Denominations as Hot-Air Balloons

"Up, up and away
My beautiful, my beautiful balloon
The world's a nicer place in my beautiful balloon
It wears a nicer face in my beautiful balloon
We can sing a song and sail along the silver sky
For we can fly we can fly."

I was reading the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau discussion site today. I was genuinely schocked (Queen Victoria's word) about the split emerging from their August convention.

There are multiple aspects of the ensuing panic. One is counting the number of congregations actually leaving ELCA, and they are legion. Another is trying to figure how many will direct their funds away from ELCA while staying for the time being. A third source of concern is how much any given program will be cut, since many are synod-funded but could receive money from re-directed giving.

Denominations are like hot-air balloons. People bail out when they see their church body going apostate, and that empowers the denomination to do even wackier things. The toughest leaders often go first, and the denomination does everything possible to jettison the sandbags of tradition, confessions, and common sense.

For the last decade, ELCA has been losing big congregations to the LCMC. The 1987 merger survivors wanted nothing to do with the old leadership, so the former synod executives were put out to pasture. Not only that, non-Lutherans replaced them, in the name of diversity and lavender power. That created a group of former liberals put on a shelf for not being super-radicals, and those men had contacts. Next some momentum built up for leaving, and the largest TALC churches began doing that. They cleverly created a system where people could gather without leaving ELCA, until they were ready to leave. That was called Word Alone.

In 2009, Bishop Kenneth Sauer (my first boss in the LCA, Ohio Synod, 1972) is leading people out of ELCA. He was chairman of the ELCA bishops conference. In other words, he was a loyalist with clout.

I heard Sauer at a Lutheran Free Conference. He was there as a representative for ELCA. When the Sauer friends leave ELCA, it will be even farther to the Left.

Someone said that the August ELCA convention sounded like two different groups meeting together. The radicals deliberately split the synod and leveraged their power. They won, and I am glad they did. Finally the ELCA pastors and members can see what they have been supporting for 22 years. Apparently the rainbow stoles were in abundance at the worship gatherings. "Nodding my head like yeah. Swinging my hips like yeah." The closets are empty now, but so are the coffers.