From the Bishop

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

At the end of Sunday school one day, 12-year-old Tom Zarth was stopped by his teacher who said, “I think you would make a good pastor someday. Have you ever thought about it?”

Tom hadn’t. But he never forgot the conversation. Last Sunday, Pastor Zarth retired after 40 years of ministry as a parish pastor. In those 40 years, he mentored 20 different pastoral interns – probably a record. The wisdom gained in that internship year has blessed the individuals and the churches they’ve gone on to serve.

“How can we better affirm and lift up the joy and wonder of the pastoral calling?”

If I were asked to name my top five challenges facing the ELCA, the shortage of pastors would be one of them. In 2008, the ELCA had 1,195 students enrollment at ELCA seminaries, actively preparing to be pastors. Just 14 years later, in 2022, the total enrollment was 594 – a reduction by half.

Which brings me back to 12-year-old Tom Zarth’s teacher. When was the last time you encouraged someone to become a pastor or deacon? What are the things that stop you from offering that encouragement? Almost every clergy person I know has a memory similar to Tom’s.

PERHAPS YOU KNOW the demands placed upon clergy. Perhaps you know that the compensation will not compare with the other professions a gifted young person could pursue.

Still, if you recognize gifts in someone for parish ministry but stop yourself from encouraging them, take a moment to ponder why that is. Take a moment to pray for faith and wisdom.

Your encouragement is not the be-all and end-all of one person’s vocational discernment. The Holy Spirit is an ever-present midwife – accompanying the baptized in their journey of discernment. Entrust your words of encouragement to that same Spirit – to be used for good.

“If I were asked to name my top five challenges facing the ELCA, the shortage of pastors would be one of them.”

I affirm the conviction of Eugene Peterson: “I’ve loved being a pastor, almost every minute of it. It’s a difficult life because it’s a demanding life. But the rewards are enormous – the rewards of being on the front line of seeing the gospel worked out in people’s lives. I remain convinced that if you are called to it, being a pastor is the best life there is.”

How can we better affirm and lift up the joy and wonder of the pastoral calling?

I believe the need for beloved community will be even greater in the years ahead. The climate crisis will bring us to places we never thought possible. Faith communities will need leaders as much as ever.

Oh, the church may come up with new titles for leaders in the church; the concepts of lay and ordained may fade away. And yet, Lutherans are pretty clear that Christian communities will always need leaders, if even by another name. We need people prepared and committed to proclaim the Gospel of Christ in Word and Sacrament, to build up communities of mutual care and consolation, and to equip the baptized for loving the neighbor in daily life.

Who will serve in that way? Is there a sixth-grader, a 16-year-old, or a 56-year-old you could stop one morning and say: “I think you would make a good pastor. Have you ever thought about it?”

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

In fewer than six months, the Minneapolis Area Synod will elect a new bishop. (Simply writing those words evokes so many deep feelings: gratitude, grief, uncertainty, wonder.) Our synod constitution limits a bishop’s ministry to two six-year terms. Having begun this call in 2012, I will complete my two terms July 31, 2024. The new bishop will be elected sometime during May 2-4 at the 2024 Minneapolis Area Synod Assembly.

I invite you to join me in prayer as we enter these months. I love my calling as your bishop and am profoundly grateful for the privilege of serving in this way. I also feel joy that another person will soon have the chance to experience the wonder of serving as your bishop.

Even more, I deeply believe the ministries of synod bishop and staff are vitally important to the church’s flourishing. Our constitution describes the bishop’s work in nearly four pages with a list of some 40 primary and secondary tasks (not to mention the “other tasks as assigned”). This is good work, important work. So, I truly hope we will join hands in prayer in the months ahead that the Spirit will guide and bless the entire process.

WE CAN BEGIN BY thanking God for the Spirit’s work already in the tremendous efforts of our gifted Bishop Election Committee. Several opportunities are already available for all members of our synod’s congregations. Listening sessions for all lay and rostered congregational members are scheduled for November 15 and 16.

