Lutheran Look: Suggestions?

I have plenty of ideas for these posts, but due to not currently being in a ministry position, I don't get asked questions like these as often as I used to. So, since I want to post on topics that interest people, do you have any suggestions?  Questions you've always wanted to ask?  Offbeat topics you'd like to see addressed more often?

Ask away!  I'll try to link to this post every so often to keep the suggestions coming.

Lutheran Look: Why membership?

My apologies for missing the lectionary post this week, life has been unexpectedly hectic (in good ways!).  Back on track now, though.

I've been asked this question a lot: Why bother being an official member of a congregation?  What's the point?  In today's world, where you can sign up for social media in a minute with an email address and a password, why bother with the actual paperwork it almost always takes to sign up for church membership?  (I think a lot of congregations could change the paperwork part up pretty easily, but adjusting to technology in a systemic fashion like that is hard.)  Especially since you can attend services just fine without.

There are a lot of reasons for church membership, though.  I think a lot of reasons for it are implicit in the differences between spirituality (and its growing popularity) and religion.  Both seek a connection to the divine, both explore what's beyond our immediate senses- but spirituality is inherently individual and ultimately isolating, and religion is naturally communal and relationship-based.  Therefore religion is messier than spirituality- when your relationship with God is tied up with your relationship with a bunch of other people, none of whom are perfect and perhaps quite a few of whom you don't like, keeping up a relationship with God is harder, because you also have to keep up your relationship with those other people.

And yet Christianity insists on community- where do you think the word "Communion" comes from?  We are called by Christ in the two great Commandments to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and to love one another as God loves us.  We see God in each other, because we have each been created in God's image.  The Bible is filled with stories of community and rules for community and illustrations of faith through community, and if all that weren't enough, God came down and was one of us to be in community with us, as Jesus Christ.  We cannot separate our faith from our community with one another, no matter how hard we try.

So, in recognition of that, we gather in community together in congregations, and we publicly acknowledge our commitment not only to God, but to each other, by maintaining membership in our congregations.  By doing that, we acknowledge our needs for mutual support and instruction, care for young and old, sick and downtrodden, and relationships which comfort us in our grief and celebrate with us in our joy.

However, if you prefer a short, practical list of what membership does, here goes.

• Public affirmation of faith.
• To the congregation: by becoming a member, you are telling the other members that you want to worship with them, and you want to support them and be supported by them.  There may be some days when you arrive at church and find yourself nurturing someone, there may be days when you're the one being nurtured.  By seeking official membership, you're signing up for this.
• To your community: this tells your family and whoever else you tell (coworkers, friends, random people in the grocery store who you're inviting to join you for services- you do that, right?) about it that you've made a decision about your faith, what kind of faith community you want, and where you're going to go (well, one of the places) to grow and mature your faith.  Congregations are often known for various traits in a community; often, telling someone where you go to church will tell them quite a bit about your priorities.
• Planning for the larger denomination.
• Membership Numbers:  knowing how many members each church has determines a lot of things.  The ELCA is broken up into 8 regions; those regions contain 65 synods around the country (and the Bahamas); each synod is broken up into conferences, all for infrastructure and planning purposes.  Membership numbers help the ELCA keep up with population trends, and what areas will be needing more pastors soon, and the like.
• Financial Planning: as mentioned below, the denomination has many ministries going on at any one time, and having an accurate idea about membership (and what that membership is interested in!) helps plan the future of those ministries.  Some of that planning is, by nature, financial.
• Decision Making:  Membership helps the ELCA keep the conferences and synods approximately even in population, which helps when it comes to choosing delegates for the General Assembly.  The Assembly makes the major decisions about the direction of the church, and each conferences selects a delegate to go.  The delegates vary each Assembly, and are about 40% clergy and 60% lay people.
• Planning for the congregation.
• Time and Talent: look, the Sunday School teachers, ushers, lectors, and committee members have to come from somewhere.  You didn't think that worship service or Bible study planned itself, did you?  The members of a congregation drive its mission, and its ministry.
• Financial Planning: we get nervous talking about this part, but membership also helps the congregation know where it's going in terms of financial planning.  Often, congregations ask members to "pledge" their giving (which just means the member tells the congregation in advance how much they expect to give each year) so they know what resources they have to devote to various ministries in advance.  Just as you wouldn't get in the car without your GPS (or a map, at least) for a cross-country trip, congregations can't plan their next few years without an idea of what their budget is going to be.
• Recordkeeping: congregations also keep track of church records- including attendance, funerals, weddings, and other special events.  These church records are hugely popular with genealogists, but also used for more prosaic purposes as well, by the congregation itself in understanding their history, and by churchwide in knowing what congregations are up to.
• Decision Making: members can vote in annual and special meetings.  These meetings often make major decisions in the life of a congregation, such as which pastor to call, other church staff hiring decisions, and decisions about which ministries to support and how to run them.

I hope that helps in understanding the point of membership in a congregation.  Community may be messy at times, and a denomination as large as ours does require some pretty prosaic infrastructure, but when we put all those members and all those ministries together, we can do enormous good in the world, and spread the love of God to all people.

Go in peace, love and serve the Lord.  Thanks be to God!

Lutheran Look: Do I really have to honor my parents?

And what does that mean, anyway?  The Forward Thinking prompts over at Love, Joy, Feminism by Libby Anne seem to be great starts to exactly the postings I want to do anyway, so you may start to see them regularly here; fair warning, we'll see.

