Last week, I was at the church council meeting for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Community Lutheran Church is a congregation of the ELCA. In 2023, I was nominated to serve on the church council of the ELCA.
The national (ELCA) church council operates a lot like our own church council here at CLC. We make decisions on behalf of the entire ELCA in the times between church wide assemblies.
During our last meeting we received reports and acted on some action items.
Here are a few highlights:
Bishop Eaton gave her report and reminded the church council that the ELCA is not an NGO (non-governmental organization) or a social service. We are the Church! Although we are servants, our main purpose is to share the good news of Jesus love (the Word) and share the presence of Jesus (the Sacraments) with the faithful. We need to hold to our calling and not default to being or becoming a service organization.
We heard an update from the “God’s Love Made Real Initiative” that is seeking to organize the ELCA around three guiding principles:
- We are a Welcoming Church
- We are a Thriving Church
- We are a Connected, Sustainable Church
Their work continues and will bring recommendations to the ELCA church council soon.
We also heard an update from the “Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church” that is examining the very purposes of the ELCA that are articulated in chapter 4 the church wide constitution. There are 17 purposes in that chapter of the constitution. They are being evaluated and potentially updated.
“The Budget Prioritization Committee” also reported that they are working on guidance on where financial resources should be allocated based on current and future needs of the ELCA. We expect to hear more at our next meeting.
We celebrated the 50th anniversary of the World Hunger program and applauded their excellent work.
We reviewed the “Draft of a Social Statement on Civic Faith and Life” as well as adopted “Gun Related Violence and Trauma” as a social statement of the ELCA.
We did many other things as well, but those are the highlights. Our church (the ELCA) is working hard to be a relevant church in 2024 and beyond. I am honored to be a member of this church council and serve our larger church body.
God bless you,
Pastor Ben