Why Attend a ELCA Churchwide Assembly?

When I explained to people that I would be gone last week to the biennial ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Milwaukee, WI, people would invariably ask "Why?" Why attend a Churchwide Assembly with long days, long lines, and long boring meetings where nothing really happens anyway? As I have thought about this, the following reasons come to mind. Attend a Churchwide assembly and you might...

1) Experience the church at another level. It is an awesome and humbling experience to sit with 1,000 other people like ourselves from congregations across the nation and to realize the vastness of this church. We like to think of the church as our home congregation, but sitting at an Assembly helps one to realize that the church is much much more than our Sunday experience of it.

2) Learn what is happening in the various divisions and commissions of the ELCA. For example, did you know that we are training our missionaries in conjunction with the Presbyterian USA and the Reformed Church in America? Did you know that the Renewing Worship Task Force has produced a provisional “song book” that you can order from Augsburg Fortress? Has anyone told you about the Evangelism Task Force’s new Evangelism Strategy that was adopted at the Assembly, which you can find at www.elca.org/visionevangelism/document.html?

3) Hear representatives from other church bodies. This year we heard from Rev. Dr. Ishmael Noko, the General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, which just concluded its own assembly in Winnipeg, Canada. He urged our church to use its influence to advocate with our government for the smaller, poorer, more powerless nations in the world, to make the world a better place. We also heard from the President of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod who urged us not to do anything that would make rapprochement with the LCMS more difficult. Our ecumenical partners also brought greetings to the assembly.

4) Experience worship and gifted preaching. Worship services at these assemblies are always "cutting edge." They introduce new hymns, new liturgies, and new experiences. At this assembly we participated in a "Thomas" liturgy, designed in Finland to welcome seekers into the church. After the sermon, there was a period when the congregation could move around in the worship space - to light a candle, to contemplate an icon, to receive anointing, to pray silently, to offer gifts and tithes, to make confession and receive forgiveness, and to experience a remembrance of one's baptism. It was one of those "aha!" moments when people were thinking, "We could do this back home!" Then there is the thrill of hearing 1,000 people singing with gusto and realizing that the Lord is here...

5) Participate or observe the working of the governing process of this church. The intricacies of Roberts Rules of Order sometimes are confusing and time consuming for the newcomer, yet it is important to be there to see how it works. Often we read of this or that memorial or motion being adopted or rejected and we think that this was the "mood" of the assembly, but if one is present, one might see that the group supported the idea, but not the form in which it was presented, or that something else influenced a decision that is not readily apparent in a written report of the assembly. By being there, you will know what really happened.

6) Meet the leadership of this church and have a chance to network with people who are interested in those areas of mission and ministry which interest you. Here one can meet people from other synods who are interested in ending World Hunger, or who are fired up about evangelism, or who seek to end racism in our church and society. One can also meet with the ELCA directors for Global Mission, or for Church in Society or some other area.

7) See the Lord of the Church and the Holy Spirit at work in our deliberations, discussions and choices. Of course, not everything we do can be ascribed to the Spirit, but through the give and take of debate and through the discernment and actions of the voting members gathered, and through the worship and proclamation of the Word during the week, the work of the Lord happens and one cannot help but believe that the Lord, as promised, has been among us - with us and for us.

So if you are asked to be considered as a voting member for the next Churchwide Assembly, or if you are looking for a different way to spend part of your vacation, or you simply want to see what the Lord of the church is doing in and through the ELCA, I hope, like Isaiah, you will say, “Here I am Lord, send me!”

Rev. Dennis Maurer
Assistant to Bishop Lohrmann