I find this is exactly the kind of post where you have to state your own context up front, so: I love my parents, they have always loved and supported me, they always believed I could do anything I put my mind to, and they took the trouble to get to know me and tailor their parenting styles to me, which helped a lot, being an only child and all.  Parts of my childhood were less than ideal, but not the parts that involved them, and they got divorced in the middle of all that, so that's saying something.

That said, I know perfectly well how lucky and blessed I've been.  I have friends, and I know other people, who were not so blessed.  Whose parents didn't see them as potentially independent adults, but rather extensions of themselves and their desires.  Or tools to their own ends.  Or decorations for their lives.  Who did not recognize their humanity, and their rights, and their status as a fully formed child of God who deserved their love and the very best of care.  And, yes, I know a few whose parents saw them as punching bags.

Which is why I hope to never be one of those pastors who falls back on the easy sermon on Mother's Day weekend, or Father's Day.  Which is why I do not talk about the universal characteristics of a mother's love, or the protectiveness of being in a father's arms.  Because we live in a broken world, and there is nothing universal about parenthood except that the parents (or guardians) are, for a few years at least, in absolute power over the child's life.  And you know what they say about absolute power.

And to those who would say that speaking of such things speaks against family values and traditional Christian understandings of the world, I would say that Jesus spoke very strongly for the powerless, not the powerful.  And if they wanted an example of "traditional" understandings of family, I have a number of Bible passages to point them to.

So, what do we owe our parents?  What does "Honor thy father and mother" truly mean?  Well, being Lutheran, one place I might start is Luther's Small Catechism, which discusses each of the Commandments, among other things.  However, both there and in his Large Catechism (written for pastors, whereas the Small is written for everyone) he starts from the assumption that all parents wish their children well, are loving and nurturing toward their children, and never ask their children to do wrong.  These days, we're more willing than Luther was to acknowledge that that isn't always true.  But life has changed a lot since Germany in the early 1500s, and many of his views on authority also require us to remember that there was no such thing as democracy at the time, and Divine Right of Rule was still an accepted concept.

In the end, Luther's explanation of the Commandment boils down to a few main points: don't abandon your parents when they're elderly, even if they have dementia; don't beat them up; treat them with basic respect; and when you're a child, obey them.  The first three points I have no problems with: Christianity instructs us to care for the helpless and treat all people with basic respect, which certainly includes not beating people up.  The last point, however, has some potential problems.  So, to examine that more closely, let's have some case studies, and talk about what "honor" means in each case.  All of these are based on real life situations I've run across (none of them happened to me).

Case Study A: Alicia, an adult who has moved out of her parents' home but still lives in the same town as them, has recently noticed that her father's driving is getting steadily worse, but her mother isn't willing to confront him about it.  His driving is beginning to get dangerous, and she's worried not only for her parents' safety but the other people on the road. Should she:

1. Respect her father's wishes by not doing anything about it.
2. Go down to the local precinct and start the process of having his license taken away without consulting her parents.
3. Sit down and have the difficult discussion with both her parents, after having done some research, and talk about alternate transportation ideas that won't put anyone at risk.

Case Study B: Brandon, a 10 year old, is in the checkout lane with his mother when he sees her put a pack of gum in her purse without paying, and motions to him to hide some candy in his jacket.  The cashier hasn't noticed. Should he:

1. Steal the candy like his mother told him to.
2. Ask "Mom, why did you just put that gum in your purse?" really loudly so the cashier will hear and his mom will have to put it back.
3. Refuse to take the candy and try to return the gum to the display rack, and then talk about the incident later.

Case Study C: Carly, in her early teens and starting to think about what she wants to do with her life, tells her dad she's thinking about being a pastor.  Her dad tells her women can't be pastors, and walks away.  Should she:

1. Put the idea of being a pastor out of her mind forever.
2. Yell at him a lot and cut him out of her life as fast as she can.
3. Try to maintain a healthy relationship with her dad while growing up, and then, if she is so called, becoming a pastor once she's an adult.

Case Study D: Danielle, an adult, is just starting her career and also getting married.  Her parents offer to help pay for the wedding, but after having given the money without mentioning any strings attached, start adding their friends to the guest list and insisting she follow some wedding traditions she can't stand because they're helping to pay. Should she:

1. Have the wedding her parents want: they're paying.
2. Have the wedding she wants: it's her wedding.
3. Sit down and talk all this out with them, perhaps making some small, reasonable concessions but also explaining that it is her wedding, and perhaps offering to return the money. 

These multiple choice options are simplistic, I know, and certainly do not address the complexity of human relationships, let alone parent-child relationships which are usually more complicated than your average one anyway.  But I'm trying to use them to illustrate a larger point- what does honor mean, anyway?  Mindless, thoughtless obedience?  Knee-jerk contrariness?  Or something a little more... mature?

See, as far as I can tell, not being a parent myself, the baseline goal for parenting is getting the kid to a point where they can function on their own as an independent adult.  Now, sometimes those goalposts move- in cases of severe mental of physical disability, for example, or deeply communal cultures where independence is not as prized as in American culture.  But most parents I know personally try to get their kids to a basic level of resourcefulness, "common sense" and knowledge of the world where they can live on their own if they have to.  Or at the very least expect their kids to get there without the parents having to put in a lot of effort at it.

