard pictured with this article, planted in the heart of historically Pennsylvania Dutch country?  Could they imagine that people could be publicly shamed and careers summarily ended for even questioning whether a person’s experience of being in the wrong body could be anything other than an absolute and legitimate expression of identity?

It is a brave new world.

The Authority of Holy Scripture

I focus on the sexuality issues not because of any inherent interest in them, but because as Dr. Robert Gagnon noted so many years ago, you cannot espouse the new, affirming positions on these issues without evacuating the Bible of its authority as Holy Scripture and the Word of God.  You cannot affirm the authority of Genesis while espousing a “non-binary” (Trans) view of human sexuality.  As the ELCA has recently confirmed, without a high view of Biblical authority, you cannot assert the uniqueness and necessity of Jesus Christ for human salvation.  It was by reflection upon the books that we know as the canonical New Testament that the Council of Nicaea shifted from being predominantly Arian in its view of Christ to articulating the doctrine we know as the Hypostatic Union with near uniformity.  (Not surprisingly, Arius and a close personal friend held out for their own view against the assembly.)  It was fifteen years ago that an ELCA pastor brazenly asserted to me as a seminarian at a regional youth gathering that, “we only know about the Trinity from the Bible; God could easily be more like the Hindu idea of Brahmin, having countless avatar pseudopods to minister to the ‘endlessly diverse people’ s/he has created.’”

Without a high view of Biblical
authority, we can glean from its pages the sorts of vaguely inspiring ideas
about God that are largely our projections in the first place, but we cannot receive
revelations about God—or about God’s will for us, His creatures. 

Danger of Theological Revisionism

And that is exactly what theological
revisionism is all about; it is about recasting God’s revelations as human
conceptions, and once everything is a human conception, all is mere politics,
the rules of which we know well from Plato, Hobbes, Machiavelli, Nietzsche, and
Foucault… not to mention Marx, Lenin, Mao, and Alinsky.  In such a world, it is perfectly legitimate
for the philosopher-kings-and-queens to determine which views are “more equal
than others” and to eliminate cross-examination in the interest of “justice.” 

And this is exactly what is
happening.  Consider this letter sent by
‘We, few of the Black students here at Pomona College and the Claremont
Colleges’ to the administration of Claremont McKenna College, who had dared to
permit conservative scholar Heather Mac Donald to speak on campus:

Historically, white supremacy has venerated the idea of objectivity, and wielded a dichotomy of ‘subjectivity vs. objectivity’ as a means of silencing oppressed peoples. The idea that there is a single truth – ‘the Truth’ – is a construct of the Euro-West that is deeply rooted in the Enlightenment, which was a movement that also described Black and Brown people as both subhuman and impervious to pain. This construction is a myth and white supremacy, imperialism, colonization, capitalism, and the United States of America are all of its progeny. The idea that the truth is an entity for which we must search, in matters that endanger our abilities to exist in open spaces, is an attempt to silence oppressed peoples.[1]

Unlikely Ally

Douglas Murray recounts the
incident in his recent book The Madness of Crowds.  If a gay intellectual from Great Britain
seems an unlikely ally of a Christianity that is both evangelical and catholic,
read the way he goes on to analyze this letter:

“‘The Truth’ is a construct of the Euro-West. It is hard to think of a phrase which can at one and the same time be so wildly misguided and so dangerous in its implications. If ‘the Truth’ (in scare quotes) is a white thing, then what is everyone else meant to live in and strive towards?” 

Stalin pithily noted, “Ideas
are far more powerful than guns. We don’t let our people have guns. Why should
we let them have ideas?”  Our young
people are being deprived of the most important idea ever, an idea that is not
white or black, gay or straight, Christian or otherwise; they are being
systematically deprived of the idea of truth.  Furthermore, they are being taught that the
pursuit of it is disloyal, bigoted, and dangerous.

Future Outlook of the NALC

As a fellow NALC clergyman noted to me recently, “The NALC was formed at the last possible moment it could have been, historically-speaking.”  This undoubtedly displays an admirable ecclesiological instinct, for it is indeed part of Great Tradition Christianity that the Church of Jesus Christ is “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.”  It also sets forth the challenge clearly before us, as it was founded by people I would categorize as the last well-catechized generations.  Here I refer to their catechesis not only with the Church, but their cultural catechesis as well.  Most of us on the clergy roster of the NALC are still here because we underwent a migration made necessary by counter-cultural convictions.  What will become of the NALC as its first native-born daughters and sons rise to offices of prominence within the church?  Philosophy was once described as the handmaiden to theology because it provided categories of meaning that helped people do the very difficult work of theology.  What will happen to the church’s proclamation when its young pastors have not been formed in the fundamental categories of meaning that make clear thinking about the Bible possible?  What will happen to it if they are convinced by their primer school training that to even consider certain ideas makes them the moral equivalent of a Nazi?

