Church Council

Sorry for the lack of posts during July; it's a busy month for me. This July has been even more busy than normal given that I'm taking summer classes and, as the title foreshadows, I have spoken to my church council from my home congregation. The church council held a meeting to discuss the future of the church and the (strong) possibility of leaving the ELCA. My church turns 183 years old this coming Sunday, and we are debating the possibility of not turning 184 with the ELCA. It is a very exciting time in our church's history.

My home congregation is in a good position right now; we are financially independent and our constitution is written so that the congregation owns the church building and the land its on. Basically, there are no legal hoops to jump through when we want to leave the ELCA, we need only inform them that we are no longer one with them.

Thus I decided to address the church council. Instead of focusing the 2009 decision, which is already unpopular in our congregation, I focused on the faults of the ELCA that lead up to this decision. The good news is that our congregation is now investigating other denominations to join. The bad news is that at the top of the list is the Lutheran CORE and the North American Lutheran Chruch (? it may be in some other order). The NALC will basically be the ELCA pre-2009. Now if you followed that extremely confusing sentence you are doing pretty good!

The three main points of my speech, and my three main arguments against the NALC stand thus: 1) the loss of scriptural inerrancy, 2) the absence of evangelism, and 3) the loss of teachings of the reformation. The NALC will be plagued by the same faults that lead the ELCA into the 2009 decision. Thus the hardest part of my battle is yet to come. I cannot allow my congregation to go to the NALC because it will be no better off than the ELCA in 50 years. Indeed we are not called to walk the higher road, but the high road in absolute; better than the ELCA is simply not good enough.

Solus Christus