Our Ministerium for rostered leaders will be held Thursday morning, January 25, 2024. In addition to worship, I will share a reflection, “The role of bishop as I’ve experienced it the past 12 years.” Then, there will be ample time for conversation.

“I love my calling as your bishop and am profoundly grateful for the privilege of serving in this way.”

On Saturday, February 10, Conference Assemblies will be held. Each congregation belongs to one of our 12 different geographical conferences. At the February 10 assemblies, each conference will have opportunity to nominate up to three candidates for bishop (potentially a total of 36 nominees). Further, our Synod Assembly, May 2-4, begins with an ecclesiastical ballot – where any voting member can also nominate a candidate for bishop.

AND, SPEAKING OF ELECTIONS, I encourage you to be prayerful about the election in many of our region’s political jurisdictions on November 7. (Check the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website to see if there is an election in your community.) Two phrases from the ELCA Social Message on governance come to mind:

• This church strongly affirms voting, guided by faith-based values, as an exercise in citizenship.
• Although we may disagree about the best ways to achieve the public good, we do not disagree about our shared responsibility to seek it.

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

A Bishop, an Archbishop, and a District Superintendent walk into a museum. Though it sounds like the lead-in to a joke, it was really the start of an incredible journey.

Archbishop Musa Filibus, Superintendent Sebastian Feydt, and I visited the GRASSI Museum of Ethnology in Leipzig on September 21; one stop in a remarkable visit that Archbishop Filibus and I made after the Lutheran World Federation Assembly in Poland in September. It was a rare opportunity for the leaders of our two partner synods to meet one another; and, as it unfolded, for the three of us to imagine ways we might foster a trilateral relationship.

“As we observe Indigenous People’s Day, what work do we need to do toward in repentance and restitution?”

The days planned by our Leipzig hosts were filled to the brim – which brings me back to the visit to GRASSI Museum. Inspired by the knowledge that some of the Benin Bronzes from Nigeria were held there, we were privileged to spend the morning with Leontine Meijer-Van Mensch, the Director of the State Ethnographical Collections of Saxony (including Leipzig and Dresden). We began by viewing the Benin Bronzes and discussing the potential for restitution (the return of identity-forming, cultural, or sacred objects, among others, that were acquired in a colonial context, appropriated under unequal power relations or looting).

FOR ME, THE MOST profound, heart-wrenching discussions were about repatriation, the return of human remains of ancestors to their societies of origin. Ironically, Germany passed broad legislation to ensure that German soldiers were given the right to return to their homes for burial. Now, the same legislation guides the museums in repatriating the remains of the ancestors to their homelands.

After waiting in Germany for 100 years, the remains of 14 persons from Roebuck Bay in Western Australia were accompanied home. The individuals were members of the Yawuru and Karajarri communities, living in the mid-19th century. Kidnapped into slavery and forced to work on luggers (pearling ships), the remains of the ancestors were brought to Europe as comparative specimens, a dehumanizing practice that supported eugenics and other racist theories.

On April 15, 2019, the repatriation ceremony to remember the ancestors drew visitors from across Germany and Australia to pay their respects. A landmark memorial, known as Wanggajarli Burugun, will be built in Broome (or Rubibi) in Western Australia to establish a resting place for the ancestors, serving as a site for reconciliation and healing.

Our guide led us to a private room in the museum reserved for the relatives of the ancestors to prepare their remains for the journey to their homeland. Our small group was overwhelmed by the holiness of that space – the profound sacredness of this place for preparing the bones of the relatives, feeling the anguish of the journey that brought their ancestors to Leipzig, and seeing a tiny glimpse of hope that there might be repentance and forgiveness. It was indeed sacred ground.

As we observe Indigenous People’s Day, what work do we need to do toward in repentance and restitution? Perhaps, spending some time on the ELCA web page with information about Idinan Boarding Schools might give us a place to begin.

The journey of truth-telling and restitution is neither short nor simple. But it is holy work. Let us pray for one another as we take our next step.

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

On September 13, I was privileged to join 1,000 delegates and visitors in Krakow, Poland for the Thirteenth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).

For the past six years, the archbishop of our companion synod, the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, Rev. Dr. Musa Filibus, has also served as the elected President of LWF. On that mid-September day, I was in the room to hear his final plenary address.