Students of Christian history
can broadly trace the theological revisionism of our day back through the
social gospel movement of the early 20^th century to the “higher
critics” of the Enlightenment.  It is a
history of more than ideas; it is a history of people, of champions of ideas
who viewed themselves as the saviors of a movement with some social utility
(Christianity) whose convictions were hopelessly backwards and out of touch
with the “obvious truths” of the modern world. 
For all orthodox Lutherans, the NALC included, the challenge is to catechize
a new generation of theologians from elementary school age on up in an
intentionally countercultural way. 
We will need to be aware of the prevailing ideas and neologisms that are
being introduced in a deliberate ploy to undermine a worldview congruent with
that of orthodox Biblical Christianity. 
As Christians, we have no stake in Western culture qua Western
culture, but to the degree that what we know as Western culture is the product
of Christian theology, including its emphasis on truth as a fundamental
category of meaning, we need to advocate for what is in imminent danger of
being lost.

Written nearly thirty years
ago, in his classic book The Once and Future Church, Loren Mead noted
that the West was becoming the Church’s new mission field and that state church
traditions like Lutheranism, used as they were to cultural underwriting of
their religious project, were likely to have the most difficulty adapting to this
new reality.  It remains for us to
determine whether his words were merely cautionary… or prophetic.

We Must Teach All Our People

Most importantly of all, we need to communicate to our people from the oldest to the youngest how the orthodox Biblical teachings on creation and fall, judgment and grace, repentance and forgiveness, faith and obedience, spiritual bondage and true freedom are more compelling and truly loving than the secular narratives with which they are being daily indoctrinated.  We must teach them who God is and who we are meant to be as creatures made in His image but defaced by sin almost to the point of being unrecognizable.  We must teach them that because of that reality, no matter the strength of our emotions, our own narratives about our inner lives are not the most reliable story about ourselves, but rather God’s story about us, recounted in the Bible, holds primacy of place.

We must do this knowing
that our work is being undermined both by determined ideologues and
well-meaning people engaged in herd behavior, what Murray accurately deems “the
madness of crowds.”  We must be clear
with them that this dynamic is going to be part of their experience as
Christians in this culture without becoming reactionary or uncharitable toward
those who hate us. 

In one of the responses to my Postmodernism articles, I was accused of being a “reactionary theologian.”  I confess that I have never heard the term before, but it sounds like the sort of jingoistic turn of phrase intended to make the hard work of thinking through complex issues unnecessary—a word like “anti-revolutionary.”  On the August day in 2010 recounted earlier, Dr. Steven D. Paulson reminded the gathered assembly that Martin Luther had noted that “it is a characteristic of love to be easily deceived.”  We must highlight this reality and remind them that their love—especially their love of friends and the consequent alliances they make with them—like the rest of themselves, is fallen, disordered, and so, unreliable until it is conformed to the revealed Word of God.

The Frog

We all know the old saw.  How do you boil a frog?  If you put him in hot water he will jump out
before he gets too injured, but if you put him in cold water and turn up the
heat slowly, he will be boiled before he knows what happened to him.

Most reading this article have spent our lives watching the Lutheran frog being boiled.  Some of us felt the need to “go out and be separate.”  If we hope to not see our frogs boiled in the way other communions have unfortunately experienced, we will need to be intentionally countercultural.  Our catechesis and our sermons will need to be apologetic in tone, whether we are apologists by vocation or not.  We will need to listen carefully to a world that hates us so we may build bridges to their linguistics worlds of meaning and so that we can dismantle Trojan Horses meant to destroy Christianity and its necessarily attendant, coherent worldview from within.

In 1809, biographer Thomas
Charlton popularized the phrase, “the price of liberty is eternal vigilance” in
our newly-birthed republic.  The bloody
reign of terror had just recently ended in France, a cautionary tale for those
who might have complacently believed that the new order was enough to insure
against future tyranny. 

We ought to take a lesson from this page of history.  The price of the liberty that the true gospel of Jesus Christ alone can bring is free, but the price of preaching that gospel fully and faithfully is eternal vigilance.

Vigilance Required

On August 26, 2010, as the
theological conference transitioned to the constituting convocation of a
re-visioned Lutheran CORE, I reflected in my blog that “it was time to see if
this dog would hunt.”  Could the ideas we
had bandied about for two days now become incarnate, take on flesh in a living
institution that actually facilitated the living proclamation of “the eternal
gospel” in the ways God has ordained that it should?

