ELCA (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) is in trouble… in fact, trends show number of churches is down significantly over the past ten years, and the number of people attending services is down significantly as well. From the Orlando Sentinel: The Lutheran magazine’s January cover story is about the decline in membership and churches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The plight of the Lutherans is not unfamiliar to Protestant denominations. In 2012, less than half of Americans identified themselves as Protestants, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
“Nearly every U.S. Christian denomination has seen membership declines in the past two years, including Southern Baptists, who seemed invincible in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s,” Radziszewski writes.
The Lutherans have tried to reverse the trend with Congregational Renewal Partnership grants, which provided 163 congregations with $2.5 million in 2011. The grants are for three years, but renewal often takes five to seven years, said Neil Harrison, director for Renewed Evangelizing Congregations.
What do you think will happen to the ELCA. Can they turn it around?
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I hope that people look beyond their theological aberrations (Gay Priests, errancy of the Bible, etc). People don’t require Repentance preaching. We are a righteous people, so we have been taught in school by the Humanist trained teachers of Bill Ayers and others. If we had listened to the American Luther, CFW Walther, this would not have been happening.
I hope that people don’t look beyond their theological aberrations and the proof of heresy is in the pudding…nobody’s attending.
For Lutherans the medicine for SIN removal are the Sacraments. The reason sin has not been removed is Pharisaical arrogance – in this case Humanism that purports our self righteousness. Read Dr. Walther’s treatises and see how we have failed.
Complicated. Culture is always shifting and institutions predictably seem to lag behind. It seems as church organizations become larger they become more institutional and evolve into something less connected and relevant to the population. Leadership in these evolved institutions is different than the leadership that birthed the movement. As church movements evolve into institutions, effective leadership shifts from entrepreneurial to bureaucratic. This bureaucratic stage is near the top of the cyclic bell curve and is one of the first visible signs of decline. In these institutions the focus of the organizational mission is not people but maintenance of the institution. Understanding the cycle is essential to turning the ship. But no, I don’t think the ELCA will turn it around.
The problem is more insidious than most will admit. We are still wanting people to “DO” church, rather than “BE” The Church.
I don’t know any young person in our church, or out, that wants to waste time on Sunday morning just to do their duty to an unreachable god.
Our young people come to church to be a part of a family. Where are we missing the boat? Real relationships, that’s where!
Till we get it right, we are just marking time till Jesus say’s, “That’s enough, come up here”. The only problem with that is, “THE GREAT COMMISSION”.
What do you think?
Our young people want relationship and despise the preaching of repentance. They come from a society that has lauded them as Good! We cannot come to Jesus unless we humbly confess our sins. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves. American education has been doing this a very long time.
Just an addition to my earlier post. I’ve found in my studies of churches, church movements, and the life cycles of organizations, that the there are predictable patterns; a mappable trail that includes the birth and death of an organization…and all the points in between. Understanding the “gravity” points that lead to the death of an organization is key to being able to reset the growth curve and establish renewed viability. Most groups in decline are in a stage of development where they are presently being led by bureaucrats. What is needed are entrepneurs, gunslingers, if you will. The evolution of the church long ago removed these kinds of leaders. Yet, this is what they need to re-vision their organization. The ELCA will continue to decline. Most groups do. When confronted with what it takes to change their future, the leadership will choose to die.
Sadly, I suspect the ELCA is doomed.
It is scrambling to maintain its structure. Its message — a good message — is being lost.
Lutherans were ideally positioned for leadership in a newly wired world. Congregational polity is a great thing! But ELCA leadership has chosen to emulate the model of church that Martin Luther originally stood against. ELCA leadership has forsaken Lutheran roots as they validate their perception of power with the increasing trappings of hierarchy.
I’d write “our” leadership, except our little church was effectively excommunicated when Bishop Claire Burkat asked the leadership of Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod, which was routinely approving six-figure deficit budgets, to go along with her plan to seize our property and endowment funds. They don’t have that power under their Articles of Incorporation. They never bothered to check that out and the secular courts don’t want to sort out church issues.
Consequently, except for the approval of a bishop, Lutheran congregations do not exist. Your congregation’s property is the bishop’s property for the taking.
Clergy, who were once pretty vocal in the Lutheran tradition, stand by in impotent silence. They want that next call.
All this attention on hierarchy comes at a time in history when hierarchies are becoming ineffective. Those small churches with worshipping bodies of less than 50 — they can be pretty powerful today. They may not be able to support a close to six-figure pastor, but the support of a pastor is in no congregation’s mission statement. They can have significant reach and mission impact without the expensive infrastructure.
Our little multicultural congregation was locked out of our sanctuary by a greedy and arrogant ELCA bishop on Sunday, September 27, 2009. Our pastors were scared off. We took our ministry online and now have an average of 150 readers every DAY. We’ve networked with churches all over the world.
The ELCA has maintained our empty property for four years. It had been alive with activity — much of it income-producing. Our congregation was entirely self-supporting.
We still claim they have no authority to seize congregational property within the Lutheran founding Articles of Incorporation. We’ve proved our viability by not only maintaining our congregation but growing our ministry significantly without their help and while they sued our members for five years.
We’d like our property back. It’s the right thing to do under Lutheran governance. But the ELCA cannot admit any failing, even as it sinks—down, down, down.
The cost of hierarchy is killing the church. Hierarchy serves no purpose in the modern world. We are NOT anti-clergy, we just think that the economic model supporting clergy needs to change if the church is to have any future.
Your statement “Leadership in these evolved institutions is different than the leadership that birthed the movement” is incredibly insightful and applicable to more than religious institutions. Brilliant!