Consider the contrasting good news and not-so-good news ministry challenges that are confronting many of our congregations in 2024:

Good News: Many local churches have now been blessed by the return of members to in-person worship services now that the pandemic is over.

Not-so-good News: A great many of our congregations have nevertheless experienced a significant decrease in overall weekly in-person worship attendance when compared to 2019; i.e., before the pandemic.

Good News: Many smaller congregations are in good financial shape; benefiting from the generosity of  the active Boomers who make up a majority of their membership.

Not-so-good News: These aging Boomers will not remain active indefinitely.  And there are very few Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z members to take their place; whether as generous givers or volunteers.

Good News: Both the LCMC and NALC are continuing to attract new congregations.  The NALC now has a total of 500 congregations, and the LCMC is now made up of almost 1,000 churches.  (75 of these churches belong to both the NALC and LCMC.)

Not-so-good News: A significant percentage of these new congregations have been dealing with extended pastoral vacancies.  Some of them are joining, in part, in the unrealistic expectation that they will now have an easier time finding and calling their next pastor.    

Good News: Most LCMC and NALC congregations are aware of how important it is for them to prioritize and pursue the Great Commission.  As a result, their congregational leaders are both aware of the importance of reaching out to the unchurched, and are motivated to take action.

Not-so-good news: Effective congregational outreach and evangelism is actually more challenging now than in the past.  The reasons include…

1. The on-going and increasing secularization of American culture; a process that has only accelerated with the advent and ubiquitousness of social media.

2. The politicization of so many American congregations in a time of unprecedented levels of divisive and partisan political conflict.  Many congregations have been dealing with controversial political and social conflicts that have directly led to significant internal conflict.  Of pastors who admit to considering leaving the ministry, 38% said that “current political divisions” were one important factor.

3. The growing percentage of Americans who claim they have no religious affiliation.  Gallup has asked about religious affiliation going all the way back to 1950, when more than 90% of respondents identified as Christian.  In 2012 it was 77%.  In 2023 it was 68%.

     However, I would like to conclude with some extra good news as you and your congregation plan for the immediate future.

Most of you belong to church bodies—like the LCMC and NALC—which adhere to and advocate for basing our Christian identity on the centrality of Scripture.  As a result, your pastors and congregational leaders don’t need to make apologies for being part of a national church body that has based its primary identity more on secular causes than on the Great Commission.

While our culture has indeed become increasingly secular, and fewer people identify as Christians, many unchurched Americans are in almost desperate need of the kind of supportive and loving community that the local church—your church—can provide.  The need of many unchurched Americans to be a part of a caring community is now greater than ever.  The pandemic became a profound reminder, to millions of Americans, that they have been living lives characterized by loneliness and social isolation.  This presents an amazing opportunity for local churches to incarnate the love of Jesus Christ for the isolated and hurting people living in their local communities. 

So consider challenging yourself and the individual members of your congregation to pursue these three simple steps:

A. To each think of an unchurched friend (or acquaintance) living in your local community.  Begin to meet regularly with this person; walking alongside him/her as he/she faces the challenges of life.  This is primarily a listening ministry, and learning to ask the right questions as a way of bonding over time.

B. When the time is right, invite your friend to visit your congregation on a Sunday.  Offer to pick your friend up on that first Sunday.  And give two or three of your church friends (and the pastor) a “heads-up”, letting them know you are bringing a first-time visitor.

C. In this role you will essentially become your congregation’s ambassador for Christ to this new friend (and now visitor).  You will be the one to not only assure your friend’s welcome on that first Sunday; you will also increase the odds that he/she will be assimilated and discipled by the members of your congregation.

D. One more thing: Even if the new friend is unwilling to visit, do not end the relationship.  Keep getting together, even if this becomes a solo ministry on your part.  Ultimately it’s not necessarily about membership; it’s about discipleship.

