Brandon Booth
MollieWhat to do?
Last week I asked for suggestions for what we should do in light of the fact that Synodical leaders have been so completely unresponsive to the concerns of the laity.
Many people wrote in with interesting ideas. Some people immediately started suggesting ideal candidates for synodical president. Here’s the thing: while our synod is definitely suffering because we don’t have a confessional Lutheran at the helm, our problems run much deeper than that. Virtually every board, every commission, and almost every synodical entity are controlled by people who won’t be winning awards for Confessional Lutheran of the Year. Many of our District Presidents and the bureaucracies underneath them are not much better.
To be sure, we have many good and decent people laboring away throughout Synod. But overall, our church body faces the same problem that many American church bodies do. Our leadership is going in a much different direction than the people in the pews would like.
If we want to retain our Lutheran identity, if we believe our Lutheran distinctives are worth fighting for, this is a much bigger issue than finding a confessional Lutheran to be President. We need confessional Lutherans on every board and in every elected and appointed position possible.
Confessional Lutherans value the Word and the Sacraments. We are not big on synodical politics. But we need to engage in some of it if we want to have a church body and all the benefits therein. If we want seminaries to provide us with confessional pastors, if we want to effectively support missionaries to spread the Gospel throughout the world, if we want to enforce doctrinal adherence, if we want to work with other Lutherans, we need to engage in some left-hand kingdom business.
We need to speak with our fellow parishioners about what’s going on in synod. And we need to research what recourse is available to us. Synodical conventions are held every three years. The last one was 2007. The next will be 2010. District conventions are also held every three years, I believe. The next one will be 2009. During the non-convention years, I believe that circuits may (as in, are allowed) to have conventions. Laypeople could go to circuit conventions and pass resolutions for district and synodical conventions.
Let me know if you know about these circuit conventions and we will work to inform the laypeople about what rights they have that can be exercised as soon as possible.
Filed under: Updates
Mollie,
First, thank you for all your work. Please keep it up.
You are right, we have to find others in our circuits first. We have a liberal circuit, but I have already found some other Issues Etc. listeners at other Churches in our circuit. I will get with the Issues Etc listeners and see what we can orgainize in our circuit. Then we need some way to contact others Confessional Lutherans in ajoining circuits to move things into District politics.
We need a Constitutional Convention run by the laity
If your congregation is in a liberal circuit and you are a layperson:
1) Support your pastor. Encourage him to speak the truth in love. If he complains about how bad things are, urge him to keep commending what is good, right, and salutary.
2) Show up at circuit forums and circuit convocations. (To find out about these circuit events, you may download a PDF version of the synodical handbook at http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=2434 and search for information about “circuit”)
3) When you are at these circuit events, don’t get angry. Don’t even look perturbed. Instead, take along with you one or two Bible passages and one or two quotes from Luther and the Confessions, not more than one paragraph long. Find the opportunity to share them with the group, telling people how much these words mean to you. To start out with, don’t speak against things — tell people what you are FOR and why you are for it. Identify people in the group who are interested in your words, even if it is only one or two. Make their acquaintance; get their e-mail; get to know them, but don’t be psychotically overwhelming. You might point them to one or two constructive blogs and The Wittenberg Trail.
4) If you find someone who doesn’t agree with you, first of all, just LISTEN to them and ask clarifying questions. Don’t get into a knock-down drag out argument. Sometimes you will hear them make outlandish statements. Press them hard to give evidence and make them PROVE that what they are saying is true. Don’t let them make generalizations. After you listen, THEN you may explain to them once again what you think is helpful and important based on the Scriptures, Confessions, and Luther’s writings.
5) Buy a copy of “What Luther Says.” This publication is full of excerpts from his writings on many different subjects organized alphabetically by Topic. Read it.
6) Read the PREFACES to Luther’s Large and Small Catechisms. Amazing! Read the Large Catechism if you have never done so. Re-memorize the Small Catechism as part of your daily devotions.
