By Brenda Blackhawk
This weekend I was helping my mother clean out an old closet in my little brothers’ bedroom. The closet was packed full of too-small shirts, old jackets, and shelves full of books, picture albums, and other memorabilia. I’m not a big fan of cleaning but I love organizing spaces, especially when I can stop and wonder over the past. 
My mom gave me several items to take home with me: a tub of children’s Christmas books, the album from my baby years, and a Star Tribune issue from the year I was born. When I started flipping through the newspaper, I realized that the ELCA was featured quite prominently in the Metro/State News section. This is because the ELCA and I were born the same year.
I’ve always gone to an ELCA church, and I don’t remember a time the ELCA didn’t exist. Because I work with so many awesome folks in the Minneapolis Area Synod, I often hear things about a time before the merger of the ALC, LCA, and AELC to create the beloved church we know today. Those stories and now, the articles in the paper back in 1988 help me realize how tumultuous that transition must’ve been.
THE TWO PROMINENT STORIES in my newspaper detail some of the bumps in that first year and how some congregations left the new denomination. But we prevailed, despite all the complications. The leadership back then clearly had vision, determination, and faith.
Of course, I realize that I’m talking about something I didn’t experience when I’m sure that many of you reading this were there and remember those bumps very clearly. I just want to take a moment to celebrate what the ELCA has grown to be and the success of that merger 33 (ok, almost 34) years ago.
“I’ve always gone to an ELCA church, and I don’t remember a time the ELCA didn’t exist.”
I love the ELCA. I grew up in a fabulous congregation that nurtured my faith and leadership and identity in ways that shaped who I am. I’m glad for it. And I’m not blind to the flaws of the church I love. At the congregational level, the synodical level, and the national level, there things we can do better and ways that we can be better. Love needs to lead those changes.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the church changed in a big way (and we’ve grown and changed in so many ways since then). I just want us all to remember that this happened because people made it happen. They (and maybe you!) saw how much we could accomplish together.
People’s voices and their actions led to powerful transformation. And may they continue to do so!