2004 Synod Assembly
Synod Assembly Recap - Long
Added 4:45 p.m., Saturday,
April 24, 2004
Highlights from the 2004
Southeastern Minnesota Synod Assembly – April 23-24, 2004
"Called into God's Marvelous Light"
Voting Members Meet
About 765 voting members and visitors gathered at the Mayo Civic Center in
Rochester for the 2004 Synod Assembly April 23-24, 2004. Bishop Harold
Usgaard led the gathering as it approached the work of the church in
Southeastern Minnesota. Those gathered worked and worshiped, prayed and
praised, studied and celebrated together as the body of Christ.
Opening Worship
"It all starts with God, and we live our lives in response. That could take
us just about anywhere."
With those words, Bishop Harold Usgaard proclaimed the theme of both the
opening worship service and of the 2004 Synod Assembly: "Called into God's
Marvelous Light."
The bishop repeatedly stressed
how God's call extends to all God's people. Noting the examples of the
prophet Jeremiah, the Apostle Paul, and the disciple Matthew, Bishop Usgaard
affirmed, "There is no one who cannot be used by God."
Drawing on Weber's "Salty
Christians," Usgaard asserted that ours is not a church that competes with
the world, or one that gets a piece of the worldly pie. Rather, ours is a
church in the world, moving in and out. "It's not where we are, but who we
are," he said. Then he added, "It's not about a job or making a living; it's
about making a difference."
"God's calling. That's where
it begins," said Usgaard. Quoting I Peter 2:9, he set the tone for the work
of the assembly that will be lived out in the synod: "But you are a chosen
race, a holy priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you
may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light." As an assembly of God's people in the Southeastern
Minnesota Synod of the ELCA, "that could take us just about anywhere."
Synod Strategic Plan Presented by Bishop Usgaard, Unanimously Accepted by
Assembly
The Rev. Harold L. Usgaard, Bishop of the Southeastern Minnesota Synod,
outlined the vision and goals of the new strategic plan.
The plan, titled "Called Into
God's Marvelous Light," was unanimously supported by attendants of the 17th
annual Southeastern Minnesota Synod Assembly. Usgaard said the plan will
guide synod activities in the years ahead.
Containing three visions, the
strategic plan calls synod members "to be joyful witnesses," "to be
Christ-centered disciples," and "to be strong leaders." Usgaard said those
visions translate into several goals, which are available on the synod web
site.
Usgaard said the plan's
visions and goals were derived from the suggestions of synod members. He
thanked members for the input and said requests for monetary support would
be forthcoming.
"Allow me to be frank," he
said. "We are talking about new initiatives. New initiatives take extra
support. We will not be able to accomplish what we are envisioning without
financial support."
Usgaard said requests for
financial support would be accompanied by reasons explaining why the new
funding is needed.
Bible Studies Led by
Kathryn Bradley-Love
In her first Bible study, the Rev. Dr. Kathryn Bradley-Love took the
assembly on a journey with Saul on the road to Damascus, in his encounter
with the "marvelous light" of Jesus Christ.
Reflecting on Acts 9, the Rev.
Dr. Bradley-Love asked the voting members, "Can we locate ourselves in
Saul's experience?" She proceeded to not only answer the question, but
provided the atmosphere to do so. In the first part of the study, which
focused on verses 1-9, Dr. Bradley-Love made several connections between
Saul's conversion story and the lives of Christians.
In her second Bible study,
Bradley-Love focused on Ananias, who God called to heal Saul's blindness,
again making numerous connections between the text and the lives of the
assembly-goers. "We are in the same boat as Ananias," being called by God,
she said.
The Rev. Dr. Kathryn
Bradley-Love serves in the Division for Congregational Ministries as
Associate Director of Evangelism.
Keynote Carmala Aderman
Speaks on Evangelism
The Rev. Carmala Aderman told those gathered at the 17th annual Southeastern
Minnesota Synod Assembly that churches are being challenged to grow in the
new century.
Aderman, the assembly's
keynote speaker, said churches in the 21st century will more closely
resemble their 1st century predecessors than their 20th century
counterparts. The reason for this, she said, is because churches must
embrace diversity.
"We get to find new means to
open up ways for people to be grasped by this amazing faith that the Holy
Spirit has blessed us with," she said. "If you like adventures, this is a
fascinating time to be a part of the church of Jesus Christ."