7) Get a copy Bente’s “Historical Introductions to the Book of Concord.” Understand Lutheran theology in its historical context - very important! Note how it was all LAYMEN who signed the Augsburg Confession.
Complete all of this assignment by tomorrow at which time I will give you some homework for the next day.
The key is for the laity to GET INVOLVED. Don’t think of the things going on in St. Louis as “too far away” for you to care about. The laity have to remember that they are the church and that the leaders are there to SERVE, not boss them around. Keep holding them accountable!
Mollie is correct, the convention cycle is a three-year cycle. Year 1 is the synodical convention; year 2 is the circuit convocation; year 3 is the district convention. In my neck of the woods, the circuit convocation as a deliberative body is dead. Most circuits don’t have them; if they do, they are more rally events than anything else. Overtures to conventions always get homogenized and pasteurized in floor committee, so they never quite come out the way they went in. Resolutions are largely ineffective unless they call for specific action by specific people. Since synod is an elective body on a 3 year cycle, the most effective means of change in leadership is political organization. As Mollie correctly notes, it’s much more than the top dogs. Boards and committees need to be filled with folks sympathetic to the confessional cause. And don’t forget that synod is a lot like Washington; there is a permanent bunch who manage to hang on regardless of which way the political winds blow.
You know what would really help?
What we need is a team of laity who make it their “mission” to travel and circulate to congregations in Synod, making presentations on “the state of the union” from a confession Lutheran layman’s perspective. Use Schulz’s papers as an outline, use Save the LCMS as the hard numbers, and show congregational assemblies what the big pictures is.
Why will this work?
Because it won’t be coming from the pastor. There is no hidden “clericalism” vested interest in the politics (which, I fear, is often an unspoken phobia in our pews.)
The results would be dynamic. You can come to my parish first. :D
http://www.beallwashedup.blogspot.com
Check out WELS — Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, if you want a confessional Luthereran denomination!
Unfortunately, WELS has theological problems of its own.
I hope people read Rev. Brondos’ suggestions and others here and implement them. Many “leaders” in the synod seem to be keeping people in the dark as to how things are really supposed to work, laymen’s rights and responsibilities, etc.
Wow lots of good ideas. I think I’ve mentioned on my own blog in one way or another how my eyes have been opened so to speak in the last month or so.
As a member of the laity I find myself thirsting for greater understanding of the Confessions and the historical aspects, the things I’ve never known as a life-long LCMS Lutheran. Understand though that for those of us just having our eyes open to all of this it is a lot to take in and process, just to get up to speed. Guess that’s where prayer comes in for the needed strength. I have noticed myself paying closer attention as an elder at my church. And I’m looking for ways to point out how important it is to learn these things now that I’m becoming aware.
What’s unfortunate though is that politics are necessary to keep the focus on Word and Sacrament.
What theological problems does WELS specifically have? Also, why WELS is even brought up here? The point is to fix the problem within LCMS.
No other confessional Lutheran synod could possibly accept more than a tiny fraction of the LCMS, I would imagine. It would be better, I think, to follow Pastor Brandos’ suggestions. They are pertinent to confessional Lutherans in any synod. I plan to copy them to my own blog. We all need to stay involved and on guard.
I’ll also give my “My Mollie is right ” comments. Laity are crucial in recapturing the leadership of the synod.
It’s no surprise when we say most of our laity are grossly undercatechized. The best tool we have for developing interest in what is happening in our synod, then, is for people to see what they have and what they are in jeopardy of losing. This calls for catechesis. The laity in the know (you guys) need to take an interest–not only in your own catechesis–but in other people’s catechesis, starting in your congregations.
This calls for some concrete action. Scan the crowds on a Sunday morning. Pick out a person you think could be interested in what is happening in the synod. Your best bet would be a refugee from another church body. Ask them why they left. Depending on what your congregation is like, you could say something like, “We are in danger of losing what you came here for,” or “We could be offering even more of what you were looking for.” You might find someone else who would be willing to listen to you, other than one of these “refugees.”
