Our Conference held a joint meeting this week concerning the upcoming convention. It was made up of lay delegates and pastors. It is my understanding each conference in the WELS holds such a meeting. A second meeting is sometimes held on the District level.
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For the sake of clarification, a District is divided into Congregations who belong to a geographical area called a Conferences. Each conference has a president and secretary. Each conference contains congregations who belong to a Circuit. Each circuit is headed by a local pastor(Circuit Pastor). When your pastor rotates pulpits with other pastor (for example Lenten services), the guest preacher is likely from your pastor’s circuit. Our Conference contains 24 congregations and 4 Circuits. Our circuit contains 4 congregations.
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Pastors were assigned different areas of the BORAM to report on. These reports highlighted information contained in the BORAM. They were supposed to be one page long, but if you’ve read the BORAM you can understand why some were multiple pages long. I’m sure the pastors put a lot of work into preparing these condensed reports.
There wasn’t any new information presented at the meeting. Everything was something which a pastor or delegate could have read on his own. All the information presented was already available to the public online at wels.net.
I appreciate all the work our Circuit put into preparing for the meeting. I would have liked to see more discussion on what role the delegates play, and how it affects our Circuit and District.
Home Missions
There was some beneficial discussion concerning Home Missions. The BORAM talks about the use of daughter congregations and satellite sites being a way of congregations doing mission work on a local level. I wanted to know how this affected our District and why, as a delegate, I should care. So I asked.
It turns our that we have a number of satellite sites either operating or are in the planning stage in our Conference. I didn’t know this. I always thought this was an idea which came down from Synod and was aimed at the large congregations. Imagine my surprise to learn one congregation which I had always considered to be small is exploring a second site ministry! I would have never guessed it!
Knowing this helps me understand how my endorsement of such endeavors would be used and benefit our District. It helps me as I ponder about how to vote on the Home Missions budget or how the Church Expansion Fund (CEF) should be utilized. Is satellite ministry something which my own congregation can utilize?
The need for more Called Workers
The need for more Called Workers was mentioned in a report. I thought, “Why? The BORAM reports there are 1,394 WELS pastors and only 1,270 congregations.” Yet, we have growing congregations without a pastor who have been calling for over a year. Older existing congregations are being assigned second and third pastors out of Seminary. Why?
The short answer is the COP has to balance the available resources against the benefits of where a pastor is placed. I agree this is a prayerful responsibility these twelve men take seriously. But what other options are there?
Some say the needs of a large congregation are greater just because they have more members. I don’t agree with the philosophy and believe the large congregations have more manpower resources available to them. It is the congregation’s responsibility to find and make use of these resources.
I firmly believe people want to serve (not just fill slots) and the Holy Spirit equips them for service so that the Church will be built up. It doesn’t just happen. People need to feel their unique gifts matter and that they are empowered to serve.
The argument continues that people want to see their Pastor, thus more pastors on a congregation’s staff are required. This may be true to a degree, but some congregations in the WELS have overcome the challenge of too much work and too little pastor.
The successful congregations have achieved this with better utilization of laymen. They have shifted the paradigm and effected a change in church culture. Having laymen serve in traditionally pastoral roles has become the new norm for them.
What this Means to Us
How does all of this affect me as a lay delegate? I know there are “people in the pews” who share the above viewpoints. There are 293,000 WELS communicant members. Is it possible that some, maybe even a majority, may have a difference of opinion than the 12 District Presidents? How can their voices be heard at Convention? This is the hundred dollar question!
One way is to talk to your delegates, but that’s not the only way. Any male WELS Communicant Member can submit a Memorial to Convention. We are going to take a look at how to do that in a future post.