Aderman is a pastor in the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and currently is called to serve as
an assistant to the bishop in the Northwest Synod of Wisconsin. In that
role, she focuses primarily on evangelistic work.
Evangelism Workshops Teach
About Evangelism in Many Contexts
Several speakers talked about various aspects of evangelism during a series
of workshops.
The workshops, held Friday afternoon, covered eight aspects of evangelic
work. Speakers talked about ministry in urban and rural environments, having
the courage to lead and thinking positively about evangelism.
Speakers also discussed how to
involve new congregations in evangelism, reaching youth, the importance of
clear communication, and using "Renewing Worship," a new hymnal.
Nine out of Ten Resolutions
Passed; One Referred to Synod Council
There were several global-mission related resolutions this year. The
assembly voted to raise synod-wide contributions to the Missionary Fund of
the ELCA to $200,000 for the year 2005; to encourage congregations to
include financial support for the Morogoro District Support Fund in their
mission planning efforts; and to invite Bishop Sijifredo Buitrago, IELCO to
next year's synod assembly.
The assembly also voted to
make recommended amendments to the synod constitution that included renaming
the Leadership Development Committee back to "Nominating Committee," and to
make changes recommended by the Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA for synod
constitutions.
The recommended "2005 Minimum
Compensation and Benefits Guidelines" were accepted passed by the Assembly,
after some minor, last-minute changes to the document made by the Lay and
Clergy Leadership Development Team of the Synod Council, which develops and
revises the document each year.
The assembly voted to refer to
the synod council a resolution recommending each of the synod's five
conferences start a new mission congregation within their conferences by
2007. They assembly also voted for the synod council to consider
establishing a fund which would assist pastors in paying the cost for moving
to a new location immediately following their retirement.
Finally, the assembly voted for each congregation to consider bringing at
least one person, age 30 or less, to the synod assembly as a voting member
in future years.
Full text of all resolutions
is on the synod web site, www.semnsynod.org.
The Rev. Eric Shafer Serves
as Churchwide ELCA Representative
The Rev. Eric Shafer, Director of Communications, ELCA, represented the
churchwide ELCA at the assembly, bringing video greetings from Presiding
Bishop Mark Hanson and fielding questions from attendees in two separate
sessions.
In his video greeting, Hanson
told attendants of the assembly that the church has nothing to fear.
Hanson said the ELCA is doing great work across the globe. He said even as
this work continues, though, "we have somehow managed to come to a time when
the questions that divide us now define us."
But the bishop noted the
ELCA's 11,000 congregations have far more similarities than differences.
Hanson said the ELCA is a church with 5 million evangelists, each centered
in Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit.
"We in the ELCA are not a
church searching for an identity," he said. "We know who we are because we
have been marked with the cross of Christ forever."
During the question and answer
session, Shafer gave an update on a controversial lawsuit. The civil case
stems from an ELCA pastor arrested in 2001 and later convicted of pedophilia
charges. More recently, 14 alleged victims filed a civil case against the
ELCA and other Lutheran-based institutions.
Shafer told attendants of the
17th annual Southeastern Minnesota Synod Assembly that the civil case ended
this week and, before it went to trial, the ELCA settled its part of the
suit. He said as part of the settlement, the ELCA has agreed to help finance
counseling for people victimized by the former pastor. The ELCA's settlement
will be paid by insurance, not benevolence, funds.
Shafer and the Rev. Joseph
Crippen, of the Church Council of the ELCA, also clarified points about the
ELCA Studies on Sexuality, and spoke about the timeline that was passed out
to the Assembly.
Habitat for Humanity
Project
From Tuesday, April 20-Saturday, April 24, volunteers from across the synod
worked on renovating a house for a family in need. Called "Building in God's
Marvelous Light," the project was a means of taking the assembly theme,
"Called into God's Marvelous Light," outside the assembly hall. The family
that will live in the house, once it is completed in June, is originally
from Bosnia. Both parents work in the hospitality industry in Rochester. The
walls for the new garage that is being built next to the house were
assembled by people from the Red Wing Correctional Center and shipped to the
site; and the cabinets were built by people from the Faribault Correctional
Center.
Special thanks to the Rev.
Scott E. Olson and Joshua Lynsen for contributing to this report.
More detailed information
about the 2004 Southeastern Minnesota Synod Assembly is available at
www.semnsynod.org.
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