Then say something like the following to him or her, “I have been discovering what it is to be Lutheran (or discovering more). I can’t believe what we have! Did you realize our pastor takes a vow which says he believes the documents of the Lutheran Church are the proper exposition of Scriptures (You may want to say, “Give us the proper interpretation of the Bible)? I’ve been under the impression it was just a matter of my own interpretation or his. Our constitution even talks about those documents, but I would bet hardly any of us know what they are.” And then go from there. Then you could wrap up your discussion by directing that person to a good resource, like Good News Magazine or a brief paper–even like Barry’s “What About” pamphlets. Issues Etc., has some great topics depending on what might be of most interest to this person but I would suggest you would have the interview burned on a CD. Don’t just give them an address.
Speaking of Issues, I think the Issues Etc. deal is giving us a whole lot more legitimacy in many people’s eyes. Where they may have seen us as just complaining, whining because we don’t have the power, now they can see why. We are concerned about the Gospel being squelched. Use the momentum. Tell them about the public things that have been going on, the WSJ article (thanks, Mollie), the protest in St. Louis, the article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. You might also want to give them the open letter David Berger had written. That letter could very well sway an undecided person to be a little more sympathetic, or a sympathetic person to get involved.
Branching into the circuit is more difficult. Most circuit convocations are worthless–if you can even get one called. The only mechanisms in place which pulls congregations together in a circuit are the LLL and the LWML. If you have these, you might be able to use them, but you may find these to be a wasteland when it comes to finding potential confessional Lutherans. You may just have to be creative.
If your pastor is sympathetic to the cause, he may speak to brothers in the circuit who are also, and see who are those laymen that are interested. If you can speak with these laymen, you may be able to help them do the same as you are doing in your congregation. If your pastor is not sympathetic, then you will have to be bold and contact another pastor in the circuit. You would need to be sure this pastor is not only sympathetic but actively engaged in the struggle. Find out which of your circuit’s pastors are actively involved in the struggle by asking around and listening. You may even have to find the one or two guys in your district who knows who is and who isn’t confessional and how involved they are.
I would also recommend you getting involved in your district’s theological chat list. Only a couple districts have active ones, but they can be a great way to get to know more people in your district.
Finally, from the political perspective, make sure you know when your district convention will be held. If you are not able to volunteer to be your congregational delegate, make sure you find a faithful person to be your delegate. Make sure they know the names and the issues for that convention. A critical spot is the nomination committee. If you have someone who is knowledgeable, try to get him on the that committee. If your district is selecting representatives for the Committee for Convention Nominations (synodical level), make sure your district sends a good person.
Hopefully, these thoughts will give you some ideas on what laity can do. I think it’s more than many realize.
I see people talking about taking an interest in other people in their circuit. Excellent! But let the laity start in their own congregations. Look around and see who else has interest or potential interest in learning the faith. you to show a How does another We’ve been preaching to the
Rev Brondos’ list looks like a good one. I will put a hardcopy up somewhere for my own reminders.
The concrete suggestions regarding discussions with others are great. I would emphasize using the key pronoun “we” in those discussions, not “I” or “you.” When discussing what “I’ or “you” believe, these awaken discord more rapidly than talking about “we.” (influential thoughts from Toastmasters, National Forensics League, etc)
I would suggest discussions not only with those in our own congregations (preaching to the choir?), but openly discussing these with those in the CG congregations. LLL or LWML might be a good place to find those others.
This education of the laity which we all agree is necessary is what Brothers of John the Steadfast is about. Whether it is supporting new broadcasts of Issues, bringing men together for Bible study, or connecting Lutherans with educational resources on the web, BJS hopes to do more than just get Todd and Jeff back on the air: we are working to rebuild and restore “our grandfathers’ church”. Rev. Fisk is right: this needs to come from the laity: so start a chapter and get involved!
“What theological problems does WELS specifically have? Also, why WELS is even brought up here? The point is to fix the problem within LCMS”
Honestly the same that face the LCMS, only with a larger percentage of congregations being “low church”.
A respect for OHM is perhaps a bigger problem than in LCMS, but I am not sure about that either…..
