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\"What Will Be Our Witness?\" CORE Presentation |
2009-11-30 |
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What Will Be Our Witness?
Regional Meeting of Coalition for Renewal (CORE)
Tuesday, November 10, 2009, Watertown, South Dakota
About 350 people, both lay and clergy attended the meeting at the Event Center in Watertown. Those from ALC who attended and with whom you may want to visit: Dave Hepper, Lil Colberg, Brian Sandvig, Terry Forster, Kevin Schuelke, June Seehafer, Phil and Connie Garrison, Ardell and Marge Nelson, Chuck and Marla Myklegard, Bev and Don Buth, Marvel Black, Linda Anderson, Pam Nelson, Deb Buttke, Pastor Craig and Pastor Janine.
Pastor Scott Grorud gave the main presentation, “A Church in Crisis”. He is on the CORE Steering Committee and is an ELCA pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Hutchinson, MN. He is a fourth generation of ordained Lutheran pastors with roots of pastoral leadership going back to Norway. He was very passionate about his Lutheran faith and heritage, and a man who spoke with emotion when he talked about the
painful decision of leaving the ELCA. He said that in order not
to break with his heritage, he must break with the church.
“Here lies the boundary of a Christian church that knows itself to be bound by the authority of Scripture. Those who urge the church to change the norm of its teaching on this matter must know that they are promoting schism [division]. If a church were to let itself be pushed to the point where it ceased to treat homosexual activity as a departure from the biblical norm, and recognized homosexual unions as a personal partnership of love equivalent to marriage, such a church would stand no longer on biblical ground but against the unequivocal witness of Scripture. A church that took this step would cease to be the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” — Wolfhart Pannenberg
The ELCA says we must be unified — as if business as usual can continue in spite of our serious differences. Grorud says there is no unity apart from the truth and that faithfulness trumps loyalty! Jesus says that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He also promises that he will never leave us. Grorud outlined six key issues or shifts in thinking which have slowly been creeping into our church from our seminaries and other sources. With the recent church-wide assembly, some of these shifts have become policy and so now these
ideas are official. Grorud states that it is the content of faith,
not policy that is most at stake here.
The five issues talked about were in the form of questions:
1. Where does faith and theology begin? Do we begin from God as revealed in Scripture or from our own human experience and the assumption of goodness in humanity? We have been taught we are called to seek and conform to God’s revealed will. New thinking begins with humans, with our thoughts rather than God’s will. If the Bible and
the faith need to bend to meet these needs according to this modern view, so be it.
2. What is the authority for decisions about Christian faith and life? Do we look inside ourselves for this authority or outside ourselves to God’s Word? The new thinking has us looking not to God’s Word but elsewhere to many factors. Scripture may be one of those but is not at the top of the list. We must ask ourselves, “Does the Bible have authority over us or do we take authority over the Bible?”
3. What is the nature of the Gospel? Is it about Sin and Salvation
or Inclusion and Affirmation? With sin and salvation as the nature, we believe that God changes and transforms us so that he can lead us. Inclusion and affirmation suggests that Jesus affirms us just the way we are.
4. What are God’s intended orders for creation? God’s intent is very definite. Male and female were created for procreation and the power of procreation is one piece of evidence that marriage is God’s intended arena for sexual relations, along with anatomy. All sexuality outside of a man and a woman in marriage is prohibited by God. The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is absolutely consistent
on this. It’s not difficult to figure out what God wants but it’s hard to abide by it. The question is not about loving our neighbor, it is HOW we love our neighbor. God’s word is very clear in John 13:34 where he commands us to do so. But do we show love for others by encouraging them to disobey God’s will?
5. When does the content of the faith become a church-dividing issue? Heterodoxy is now the official position of the ELCA. That’s why we must now take a stand. Heterodoxy is holding two or more irreconcilable views as equally valid. The ELCA tells us that we can remain a part of the synod and yet have our own beliefs. Then what do we preach and teach to our children? The content of the faith is what is at stake! And so how do we respond to all of this? Doing nothing is
not an option! People are leaving congregations where the pastor will not talk about this or take a stand. Churches are full of turmoil. But, there is no one response that fits all congregations.
Remember that it is the ELCA that has moved, not us. Forty six percent of ELCA clergy support performing samesex marriages in states where they are legal and 61 percent of ELCA clergy believe the church should not oppose efforts to make homosexuality acceptable in society. The ELCA leadership takes a more “modernist” approach to theology, and this trend has increased over the past ten years.
Pastor Grorud suggests: Do all you can in good faith to reach a consensus. We have been driven to do this. Act with care in constructive ways. Pray! Be in the Scriptures! Keep doing your homework. Learn more about the issues. Talk to your pastor, other members of your congregation, friends, relatives and neighbors about this. Be fair, accurate, and clear. The ELCA suggests that we will hurt the mission of the church if we redirect our offerings from the ELCA to other Christian missions. Redirecting our support will not harm Christ’s mission in the world.
Lutheran CORE was formed in 2005 as a group to help coordinate those seeking reform in the Lutheran Church. They are led by a steering committee of nine but are in transition in light of the recent changes in the ELCA. Lutheran CORE can provide information and services that we have received from the ELCA in the past. |
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