That requires a certain amount of critical thinking, and the ability to make judgment calls, and to have an opinion.  None of those are well fostered by either blind obedience or blind rebellion in the childhood and teenage years.  The ability to hold a reasonably polite, rational conversation about a difficult topic with people you care for deeply requires all of those in large amounts.

So, let's turn this around: when a parent honors their child?  It's most often by treating that child as an adult.  As a person who is capable, mature, and trustworthy.  Why shouldn't that be turned around?  Certainly, with younger children who don't yet understand all the forces at work around them, the scales tip more towards obedience- especially in emergencies.  With adults the scales tip more towards independence, and the sometimes-difficult teen years are often centered around this very balance.  But if the child treats their parents (within  reasonable bounds of safety according to the situation) as a capable, mature, and trustworthy adult?  That sounds like honor to me.

And sometimes, when we're interacting with capable, mature, reasonably trustworthy adults?  The best way we can honor them is to share our opinions, our concerns, and to follow our own conscience, even when it does lead to disagreement, or worse.  But I have to believe that sometimes, honoring one's parents means confronting them about their lies, their bigotry, or their criminal activity- because all of those things are done by parents, somewhere, and if the alternative is ignoring or enabling it, well, those don't sound very honorable to me.

So: following this commandment may, for many people, be more complicated and difficult than we'd think at first.  But ultimately, are the ways in which we honor our parents going to be all that different than the ways we honor our friends, our mentors, our coworkers?  Perhaps not.

God bless.

Lutheran Look: Why the lectionary?

So, most congregations in the ELCA choose their Sunday Bible readings according to the RCL, Revised Common Lectionary, which is a three year cycle of readings chosen in advance for each Sunday of the year.  It's designed to give congregations a chance to hear a good variety of Bible passages, and so that each Sunday has readings relevant to that time of the church year (hearing the Christmas story on Christmas, for example).

The name of the lectionary tells us a couple things- it's been revised, and it's shared in common between a lot of Christian denominations.  The earlier Common Lectionary had an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, and a Gospel reading for each Sunday, the RCL has added a New Testament reading as well.  This Lectionary is used by a lot of denominations, including the Episcopalians, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, and the Reformed churches.  The Catholic church uses a slightly different one, so that very often they will have the same readings as the RCL, but occasionally will have a one that's different.

If you've ever mentioned to a friend, "Oh, my pastor preached on this story last week" and your friend said, "Hey, so did mine!" it's very likely thanks to the RCL, or another lectionary.

So, why the lectionary?  Well, it does a lot of things.

1. It saves time.  Most pastors I know take about one full day out of their work week to write their sermon as it is.  Choosing texts on the fly would make that a lot harder.  Also it helps a pastor keep track of what sermons they've preached where, so they can keep some variety going.
2. It makes sure readings fit that Sunday.  The Bible is a very large book, as you've likely noticed, and choosing three related readings and a Psalm that also flow with the church year, what was read last week, what will be read next week, and everything else is a complicated project.
3. It keeps pastors from fixating on one topic for too long.  There's an old legend I heard once, which probably isn't true, about a newlywed pastor who preached for three straight months (about a hundred years ago) on what made a good wife.  I can't even imagine being that wife (or, for that matter, that pastor!).  Pastors are as likely as anyone else to get a "bee in their bonnet" and this keeps them from obsessing too long on one thing in the pulpit.
4. It does a pretty good job of cycling through the Bible, and so helps educate the congregation about the Bible.  Like I said, it's a three year cycle- each year focuses the Gospel readings on either Matthew, Mark, or Luke, and readings from John are spread through all three years.  The other readings are also varied.
5. Professional discussion.  Many pastors take part in weekly Bible studies, where they look at the readings for that week and talk about what they plan to preach on.  For many pastors I know, this is a necessary part of their professional growth, a great networking opportunity, and also a deeply appreciated social outlet.

Of course, if there's good reason, a pastor can certainly change a reading here or there.  And the RCL is not the only lectionary going- there's increasing interest in a variety of Narrative Lectionaries going around, and the Eastern Orthodox churches have their own lectionaries as well.  Essentially, a lectionary is a useful tool for congregations, but is not a rule so much as a guideline.

Lutheran Look: How does the church year work?

Great question!  The church year has several "seasons", just like the calendar year has spring, summer, autumn and winter.  They come in an order, they acknowledge and celebrate different things, and they even have their own colors!  Lutherans are pretty enthusiastic about following the church year, but there are also plenty of Christian traditions that aren't so big on it.  Personally, I appreciate that the seasons help us to focus on different things and appreciate the variety of the faith.

So, here's a basic rundown for you.  The church year starts in Advent (generally just after Thanksgiving).  There are also a bunch of holidays throughout the year that I'll do separate posts on one day, so I won't be focusing on those so much.

