ELCA Numbers

 

ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson - "Now Brett, I did not do all the damage. I set ELCA up to become a 100% gay-lesbian synod, but Elizabeth Eaton really took them to the heights - or rather - the dump, from 2009 to her glorious election."

In 2008, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) approved a churchwide budget with a current fund income of $81.67 million and a World Hunger income proposal of $19.25 million, totaling approximately $100.92 million.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

By 2011, the ELCA's financial situation had changed significantly. According to reports, national donations decreased from $88 million in 2008 to $40 million in 2011. This decline in revenue was accompanied by a drop in membership, with over 600 congregations leaving the ELCA between August 2009 and January 2011. Source - ALPB Ovaltines

The latest pie-in-the-face is Budde's attack against President Trump, a level of raw stupidity that most clergy would avoid. The canons of polite discourse are far better than the tired, blistering rants of feminist hags. She might have done a bit better, copying the ELCA female bishops who chanted about letting the Female Holy Spirit burst out of the closet.

Because I’m telling you what, the Spirit is up to something …

Bishops: Amen. Yes, she is.

Briner: … if we would just let her out.

Bishops: Let her out. Get out of her way.

Briner: Open the doors and let her out.

Bishops: She’s out! She is loose!

Thus some of the ELCA bishops got into the media and helped drive the nails deeper into their own synods and seminaries.

ELCA Phoenix Assembly - 2025. Splitsville?

 

Fifty years and how many merging mergers of a seminary? - Voila! - a new shrunken rented seminary is managed by the Church of Rome. Notice the glee versus the glum.

The Lutheran Congregational Support Network (LCSN) has recently released three more videos which tell of big changes that are on the horizon for the ELCA.    

HERE is a link to Part 5 – “Changing the Constitution: The Fast Track Proposal.”

In July 2025, key constitutional amendments will be up for a vote – amendments that could reshape the church’s future.  This video explains what is at stake and what these changes could mean.  We urge you to watch this video so that you will understand the ELCA’s fast-track proposal and why it matters. 

HERE is a link to Part 6 – “The ELCA’s Game Changer?”

This video unpacks a seemingly simple question posted by ELCA Vice President Imran Siddiqui: “If you were to change the organizational structure of the ELCA, how would you do it?” It explores how a single footnote in a recent report could have significant implications for congregational autonomy.

What does it mean when a lawyer-vice president calls a proposal to “eliminate congregational home rule” a “game changer (esp. in the legal sphere)”?  This video takes a close look at:

• How and why Section 9.22 of the ELCA constitution could be used in new ways
• How a simple footnote could point toward a path for imposing churchwide mandates without congregational consent
• The growing tension between local autonomy and centralized authority in the ELCA

HERE is a link to Part 7 – “Churchwide Assembly: Who Gets to Vote?”

This video tells of another change that will be voted on at the triannual gathering this summer – adding voting members who are not part of congregations. Instead, they represent Synod-Authorized Worshiping Communities (SAWCs), which are groups that are directly created and controlled by the Synod.  You will also hear about other aspects of the amendment like the addition of voting members based on demographic categories and how this continues a broader institutional shift that sidelines congregational voice.

These changes are not theoretical. They could reshape how your ELCA congregation operates, makes decisions, and defines its mission.

If you have not already done so, I highly recommend that you go to the LCSN’s website (LINK) and sign up to be on their email mailing list.  On their website you will find videos they have already released about the ELCA’s quest for ever greater control.  The LCSN very intentionally approaches matters related to the ELCA not in terms of theology, and not in terms of cultural issues and Biblical moral values, but in terms of the ELCA’s Constitutions and the whole matter of congregational autonomy. 

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Easter 5 - Rogate - "Had God not told us to pray, and pledged himself to hear us, none of his creatures could ever, with all their prayers, obtain so much as a grain of corn. From this, then, there follows that no one receives anything from God by virtue of his own merit or that of his prayer."

 

Luther's Sermon for ROGATE  - FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

SECOND SERMON.

KJV John 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. 25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the timecometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. 26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: 27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. 28 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. 29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. 30 Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.


A SERMON ON PRAYER.

1. First we note that in order for a prayer to be really right and to be heard five things are required. The first is, that we have from God his promise or his permission to speak to him, and that we remember the same before we pray and remind God of it, thereby encouraging ourselves to pray in a calm and confident frame of mind. Had God not told us to pray, and pledged himself to hear us, none of his creatures could ever, with all their prayers, obtain so much as a grain of corn. From this, then, there follows that no one receives anything from God by virtue of his own merit or that of his prayer. His answer comes by virtue of the divine goodness alone, which precedes every prayer and desire, which moves us, through his gracious promise and call, to pray and to desire, in order that we may learn how much he cares for us, and how he is more ready to give than we are to receive. He would have us seek to become bold, to pray in a calm and confident spirit, since he offers all, and even more, than we are able to ask.