Structural and governance changes will most certainly come about from the work of the ELCA’s Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church. An all-encompassing redefinition of mission and ministry will most certainly result from the recommendations, expectations, requirements or whatever that will be laid upon congregations because of the DEIA audit which the ELCA had done of its governing documents. The provision for bound conscience will very possibly be eliminated as part of the review and re-evaluation of the 2009 human sexuality social statement. As I keep up on the latest of what may be coming for unsuspecting ELCA congregations, I realize that conflict within congregations might only become more severe leading up to and after the next ELCA Churchwide Assembly in August 2025.
In June of 2013 – just a little over a year before I retired – the synod in which I was rostered, Southwest California, elected the ELCA’s first openly gay synodical bishop. That election threw the congregation where I had already been serving for thirty-nine years into total turmoil and conflict, and that was a conflict that continued throughout and beyond my final twelve months there. And I found that since I had already announced my retirement because I would be leaving after forty years there, I was totally unable to provide leadership, guidance, and stability in the situation. That was a situation that the congregation would have to work through without me. I was not in a position to help them in any way during my final year there.
Friends of Lutheran CORE who are a part of ELCA congregations will find themselves in many different kinds of situations in regard to the upcoming changes in the ELCA. Do any of the following describe your situation?
- In some ELCA congregations there will be strong agreement among the pastor, leaders, and members that the time to leave the ELCA is now and action needs to be taken as soon as possible in case the coming changes in structure and governance make it even more difficult if not impossible even for former ALC congregations to leave with their property.
- In some congregations there is no way that a motion to disaffiliate from the ELCA will prevail. Even if a majority are in favor of leaving, they will not be able to achieve two separate votes with at least two-thirds of those voting approving a motion to disaffiliate.
- In some congregations the pastor has kept information regarding what is actually happening in the ELCA from the people.
- Some friends of Lutheran CORE are the only one in their congregation (or one of very few in their congregation) that is aware and concerned. They have faithfully sought to inform others, but their efforts fall on deaf ears.
- Some former LCA congregations and mission congregations started by the ELCA believe that they would never receive permission from their synod council to leave with their property and/or would not be able to pay back to the synod the mission start funds expended by the synod that the synod would demand be repaid.
- Some congregations are too diminished and/or the membership does not have the energy left to deal with the issue. If they are aware of S13.24, they are just hoping that the synod will not use that provision in the model constitution for synods against them to justify the synod’s moving in, taking over, and possibly closing the congregation.
- I know of a vibrant, Biblically faithful, Spanish language ministry where the synod owns the building and most of the salary of the pastor is paid by the synod and churchwide.
There are Biblically faithful, confessional pastors in the ELCA who do not believe that the right approach for their congregation would be to seek to disaffiliate from the ELCA. There are many reasons for this. Some feel that a motion to disaffiliate would not prevail. Some fear that it would only be disruptive in the life of the congregation. Some believe that they can keep the changes coming in the ELCA from impacting their congregations. We need to be praying for these ELCA pastors and their congregations.
We are very grateful for the friends of Lutheran CORE who are members of other Lutheran church bodies who are concerned about and regularly pray for their fellow Christians still in the ELCA.
With the changes that are certainly coming and the wide variety of situations that friends of Lutheran CORE find themselves in, Brian Hughes is planning a series of webinars for upcoming months. The themes for the webinars will follow the life of Moses and his leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt through the wilderness into the Promised Land. Here are the planned topics.
November – Conflict Management
Groaning under Egyptian captivity; understanding what is coming in the ELCA and the stages and types of church conflict that might engender and how to navigate them without burning out
February – Vision Casting
The hope of the Promised Land; effective ways of pointing to a preferred future
March – Grief and Change
Loss and renewal in the wilderness; understanding the process of transition and how to maintain momentum and forward direction
April – Organizational Structure and Succession Planning
New rules for a new reality; constitution and bylaws for the mission field
Stay tuned.
It would be helpful if you would garner a number of responses from ELCA Bishops or Churchwide staff on your opening paragraph’s “most certainly” statements. As I have inquired about what is coming, I get answers like, “Nothing radical,” or “No don’t worry, there won’t be a change to the property issue” etc. I am not disagreeing with you and perhaps no Bishop or churchwide staff will respond, but it is worth a try. Yet, perhaps you have already tried that…
Thank you for your good thoughts. What everyone is hearing from their synodical bishop is, “Don’t worry; nothing radical will happen; nothing will result from the DEIA audit.” But can we really believe that the Church Council will appoint a Commission where 7 out of 35 are LGBTQ and 7 out of 35 are DEIA officers or leaders at their place of employment and/or influence and that is instructed by the 2022 Churchwide Assembly to focus on dismantling racism and the ELCA will spend who knows how much on a DEIA audit and nothing will happen? If the Church Council and Conference of Bishops are determined that nothing will happen, have they told that to the Commission? If nothing will happen, why have ELCA leaders not made an official statement reassuring people? If the 2025 Churchwide Assembly is determined that something will happen, can Bishop Eaton and other ELCA leaders stop it? I am amazed at the lack of communication from the Commission and from ELCA leaders to reassure people so that they will not imagine and/or fear the worst.
There was 0 chance my ELCA church would disaffiliate. The pastor is a liberal woman, the church council is stacked with hard-core liberals and members of the LGBT community, hand picked and encouraged by her to get on council. My wife and I quietly left and joined a Bible centered non denominational Christian church. Hands down the best decision we ever made. What a difference leaving a dying congregation and going to church that’s growing so fast it’s running out of space. The ELCA will cease to exist in 50 years.
So happy for you, your family and your new church home, Steve. As an aside, the elca is merely ‘existing’ now! In 50 years it will be cosmic dust.
Mike,
I think they’ll be around for decades. They have several hundred years of accumulated physical and financial capital to fund their adventures. The implosion and resultant infighting of who gets to stay with the ship will consume a massive number of microwave popcorn bags of entertainment, but … the hundreds of millions of dollars of assets given by faithful Christians of old will generate sufficient income for them to persist. IMHO.
I could not agree more – the goal of the ELCA is to monetize church properties to further fund their crazy. We too left our Long Island ELCA church after 25 years and joined a vibrant, growing LCMS congregation. It’s by far the best decision we’ve made. While we continue to follow our former congregation because we care for the people, sadly it’s like watching a slow motion car crash.
Sounds like you definitely made the right decision. May the Lord continue to bless you.
Thank you Dennis. May he bless you and your family also. After coming to a church that’s so active, I know now I was going through the motions before. It’s not a large church, but hundreds of us go to bible study. Was probably a dozen at my ELCA church. Mission giving is insane here. While maybe twice the size congregation our giving is times easily 10 times my old lutheran church.
Your new church sounds like a wonderful place to love, worship, and serve God and be a part of His mission in the world.
Mike,
I think they’ll be around for decades. They have several hundred years of accumulated physical and financial capital to fund their adventures. The implosion and resultant infighting of who gets to stay with the ship will consume a massive number of microwave popcorn bags of entertainment, but … the hundreds of millions of dollars of assets given by faithful Christians of old will generate sufficient income for them to persist. IMHO.
Was not considering what their earthly assets can sustain, but what their spiritual paucity hath wrought.
They’ve lost the narrative, no question about it. Luckily they also don’t know how to do effective mission so going forward there will be fewer children to falsely inculcate.
EXACTLY!! Amen.