Advent
Time: 1st Sunday of Advent through Christmas Eve
Themes: Waiting for the Incarnation- we wait for God to come to us, we are expecting celebration, this is also the traditional time to examine Mary and Joseph's lives (blue is traditionally Mary's color)
Color: Blue (or Purple, if you don't have blue)

Christmas
Time: Christmas Day until the Sunday before Epiphany
Themes: Celebration of the Incarnation- God has come to us, and we celebrate that God has so loved the world as to give God's only Son, Jesus Christ
Color: White and Gold/Yellow

Epiphany
Time: Epiphany through Transfiguration
Themes: Epiphany of the Incarnation- we come to terms with what it means that God loves us so much to have become incarnate, we are enlightened (light is a major theme)- this is the most forgotten season, and is the only one named after something we, the people of God, are doing
Color: White/Gold on Epiphany, Green during the season, White/Gold on Transfiguration

Lent
Time: Ash Wednesday (just after Transfiguration) through Easter Vigil/Holy Saturday
Themes: Waiting for the Crucifixion- Jesus Christ is going to die for our sins, this is a time of penitence and repentance (two very different things), of self-sacrifice and self-examination, suffering for the faith and death are also examined- we put away celebration and Alleluias for this time (though Sundays are not technically part of Lent)
Color: Purple through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday does not technically have a color and that tends to extend to Holy Saturday

Easter
Time: Easter Sunday until the Sunday before Pentecost
Themes: Joyous Celebration of the Resurrection- this is a time of celebration of new life, victory over the grave, unexpected reversal and forgiveness- the happiest time of the church year, everyone is encouraged to wear bright colors to church during this season especially in celebration
Color: White/Gold

Ordinary Time
Time: (Pentecost Sunday) through Christ the King Sunday before Advent starts
Themes: Various- often focuses on the earth and harvest because it takes place during summer and autumn, but the varied readings and sprinkling of holidays throughout make this the "catch all" season of the church- the first Sunday is Pentecost and is it's own thing, very nearly a one-day season, a celebration of the Holy Spirit, and often involves images of fire, doves, and wind
Color: Red on Pentecost, Green during most of Ordinary Time, aside from various special days, White/Gold on Christ the King

Lutheran Look: Sexual Ethics Education

I'm willing to bet that title causes some surprise.  So, let me introduce this post a little by sharing a link to Love, Joy, Feminism, a blog by Libby Anne, who was raised in an evangelical Christian household that encouraged the Christian purity culture and practiced "traditional gender roles".  (I can't stand that term.  Traditional for who?)  She's since left that tradition, and her focus is talking with others who have as well.

She explores a variety of issues in the blog, but in this post she points out that while Christians generally have very strong opinions about sex and sex ed, one way or another, we don't do a lot in terms of talking about sexual ethics with our teens, in terms of how to do things right.  She offers one central question:

What would you tell teenagers about sex?

My short answer? A lot.  When in doubt, I believe in education.  My parents did not censor my reading- though we discussed what I read regularly.  I learned early how to use a library, and have been on the Internet since I was 12.  I am an unabashed nerd, and my answer to nearly every concern or project I run across is "more research!"

And I was not the only teenager like that who I knew, when I was that age.  Oh, they might not call it "research", but anytime you deny information to a teenager, they are going to go looking for it.  (My English teacher once ensured our entire class would read "The Wife of Bath" tale from the Canterbury Tales by saying he wasn't assigning it because it was too lewd.)  And on this subject, my thoughts may well be influenced by the fact that I went through a full sex ed curriculum in my health classes in middle and high school that contained the anatomical information, as well as details on how STDs are transferred, what the symptoms are, and how the more common varieties of birth control worked.  This happened just before the rise of "abstinence only" education, and I'm extraordinarily thankful for it.

Now, when it comes to anatomy, STDs, and the chemistry of birth control, I don't know that church is the appropriate place for that- unless, of course, it isn't offered in the local schools.  In which case, where would you rather your kid learn about these things- in church, or from unreliably informed friends?

I wish the ELCA had something like the UCC's "Our Whole Lives" curriculum, which deals with so much more than just sex ed.  Failing that, however, I think there are certain major subjects that do need to be addressed by the church, with confirmation students and youth groups.

• What does the Bible actually say about sex, marriage, and love?
• Quite a bit of what the Bible says on this subject has certainly been influenced by the culture of that time's treatment of women (as property) and understanding of marriage (as an economic contract).
• Take that away, however, and you are still left with firm stances- rape is bad, and adultery (that is, breaking a vow of fidelity) is bad. 
• And sex? Every time the idea of "sexual immorality" is brought up, it always centers on taking sex lightly, not valuing it for what it is- a unique connection between people, a show of trust, vulnerability and honor.  Jesus told us to love one another as God has loved us, and sex is just one way to show that love.
• How do we make decisions about sex, marriage and love, both including and excluding the religious aspect?
• Separately from the Bible, we can recognize that our relationships (romantic and not) are healthy when they build us up; involve respect, admiration, and trust; and provide us with support and love.
• We recognize that having sex is the most physically vulnerable you can be with another person, and that it is tied into emotions and relationships in a unique way.  As a comparison, it's sort of equivalent to asking someone to hold your wallet and cell phone in the middle of the Mall of America for two hours, and trust that they won't spend all your money and post all kinds of things to your Facebook.
• Also, we can recognize that sex involves a lot of risk, especially when approached without the right education or with a lack of trust.  STDs and pregnancy are certainly part of that, but also a relationship that involves sex is necessarily deeper and more complicated than one without, and breaking it more painful.
• Given what the Bible does say about marriage, many people do still choose to wait until marriage to have sex.  On a side note, it is required of ELCA pastors, and those studying to become pastors, that they only have sex with the person they're married to.  (Since 2009, we have acknowledged that legal marriage is sadly not an option for everyone, and a somewhat-equivalent system has been set up for homosexual pastors with partners.)
• What are ways that sex can and has been misused?
• Rape and Incest- I put these two in the same category because incest often involves one partner being underage, and therefore unable to consent.  The Bible does have stories of rape and incest in it, and sadly does not approach them with the pastoral ways we would today- because then as now most people being raped were women, and in that time the suffering of the woman was secondary to how the rape "decreased her value" to her nearest male relative- husband, father, or brother.  However it does clearly state that both are crimes, and that sex should always be entirely consensual.  (And the Song of Solomon is a lovely celebration of what that consent might look like.)
• Pornography and commercial sexuality- Any time that money enters the equation when we're talking about sex, it degrades both the act and the people in it.  What should be a situation of completely free consent has added the coercion of financial incentive.  What should be an act of trust and love between two people has become a financial transaction.  The value that each person would hold for the other is removed and only the value of the money matters.  The people involved become bank accounts, objects, and that is not following the commandment that we are to love one another as God has first loved us. Pornography in particular adds to the objectification of others (and therefore not loving them as God first loved us) by having nothing to do with who they are as people, but only what they look like and what they're willing to do on camera.  In addition, pornography is often connected to sexual trafficking and those involved are often forced to participate.
• How do we approach the decision making of people with different points of view than ours?
• With grace, education, and open hearts.  We acknowledge that all people are the beloved creations of God, and that we all fall short of God's hopes for us.  We, as yet, see as through a mirror, darkly.  One day, when, we do not know, we will all join in celebration together, at one with God.  Until then, we encourage respect and honesty wherever we can.

