PREPARING FOR THE ASSEMBLY

-Tim Larson

 

(Note:   This is an excerpt from the June newsletter to Calvary Lutheran)

 

 

The 16th annual assembly of our Southwestern Minnesota Synod (which includes 278 congregations throughout thirty-one counties in southwestern Minnesota) will occur at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, June 13-15.  High on the agenda will be the election of a new synod Bishop, replacing Stanley Olson, who late last fall became Executive Director of the ELCA Division for Ministry, Chicago.  Five superb Bishop candidates will be considered . . . Pastor Jon Anderson, New Ulm; Pastor Darrell Jodock, St. Peter; Pastor Bruce Kuenzel, Granite Falls; Pastor Harvey Nelson, Litchfield; and Pastor Larry Wohlrabe, Redwood Falls.  Our hope and prayer is that the Holy Spirit will lead the assembly to elect one of these individuals who will provide Biblically-based guidance and Gospel-centered stability in what we know are “rough seas” ahead for us as a whole church.  In our ELCA we need synod bishops/captains who will take hold of the rudder and stabilize what some sense is a “rudderless” ship.  Pray for the voting members of this assembly as this important election occurs.
 

Having said this, I want to borrow from the thoughts and writing of Marva Dawn (Lutheran theologian, author, educator) in a previous issue of our Lutheran magazine.  There, she  focuses on an “invitation to fidelity” rather than “heroic feats” because sometimes people say --- concerning various disagreements in the ELCA --- that these woes can be solved by a super churchwide assembly or by fervent, enthusiastic synod assemblies or if we “just elect the right bishops.”  Not so!  Dawn reminds us that no bishop or number of bishops can engineer a solution to all the problems our church body might have.  She or he is only one person --- and a sinner at that --- who will, as we all do, make some mistakes while trying to do the best work possible under the constraints of the office.

 

Rather, Dawn writes (and I fully agree) that the ELCA’s health depends upon “millions of small acts and restraints, conditioned by small fidelities, skills, and desires.” It depends upon faithful worship rooted in Word and sacraments, genuine Christian communities and people who live and speak in ways that offer alternatives and tangible witness to the world. These things require every one of us --- all our skills, faithfulness, desire for God and love for neighbors issuing in “millions of small acts and restraints.”

Perhaps each one of us needs to ask, if the whole ELCA lived the faith as I do or my congregation does, how healthy would the church be?

 

I do not minimize in any way the importance of synod bishop elections and the need we have for faithful ecclesiastical leadership . . . but don’t ever forget you are an important element in our church. You and I have a high calling and we pray for courage and faithfulness as we undertake it.

 

 

Tim Larson is senior pastor at Calvary  in Willmar