A Message from Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson

August 2006

Dear colleagues in ministry,

Grace and peace to you. As we move out of summer into the busier schedules of fall, I have been thinking about what an intriguing time it is to be in ministry. At a recent synod assembly, I commented that I think I might have the best call in this church, for I am privileged to see what the Holy Spirit is doing through the faith lives of ELCA members and through ELCA ministries. The response to my statement was a bit surprising, but wonderful to experience: pastors and lay rostered leaders spontaneously lined up to challenge me. They wanted to tell me why theirs is the best call in this church.

I share that experience not to foster a greater spirit of competition among us. In fact, I have heard many of you describe the challenge of serving in a religious marketplace that is both competitive and consumer-oriented and in a culture that seems both fractious and polarized. Such conditions can lead to a feeling of isolation and discouragement in ministry. It is, therefore, a great sign of hope for this church to hear the stories of those who proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, who are grounded in the strong theological themes of the ongoing Lutheran Reformation, who delight in seeing members deepen their lives of discipleship, who are imaginative as their ministries are shaped by changing contexts, who are energized by teaching and working with youth and families, and who are renewed by the Holy Spirit in their lives of prayer, conversation, and reflection.

In July, the ELCA Church Council held a retreat that focused on one of the churchwide organization's strategic directions: "Support congregations in their call to be faithful, welcoming, and generous, sharing the mind of Christ." Kenneth Inskeep, ELCA director for research and evaluation, shared a very helpful overview of ELCA membership and congregations, and comparable information about other religious bodies in the United States.

ELCA teaching theologian James Nieman of Hartford Seminary suggested that in light of membership losses, we might think the primary questions are, "Will we survive this decline? Can we ever make our impact felt again?" He argued that these are neither the principal challenges nor our most pertinent issues.

Nieman contends that the most pressing questions are, "What shall we proclaim? How shall we support our mutual work?" Thus the underlying challenge is theological: what we proclaim as church in mission. He said, "If we long merely for survival and influence, we will abandon solidarity with the margins, lose our distinctive voice, and foster disconnection and fragmentation."

Think about the core language of the church that describes God's encounter with us, and shapes the patterns of faithful life and work in and beyond the church. For Lutherans, that story is centered in the living Word of God incarnate in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. Through the gospel, the Holy Spirit brings us to faith and gives us gifts for ministry. In a culture preoccupied with success, it is a theology of the cross that must continue to shape our identity and mission.

Nieman expanded upon four "distinctive and potent ways" we can contribute to the mission of this church:

• Reframing the tools: move past accountability based on direct measures (numbers, trends, finances) to focus on the formation of what Nieman calls "faithful character" in congregations.
• Remembering small congregations: small size does not mean low vitality; there is a distinctive voice of the small congregation in the larger ecology of the church.
• Rethinking larger congregations: 28 percent of ELCA congregations are growing in membership. What do reciprocal relationships between congregations of various sizes look like in this interdependent church engaged in God's mission?
• Reclaiming our testimony: how might all the baptized be encouraged to share daily the story of who they are in light of God's grace and mercy in Christ Jesus?
• How do we together discern what God is doing so that we might give faithful witness to it?

There's no need to debate who has the best call. Rather, we can encourage each another, pray for each other, listen to each other, and see our calls as shared calls to ministries of Word and Sacrament and Word and Service. I thank God for each of you in your ministries, whether in congregations, in specialized settings, or in retirement and share this blessing from the rite of installation with you: "(May) the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."

With gratitude for your ministry,

Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

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