For further information on what the ELCA itself says on related matters, there is the 1991 Social Statement on Abortion, the 1996 Social Message on Sexuality, the 2001 Social Message on Commercial Sexual Exploitation, and the 2009 Social Statement on Sexuality.  (Social Messages are a bit shorter and less thorough than Social Statements, and only have to be voted on by the Church Council, rather than the entire General Assembly.)  All have subject headers and are reasonably skim-able for those truly interested.  You can also see something of a journey that the ELCA has made between the 1996 Sexuality Message and the 2009 Sexuality Statement.

So, why wait until your wedding to have sex?  (You didn't really think I'd finish this post without asking that, did you?)

Well, this article from A Practical Wedding is a wonderful list of reasons to wait- from a completely non-religious point of view.  That's right.  There are reasons that don't have to do with the Bible.

On a more personal note, I'll add that yes, I waited until I was married.  Partly because I've known I was going to be a pastor for the ELCA since I was 15, and I knew that rule going in.  But mostly?  Not so much because of that.  And it wasn't really because I wanted it to be "special", either.  And hellfire and damnation didn't really enter into it.

I mostly waited because I couldn't (still can't) imagine wanting to have sex with anyone I wasn't married to.  I am a deeply and naturally monogamous person.  Like I've said, sex involves a lot of vulnerability, and I wasn't interested in being that kind of vulnerable with a person I hadn't already said I'd spend my life with.  Touch has always mattered to me- I like hugs, but it took me a lot time to get used to them from people that weren't family.  My husband occasionally gets me flowers, but only occasionally, because I honestly prefer just having his arm around me as we watch a movie.  I didn't want to share that kind of physical affection with anyone else.

So I recognize that not everyone's wired that way, and your reasons for waiting may be different from mine.  But I will mention this: I've spoken to a lot of women (and a few men) who have told me that they wish they had my "excuse" for not having sex before marriage.  Who said they wish they could just sweep that option right off the table in any dating relationship right away, because of the pressure and the complications of when and why you make the decision to have sex.  You may find dating a lot easier if you tell people right off you're going to wait until marriage for sex- it certainly helps weed out the ones who aren't really interested in you as a person.

One final note: you never "have to" have sex.  You never owe it to anyone.  I don't care if they paid for dinner or helped you move or you've been dating for a year and they're ready.  I don't care if you've had sex before with someone else or even with this person.  You never owe anyone sex, ever.  And if they're not willing to wait for your enthusiastic consent, then they are not worth your time, trust, and certainly not your love.  You deserve better, you are a beloved part of God's creation, and you do matter.

God bless you all.

Lutheran Look: What's the point of confirmation?

As you might expect, I get this question mostly from confirmation students.  And depending on the student, I often give different answers, because very often the question means different things.

As far as I'm concerned, the ultimate point of confirmation is helping the student to transition from the - often simple and trusting, if certainly not unquestioning - faith of a child, into a more complex, nuanced faith that will grow with them into adulthood and stay with them all their life.  Confirmation traditionally involves three sections: focused study in the Bible, learning how it's structured and what it says; learning Martin Luther's Small Catechism, which explains Baptism, Communion, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Apostle's Creed, and a few other things; and probably also a section on "Christian Life"- or how our faith is involved in our daily lives.

Those of us who are "cradle Lutherans" were likely baptized as infants or very small children- so students were probably welcomed into the family of God by others, not on their own terms.  At the confirmation service, after having gone through a new level of focused education, students "confirm" their faith in front of the congregation.  They take on the promises of baptism, meant to lead them into a Christian life in Christian community, as their own.

After being confirmed, students are considered adult members of the church.  They can speak up during congregational meetings, they can most likely be members of various councils and committees, and often they take on more responsibility for their faith life with their families, perhaps getting more of a say in which church service they'd like to attend or what they'll volunteer for.