As I reflect on the state of the Church and the
nature of its current mission in the wake of Reformation Sunday, I give thanks
that it could happen, but I note that we are sitting in water that seems to be
already getting warm.  Vigilance is
required.

---

[1]
Murray, Douglas. The Madness of Crowds . Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.

The word is definitely getting around.  The ELCA’s Office of Research and Evaluation, this last spring, released the results of their projection regarding anticipated ELCA decline over the next 31 years.  The rather shocking projection is as follows, and is based on the starting point of membership and worship statistics as of the end of 2017.    

ELCA Paper Projects Drastic Decline in Membership

So ELCA membership as of 2017 was 3.4 million.  The projection for 2050 is that membership will be only 67,000!  That’s right, 67,000.

And weekly worship attendance?  As of 2017 just under 900,000 people worshiped at ELCA congregations in a typical week.  The projection, which in this case is for 2041, is that weekly worship attendance will be only 16,000.  You read that correctly: 16,000.

Implications for the LCMC and NALC

So what, if any, are the conclusions and/or implications of these predictions when it comes to confessing Lutheran congregations in the LCMC and NALC?  I can think of at least three.

1.  These predictions regarding the rate of the ELCA’s decline are probably based, to a degree, on the rate of decline between 2009 and 2012.  That was the period when ELCA decline accelerated — dramatically — due to the policy changes in August of 2009.  My point?  The ELCA’s rate of decline has not been as dramatic in the last seven years.  Granted, the ELCA continues to lose tens of thousands of members each year.  And granted, the exodus of most of the ELCA’s more evangelistic churches has had a lasting and permanent effect on its statistical “bottom line.”  However, my guess is that the projections for 2041 and 2050 will not be quite as bleak as predicted.  They will still be dramatic, though.  After all, when the ELCA National Assembly passes an amendment questioning whether Lutherans can ethically witness to people of other faiths, we can’t expect their members and congregations to be engaged in evangelistic outreach.

2. We need to acknowledge that these dire projections are emblematic of demographic trends that, to some degree, are impacting all mainline Protestant bodies.  So while I suspect NALC and LCMC congregations will fare better than the ELCA between now and 2050, here is the painful truth: We too are rapidly aging faith communities.  And we, like the ELCA, have a membership that is considerably older than both the general U.S. population and, I might add, older than most evangelical/non-denominational churches.  So we best not smirk or gloat at these projections from the Office of Research and Evaluation.

3. Third, these ELCA projections should serve as a wake-up call when it comes to our generational challenges in the NALC and LCMC.

Keychain Leadership

One of the congregations that is using the Congregations in Transition process recently signed up for the Fuller Seminary Youth Institute “Growing Young Assessment.”  This assessment is based on the Institute’s book entitled Growing Young.  After completing the assessment the Institute suggested this congregation focus on “Keychain Leadership.”  “Keychain Leadership” is about focusing on opportunities to “hand over the keys” of leadership to young adults, teens, and parents with young children.  The Fuller Youth Institute also suggested this church “prioritize” young people in the life of the congregation, and encourage older members to “dive deeper” into relationships with younger members.  One specific example mentioned in the assessment was to have older members enter into “coaching” relationships with teens and younger adults.

I suspect these suggestions might be appropriate for a great many of our congregations.

It Might Be Time

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, by 2034 the U.S. population 65 and older will exceed the population under 18.  One American journalist calls this the “coming gerontocracy.”  Many of our LCMC and NALC congregations are already there.  It might be  time to start “handing over the keys.”

The past couple months I have had the privilege of representing Lutheran CORE at four most inspiring events – the NALC theology conference, missions festival, and convocation (August 6-9 in Indianapolis); Lutheran CORE’s annual Encuentro bi-lingual ministries festival (September 14 at an ELCA congregation in Chicago); the STS (Society of the Holy Trinity) general retreat (September 24-26 at a Roman Catholic retreat center north of Chicago); and the LCMC gathering (September 29-October 2 in Omaha).

Space
does not allow for a thorough report on all of them, so what I would like to do
is to share one or two highlights from each of them.

INDOOR VS. OUTDOOR CHRISTIANITY

On
behalf of Lutheran CORE I would like to extend our congratulations to Pastor
Dan Selbo on his election as the next bishop of the North American Lutheran
Church.  Our prayers and best wishes are
with him as he steps into this position of leadership, care, and
oversight.  The answers that he gave to
such questions as “What Should Be the NALC’S Most Important Ministry
Priorities?” and “What Challenges Do You See Facing the NALC?” make me
confident that he is going to give wise, powerful, and effective leadership for
the church.  I believe that the Holy
Spirit was present and guiding the process for the election of a new
bishop. 