I would highly recommend a stab at a renewal of the synodical conference. It would be good for confessionals in the LCMS and WELS/ELS to be reunited.
I am convince that this could be our opening to post synodical Lutheranism if we want it.
Jon
Rev. Brondos & Rob,
Thank you for the suggestions. I do not think people who are life long members of the LCMS understand what they might lose. My grandfather’s church is gone, although they left ELCA for LCMC (Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ).
You are also right in that the Church I attend is full of
“refugees.” Our mens bible study has an ex-Catholic, ex-Episcopalan and another ex-old ALC person. Our mens bible study would be a great place for these men to study the Lutheran Confessions.
I am going to order the books you suggested. It might take me a couple of days to get through your list.
We will also look into Brother’s of John the Steadfast.
I have been going to circuit meetings to elect delegates for the synodical convention for 20 years. The point of the meeting is to elect one pastor and one lay delegate for the synodical convention. Here is how the ones have worked that I went to.
Each congregation is allowed to bring a pastor and a lay delegate to vote. The pastor brings someone who shares his theological view. (I suppose that a voters assembly could pick someone who does not share the pastor’s theology - but I have never heard of this happening.)
So what happens then? If you have a majority of confessional pastors attending these election meetings, you will get a majority of confesional delegates for the synodical convention. If you have a majority of non-confessional delegates you will have non-confessional delegates to the synodical convention.
At the last few synodical conventions the hard core confessional issues have gotten between 30 - 40% of the vote. Why? Because that is the percentage of hard core confessional pastors and thier lay delegates.
Unless that number is changed, I do not see much changing in our synod. People have claimed that over the years we will be replacing old-time liberal pastors with young confessional pastors. So far, despite the great number of confessionally-committed young pastors coming out of our seminaries, I have not seen the ratio change.
Maybe my experience of delegate election meetings is not typical. Please let me know if this is not typical. If it is typical, then maybe the synodical conference, as referenced in the previous post, is the only viable option for a confessional synod.
Rossow, well, part of the problem is that the current leadership does everything within their power to manipulate the delegate count in their favor. Without these immoral and unethical actions, Kieschnick would not have won. Unless I am mistaken, there was a lawsuit related to this which had to be dropped largely due to lack of funds to continue it to a final resolution.
In Plato’s Republic the descent of society into the abyss of chaos is representative of the descent of government structure; the individual and how he governs himself is a microcosm of the society as a whole. Being a philosopher it is not surprising that the devolution of government/society for Plato is a descent through stages from the ideal of the philosopher king who rules with understanding, down to the total dissolution of government to the bottom stage, tyranny.
The stages are:
Enlightend monarcy to
Timocracy (the rule of a few who are virtuous)
Oligarchy (the rule of a few who are rich)
Democracy (in which freedom is the lying cover for evil)
and finally Tyranny (might makes right).
This largely correspnds to Missouri history. Christ used to be honored as King, meaning his Word demanded absolute authority; then it became an Old Boys Network (back in the good old days they were still virtuous and worked behind closed doors), then money talked and now its a democracy heading towards tyranny.
What’s the problem with democracy according to Plato? Those who lack virtue are given an equal voice and vote with those who are virtuous. For years people have been able to vote at Synodical Conventions FOR women’s ordination and AGAINST closed communion and their votes for false doctrine and practice count just as much as those who support Christ’s Word. Its no wonder we’re heading for tyranny.
So long as we consider it a right within Sin-odd to vote against God’s Word with no repercussion, we will continue to slip.
This corresponds to congregations who allow both the heterodox (Second Commandment manifest sin - a vote against Christ’s Word) to appear at the altar with the same rights as the orthodox who confess the truth and are using the Sacrament according to the purpose of the Gospel; removal of sin instead of affirmation of sin.
It then also corresponds to the individual who sees communion as a means to maintain his own sin, rather than following the apostollic command to examine and judge himself for what remains evil and unacceptable to God.
The philosophers have great insight into the Law and its ways. But only Christ has the answer for it. Him we should all heed.
