understandings nd deeper nd er CALLED FORWARD TOGETHER IN CHRIST: Let’s go
Series editor’s note: Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and other leaders have invited our whole church into a conversation about future visions, directions and priorities for our work in the years ahead (
elca.org/future). Here the presidents and chief administrative offi cers of our eight seminaries off er their brief perspectives. They are donating the author stipend to the ELCA Fund for Leaders, which provides scholarships to seminarians. —Michael Cooper-White, president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.).
As I look to the future of our church, I see the good news continuing to claim hearts, lending us courage and freedom to take our love of neighbor on the road. I see at the same time God enabling us to pay attention to acts of love that come to us. I see us changing behaviors, being captured by gratitude and wonder, living more simply so that others may simply live. I see healing of spirit and body in Jesus’ name. I see more sharing of authority and responsibility in our institutional church. I see joy in serving.
— Brian Stein Webber, chief administrative offi cer, Pacifi c Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif.
The future of the church of Jesus Christ is exciting. Yes, there is decline in places. But that decline doesn’t mean that the Spirit is idle. In fact, I always like to say that the Spirit has no maintenance program. God is mightily on the move in the world. There are more Lutherans in the largely Muslim populated country of Indonesia than in North America. And the Lutheran church there is growing. Nothing can prevail against Christ’s church, which is growing faster today than in any previous period in history.
As the ELCA, it’s time for us to reclaim the “E” word and reassert Martin Luther’s identity as the fi rst evangelical.
— Clay Schmit, provost, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary/ Lenoir-Rhyne University, Columbia, S.C.
The future of our branch of the church will need clarity about who we are and where we serve. I hope we can reclaim a more robust confessional Lutheranism that doesn’t use that as a veil for ethnic biases but impels a truly evangelical witness in our actual setting. That will require us to honestly name our sins of racism and white privilege as a church because Christ has fi rst set us free to admit that evil and will empower us to change our ways.
I also hope we can embrace a humble role alongside the growing Christianity of the Southern Hemisphere, learning from them how to bear the wounds of others with the resources we already have at hand. They can show us what it now means to bear the cross.
— James Nieman, president, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. 44 AUGUST 2016
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52