The
address from Gemechis Buba, Assistant to the Bishop for Missions, at the close
of the missions festival was most inspiring. 
He based his presentation on the account in John 20 of what took place
on that first Easter Sunday evening. 
John tells us that as “the doors of the house where the disciples had
met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said,
‘Peace be with you. . . . As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’”  Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive
the Holy Spirit” (verses 19-22).

Dr.
Buba commented, “When the Holy Spirit is blown on us, there are no more closed
doors.”  Many are accustomed to indoors
Christianity.  They see everything as
diminishing and closing.  But the Holy
Spirit is moving us from indoor Christianity – where there are closed doors –
to outdoor Christianity – where there are open doors.  He spoke of several Oromo churches, who at
first were concerned because they were being kicked out of buildings.  They were wondering, “Where will we go
now?”  They are no longer renting
buildings.  Rather they are buying
buildings. 

Dr.
Buba also shared how the church of Jesus Christ is always under pressure.  The persecution and pressure may be different
in different parts of the world, but we are all under pressure.  Satan is seeking to destroy the church.  But when the Holy Spirit is leading the
church, the church becomes unstoppable. 
Receiving the Holy Spirit, the early disciples moved from being in one
room behind closed doors to being out in the world, speaking in many different
languages. 

Dr.
Buba reminded us that some say that there is no future for the church in
present-day America.  But we follow an
unstoppable Holy Spirit.  With the early
disciples we move from one room with closed doors in Jerusalem through open
doors to all over the world.

May
we follow our crucified and risen Lord Jesus, who has given us the Holy Spirit
and who now leads us to follow him from behind closed doors into the outside,
waiting world.   

* * * * * * *

NEIGHBORHOOD OUTREACH

I believe that our annual bi-lingual ministries Encuentro is our strongest connecting point with the ELCA.  The Encuentro is an annual gathering of inspiration, fellowship, support, and resources for pastors, lay leaders, and congregations who either are currently involved in or are considering becoming involved in Spanish and/or bilingual (Spanish-English) ministries.  It is held at an ELCA congregation in northwest Chicago (St. Timothy Lutheran Church).  It is co-sponsored by Lutheran CORE and the Bilingual Ministries Resource Center out of First and Santa Cruz Lutheran Church in Joliet, Illinois (another ELCA congregation).  The majority of those who attend are ELCA, and the majority of the presenters are ELCA – including pastors, theologians, and national church staff.  We were especially delighted this year to receive an email greeting from Bishop Jeffrey Clements of the ELCA’s Northern Illinois Synod, and we were deeply honored that Bishop-Elect Yehiel Curry of the ELCA’s Metro Chicago Synod stopped by.  Bishop-Elect Curry said during his greeting, “I represent the entire synod.”  How delighted we were that the bishop would include in his definition of “the entire synod” a congregation that would host an event planned and sponsored by Lutheran CORE.

When
so much of our work is a critical review of much of what is done and valued by
the ELCA, it is refreshing to have this annual event, which is a source of
support and encouragement for many in the ELCA. 
Lutheran CORE and the ELCA disagree on many, very basic things, but we do
agree on the importance of reaching out to and receiving the gifts of Spanish-speaking
people.

I
would also want to mention the intentional inter-Lutheran outreach of this
annual event.  We were very happy to
welcome several LCMS pastors and lay people. 
   

Main
presenter was Dr. Maxwell Johnson, ELCA theologian and professor at Notre Dame
University in South Bend, Indiana.  Dr.
Johnson is incredibly knowledgeable, dynamic, energetic, and even funny.  He really engages with his audience and is
very clear in his teaching of the orthodox Christian faith.  Much of his second presentation was on the
Virgin of Guadalupe and her appearance to a native Mexican peasant farmer by
the name of Juan Diego.  Much of what he
said reminded me of the Magnificat in Luke 1, where Mary praised God for
lifting up the lowly (verse 52).  Dr.
Maxwell shared how her appearance gave the hope of the Gospel to people who had
no Good News from what was coming from Spain. 
Juan Diego was one of the low and despised indigenous persons who became
a messenger of God to the powerful, both in government as well as in the
church.  Dr. Maxwell sees her appearing
as an example of God’s care for and identification with the poor.  He said, “For people who have been told that
they are inferior – for the Juan Diegos of this world – there is
vindication.”  He added, “The Virgin of
Guadalupe is not necessary for salvation, but she is an expression of God’s
love.”

