Connect. Sustain. Reform

Attending the Conference of Ministry last week, I was able to hear a vision from the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, Yehiel Curry. Holding together 8,400 congregations and over 2.5 million Lutherans poses quite a challenge in our ever-changing cultural landscape. God will always be working throughout the church, but the institution itself will look vastly different tomorrow than it does today. Bishop Curry charted a direction that focused on three core concepts: connection, sustainability, and reform.

Our success will be determined by how deep our relationships are, not only with each other, but also the congregations’ connection to their surrounding community. One common denominator for all failing churches is isolation. We must constantly be thinking about how we can meet the needs of our neighbors. To know what those needs are, we must have a relationship with the people around us. Those needs change and evolve overtime. To connect, we must listen.

Connection is important, but relationships alone cannot sustain the church. We must also consider how to support the people, resources, and structures that make ministry possible. Sustainability is not simply balancing the budget. It means investing in faithful leadership, supporting clergy and lay leaders, nurturing the next generation, and ensuring that congregations have the resources necessary to serve their communities.

This year, there were 170 students that graduated from ELCA Seminaries. Currently, there are 2,400 congregations without a pastor and 470 are actively searching for one. The numbers are even more dire in the Episcopal Church. The church is simply changing and that requires honesty. The traditional ways we have organized are no longer suitable for the challenges we face. We simply need more leaders.

I like to think that Lamb of God is a trend setter. The Lutheran Church and the Episcopal Church no longer have the luxury of remaining detached. Our differences are far too microscopic. One pastor per one congregation is not sustainable in the long-term. Sustaining ministry requires adaptability and ingenuity. Lamb of God is a healthy working example of collaboration and shared ministry.

Connection and sustainability can often be accomplished within familiar structures. Reform, however, asks us to consider whether those structures are still useful. The church has always lived in the tension between honoring its traditions and responding faithfully to the present. Tradition gives us roots, identity, and a shared story. But tradition can also become an obstacle and a means of exclusion.

Reform does not mean abandoning our faith or discarding everything that came before us. Instead, Reform is about examining our practices and structures in light of a living Gospel. We must ask ourselves, “is fear guiding our decisions? Are we willing to share power? Can we make room for voices that have not always been heard?

The church cannot simply ask how to bring people into the institution as it currently exists. We must also ask how the institution itself needs to change so that people can encounter the grace, hope, justice, and love at the heart of it. We must find the courage to let some things go so that something new can grow.

We do not reform simply to remain relevant. We do not sustain ministry simply to keep our doors open. And we do not connect merely to strengthen our own institutions. We do these things because the Gospel calls us into deeper relationship with one another, with those whom we serve, and with the world.

In it together,

Pastor Lucas