It is Saturday at 6:45 p.m. and I am exhausted; excited and
exhausted. Strange combination.
Since Thursday evening, Shelly D, John N and I attended the
North/West Lower Michigan Synod Assembly in Mount Pleasant. These happen every year and function in many
ways like a congregational meeting (I know, but it really is interesting and
eye opening).
This year, it seems the primary role of the assembly was the
election of a bishop. The process took longer than I think any thought. It all begins with everyone registered
writing down one name of a pastor, any pastor on the roster of the ELCA and
those names constitute the nominations.
Once announced, one could remove their name from nomination, but could
not at any later point in the process.
After the second ballot, before the third vote the top seven have the
opportunity to speak. This year because
of a tie for seventh, we heard eight people speak. I thought this was one of the highlights of
the synod event. All were a little
different, but each spoke to the need for vitality in our congregations rather
than survival, that we can do more together than we can alone, and the changing
world of our church and world and how we as church are called to respond in the
name of Jesus. On the fifth ballot,
Bishop Craig Satterlee was re-elected to serve a six year term. Bishop Satterlee will be joining us in
worship on July 21.
During the assembly we also passed a memorial to be taken to
the Churchwide Assembly this summer regarding the transparency and policies
regarding sexual harassment. We adopted
some constitutional changes for the synod constitution and heard three bishops
from Ohio, the secretary of the ELCA speak, and the coordinator of World Hunger—Mikka
McCracken who was dynamic and shared some great stories about how our giving to
World Hunger has helped countless people in so many ways. www.elca.org/goodgifts. We experienced worship and Shelly and I got
some good ideas to use in our Not Your Normal Worship service.
So, it was long hours
listening and sitting—and exhausting.
But I will say again, I am excited.
First, Ascension has a lot to be grateful for. I believe we are on a good trajectory as we
live out the gospel in our community—community engagement is one of the keys in
congregational vitality. We do engage
our community through outreach of the Back to School Fair, school bags, and the
many organizations we partner with.
Though our attendance is down, it is not at the same percentage as other
congregations in our community and our giving is still pretty solid. In fact, Ascension was recognized as one of
five congregations in our synod who had the highest percentage of increase in
giving.
Our congregation and the council has set forth a plan, I believe
with the power of the Holy Spirit guiding as we position ourselves to navigate
the world in faith with Jesus. We aren’t
yet where we need to be, but the reality is, we never will be. But how we live
out our faith together, how we work together, how we foster relationships with
each other will speak the gospel in ways we can’t imagine.
Worship is the key gathering of the congregation. Some of you know we are putting together a
Worship Table to help provide the best we have to offer in praise to God. This is not a committee, it is a place of
conversation in order that as we move forward, we do so together. We are just getting started, so more will
follow. But I hope the congregation can
embrace together our goal together to offer our best to God as we come together
in worship. I don’t yet know what this will look like, and that excites
me.
I am sure we will share more about synod assembly. At this time I want to thank this
congregation for our participation in the synod, as we are part of something
bigger. Thanks to Shelly and John for
taking time out of their schedule to be part of these decisions that truly can
transform the world.
Thanks for being a wonderful congregation to serve with; you
foster my faith and vision as we grow together as disciples of Christ.