It was exciting to see the extent to which St. Timothy is reaching out to its neighborhood.  There were several from the community present during part of the event, and both the beginning of a mariachi-led Misa Panamericana as well as a prayer vigil for peace in the city of Chicago were held outside – as a witness to the community.  One woman who came with her family to the Encuentro invited everyone to her home on the evening of Wednesday, December 11, the day before the annual commemoration of the Virgin of Guadalupe on December 12.  This will be one of several Wednesday evening Advent prayer gatherings for the St. Timothy congregation.  The text for these evening home Bible studies and Vespers will be Mary’s Magnificat from Luke’s Gospel.

Part of the festival was a re-dedication of a more-than-a-century-old baptismal font, which had not been used in worship for several years.  That rededication seemed like a recommitment on the part of the congregation to reach out to its community.

                                                       
* * * * * * *

NOT ASHAMED OR AFRAID TO CALL GOD FATHER

The
second time I had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Maxwell Johnson was at the
Society of the Holy Trinity (STS) general retreat.  At that event he spoke on “Ecclesia Semper
Reformanda” (the church must always be reformed) as it relates to baptism and
the eucharist.  I deeply appreciated the
powerful case he built against the radical hospitality movement, which would
invite all people to receive the Lord’s Supper whether or not they have been
baptized.  Here are some of the
statements Dr. Johnson made which I thought were particularly helpful and
insightful.  “In baptism the eucharist
begins; in the eucharist baptism is sustained.” 
“No one deserves baptism; the eucharist is the birthright of the
baptized.”  “The exclusion of the
unbaptized from the eucharist is not to protect the eucharist, but out of
pastoral care and concern for the unbaptized.” 
They might not be ready to make a confession of faith in Christ and to
commit to the costly discipleship of the life of following Christ.  I also appreciated his comment, “The purpose
of liturgy is not to permeate our lives with ritual, but to permeate our lives
with Christ.”

It
was refreshing being with people who are not hesitant to affirm the Trinity and
the Trinitarian nature of our faith.  It
was also refreshing being with people who are not afraid and ashamed to call
God Father.  The Society of the Holy
Trinity is an inter-Lutheran ministerium which regularly gathers pastors for
mutual encouragement, prayer, and study, fortifying continued faithfulness to
ordination vows.

The
campus of the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary, where the
retreat was held, is beautiful, and the singing at the worship services was
awesome.  Very often I did not join in
the singing because I just wanted to be surrounded by the beauty of voices
lifted up in praise to God.

The
Rev. Dr. Ryan Mills, STS, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in New Haven,
Connecticut, and dean of the New England Chapter of the Society, gave the
message at the closing worship service. 
The Scripture passages were the account of the Last Supper in Mark 14
and Luke’s description of the shipwreck on the way to Rome in Acts 27.  As I listened to those passages being read, I
was wondering how they were going to be related to each other.  The way Pastor Mills did it was brilliant.

In
Mark 14 Jesus sends a couple of his disciples into Jerusalem, where they are to
follow a man carrying a jar of water. 
Men usually did not carry water in those days, so this man was sure to
catch their attention.  They were to
follow him to a house where a large upstairs room would be furnished and ready
for them to eat the Passover.  Mark tells
us, “So the disciples set out and went to the city and found everything as he
had told them” (verse 16).  All that we
need for our faith to be nourished and sustained Jesus has furnished.  It is ready in the Lord’s Supper.  The grace that he has promised and that we
need is available there – just as he has told us.

In
his description of the storm in Acts 27 Luke uses phrases like these.  “We were being pounded by the storm so
violently” (verse 18).  “All hope of our
being saved was at last abandoned” (verse 20). 
“We were drifting across the sea” (verse 27).  “Fearing that we might run on the rocks, they
. . . prayed for day to come” (verse 29). 
What did Paul do in a situation like that?  He urged them all to take some food – to help
them survive.  Verses 35 and 36 – “He
took bread; and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and
began to eat.  Then all of them were
encouraged and took food for themselves.”

Often
we feel like we have been caught in a powerful storm of unfavorable
circumstances.  We feel pounded
violently.  We can lose all hope of being
saved.  We feel like we are
drifting.  Fearful, we pray that day will
come.  In circumstances such as these
what do we need?  The body and blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ, to give us courage, strength, and spiritual
sustenance.  Having heard that message,
and having attended that retreat, I felt ready to return to the challenges of
life – knowing that Jesus has already prepared all I will need, and that with
his presence and grace I can weather the storms.   

