The newsletter of the ELCA-Southeastern Synod

February/March 2007

1. BISHOP WARREN CHANGES EARLIER ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING HIS RETIREMENT IN 2007

2. FAITH AND FACTS

3. 2006 ANNUAL CONGREGATIONAL REPORTS SUBMITTED

4. ELW EVENTS MARKED AS GREAT EXPERIENCE

5. SOUTHEASTERN SYNOD CONGREGATIONS HELP BRING EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN WORSHIP TO GULF COAST

6. HEY Y'ALL--FIND OUT ABOUT SESYALL

7. ELCA BOARD OF PENSIONS PRESENTS "THE ROAD TO EMMAUS"

8. ORDINARY TO EXTRAORDINARY

9. CONGREGATIONS IN TRANSITION

10. CARES AND PRAYERS

     

1. BISHOP WARREN CHANGES EARLIER ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING HIS RETIREMENT IN 2007

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2. FAITH AND FACTS

by The Rev. J. Howard Mettee

Assistant to the Bishop, Pastor for Stewardship

In the Sunday worship bulletin at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church on the South Side of Chicago, the list of announcements is usually long:  a 6-week discipleship class starting up; flu shots in the church basement; the boys’ basketball team; a visiting choir from Tanzania.

But the very first bulletin announcement at the top of the page is this:  “St. Stephen’s is a tithing church and a first-fruits congregation.  That means that every Sunday when the offering is taken in, we give 10% off the top to the mission and ministry of the ELCA.  We don’t wait to see if we can pay our bills before we give away for God’s mission in other places.  As a church we give a visible witness to what we ask every disciple to do at St. Stephen’s.”

Asked how the congregation’s leadership made that decision, Myrtis Brown, St. Stephen’s stewardship chair, becomes instantly passionate.  The words can’t come fast enough:  “Stewardship is at the heart of discipleship.   It’s the straw that stirs the whole drink.  The council felt that if we could avoid confusion about stewardship, if we could get that piece right as a congregation, then other pieces about our ministry would fall right into place.”

Congregation president Bill Clark is a soft-spoken man with a careful way, but his quiet words are no less powerful.  “We can’t ask our members to provide first-fruits if the congregation doesn’t.  And besides,” he says with a slow, gentle smile, “when we do it as a congregation, that gives everyone a share in the first-fruits ministry.  It’s like a class action suit; the members all participate in the rewards and the blessings that come, whether they do first-fruits individually or not.”

What about paying the congregation’s bills?  Mr. Clark sighs.  “It’s a struggle.  But it was a struggle before we made the decision, too, and it doesn’t seem to be any more of a struggle since.  We’re always struggling.” 

“Some time ago,” he says, “in my morning devotions I read that we have to admit that we’re desperate before God can help us.  The decision to be a first-fruits congregation was made out of our desperation; in the middle of it all, we just decided to be obedient.  We didn’t do it out of generosity, and we certainly didn’t do it out of abundance.  We did it as a matter of obedience.”             

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3.  2006 ANNUAL CONGREGATIONAL REPORTS SUBMITTED

February 15 was the due date for Annual Congregational Reports to be submitted to the synod office. 

Our synod has a total of 174 worshipping communities: 158 organized congregations and 16 Congregations Under Development and Synodically Authorized Worshipping Communities.   It is vital that each and every organized congregation complete an Annual Congregational Report. Along with other important information, statistics used to track membership and attendance in the ELCA are obtained from the latest Annual Congregational Reports.  

The number of baptized members in our synod (calculated from the Annual Congregational Reports) is the number used to allot the number of voting members the Southeastern Synod is allowed at the Churchwide Assembly.  Therefore, if the synod's congregational reports are not current, it is likely that the Southeastern Synod will not be represented properly at the next Churchwide Assembly.  

As of February 15, the following congregations had not submitted their 2006 Annual Congregational Report.  (Reports received after the deadline and before date of publication--March 5--are noted.)   If your congregation has submitted a 2006 Annual Congregational Report and is listed as not doing so, please contact Mobley Hope in the synod office at 404-589-1977, ext 220 or mhope@elca-ses.org.

Congregations that did not submit reports by the Feb 15 deadline will also be reported at the 2007 synod assembly.