Pastor Don Brandt

Congregations in Transition

The Congregational Lay-leadership Initiative

FIRST WORDS AND FINAL WORDS

Devotional for Christ the King Sunday, November 26, 2017 based upon Matthew 25: 31-46

I retired on June 30, 2014, after serving as pastor of the same southern California congregation for forty years.  My final Sunday was June 29.  What I would say during the sermon on my final Sunday was very important to me.  There were certain things I wanted to be sure to say to the congregation, whom I had known and loved and been pastor for for forty years.  I spent a lot of time and prayer thinking through my final words.

Our Gospel lesson for Christ the King Sunday contains Jesus’ final words – His final message before the crucifixion.  I am sure that what He said during this final message was very important to Him.  What did He say?

In Jesus’ final message before the crucifixion He tells of the day when He will come in His glory.  All the angels will be there, and all the people who have ever lived will be there.  His first act as the newly crowned, rightful King of the universe will be to separate all people into two groups – sheep and goats.  To those on the right – to the sheep – He will say, “Come, you that are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (verse 34)  Then he will give a whole list of human hurts and will describe the response of the sheep to those hurts.  The first act of Christ as the newly crowned King will be to applaud His people’s acts of compassion.  What Jesus makes the biggest deal of in this – His final message before His crucifixion – are the works of compassion of His people, who have received His compassionate work of salvation.  

Now if Matthew 25 contains the last recorded message of Jesus before the crucifixion – the last recorded message of His three-year public ministry – what about His first recorded message?  What did Jesus say during the first time that the Bible says He got up to speak?

To find the answer to that question we turn to Luke 4 – to a time when Jesus returned to His hometown of Nazareth.  He went to the synagogue – to that community and religious gathering place where He had gone many, many times while growing up.  He went back to the synagogue, where He had studied the books of Moses, the law, and the prophets.  The law He had come to fulfill, and the prophets who spoke of the day of hope when He would be coming.  Luke tells us, “He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him.  He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. . . .” (Luke 4: 16-17)

As best-selling author Max Lucado, speaking on this passage, points out, this is the only time in the Bible where Jesus chooses a place in the Bible.  This is the only time in the Bible where it specifically mentions that someone handed Jesus a Bible and said, “Here, please pick out a passage for us.”  Imagine handing God a Bible and asking Him to pick out a verse.  Just imagine.  If you were to hand God a Bible and ask Him to pick a verse, what verse do you think He would pick?  What one passage from the entire Old Testament do you think He would select?  Luke tells us, “He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. . . .”

You might think that He would have stopped at Isaiah 53 – the song of the suffering servant that speaks of Him so clearly – “He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities.” (Isaiah 53: 5)  But instead He kept on going until He got to Isaiah 61, where He read, “The spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor.” (Luke 4: 18)

Here we have the first sentence of the first sermon of Jesus recorded in the Bible.  The only time mentioned in the Bible where Jesus selects and reads a passage from the Bible, and whom and what does He read about?  He reads about the poor.  “The spirit of the Lord has anointed Me – has chosen Me – to bring good news to the poor.”  

The only time in the Bible where it is specifically recorded that Jesus reads a passage from the Bible – and a passage which He Himself chooses – and whom does He read about?  It must be those whom He must have a special heart for.  The poor.  And in the rest of verse 18, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed.  

If the first act of our Lord Jesus Christ – after He is crowned as the rightful King of the universe – is to separate the sheep from the goats.  And if the factor that makes sheep sheep and goats goats is the way their faith leads them to respond to the hungry, thirsty, sick, naked, and imprisoned.  And if in the first sermon that Jesus gave He talked about God’s concern for the poor, that must have a lot to say to us today, who live in a world where so many people are living in extreme poverty.      

If in His last recorded sermon and in His first recorded sermon, Jesus talked about God’s heart for the poor, we need to ask ourselves, What kind of heart do I have for the poor?  Do I have God’s kind of heart for the poor?  

Dennis D. Nelson

President of the Board and Director of Lutheran CORE