The 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly is over – Hallelujah!
Despite rumors to the contrary it wasn’t all about sex. Yes, there is no denying it, sex was a major issue with the visiting press (surprise, surprise), but many more important things went down at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly on Navy Pier here in Chicago.
Here are but a few:
- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson was re-elected bishop on the second ballot.
- David Swartling was elected as secretary of the church. Swartling, a Seattle trial lawyer, will succeed the Rev. Lowell Almen, the first and only secretary of the ELCA. Almen is retiring on Reformation Day after many loyal years of dedicated service.
- The five-year initiative “Book of Faith: Lutherans Read the Bible,” was endorsed by the assembly. This project came out of a 2005 North Carolina Synod proposal that stressed the importance of Scripture. The initiative is headed by Dr. Diane L. Jacobson, a professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at Luther Seminary in Minneapolis. I had the pleasure of attending Dr. Jacobson’s workshop on the Psalms, which she lead at the Worship Jubilee (held immediately prior to the assembly). Jacobson is brilliant and knows her subject. I can’t think of a better person to lead this initiative.
According to the new “Book of Faith” Web site (http://www.elca.org/bookoffaith) a Blog will be up and running in Sept. It is intended to be a place to share resources and ideas, “What are you trying? What is working? What resources are needed to help, which need to be developed.”
- Perhaps the most exciting part of the whole assembly was the unveiling of an advertising campaign scheduled to hit the Denver area on September 1.
It is cool to see my church in public places -- buses, billboards and print ads – it reminds me of when I was a kid and felt proud when “brought to you by the Lutheran Church in America” was announced at the end of a “Davey and Goliath” episode.
The ads highlight the “good” things the church is doing here in the U.S. and around the world – 1,300,000 service hours logged in by Katrina volunteers, 2,600 illiterate women in Senegal being taught to read, hungry children in Peru given bread – all of this summed up nicely in a great tagline: “God’s Work. Our Hands.”
The artwork for the advertising is beautifully done and I hear it didn’t cost an arm and a leg to produce either. There is a smoking new Web site where all of the ads and the stories behind them are posted and it looks like a lot of thought and good work went into producing them. Check out the Web site at: elca.org/love.
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5 comments:
"God's Work. Our Hands." What a concept!
I did see the ad campaign billboards this weekend. Thanks for pointing them out.
You cannot say that sex didn't come into play at the Assembly. It did and the way it got in by the backdoor is not good. Many of the members of my congregation are not happy.
It is my hope that the Book of Faith is not yet another way to manipulate scripture as was done with the study of Galatians in Our Journey Together.
I live in Aurora Colorado and did see one sign. It was hard to read it from the road while driving, couldn’t find the website address, thanks for posting it to your blog.
The stories are all well and good but I can’t help but question if it is another trick to hide what is really going on. What are the congregations doing once people see the ads and go to a church? What happens when people find out what the church really is?
I live in Boulder and haven't seen the ads you write about. I read that they were coming in September in the newspaper.
I looked at the website and they are nice.
I will go to the Book of Faith. It is nice too.
I saw an ad in the newspaper. It looks good but hard to read. White lettering isn't senior-friendly.
Neat.
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