Living Theology in the Metropolitan
Volume 10, Number 1
Summer 2005
The Call to Fidelity
Surely every pastor in the
Metropolitan Chicago Synod would agree that we are called to be faithful. No
one has ever lauded a faithless pastor. But can we agree on anything
beyond the call to fidelity we have heard from God and the church? To what
are we called to be faithful? That’s where the disagreement can begin.
Perhaps part of our confusion
can be attributed to our status as a confessional church: a book of confessions
450 years old requires interpretation and reinterpretation. Who’s to guide us?
Maybe some of the difficulty lies in our status with respect to the ecumenical
movement. How strongly does that movement move us? And who should our partners
be?
Focusing more locally: in our
own ministries, where is the faithful balance between ministry within the
community of faith and the ministry of public outreach beyond the walls of the
parish church?
Each year, on Friday of the
first week of Easter, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Luke graciously
hosts the Festival of the Resurrection, a day of splendid liturgy, delicious
food and, not least, flinty theology that may be a stumbling block to some but
will be a touchstone of fidelity to others.
As we Christians, both lay and
ordained, go about responding to God’s call to mission, how do we know whether
we are being faithful? What are the foundation stones upon which faithful
ministries are built? As Lutheran Christians, what are the rocks from which our
fidelity has been hewn?
The papers from this year’s
Festival of the Resurrection compose most of the contents of this issue. They
examine our understandings of fidelity from four quite distinct points of view.
Larry Yoder, sts, Professor of
Religion and Director of the Center for Theology, Lenoir-Rhyne
College, Hickory, North Carolina, addresses the issue of Fidelity to Calling,
offering an open letter from a pastor of thirty-six years to a son awaiting his
first call. Cathy Ammlung sts, Associate Pastor of
John Pless,
Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions, and Director of Field
Education, Concordia Theological Seminary,
In addition, we are pleased to
present a prize-winning paper on ecumenism from Benjamin Dueholm, a Lutheran
student at the University of Chicago Divinity School, serving now as Intern at
Wicker Park Lutheran Church. Dueholm’s essay won a
contest sponsored by the ELCA’s department of
Ecumenical Affairs and the Lutheran Ecumenical Representatives’ Network. And we
present another “As I See It” column from Frank Senn, sts. By the way, that sts stands for Societas
Trinitatis Sanctae, the
Society of the Holy Trinity. Again this year, the Northern Illinois and
Wisconsin chapters of the Society, a Lutheran oratory and ministerium,
have been pleased to be in partnership with the
Let’s
Talk is pleased to present this issue to
elucidate your reflections on faithfulness. Fidelity in ministry and mission
has never been an easy task. The Editorial Council hopes that the reflections
offered here will stimulate your responses to our ongoing invitation: “Let’s Talk”!
Paul Bieber, sts, Issue Editor
Christ the