While you would not want to use the auxiliaries (LWML & LLL) to promote political agendas (like ‘vote for X’), you can use involvement in those organizations to educate about the Confessions, to promote good programs, and to serve as a way to having an influence on Synod. Since LLL meets annually, voting and involvement there is easiest (and LLL districts are looking for people to get involved). LWML meets biannually, but local groups are more open as are districts. What if a certain radio program ended up being sponsored by the LLL? It’s happened before. The key is to get involved on more than one level, not just Synod, but the laity groups too.
Regarding the earlier comments on WELS:
A few reasons why WELS doesn’t have the problems that are plaguing the LCMS:
First, look at the presidents. Kieschnick is a liberal. He doesn’t care about the Lutheran tradition at all. The WELS president, Mark Schroeder is a conservative, and he loves the Lutheran confessions, tradition etc.
Second, all the pastors graduate from the same seminary (Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary). They are trained the same way. If they are liberals, they are kicked out long before they become pastors, or they will come under discipline.
Third, Wisconsin practices “close” or “closed” communion, inviting only those who are members of congregations in our fellowship. Although Missouri officially teaches “closed” communion, many pastors and churches practice “open” communion, allowing joint communion with those not in doctrinal agreement with LCMS.
Finally, a continuing problem in the LCMS seems to be an unwillingness or inability to exercise doctrinal discipline with those who teach and practice contrary to Scripture or to the public doctrine of the LCMS.
I hope and pray that the LCMS will kick out all of the liberals, and go back to their creeds and confessions.
Operation Chaos! Lutheran style.
Too bad we don’t require individuals to identify their confession–or lack of one–by something like a party name.
Confessionals (C) vs the Growthers (G)
Then we could register on one side with the sole purpose of subverting it.
Sorry. Listening to too much Limbaugh….
T. Rossow and others,
Circuit convocations have gone the way you have described, but I have seen little effort to do much about to change them. I think here is where the most change can be made.
Most laity think they have little say in what happens–”Who am I in this big machine?” Unfortunately that feeling of helplessness is affirmed by the way our synod has been acting–but that feeling is not valid. The “little man” when he gets together with other little men can have an effect.
Let’s start with the district convention. That will happen in ‘09. Every parish sends one pastor and one laymen to the convention. The pastor may select his own delegate–one who is of the same mind–but most congregations are happy to just have someone who is able to give up a couple days to attend a boring meeting. If you have a confessional volunteering to be the delegate to the district convention, it’s not likely someone would challenge his selection; in most peoples’ minds, this level is small potatoes. Big mistake.
From that pool of lay district delegates will likely be the delegate to represent the circuit at the synodical convention. So, lets consider the circuit convocation, where the delegates to the convention will be selected. This is where the congregations of the circuit and their pastors meet to decide who will be their delegates. Circuits will be meeting for this toward the end of ‘09, in anticipation of the ‘10 convention.
Even before the circuit convocation, each congregation will have to go through a selection process. Who do we recommend to be our pastoral delegate? Who do we recommend as our lay delegate? Who will be the layman that will attend this meeting to vote for delegates to the convention?
As you can see, this circuit convocation is a very important meeting, and yet still many consider this small potatoes–but not all. Here is where Kieschnick got his extra votes, by reorganizing electoral circuits. Still, it often comes down to: “Who is willing to spend a week in stifling hot Houston in the middle of summer for a convention?”
If you have confessional people volunteering to be nominated, the odds of sending a confessional layman as your delegate are obviously better than if one did not volunteer. If you have a confessional representative at the circuit meeting to select delegates, again your odds are better you will have a confessional pastoral and lay delegate representing your circuit.
These meetings seems like a small deal, small potatoes, but they are not–even the voters meeting where names are being put forward as representatives is not small. None of these meetings are. This is where the little layperson actually isn’ t so little.
That’s the end of my lecture for today’s Church Polity 101.