Whether or not those who are confirmed but under the age of 18 have a vote in congregational meetings (such as an Annual Meeting or calling a pastor) depends, to some extent, on the congregation.  In the USA, my understanding is that no one under 18 is allowed to enter a "binding legal contract" that involves money- so those under 18 cannot vote on anything that involves the budget, or hiring staff (including a pastor).  Some congregations do allow those under 18 to vote on things that don't involve money- which ministries to emphasize, changes to worship services, etc.  

Personally speaking, I have to say I have no ethical problem with families forcing their kids to go through the confirmation classes against their will.  It's education, and like any class at school they might not like, it will almost certainly come in handy down the road.  Western culture has been shaped by Christianity in a lot of ways, and learning a bit more about the Bible and what the church does is very practical.

However, I cannot agree to actually confirm the student, at the confirmation service, if the student is unwilling or even just not ready yet.  Participating in that service is each student's choice, and if they cannot agree to the promises they are to make at that service, I won't force them to lie about it in front of their friends and family.  Any of my future students who would have questions or concerns about this will always be welcome to discuss this with me, and I will always be willing to help them and their family discuss it as well.  If a student wants to put off confirmation for awhile while they consider further, or study other denominations or religions, that is always their choice to make.

A few words on something confirmation isn't: in some faiths, there's a concept of an "age of accountability"- that small children are not responsible for their actions, but once a child reaches a certain age, then they are.  That's not what confirmation is.  We are all equally responsible for our actions at any age - and we have each been equally forgiven by the grace of God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Confirmation does mean claiming the faith as one's own, and it changes one's relationship with the church and the congregation, but that's all.

Confirmation may well be a little difficult or confusing, but the point, again, is to give the student resources and tools they can use for the rest of their life, as their faith grows and changes with them.

God bless!

Lutheran Look: Becoming an ELCA pastor- Seminary

This is a follow up to my earlier post about how to become a pastor, which covered the pre-seminary part.

So, you feel the call to ministry, you've figured out the finances, you've gone through the Entrance into Candidacy with your local synod, and it's time to show up to seminary.

Now, if you're lucky, you'll be showing up on the first day of regular classes, because you've taken a Biblical Greek class and you don't have to do Summer Greek at your seminary.  I didn't do Summer Greek, so if you do have to do it, I have no advice to give you, other than breathe deep, keep praying, and keep up.

Again, just like I suggested in college, I'm going to suggest getting to know the course catalog early and well.  Know exactly what you have to do in order to graduate.  Take a look at any special certifications you may want to get (some seminaries have that sort of thing for youth ministry or other special topics, read your course catalog).

The ELCA seminaries have a fairly similar structure.  Two years of academic classes, one year of internship (somewhere), one more year of academic classes.  There's also a Clinical Pastoral Education requirement- this probably means that for a couple months during the summer between your first two years, you'll be working at a hospital as a student chaplain, but there are also options where you can work at nursing homes, or doing social work, and there used to be an option for prison ministry.  I'll get to that in a minute.

Your first year is going to be hard.  The seminaries don't want students who aren't going to make it through the program to waste their money, so academically speaking, the first year is a trial by fire to see if you can handle it.  It'll cover the basics of theology and history.

Then you'll probably do CPE after that- which is, again, a trial by fire, but not academically.  This is where they make sure that you truly feel called to ministry.  Chaplaincy is hard, challenging work, in any of the settings.  I did mine in a hospital, and it involved a lot of different things.  Most days I went around my floor visiting people who'd asked to see me, or who had been there several days.  Some of these people wanted help filling out a DNR, some wanted to confess, some wanted to talk about what dying would be like.  A lot of people thought I was a nun (or married, or a high school student). 

Walking into a room, you never knew what you were walking into- could be a whole family or a person who hadn't talked to anybody but the nurses in days.  Sometimes I was on call to the ICU and ER for codes and deaths- I wound up doing the paperwork and helping the grieving families of, I think, 8 deaths over the course of 10 weeks.  Each was different, each family is etched in my memory, each experience was life-changing for me.  I visited the Mental Health Unit, did night shifts, talked to nurses and dietitians and local pastors.  I talked to a guy in the ER who was very drunk, and had requested a "man of the cloth"- that was interesting.  You will spend a lot of time at CPE taking classes on various special topics, reading, and doing a lot of self-examination.  And when you leave, I guarantee you, whatever background you came from, you will be a different person than when you walked in.

Second year of seminary will probably be a little easier academically.  Get to know your professors- they're involved in your Candidacy process too.  Focus on pastoral topics as you can, as you'll soon be headed out for Internship.  First, though, you have to be Endorsed by your synod committee for internship.  That involves an essay and an interview- it'll be pretty stressful.  Start figuring out what your gifts and "learning edges" are early so you know what kind of internship you're looking for- you won't necessarily get what you want, but knowing what you need is important.

Internship is probably a year long, maybe nine months.  You'll either be attached or detached- that is, you'll either be working in the same congregation as your supervising pastor or you'll be at another congregation nearby.  (If you aren't second career, you will almost certainly be attached.)  Internships are hugely individual- maybe you'll do special projects, or read books with your supervisor, maybe your congregation will be in crisis.  Your supervisor, depending on personalities, may teach you mostly what to do, or teach you exactly what you don't want to do- but either way, you'll learn.  I absolutely suggest finding your local ELCA pastor's text study (call the local synod to ask where and when) and go every single week, whether or not your supervisor does.  The pastors there may or may not be your style either, but they will be essential to your social life, and variety is a good thing.  Keep in touch with your classmates, hang on to your support system, you'll need it.

