2026 Summer Fundraising Letter

June 2026

NOWHERE ELSE TO GO

Dear Friends –

In Matthew 9: 18-26 – part of the Gospel for June 7 – we read of two people who come to Jesus at a time in their lives when they have nowhere else to go.  One was a leader of a synagogue, whose daughter had just died; the other was a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years.

Mark 5 and Luke 8 also tell of these two people and give the man’s name – Jairus.  Matthew says that he “came in and knelt before Him” (9: 18); in Mark the language is much stronger.  He “came and, when he saw Him, fell at His feet and begged Him repeatedly” (5: 22-23).  This man was desperate.  Luke informs us that this twelve-year-old girl was his only child (8: 42).  And while in Matthew the girl had just died (9: 18), in Mark “she is at the point of death” (5: 23) and in Luke she “was dying” (8: 42).  In Matthew Jairus begs Jesus to raise her from the dead.  In Mark and Luke he begs Jesus to come and heal her.  Either way, he is desperate.  He sees Jesus as the only one who can help him.  He is highly respected in the community, but he has a problem that is way beyond his ability to solve.  He is a leader of a synagogue, so he could be severely criticized for associating with Jesus.  But out of desperation and because of his great love for his daughter he goes to Jesus, falls on his feet before Jesus, and brings Jesus into his home.  He has nowhere else to go.

The woman who had been bleeding for twelve years also had nowhere else to go.  According to Mark, “she had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse” (5: 26).  Several ancient versions of Luke do not want to badmouth physicians as Mark does, so they do not include “she spent all she had on physicians” but only say “no one could cure her” (8: 43).  As I think of the tremendously high cost of health care today and of people who have spent a great deal of their retirement resources on health care, I can understand why they are – and this woman was – desperate.

If the little girl was at the point of death or dying rather than already dead, then Jairus must have become even more desperate when there is a delay in Jesus’ responding to his need because He first responds to the need of the bleeding woman.  Either way here are two people who have nowhere else to go who go to Jesus.

When in your life have you gone to Jesus, knowing that you had nowhere else to go?  Are we sufficiently aware of the fact that every Sunday morning there are people in our sanctuaries who have nowhere else to go? 

It grieves me when I see churches taking away from people the Jesus they can go to when they have nowhere else to go.  Instead they give people a Jesus who is constantly calling on them to try harder, do more, and keep on repenting of racism, sexism, patriarchalism, white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia (fear of foreigners), and Islamophobia.    

It grieves me that in their first recommendation the Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church revealed what they valued the most and felt most urgent about. They recommended that “the ELCA Church Council 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.”   A memorial overwhelmingly approved by the 2025 Churchwide Assembly directed the Church Council “to provide progress updates to this church with a final report by fall 2027, including possible constitutional changes.”  Nearly one year after the 2025 Churchwide Assembly no progress report has been given.   

Dismantling racism does not mean just not being racist and being against racism.  We all are against racism.  We all agree that racism violates the dignity and value of every human being.  Dismantling racism is different.  It speaks of a political ideology, which views society as being made up of systems of power, privilege, and oppression.  Those in power (especially straight white males) are unable to not be racist.  They will do everything they can to preserve the systems that empower them.  Therefore those systems must be dismantled.  I wonder how many ELCA members know that that is the ideology undergirding much of what the ELCA is doing.   

Even though the ELCA Church Council was directed “to provide progress updates to this church,” they are very tightlipped and non-communicative.  The report from the representative from churchwide at the recent assembly of the synod in which I am rostered told of many good things the ELCA is doing, but we were told nothing about the above.  It definitely seems that ELCA leaders do not want ELCA congregations and church members to know what is actually going on.  We will inform you as we learn more. 

In our two most recent publications we included resources for those who want to learn more and/or want to inform their congregations about what the ELCA is actually doing.  In our May 2026 newsletter we had an article which contains links to and summaries of a number of articles which tell about actions that have been taken and decisions that were made during and between the 2022 and 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assemblies.  In my June 2026 letter from the director I gave a list of questions that you can use if and/or when your synodical bishop or another synodical representative visits your congregation.

Thank you for your prayers, words of encouragement, and faithful financial support, all of which enable us to do our work of being a Voice for Biblical Truth and a Network for Confessing Lutherans.  Please find below links you can use to give a gift towards our regular operating expenses.  Your prayers are especially important to us.  Please let us know how we can be praying for you. 

In the Name of Jesus, to Whom we can go even when we have nowhere else to go,

 

Dennis D. Nelson
Executive Director of Lutheran CORE
P.O. Box 1741
Wausau WI 54402-1741