* * * * * * *

INTENTIONAL INTERIM MINISTRY

Attending
the LCMC annual gathering, I was blessed and encouraged by the resources that
that association provides for congregations that are between pastors, in the
call process, and/or in transition.  I
attended breakout sessions for Call Committee Coaches, on Intentional Interim
Ministry (with a focus on the interim pastor), and on Pastoral Succession.  I had a hard time choosing between a second
breakout session on Intentional Interim Ministry (with a focus on the
congregation) and the session on Pastoral Succession.  I found myself wishing they were not being
offered at the same time. 

The
session for Call Committee Coaches was led by Perry Fruhling, LCMC Coordinator
for Pastoral Ministry.  I commend Perry
for all the resources he has for congregations that are in the call
process.  I also deeply appreciate the strong
endorsement he has given to Lutheran CORE’s Congregations in Transition
ministry initiative.

I
was very interested in attending the breakout sessions on Intentional Interim
Ministry and Pastoral Succession because I have seen the tragedies that can
happen when pastoral succession does not go well.  I have seen a strong, orthodox ELCA
congregation where orthodoxy did not survive a change in pastors.  I have seen the massive disruption and great
damage that can happen when the largest congregation in a synod trusts the
synod to supply them with their next pastor. 
I have seen a congregation “settle” for a pastor in order to relieve
their own anxiety rather than doing the hard work of continuing in the search
process.  This congregation is now paying
a high price.  I have seen what can
happen when one person manipulates and controls the call process rather than
allows it to be a unique opportunity for the congregation to learn from its
past, identify its strengths, and prepare itself for a new future.  Having seen what can happen, I was very
grateful to learn about the Intentional Interim Ministry that the LCMC has to
offer its congregations.

I
was intrigued with the comparison that was given between repairing a parking
lot and interim ministry.  One option is just
to fill the potholes.  That would be like
simply having pulpit supply.  A second
option would be to apply a thin coat of sealant that would get you through
another winter.  That would be like
having an interim pastor who has not been trained to be an intentional
interim.  The third option would be to
take the time and put forth the effort to take off a few layers and get down to
the foundation.  That would be like
having an intentional interim.

Three
kinds of situations were described where having an intentional interim would be
particularly recommended – after a long-term pastor, where there have been
several different pastors in a short period of time, and when a pastor leaves
suddenly or unexpectedly.  The comment
was made that a congregation should have an intentional interim for one month
for every year of the former pastor’s call – but no less than a year. 

We
learned that intentional interims can and need to be “truth speakers.”  Using all the capital and credits that they
have, they can deal with issues that the next called pastor will then not have
to deal with.  A big difference between
an intentional interim and the next called pastor is that the intentional interim
will be leaving.  That factor alone might
enable the intentional interim to do what needs to be done. 

People
attending the breakout session were encouraged to consider whether they might
have the gifts and calling to be an intentional interim.  We were told that intentional interims have
got to be able to love all people – even very difficult people – as they draw
from the well of God’s great love for us. 
They have got to be able to remain calm and be a non-anxious
presence.  And they have got to be engaged
in doing self-care. 

I
am very grateful to Dawn Spies, Steve Abend, and Steve Lien (former LCMC
coordinator of pastoral ministry) for leading the workshop.  The next day I was talking with a friend who
is serving his second term as an intentional interim.  I thanked him for what he is doing, and I
committed myself to pray and ask God to bless those who serve in this way and
to raise up more intentional interims.

*
* * * * * *

Thank
you to the organizers of and the presenters at these four events.  I am very grateful for the opportunity to
attend, I value the ministry partnerships, and I enjoy the relational
connections. 

Blessings in Christ,
Dennis D. Nelson
Executive Director of Lutheran CORE
[email protected]

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

OCTOBER 2017

Something that for me has been absolutely astounding – as we have been celebrating the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation – are some of the things that that milestone has been used to justify and support. I have seen the anniversary of the Reformation being used to advocate for environmental issues, even though the only time that I am aware of when Martin Luther promoted ecological concerns was when he said that if he knew the world would end tomorrow, he would still plant a tree. Luther’s antisemitism later in life as well as his not supporting the peasants in the peasant revolt have been made into a jumping off point to rail against racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, and all the other awful things that people are guilty of these days.

An observance that was held on Reformation Sunday in a church in the ELCA synod in which I was rostered before I retired used in its publicity an interesting version of the Luther rose. The outer perimeter was made up not of the typical colors, but instead of the hues of a rainbow, and in the center of the rose was not a cross but an angry looking fist holding a hammer. Concerned and alarmed, because I saw Christ and the cross as being replaced by human anger and political activism, I telephoned the church that was hosting the event and left a message for the pastor, asking what was intended to be communicated by that form of the Luther rose. As I expected, I have not received a reply. Because the bishop of that synod was participating in the event and the synod was helping promote the event, I also wrote to the synod, expressing my concern that that symbol was replacing Christ and the power of the cross with the power of human efforts and anger. Again, as anticipated, I have not received a reply.

