Travel Log: The Road to Church Vitality

It seems that over the past few months, everywhere I went, whether it was across the country or right here in the Bay Area, there have been opportunities to hear amazing leaders in the church and to participate in discussions about the future of the
church. In September, Pastor Dawn and I drove over to Berkeley for Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary’s Founder’s Day where we heard Prairie Rose Seminole speak about the history of Lutheran advocacy with Native Americans. Later that month, I flew to North Carolina and was able to attend the “Called to be Prophets” conference which conveniently took place in my home town during the last few days of my vacation. In October, one of the keynote speakers from the Prophets conference, Brian McLaren, flew to the West Coast and spoke in San Mateo. October also included attending our Synod’s Professional Leadership Conference in Monterrey and finally a continuing education trip to New Mexico where I attended “the Seminary of the Wild” at Ghost Ranch which focused on eco-theology.

Last week on the plane flying back from Albuquerque back to SFO, instead of watching a movie on my iPhone, I spent the time reading through the notes that I had taken at all
these various conferences and noticed some comments and themes that kept reoccurring especially with respect to the future shape of the church.

According to Brian McLaren, a majority of Americans are existing right now in a state of skepticism - especially with respect to religion. They have seen how doctrine and dogma have been used to separate and exclude and justify injustice and oppression. They’ve seen how the church has used its power to cover up abuse and they’ve seen how the only ones prospering from a prosperity gospel have been the televangelists. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza echoed this sentiment at the Prophets conference when they said, “I don’t care what you believe; I care how you live; what you do with your life tells me what you believe.” What people are looking for are communities authentically living what they proclaim and there is a yearning to engage in real relationships instead of superficial transactions. When asked about what to do about declining church participation, McLaren’s response was, “focus on your mission” and “live the love and life modeled by Jesus.” The answer David Vasquez-Levy, the president of Pacific School of Religion gave was similar: figure out who is in your zip code and then strive together for justice and peace. Regina Banks, the Director of the Lutheran Office of Public Policy in California speaking to Lutheran clergy at the Professional Leadership Conference about her own experience of encountering the ELCA argued that the ELCA has a lot to offer someone with a non-northern European
Lutheran heritage: we are out in the world making a difference and taking a stand. For
Banks, congregational vitality is waiting behind advocacy. And we need to get the word out.

“Boldness,” she said, “that is what will bring people into the churches.” For us here at Coastside Lutheran, I see all of this as an encouragement to continue our mission of supporting of the community breakfast and as a continued challenge to make sure we live out our call to be inclusive and welcoming. And based on the enthusiasm and concern expressed by many of you as we wrestled with the issues of climate change and creation care during our Seasons of Creation sermon series, I have a sense that there is a call to become more actively involved in those topics and I’m excited to see where this may lead. Finally, I think Regina Banks is right that we need to be bold in showing the world the Gospel in action...that is after all
what we are called to do, live
authentic lives loving our
neighbors...the rest will follow.

~Pastor Sue

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