Editor
By Daniel J. Lehmann
Campaign comes at special time
Numbers point to needed work Another
bath toy? Encourage young children to splash in the waters of baptism through your gift of The Little Lutheran magazine. Little mariners will meet Mallory, who set nine paralympic swimming records. They’ll learn about Noah’s big boat, Jesus’ baptism and the woman at the well. Subscribe at www.
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$2.50 Volume 5, Issue 9 April 2012 T
he ELCA fundraising campaign recently approved by the Churchwide Assembly gets right to the heart of issues facing the denomination. It hopes to expand by $77 million funding for new and renewing congregations,
seminary scholarships, World Hunger, the Malaria Campaign, missionaries, global ministries, international leaders, youth and disability ministries. The campaign runs from 2014-2018, and is the first of its kind in the ELCA. Worthy causes all, the new congregations and renewing congregations programs come at a significant moment. In the Office of the Secretary report to the Churchwide Assembly, ELCA baptized membership slipped below 4 million. In subsequently updated figures, baptized membership stood at 3,950,924 in 2012, a decline of 2.68 percent from the year prior. Weekly wor- ship attendance totaled 1,088,737 in 2012, a drop of 3.06 percent. Yes, we’ve lost members from the sexuality decisions of 2009. Yes, our total number of congregations fell by 105 from 2011 to ’12 to a total of 9,533. Yet these red figures must be viewed through the lens of declining membership and participation across Christianity in the U.S. Last year, the Roman Catho- lic Church reported a 0.44 percent decline in membership; Southern Baptist Convention, 0.7 percent; United Methodist Church, 1.22 percent; Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 3.4 percent; Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, 1.45 percent; Episcopal Church, 2.7 percent.
All are taking steps to grow the faith in a society that increasingly doesn’t appear to be interested. At least one evangelical observer contends that what church growth there has been in the last decade came as a result of folks leav- ing one church for another, with few real converts to the faith. The point is this: 51.2 percent of Americans don’t belong to a church, and that number is growing. Rather than dwelling on these misfortunes, let’s take the plunge into planting and revitalizing congregations while always making new ways to spread the good news.
•••
This month is the last column of Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson (page 50). For 12 years he has offered insights, hope and encouragement to the ELCA. Despite a work and travel schedule that would overwhelm most, he pro- duced a column that was both edifying and readable. And he wrote to length, rarely needed a deadline extension and accepted edits. Thank you, bishop, for your efforts on behalf of the ELCA and The Lutheran. Presiding Bishop-elect Elizabeth A. Eaton has
JESUS BRINGS NEW LIFE
agreed to continue the column, a mainstay through- out the magazine’s nearly 27-year history. Her first contribution appears next month.
4 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
[L]et’s take the plunge into planting and revitalizing congregations while always making new ways to spread the good news.
MICHAEL D. WATSON
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