From
Living Theology in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church In America
Volume 1, Number 1
Epiphany 1996
Invitatory
What
Do We Do Next?
We have all read that in the history of Christianity
congregations and even denominations have come and gone. When this is just a discussion about history
that’s fine. But when it is about my congregation I don’t want to hear pious,
calm discussion about history. Whether I am the person in the pew or the pastor
seeing and feeling the decline, I want to do something about it.
This
building, in which the people of God have worshiped and gathered, and from
which they have gone out to minister, is a holy place to us. This altar, this font, this pulpit, these
pews, are the places where God has come regularly to receive, teach, comfort,
and heal us. Don’t talk about
statistics, inevitabilities, and finances. Talk about how to rescue or revive
this place!
About a
year ago nine congregations in the Southwest Conference of the Metro Chicago
Synod met to talk about our future. Some worried that our congregations might
have a very limited future. All were concerned that the ministry of these
congregations should not be abandoned too quickly. We talked, prayed, visited
one another, and looked for solutions.
In the
short time that we worked together we heard some sobering statistics that
seemed to confirm our fears. Many of our congregations, based on these
statistical projections, would simply dwindle to nothing in about five years.
Throughout
the Church as well as in this Synod, congregations and parish pastors are
facing similar challenges regarding the
future and the need for change. We are asking “What do we do next?”
Equally
important, if not more so, is the theological question which precedes
any recipes for renewal or strategies for survival. That question is: What is the Church? What is the essence
of the Church and what are simply cultural or organizational holdovers from a
warmly remembered past that we have snuggled up to in this cold secular world
that keep us locked in on ourselves?
We
experience church as a particular place where particular people have gathered
for 50 or 100 or more years. It is a
holy place. God has met a particular group of people. God has baptized,
confirmed, and blessed the marriages of this group of people. Their children
grew up here. Their loved ones were buried from here. Pastors have put their
lives into this place. The people have invested time and energy and love and
concern and tears into this place.
For us
Lutheran Christians, Church is about people gathered around Word and Sacraments
in order to be strengthened for ministry in and for the world. The Lutheran
Confessions are clear about the essence of the Church. “[The Church] is the assembly of all
believers among whom the Gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments
are administered according to the Gospel” (The Augsburg Confession,
Article 7). We also have the command of our Lord: “Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).
William Easum in his book “Dancing with Dinosaurs”
says that there will be two categories of “healthy Christ-focused communities
in the twenty-first century. “Some will be strong small communities focused
outward; others will be strong large communities focused outward . . . The
inward-focused small and large church will disappear” (p. 41).
The idea
of a “strong community focused outward” should be an easy concept for Lutheran
Christians to grasp, given our clear and strong theology of church in mission.
However, even we sometimes have the overwhelming desire to stay huddled in
those warm and cozy places where everybody knows everyone else and nothing
significant ever changes. This may not be an option any longer, if it ever was.
We are not the church if we do not do what our Lord does. And our Lord has made
it clear that we are to go, get out there in that cold, unfriendly world where
most people don’t know us, and invite and welcome them, then teach and form
them into new (and in some cases renewed) disciples of Jesus.
By the
leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit they will come in and gather with us
around Word and Sacraments. But as they join us in the gathering of the
baptized they might want to bring new songs and new ways of celebrating in
God’s presence. They might even want to hear things and speak things in a
different language.
What can
we do? How can we adapt to all this change?
We all know well enough that there aren’t going to
be easy-to-follow directions. Pastors and other professional Church leaders
will need patience and encouragement. We will all need to offer prayers to the
Holy Spirit regularly and often asking for strength, guidance, and courage.
We will
all need to look at our communities with renewed vision. Galagher the comedian
likes to tell his audiences that we need to look at the world with “new eyes”
to see all the possibilities awaiting us. We Lutherans believe that God is
madly and passionately in love with the creation, especially the people. We
need to see the world around us with God’s eyes. We need to delight in the
exciting variety of people and cultures which surround us. We need to revel in
the incredible variety of music and art God has created in people. And we need
to let people know the wonderful gifts God has given us in the “holy places”
where we gather.
We may not always do everything so well and we may
not always succeed at the things we try. But we know what the Holy Spirit wants
us to do. As pastors in congregations in the Southwest Conference of the Metro
Chicago Synod, we have committed ourselves to the work of the Church. We will
continue to gather ourselves in prayer, dialogue and serious study of
Scripture. We will work to apply texts like Matthew 28:19-20 and Ephesians 4 to
our worship, witness, organization, and outreach. We will continue to call and
lead our people into the ministry God would have them do in the world around
them. And above all we will trust that Jesus will keep the promise made to us
and to the whole Church, “. . . I am with you always, to the end of the age”
(Matthew 28:20).
Andrew H. Leahy
Pastor of Prince of Peace,
Chicago Heights
Thomas C. Knutson
Pastor of First, Harvey