Becoming friends with Pastors Musa and Ruth Filibus has been one of many remarkable gifts I’ve received as your bishop. Bill and I were their hosts recently when they came to Minnesota for the ordination of their son-in-law. Much of Musa’s spare time during that visit was used to complete the speech he gave today.

THERE ARE MORE insights from his speech than the “blog genre” allows, but I will mention two:

1. The 150 churches in the global communion called LWF are engaged in “holistic mission.” Whenever President Filibus – or the LWF – speaks about our shared mission, the modifier “holistic” is always included. Digging deeper, you learn that the holistic mission includes proclaiming the gospel, serving others, and advocating for justice and peace. Perhaps, our synod could adopt such a modifier. (After all, it does align with our mission statement of “gracious invitation,” “life-giving Christian community,” and “just and healthy neighborhoods.”)
   

   Archbishop Musa Filibus addresses the delegates at the Thirteenth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in Krakow, Poland.

2. Our host church, the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland, was a founding church in the launching of the Lutheran World Federation in 1947, just after World War II. Imagine the situation facing the church of Poland at that time. Yet, the church courageously joined a new movement to promote mission, service, theology, and ecumenism.

President Filibus affirmed our host church for their courage – both then and today. With only 60,000 members and representing only 0.1% of the Polish population 2023, the church stepped up to host the Thirteenth LWF Assembly. Filibus encouraged us to be inspired by such courage – especially our churches in Europe and North America where membership is in decline.

“Digging deeper, you learn that the holistic mission includes proclaiming the gospel, serving others, and advocating for justice and peace.”

I can’t help but notice that the whole Lutheran church of Poland has fewer than half (2/5s) the number of members as the Minneapolis Area Synod. I wonder what we might learn from their courage. I wonder how we might be renewed and inspired in the holistic mission as God’s people who live 4,745 miles east of us.

The LWF Assembly continues until Tuesday, September 19. Hopefully, I will learn more about courage and holistic mission. But, reflecting on that will need to wait for another day and another blog.

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

Most every year, my extended family has Sunday worship together during our late July reunion by our parents’ cabin on Montana’s Whitefish Lake. I have a precious photo from 20 years ago when our son, John, directed the closing hymn, “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” with the lake and the mountains framing his image.

This year, the challenge of leading that service felt heavier for me. Like many families, ours is filled with diverse opinions and points of view. I worried that my devotion could easily trip some unexpected political landmine.

“The children were the storytellers; the adults were the listeners.”

In what felt like a gift from God, an idea came to me. How about if I focus on the story of Jesus and invite the children to join me in telling it?

How was Jesus born? Who came to see the baby in the manger? When an adult, what kinds of things did Jesus say? Did Jesus help people? Did Jesus heal people? Did Jesus travel alone? How did Jesus die? What did Jesus say from the cross about forgiveness? Can Jesus’ resurrection help us when we think of our family members who have died? What does Jesus’ life say about God’s love?

It was a delightful conversation, especially watching the children engage. They were the storytellers; the adults were the listeners. And they told the story well.

BACK IN 2004 when I served as president of The Fund for Theological Education, I was privileged to share lunch with Walter and Mary Brueggemann. Of course, I praised Walter for the depth and breadth of his scholarship. Yet, I also said that the article I’d been quoting most often lately was written by Mary, a UCC pastor. Her piece “Pastoral Care in Conflicted Congregations,” (Word and World, 1993) provided strong guidance for me as a pastor leading Trinity Lutheran in Moorhead. She writes:

THESE ARE DIFFICULT TIMES FOR PASTORS, ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE WOMEN AND men working in congregations where conflict is more apparent than mission or where conflict is more compelling than faith. …

It is sometimes the case that in churches which are conflicted, worship is either ignored … or it becomes the battleground for the fight. … No conflict resolution can take place until worship becomes central to the life of the congregation and is alive, thoughtful, and intentional for all members of the church. …

Preaching is central to the liturgy in my own tradition. However, I do not think it is helpful in preaching to focus upon the present situation in the church. Our task is to preach the gospel. Most often in conflicted congregations there is very little ‘good news’ to speak about. … Staying close to the text is a powerful moment both for the preacher and for a congregation closed in on its own problems. The congregation will not miss the connection, say, between David and his struggle with power issues and their own struggle with power issues.