Rob,
I encourage such activity but am convinced that a confessional lay delegate coming out of a “growther” circuit will happen less than 1% of the time. With the advent of Jesus First a few years ago the fundamentalist/liberal/growther “party” has gotten tuned in to LCMS politics and works quite intentionally to keep this from happening.
Nontheless, I still agree that an educated laity is not only politically astute, it is what is required of us by our Lord’s word (John 10:1 ff.) and is Luther’s only hope for Gospel desiring congregations to get Gospel preaching pastors when the institution gets in the way of such.
Rob & T Rossow,
In our liberal circuit we got our confessional pastor elected to the Synodical Convention last time. Only a few people showed up to vote. We only had two lay people who had volunteered to go to the Synodical Convention. Since my pastor got elected the other lay person from a liberal congregation went to the Synodical Convention. If we had another confessional lay person volunteer, we could has sent two confessional delegates. The liberal pastor who thought he was going to get elected and his wife got really upset and left the meeting. The cuircuit councilor was stunned by what happened. It will probably will not be so easy next time.
Alien,
I fear you may be right that it won’t be so easy next time. But then again, people still see these convocations as small potatoes, and probably will continue to do so. Furthermore, it’s got to be tough for the pietists (non-confessionals) to get people to take an interest at that level.
Their conviction for what they are doing could not be as strong as our conviction. We are doing this out of desperation. We are at the point of fight or flight. If this doesn’t happen for us we lose much; if it doesn’t happen for them, they simply lose their vision. The stakes are much higher for us. I think we should be able to prevail upon people to get involved more easily than they could when all they are doing is trying to get others to catch their vision. They can get some people to buy in, but their commitment isn’t likely to go very deep. How hard will their recruits fight for someone else’s vision?
Therefore, when it comes to the circuit convocations, if you have confessional people attending these meetings, even if they don’t have the vote, your odds are going to be better that you will send confessional delegates to the convention than if the Pietists have more at the meeting. And even if you don’t get confessional delegates you will have more people who will come to see the importance of learning the faith. That is hardly a loss.
Maybe this question has been answered, but I’ll ask (again).
Is there a good site, post etc, that I could send to fellow congregation members that would sum up our concerns without having to read through 10 different blogsites, 88 posts and the resulting 600 comments to get up to speed? Maybe a nice summary with hotlinks to other articles, etc?
It would be nice to have something to print and distribute around church, also.
The “site introduction” page here on Augsburg1530 was good a couple months ago, but the plot has definitely thickened since then.
Jim,
It seems this thread is coming to an end, and probably not too many are going to see anything more on it. Still, if you are looking for a good post to send fellow congregation members, which would give them a feel for what is going on in our synod, without sounding negative, I would suggest making copies of David Berger’s letter. It was early on during the I.E. debacle, but it still nails the whole thing.
When your fellow members ask what happened after they read it, you can go on further, but this is what could get them started. You obviously don’t want to throw too much at them, especially if they are just getting started.
If they already are that far along, then I would suggest that you encourage them to just start learning the faith. Set up a Confessions reading group. Simply read the Confessions and discuss them. They pretty much explain themselves. Learning the faith is the important thing so they see what is at stake. You might also suggest they ask your pastor some questions. He may be dying to tell them, or maybe he would rather die than answer, but either way, get him involved.
It also seems like you yourself could fill them in quite a bit. Don’t be afraid to do so. Just be careful; you don’t want to swamp them–a concern of which you seem to already be aware.
You might also check out the AELLP (Alliance of Evangelical Lutheran LayPeople) out of the Central IL district . They have written brief papers which address some of the concerns in the synod. I haven’t seen anything lately from them, but the problems in our synod didn’t just get started a month and a half ago. Even though they may or may not be producing new articles, these brief one page papers are ideal for laity. Their site is down, but if you ask around you might be able to get copies. Some topics they have covered, “Is Ablaze Evangelism?” “Do Laity really need to know theology?” “A brief introduction to the liturgy,” “Circuit forums [I've been calling it by the wrong name.]”
Finally, see if your district has an active theological chat list. Every district has one. If you want more information on these, give me your contact info.