Senior year of seminary, you're putting together everything you've learned.  Application of theology will probably become more important to you for this year than it has before.  You'll prepare for and then go through Approval for ordination (which means another essay and at least two interviews, one with your synod, one with faculty members).

If you're Approved right off (and most people are, again, the people who run the seminary are not there to waste your time) you'll get assigned to a synod, and then be able to start interviewing.  (First call is a little different than how it'll work after that.)  And there you go, you're a pastor!

God bless!

Lutheran Look: Why can Christians eat pork?

So, if you've ever spent a few moments flipping through Leviticus (hey, you might have!) you've noticed there's a whole lot of laws there.  Those laws are called the Holiness Code, and while you may have thought the Ten Commandments were a lot to memorize, these total up to about 613 laws!

And many of them sound strange to Christian ears.  We are told not to eat pork, or shellfish, or a wide variety of "unclean" animals.  It says not to wear cloth of made of two kinds of fibers (so no poly/cotton blend shirts) or plant more than one crop in a field, or boil a lamb in it's mother's milk.  (I... wasn't really planning on doing that last one anyway.  That just seems mean.  It is where the best known rule of "keeping kosher" that many Jews still follow, of not having dairy products and meat in the same meal- so no cheeseburgers- comes from though.)

These aren't laws that Christians, by and large, follow.  Perhaps you've wondered why?  Jewish people still follow most of them (the ones about Temple offerings can't be followed, as currently there's no Temple) and Muslims don't eat pork either.

 Remember a couple weeks ago, when, during the lectionary post for the wedding at Cana, I talked a bit about Jesus having come to fulfill the law?  That's where this is going.  Now, Jesus did not come to abolish or destroy the law, he's very clear about that (see Matthew 5:17-18)  Fulfilling the law was quite the opposite.  He didn't hate or destroy the law, or make it so the law never existed- instead he brought it to completion by following it fully, to his own death (and resurrection!).

This is all explained rather nicely in Galatians 3:23-26: "Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith."

Before Christ, the way to "justify" yourself with God- make your relationship with God right, find salvation, etc.- was to follow the law, because you could not, back then, be justified (made right) by your faith.  But then Jesus came, and because of Jesus' death and resurrection, which fulfilled the law, we are not subject to the law in the same way, because we now are justified through faith.

If you're still concerned about food in particular, we have Acts 10:9-16,where Peter has a dream about unclean foods after Jesus' time.  "About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. Then he heard a voice saying, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.’ The voice said to him again, a second time, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven."

And right after this, a centurion named Cornelius comes to stay with Peter, having been directed to Peter by the Holy Spirit, with some other people.  Cornelius is also Christian, but was never Jewish- a Gentile Christian.  And the next time Peter preached (just a verse or two later) he talked to the crowd how, as a Jew, he shouldn't have let a Gentile stay with him, but as a Christian, because of his dream and how God had spoken to Cornelius, it didn't matter anymore.  And then Peter goes on for quite a bit about how God isn't partial to any nation, he treats them all the same.

This is not to say we don't follow any laws!  We certainly do.  We follow the Ten Commandments, and the rules that Jesus gave us in the Gospels (there are a bunch of those, but not 613!) and most importantly what Jesus called the two Greatest Commandments- to love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself.  We read the Bible, and try to figure out which rules that people in it followed because they wanted to "get right with God", which isn't something we use rules for anymore, and which ones are good rules for society and to keep good relationships with each other.  (That usually helps our relationship with God a lot, if you haven't noticed that yet.)  That's part of why we have so many Christian denominations- we have different ideas about which are which.  I'll certainly be talking about some more of them in these Lutheran Look posts, down the line.

I hope this helped!  God bless.

Lutheran Look: What do you have to do to become a pastor? (Before Seminary)

I hope that these Lutheran Look posts can address a number of questions I commonly get about the Lutheran point of view on various things.  That might include why certain things are or aren't included in a worship service, theological positions, looking at various Bible passages (not included in the weekly Sunday readings), and random thoughts on how the church works as an organization.  I'm going to do my best, when it's necessary, to keep separate my thoughts from official positions held by the ELCA, but don't expect me to be perfect on that score, please.  (Or any other!)

This seemed like an appropriate question for my first Lutheran Look post, because I'm nearing the end of the process of becoming a pastor myself.  Obviously requirements are different between denominations, but I can certainly talk about what you have to do along the way in the ELCA.

First, you have to have the call to ministry.  A pastor's work is not easy, and isn't something you can take up lightly.  It's a long road to get there, and that old joke about a pastor working one hour a week is actually not that funny, thanks.  If you don't feel that God is calling you to be there- if you don't feel like that's where you belong and what you're supposed to be doing- you won't last, and you'll have put a lot of years of your life (and probably a lot of money) into a degree for a career you can't stick with.

How do you know if you have the call to ministry?  There are a lot of ways that people "hear" the call- sometimes it's a person, or a lot of people, who tell you you'd be good at it.  Sometimes it comes through prayer.  Sometimes it's that your life lacks something, and when you go looking for what's missing, you're led to ministry.

In the case of a friend of mine, it was a pastor who walked up to him, handed him some books about Biblical Greek, and said, "Here, you'll need these when you go to seminary."  That will probably not happen to you.