I guess Mary Brueggemann’s words are still speaking to me. Telling the story of Jesus with children was my way of “staying close to the text.”

And yet, I believe that text, that story of Jesus, is powerful enough to bring reconciliation – among families, among communities, even the whole creation.

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen  

A congregation in the Minneapolis Area Synod, ELCA is hurting. As a result of several media posts, including those from the Daily Caller and Fox News, Edina Community Lutheran Church (ECLC) has received threats to both property and person. The FBI and local police are involved and taking the threats seriously.

The media storm is a response to the congregation’s use of the “Sparkle Creed,” during worship on Sunday, June 25. The worship service was in the context of Pride Month, where events were held around the country to recognize and celebrate LGBTQIA persons. Edina Community Lutheran leaders believed this statement of faith aligned with their commitment to radical welcome, including their “joyful welcome, affirmation, and celebration of all … gender identities, expressions, and sexual orientations.”

In its social teaching, the ELCA affirms “we support human rights for all people, regardless of their biological sex, gender, or sexuality.” At the same time, we recognize the pain experienced by LGBTQIA persons as we see an increase in legislation to curtail their human rights.

“ECLC is a healthy, growing church – committed to ‘witnessing to God’s love and justice at God’s welcome table and in the world.’”

It is in this context that ECLC recited a statement of faith that included the affirmation of a nonbinary God, and a Savior – Jesus – who had two fathers. One can argue that, by calling this statement “a creed,” the congregation departed from the ELCA practice of reserving the term “creed” for creeds that have worldwide ecumenical consensus such as the Apostles’ Creed. (ELCA Constitution 2.04). While the ELCA also notes that “some congregations … are experimenting with new statements of belief, … a creed is a statement of faith of the whole church” (ELCA Principles for Worship, L-13, 2002).

Still, what is most stunning to me is that an element of a worship service could cause such a response – including threats to individuals and property. Can you imagine what such threats feel like? At this time, in this violence-prone society? Yes, one may object to the content of a “Sparkle Creed,” but would one threaten to physically harm someone over it?

LAST WEDNESDAY, ECLC leaders requested synod staff assistance to help them respond to this crisis. The church was also in the midst of hosting its annual Summer Youth Camp that week. As our synod staff entered the church that morning, children were singing and praying and smiling and rejoicing in the gift of Christian community. ECLC is a healthy, growing church – committed to “witnessing to God’s love and justice at God’s welcome table and in the world.”

Now, as you enter the coming week, I invite you to join me in praying:

• • • For the safety of Edina Community Lutheran Church and all its members
    • For the safety of all LGBTQIA persons and a commitment to their human rights
    • For all tempted to use violent speech or actions to address differences
    • For the ELCA and the Christian Church around the world – as we both affirm our ecumenical creeds and explore, together, new ways to speak the faith in our 21^st century context
    • For the health and vitality of Christ’s church, and the flourishing of God’s love in the world.

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

At his recent ordination, Leif Johnson, a tennis-coach-become-pastor, shared his thanks during the worship service. He thanked his church family, his tennis family, and his AA family. I admired his courage to include Alcoholics Anonymous. My admiration makes little sense since AA is all about courage – courage to be honest, to be vulnerable, to admit the things we’re powerless over, to hold the honesty of others in prayerful confidence.

As a pastor, I was always grateful when AA groups met in the church building. Even more, I was grateful when AA members were participants in the congregation. They inspired all of us with courage to be honest, vulnerable, and willing to ask for help.

“The synod has worked hard to foster peer groups among church leaders.”

In my first parish, an Al-Anon leader asked if she and I could start a 12-step group in our congregation – inviting people with all kinds of struggles to walk with each other. (Al-Anon is a mutual support organization for families or friends of those struggling with addiction.) At first, I believed my need for the group – which we named the Shalom Group – was primarily to help me as the mother of a newborn with Down Syndrome. Quickly, I recognized it was to help me deal with my own stuff – my perfectionism, concern about appearance, fear of failure.

