Inside the commission that could restructure the ELCA
When the 2022 Churchwide Assembly voted last summer to form the Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church (CRLC), which will recommend how to restructure the ELCA’s governing process, it reached back four decades for a name. The original Commission for a New Lutheran Church, which met between 1982 and ’87, was a mammoth research project that held forums across the country, reviewed over 12,000 letters from Lutheran faithful, and processed responses from the synod, district and national conventions of three Lutheran denominations hoping to merge. Its work led directly to the creation of the ELCA, so the branding of this new commission feels nothing less than epochal.
The new group of 35 rostered ministers and laypeople from across the church will conduct a more condensed version of the original group’s investigation, examining “statements of purpose” and “principles of organization” for all three expressions and conducting nationwide research and listening forums. Ten synods sent memorials to the 2022 Churchwide Assembly requesting the commission. “The governing documents, constitutions, bylaws, and continuing resolutions of the ELCA do not allow [congregations, synods and the churchwide organization] to reorganize quickly to meet the changing realities for effective mission in today’s world,” wrote the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod in language that was echoed by the other nine.
When the next churchwide assembly convenes, in summer 2025, the CRLC will present its findings and recommend whether the church should then mount a special reconstituting convention without delay.
“Church itself has changed. The people coming to church have changed, and the systems necessary to support the work the church is doing have changed”
Appointed in April, the commission met in person for the first time in mid-July, convening for three days at the Lutheran Center in Chicago. Not long after that, its co-chairs, Carla Christopher and Leon Schwartz, sat down for a Zoom meeting with Living Lutheran to discuss the commission’s work. Both expressed excitement at the first gathering of the commission and stressed the urgency of their task.
***
GJ - The LCA pastors said their merger in 1962 was modeled after the General Motors corporate structure. The 1987 ELCA merger was more like the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, because the Seminex faction was given leverage for all the big decisions. They were the smallest in size and got the greatest proportion of everything. They were the radicals' radicals, who came close to removing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit from ELCA constitution. The Holy Trinity won the title, but only by a small margin of votes.
Notice the ELCA box with the three-fold Change motif. That reminded me of the WELS' Church and Change stealth operation, where the WELS Church Growth stars predicted the utter doom of their abusive sect until and unless everything changed. They even sold trinkets and promoted their underground Church and Change movement on the WELS website.
Although WELS and LCMS have done everything right, according the genius con artists of Fuller Seminary, their church bodies have plummeted in numbers, no matter what they claim. How could all of them lose so many members at the same time. They had the doctorates (sic) in Church Growth from Pasadena, Ft. Wayne, and St. Louis. Yes, even Robert Preus endorsed the Ft. Wayne version of Fuller, although he said WELS was even worse than LCMS in Fuller intoxication.
 |
| Barna had Lutheran pastors giving this disgusting book to members. The clear message of Church Growth - "We will wreck the Gospel of faith in Jesus Christ by slowly increasing the heat until the old fuddie-duddies are boiled alive." Where were the animal rights people? I wondered. |
 |
| I had a lot of fun tracking down the main culprits: their conferences, their funds, their publications, and their flame-outs. Pasadena veterans did not appreciate being described with so much attention and so many curated quotations. |
Notice the parallel wisdom, ELCA versus LCMS and WELS - to wit
When the next churchwide assembly convenes, in summer 2025, the CRLC (Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church) will present its findings and recommend whether the church should then mount a special reconstituting convention without delay.
 |
| This sold well - WELS published it. Sadly, the Church and Changers did not approve and wanted it squashed. They were getting Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant ready to print when they suddenly changed their minds. |