In my case, I was fifteen years old, and yelling at God (as one does), and God yelled back.  And lo and behold, here I am.  (God didn't stop telling me, by the way- sometimes it's a yell, sometimes a whisper, sometimes a swat to the back of the head, but the call stays with you, it isn't a one time thing.)

So, if you're wondering if you're called to ministry?  Talk to your friends, your family, your pastor and other pastors (seriously, go out of your way to talk to more than one- and in denominations that aren't yours, if you can).  However much you're talking to them, talk to God more.  Get used to prayer being a normal part of life, it's only going to become a bigger part of your life as you go.

When you're ready?  Well, first there are some basic educational requirements.  In order to get into seminary, you have to have a four year college degree from an accredited institution.  ("Accredited" means you didn't print the "diploma" out yourself on your printer.  Look up your local synod's office phone number on ELCA.org and ask them if you're concerned about yours.)

If you haven't gone to college yet, I can offer some advice about what to do when you get there.  This first part is going to sound weird- don't major in religion.  Seriously, I mean it.  Seminary will teach you what you need to know when you get there, and you will want a reasonably broad background so you can relate to your congregation.  This is not to say that you shouldn't take any religion classes- I suggest ones that focus on practical stuff, pastoral things like how to deal with grief and things like that, which will give you a good idea of what being a pastor as an everyday sort of thing is like.

There are a lot of majors that could be really useful to a pastor, but really, take something you like, something you can nerd out about.  And preferably, leave yourself a lot of room for electives, things outside your major.  Take a basic Accounting class if you can- church budgets can get weird.  Act in a play, or take an acting class, or at the very least take a public speaking class- pastors not only have to preach, but very often, have to have a decent sense of timing (and a sense of theater helps keep people paying attention).  Take some history- particularly non-USA, non-Western European history, and all the Middle Eastern history on offer.  Learn Spanish, or another language that is in regular use in whatever area you're planning on working in.  Take an Intro to Philosophy class and learn how to construct and critique an argument (and I'm not using "argument" in a "yelling at each other" kind of way).  Take all the Psychology classes you can, pay particular attention to the bits about old people, young people, and the problems that people with mental illnesses face in our society.  Sociology and Social Work classes are also good for that, and a Human Resources or a Business class couldn't hurt.  Take a science or math class that sounds cool- you will have a lot of science and math people in your congregations to talk to, and a lot of confirmation students wondering why they have to take science and math.

You see why I said leave yourself a lot of room for electives, now?  Know exactly what the requirements for a degree are before you get on campus, if at all possible, and plan ahead as far as you can.  Get to know as many different kinds of people as you can- foreign exchange students are awesome, adventurous people (did you leave your country, and likely your native language, to go to college?) and can give you a wonderful perspective on how Americans are seen elsewhere.  Talk to atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Wiccans, etc., and Christians of all stripes, and treat them all like human beings, and get to know them and what they think about things that aren't religion.

Be very, very careful about how much debt you rack up along the way, by the way.  Get scholarships, work a lot, whatever- pastors make okay money but student loan debt can haunt you and no one gets into this field for the paycheck, okay?  ELCA pastors are not the ones that live in the gigantic houses and drive BMWs, we are not (generally) televangelists.  If you graduate college with more than $30,000 of student loan debt, your synod will worry about you.  It won't keep you out of seminary, but they'll want to be sure you're financially stable.  And these days, it is really easy to rack that much debt up.  Don't take any loans you don't have to.

In seminary you will have to take some classes of Biblical Greek, and possibly Ancient Hebrew as well, depending on which one you end up going to.  Anyway, if you have any chance of doing Greek or Hebrew while you're still in college, do it.  (Not Modern Greek or Modern Hebrew, they are very different.  There is also Homeric Greek, and Ancient or "Attic" Greek, and they are both different from each other and from Biblical "Koine" Greek, but they will likely help you some, while Modern Greek really, really won't.)  If you're not that great at foreign languages and you haven't chosen your college yet- pick a college that offers at least Biblical Greek.  All the seminaries offer "Summer Greek" (better known by the people who've taken it as "Suicide Greek") to get you up to speed if necessary, but if you can, avoid it.

There are 8 ELCA seminaries (and while technically you can go to a non-ELCA seminary and become an ELCA pastor, it's a weirder, harder road, and most of the people I know who've done it wouldn't recommend it unless you have a really good reason) and they're scattered around.  Three on the East Coast (two in PA, one in SC), four in what I'd call the Midwest (OH, IL, IA, MN) and one in California.  Geography will likely play a role in your decision, as will money.  They do all have reputations of focusing on different things, but they are all good schools and will give you the education you need, if you're willing to work for it.

If you went to college awhile ago, and are now thinking of entering the ministry and changing from your current career path, congratulations!  You are what we refer to as a second-career pastor, and while taking a few years out of your working life is going to be very hard, congregations tend to love second-career pastors for their life experience.  You may want to look into studying a bit of Greek before you go- call the seminary you want to go to and ask them for help on finding materials.  Fifty bucks for the books and a few months of hard work before going to seminary can save you a lot of grief.

When you start seminary, you'll enter Candidacy (ask your synod about that) and agree to live by Visions and Expectations, which is a document that outlines the basic life rules for pastors, and I believe you can download it off ELCA.org.  I suggest looking at it now.  During seminary is certainly worth another post, it looks like, so I'll do that another day.  God bless!