I remember Don Juel, a New Testament professor at Luther Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary, who lamented that Lutheran congregations – though we preach grace – really expect our members to be a lot more like the elder brother than the prodigal son; to appear as if we’ve got it all together. It is hard to be honest; to be vulnerable.

A FAVORITE AUTHOR OF the synod staff is Peter Block. He writes that “the small group (3-12 members) is where transformation takes place.” He argues that the “task of leadership is to be intentional about the way we group people and the questions that we engage them in.

Last Sunday I worshiped at Fabric – an ELCA community centered in weekly worship and weekly participation in “fabric groups,” small groups where folks can “follow their instinct for community, … share, care, trust, and grow with others (a lot better than the hiding, resentment, 2^nd guessing, and worry that sneak in when we try to go it alone!).”

“Lutheran congregations really expect our members to be a lot more like the elder brother than the prodigal son.”

As you read this, I encourage you to reflect honestly on your daily life. Are you part of a small group? The synod has worked hard to foster peer groups among church leaders. Pastor John Hulden can help you get one started. Further, we encourage congregational leaders to provide opportunities (like my 12-Step Shalom Group) for members to participate in small groups.

I promise to join you in that honest reflection. And, I promise to pray for God’s help, guidance, and courage as we each seek a small group where we can be honest, learn to trust, lean into growth, and know that we’re not alone.

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

Theologian Douglas John Hall writes, “I wouldn’t have become a theologian (perhaps I wouldn’t have remained a Christian) had I not been introduced to Martin Luther.” I might say I wouldn’t have remained a Christian had it not been for Luther’s Theology of the Cross.

Martin Luther said that the theology of the cross is about “calling a thing what it really is.” The theology of the cross is an honest theology, a humble theology – unwilling to speak for God or claim more than one knows; unwilling to gloss over sin, doubt, evil, or despair; unwilling to explain suffering away with sayings like “everything happens for a reason” or “it’s all part of God’s plan.”

“To call a thing what it is the beginning of liberation.”

We don’t deny suffering, but we do believe that God bears our suffering. When God says to Moses, “I know their suffering,” it means that “God so enters into their suffering … that God takes that suffering into the divine self and bears it there,” according to the late Luther Seminary faculty member Terry Fretheim.

And, that “taking suffering into the divine self” is most profoundly revealed in Jesus. It is most profoundly revealed in his passion and death, the focus of the week ahead, the center of the Christian faith.

We are free to call a thing what it is because we are tethered in a relationship that will never let us go.

TO CALL A THING what it is the beginning of liberation. This is true not only in our personal suffering and pain, but also in our work for justice. We can speak honestly of sin and greed. We can name what the doctrine of discovery did, what Christian nationalism is, what the legacy of white supremacy continues to do. We can name how human greed is intricately related to a climate in crisis.

Whether you’re quoting James Baldwin or Mr. Rogers, the truth is that you cannot address that which you do not name.

We call a thing what it is.

YES, I’M PROBABLY A Christian because of the theology of the cross, a theology that calls a thing what it is.

And, dear friends of Christ, of all the things named for us in the theology of the cross this is one of the most important. Pay close attention:

• This is your name: Beloved child of God. This is God calling a thing what it is – calling you what you are.
• You are a beloved child.
• In your fullest, authentic, beautiful, and broken self, you are loved, embraced, forgiven; you are set free from all the self-talk and other-talk that binds you with names that are not beloved child of God.
• God knows you. God calls you beloved.

May the Spirit move among us this Holy Week that we might experience anew the depth of God’s love and our belovedness.

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

When my mother died in 2012, we received several sympathy cards from women we didn’t know. They were all members with mom in Bible Study “circles.” Mom rarely missed her ALC/ELCA Bible study each month, and she joined a new circle whenever she moved to a new town.