And so it was so refreshing for me to attend the LCMC gathering in Minneapolis October 8-11, where the real message of the Reformation was kept at the heart of the celebration of the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation.

LCMC GATHERING: KEEPING THE REAL MESSAGE AT THE HEART OF THE CELEBRATION

Under the theme “We Confess Our Faith,” the gathering was structured around conversation about three of the fundamental teachings of the Reformation: Justification, the doctrine of the Two Kingdoms, and the Priesthood of All Believers. Presenters first described the basic principles of each of those three teachings, then a panel made up of people serving in diverse ministry settings – both in the United States as well as in other parts of the world – discussed how that major teaching impacted their ministry in their own particular place of service. The panel discussion was then followed by discussions at tables where those attending the gathering were able to apply that teaching to their own lives and ministry settings.

My soul was stirred and my thinking was stimulated by the presentation of Steve Turnbull, pastor of Community of Grace Lutheran Church in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. He spoke on the doctrine of justification. Maintaining the real message of the Bible and the Reformation while also applying that message to real life issues today, Pastor Turnbull talked about how Paul often discussed the concept of justification within the context of Jew-Gentile relationships. For example, in his letter to the Ephesians Paul describes God as pointing to the Church and saying, “See what I have done. Sin wrecks human community. I have put it back together again.” Pastor Turnbull then shared how Paul’s evangelism had created multi-ethnic communities. He needed a way to explain theologically what was happening. And so he wrote, The cross is enough to tear down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile. Pastor Turnbull then applied that principle to life today when he asked, “Is it enough to unite people today?”

I heard a similar emphasis during the discussion of the doctrine of the Two Kingdoms. One of the panel participants said, “We have got to be about reconciling things. If we are not reconciling things, we might not be the church.”

And then we were given the opportunity to experience a powerful, real-life, modern day example of cross cultural ministry by attending a Global Worship Service at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, south of downtown Minneapolis. At a workshop prior to the worship service Pastor Roland Wells shared how the greatest migration in the history of the world is happening right now; wherever there are jobs, there will be immigrants; and God is giving the church today the opportunity to learn how to reach out cross culturally by the people He is sending into our areas. And then, after being reminded that we also once were immigrants, we were led in worship by fellow Christians who are of Messianic Jewish, Latino, Ethiopian Oromo, and Filipino heritage. At the end of the service we were told that we had received a taste of what heaven will be like. And then Pastor Wells closed the service by saying, “Go in peace with a new sense of what God is doing in our world.”

I was struck by the number of people who attended the workshop entitled “Next Generation Leaders,” taught by Dr. Kyle Fever, director of the Nexus Institute of Grand View University in Des Moines. We of Lutheran CORE have known that many Lutheran pastors and congregational leaders and members are deeply concerned over where their congregation’s next Bible believing and outreach oriented pastor will come from. That concern is the reason why we of Lutheran CORE are involved in our pastoral formation project. The extent of the concern, as well as the importance and immediacy of the concern, were brought home to me by the number of people attending that workshop, which Kyle Fever entitled, “Resurrecting Timothy.”

The idea behind the title is this. Timothy was different from Paul, and Paul was willing to allow Timothy to be Timothy. In other words, Paul let Timothy be different from Paul. Dr. Fever shared how youth today are interested in spiritual things, but many of them in ways that we do not know how to deal with. We have virtually no training for non-traditional ministries. We have very few Timothies, who are different from Paul. Dr. Fever challenged us, What kind of church leaders do we want? Ones like what we already know? Or are we willing to be like Paul and let Timothy be Timothy?

Kyle Fever said that we need to find ways to raise up not future leaders for the church as we know it now, but future leaders for a church that we do not yet know what it will be like. We need to give young adults opportunities to participate in the vitality of the congregation, and not necessarily within the four walls of the church. We need to cultivate in them a yearning to be a part of the work of the Gospel in the world, rather than try to cultivate in them a yearning to be part of preparing the communion table for Sunday morning. He got down to basics when he asked us, “How many here are intentionally mentoring a high school sophomore or junior?” He challenged pastors, “The next time you write a sermon, target it to sixteen to twenty-two year olds.” He concluded by saying, “There are no easy answers, but there are resources.”

