This past August the 1045 voting members at the ELCA Church Wide Assembly considered a number of resolutions on the subject of allowing congregations who choose to, to find ways of blessing same-sex committed relationships and calling ordained pastors in same-sex committed relationships.  Those resolutions were approved.  You can find the exact wording of those resolutions and accompanying documents at www.elca.org.

The ELCA has been struggling with these issues over the last ten years, if not dating back to the 1990 approval of ordaining homosexual clergy as long as they, like single heterosexual clergy, remained celibate.  However, while the current presenting issue focuses on homosexuality and homosexuals, there are deeper and broader concerns and questions underlying the present controversy in the ELCA.  Among them are:

• How is the Bible God’s Word for the Church?  Are we revisiting the old conflict between an understanding of the authority of the scriptures between Biblical Inerrancy as opposed to Biblical Inspiration?   
• How does our Lutheran Theology and Confessions inform and shape how we interpret and understand the scriptures?  For instance, how do the principles of Law and Gospel, or the Canon within the Canon, inform our interpretation of scripture?
• What is the article of faith upon which the Church stands or falls, and how does that inform our understanding and interpretation of the Bible?  The assumptions we start with are determinative of our interpretive conclusions. 
• How do we interpret and understand scripture, and what do we do when Christians disagree with one another?  Can there be more than one faithful interpretation of the same Bible text without dividing the church?

These are but some of the deep and broad issues that I see underlying our present controversy, and I hope to address these questions with the members of Christus Victor in the coming weeks and months.

On October 29, 2009, over 50 members of Christus Victor gathered for an Informational Meeting, to ask questions and share their concerns.  And while the ELCA resolutions do not require congregations to change their beliefs or practices, not everyone is satisfied with that, so out of this meeting came four next steps:

1. About half, if not a little more, of those attending the meeting want the members of Christus Victor to eventually vote on where we stand on the ELCA resolutions, with possible further steps involving withholding our benevolence dollars to the ELCA, and/or leaving the ELCA all together.  According to our constitution, a special congregational meeting may be called by the pastor, council president, church council, or with a written request by 10% of the voting members of the church.  No meeting has been officially called… yet.
2. We will hold a few more informational meetings with the same agenda as the first meeting, so more church members can be informed, ask questions, and share concerns.  (specific dates and times have yet to be set and announced, so stay tuned).
3. It was also determined that we should hold a series of forums/study discussions regarding the issues and decisions facing the church.  (Again, specific dates and times have yet to be set and announced).
4. Pastor Laura and I will seek ways to guide this congregation and keep us focused spiritually in Christ.  Some thoughts include daily prayers on the website, prayer vigils, and time for silent centering prayer in worship on Sundays.  Your thoughts on what would be helpful to the congregation, and how you might like to help, would be appreciated, please call or email me at church.

I have been reflecting at length over the implications of the above steps for our church.  First and foremost, I think this is an opportunity for us to clarify what is at the core of our ministry and mission as a church?  Who are we?  What do we believe?  What is our purpose and mission?  While we have a clearly defined mission of “Serving Christ and Community with Faith, Love, and Open Arms,” we do not have a single shared understanding and interpretation of the Bible and our Lutheran Theology undergirding our mission and identity at Christus Victor Lutheran Church.   Instead we have a diversity of interpretations, assumptions, and understandings of scripture and theology and what that means for our church, that will, without a clear shared vision of the unity of our shared life in Jesus Christ as forgiven sinners, divide us and undermine our ministries.  In light of the diversity of opinion among us, and the strong feelings and deeply held beliefs on all sides, I will do my best to listen to all, keep Christ at the center, speak the truth in love, and preach and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I do not want anyone to be naive, and know that whatever course the members of Christus Victor choose to take into the future, it will be a difficult and challenging course.  And this makes it all the more important that we all pray and keep our attention firmly fixed on Jesus Christ, for truly, only God can lead us through.