In the article “The Evangelical-Mainline Divide: Two Questions,” one of the questions author David Hollinger raises is why have mainline religious leaders failed to more directly challenge evangelical ideas about the Bible.

“Luther spoke of scripture as the manger in which we find Christ.”

Hollinger argues that, since the mid-twentieth century, mainline Christianity has devoted “remarkably little attention to Biblical hermeneutics.” Indeed, it seemed that mainline religious leaders “had chosen not to plant [their] flag in the Bible.”

AS PEOPLE SHAPED by Luther’s emphasis on “Sola Scriptura,” it is hard to think we’ve abandoned our place in the public square – leaving it up to the fundamentalist theologians to define the role of scripture in the Christian faith.

We affirm that scripture is the norm of our faith and life. As the word of God, scripture is a means for God to speak to us and a means for us to commune with God.

“In the past two weeks, I heard a pastor lament that there are fewer attending Tuesday night Bible study now.”

We Lutherans believe that the Bible truly matters. But, it doesn’t matter as much as the Word made Flesh. It doesn’t matter as much as Jesus. To quote Marcus Borg, “Jesus is the norm of the Bible. When the Bible and what we see in Jesus conflict, as they sometimes do, Jesus trumps the Bible. … In Jesus, Christians see more clearly than anywhere else the character and passion of God.”

Luther spoke of scripture as the manger in which we find Christ. How can we share this biblical hermeneutic more powerfully and publicly?

OUR NEW ELCA Vice President, Imran Siddiqui, met with the Conference of Bishops last week. One of the concerns he shared about the ELCA is that Lutherans and other mainline Protestants have too often “left the field” to the voices of evangelical fundamentalists. Too often, that voice is the only theological perspective which takes up space in the public square.

I’m not sure if there will ever be a resurgence of Bible study “circles.” Yet, I’m praying for a resurgence of another kind. In this hybrid space between “all online” to “all in person,” could Zoom Bible studies help keep us “steadfast in God’s word”?

“The Bible truly matters. But, it doesn’t matter as much as the Word made Flesh.”

In the past two weeks, I heard a pastor lament that there are fewer attending Tuesday night Bible study now that they moved from zoom to in person. Another pastor wonders if her expertise in leading online Bible study could be a resource for other congregations seeking to deeper grounding in God’s word.

Perhaps a flourishing of Zoom Bible studies might help us commune with God, strengthen community, and help us hear God speaking. And, perhaps, it would better prepare twenty-first century Lutherans to speak in the public square about Scripture’s power to help Christians “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.”

By Bishop Ann Svennungsen

Grace and Vocation. Two words. And, yet, if you know them well, you’re probably a Lutheran. Much of Lutheran theology can be captured in these two words. (Though, if you were Martin Luther, you would explain them with at least two million more words.)

Think about the baptismal service. It’s all grace – the radical welcome of God; our loving union with Christ; all a free, unconditional gift from God.

“Are we living out our vocations each day, so the neighbor is served?”

And, then, knowing that we’ve been joined to the Light of the world, we are called, given a vocation: “Let your light so shine before others.”

For Luther, the most important way we share the light of Christ is through our many vocations – all done in service to the neighbor. Am I serving the neighbor in my vocations as grandmother, mom, wife, friend, bishop?

THERE ARE TWO overarching questions about vocation. First, are our vocations a means to love the neighbor? Vocation – because it’s a call from God – must have serving the neighbor as its primary goal.

Second, we ask: Are we living out our vocations each day, so the neighbor is served? I can have a great calling as a bishop; but if I lead with impatience, envy, pride, then the neighbor is not served. Two simple questions: Are our vocations a means to love the neighbor? And, do we live them out each day so the neighbor is served?

“Are our vocations a means to love the neighbor?”

Finally (which, I guess, is really a third overarching question), does our love for the neighbor include seeking justice? God calls us not only to acts of compassion but to acts of advocacy – speaking up in the public square so all our neighbors experience justice and equity. That is love for the neighbor in the public square.

Grace and Vocation. Both shape and form the Christian life. And yet, at both the beginning and the end (and everyday in between) grace is the final word. For we’ve been joined to the Light that nothing can overcome.