LATINO MINISTRIES ENCUENTRO (ENCOUNTER)

After being home from Minneapolis for a few days, I left for Chicago to attend the annual Latino ministries Encuentro (Encounter) October 17-19. This event is sponsored by Lutheran CORE and was planned and put on by Pastor Keith Forni, member of the board of Lutheran CORE and pastor of First/Santa Cruz Lutheran Church in Joliet, Illinois. Pastor Forni has an unusual gift for Latino ministries. He has an unbelievable number of contacts within the Lutheran Latino ministries community, and he is natural and comfortable leading bi-lingual worship.

One of the two main presenters was Dr. Alberto Garcia, professor emeritus of theology at Concordia University Wisconsin and co-author of the book, Wittenberg Meets the World: Reimagining the Reformation at the Margins. I was struck with how much he emphasized one of the same themes that I had heard so much about at the LCMC gathering – the theme of reconciliation. It made sense to me. Because we live in such a divided nation and divided world, one of the particular gifts that the Church has to offer our nation and our world is the power of reconciliation. And one of the chief ways in which the Church can demonstrate the power of the Gospel and give credibility to its message is if we as God’s people are able to become reconciled with those from whom we have become estranged.

The other main presenter was Ken Elkin, a retired ELCA pastor from Williamsport, Pennsylvania. During his presentation, entitled “A Pilgrim People,” Pastor Elkin described his recent pilgrimage walking the entire, approximately five hundred mile long route of the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. After describing the characteristics of a pilgrimage as well as the place of pilgrimage in the history of the church, he then told of his own experiences in walking that route. He described what he called “the spirit of the camino” – how people are very open to each other as well as very caring for each other while on the pilgrimage. Some people who are on the camino are dealing with major issues in their lives. He presented the challenge of then bringing that spirit of the camino back into the rest of your life. He shared two of the great life lessons that can be learned from the camino. One of them he had found written as graffiti along the way – “You are capable of more and you need less than you think.” The other one was the title of a book – “To walk far, carry less.” He concluded his presentation by saying, “The popularity of this pilgrimage shows that there is a genuine spiritual hunger in people, and we are not reaching them.”

One of the best discussions we had at the Encuentro was on the ways in which the Roman Catholic traditions of baptism, presentation, and first communion, and the Latin American tradition of quinceaneras give the Lutheran church real opportunity to make connections with the Latino community. One of the most serendipitous moments was when four of us participants were sitting, wearing our clergy collars, in the breakfast room at the hotel where we were staying. A woman came in shaking and sobbing. She saw us, walked up to us, and then began sharing how her fiancé had just been killed in a motorcycle accident. She had felt abandoned by God until she saw us. Dr. Alberto Garcia responded to the moment beautifully. He shared the love and comfort of God with her and prayed with her. She was certain God had brought her to us and us to her. How wonderful it was to be part of an answer to someone’s prayer.

St. Timothy’s Lutheran Church ELCA, the host congregation, is in the Hermosa neighborhood of northwest Chicago, which has changed dramatically in the last few decades from being totally Caucasian to totally Latino. In the basement there are pictures of confirmation classes from the 1960’s, made up of thirty to forty very Caucasian looking young people. We were able to experience how the congregation still has a vital opportunity for ministry, though a very different opportunity for ministry, as some of the neighbors joined us for dinner and a prayer service one evening. That evening we also held an outdoor candlelight prayer service for peace in a city that has experienced the tragedy of five hundred homicides so far this year. The neighborhood is a fairly high density neighborhood, so we know that nearby residents witnessed our service. The need for prayers for healing and peace were brought home to us by some graffiti we saw on the way to the church – “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”

Pastor Keith Forni, who serves St. Timothy’s congregation in Chicago, as well as First/Santa Cruz in Joliet, told of how dozens of children and their parents walk right by the church each day on their way to and from their school, which is only two blocks away. Pastor Forni uses the strategic location of the church as an opportunity to reach out to the children and their parents, and invite them to an afternoon children’s program at the church.

We were very honored and pleased that the Rev. Hector Garfias-Toledo, Assistant to the Bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod ELCA, stopped by and visited the Encuentro and brought greetings from Bishop Wayne Miller. It is our goal that future Encuentros will continue to provide inspiration, resources, fellowship, and encouragement for those involved in or considering becoming involved in Latino, Spanish language, and/or bi-lingual ministries. We hope to find ways to make the Encuentro more accessible to more people so that this annual gathering will be a resource for Lutherans of all church body affiliations.

May your celebration of the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation be a time for you of giving thanks to God for His abounding love and His amazing grace.

Blessings in Christ,

Dennis D. Nelson

President of the Board and Director of Lutheran CORE

909-274-8591

[email protected]