Story

Six years ago this April (Easter): My first day at Faith Lutheran Church. Easter Sunday. Total attendance that day: 82, avg. regular attendance: 35. (Combine Easter with the first day for a new pastor, and it was a big day). Avg. age: 72.

Faith was designated as a redevelopment congregation by the ELCA. At the time, the ELCA had a general idea of what that meant, but not a fully developed plan except for a couple of position papers by a denominational exec.

The church had been through some serious conflict over the years: Leaving the LC-MS; some conflict involving the founding pastor who eventually developed some deep emotional disorders and left suddenly; followed by two short pastorates filled with all sorts of weird conflict; then me.

I had already spent about a year on Bill Easum’s fledgling e-mail listserv and had been down to Port Aransas for a summit he was presenting with Len Sweet. Got to know both of them, become friends, etc. Good mentors/coaches to have in my corner.

Spent a year (far too long) laying the groundwork for what we would do next: continue to offer a traditional Lutheran service for those already there, but add a new, “contemporary” service — not as an additional worship option, but really as a way to re-plant the church. In other words, I looked it as a two-point charge — same building, same basic name, but the focus of our mission would be the planting of something brand new. I was clear from the outset (with the support of a bishop at that time who was amazingly mission and leadership focused and supported fully every wild move I made): I would lead the traditional worship service every Sunday, preach a good sermon, love them, but I wouldn’t visit the sick, counsel the confused, bury the dead, marry the missing grandchildren, baptize the babies, etc. They would have to figure it out.

I disbanded all committees — just claimed the power. My approach to the council was that they were as responsible for the church being on the critical list as any pastors — even if some of them had hearts of gold (which some did). I became the nominating committee for new council members. Told them it was my way or I could move on. Didn’t matter much to me.  I’m not boasting or being bravado-ish — this is truly what happened.

Fought lots of battles. The congregational profile I was handed when I first met them ended with these words: “The devil has been at work here for far too long and it is time we were rid of him.”

Some “old-timers” on the EBA listservs can tell you that some of the battles were especially fierce and defeating. They could tell you about the times when I would get angry, frustrated, despairing, resigned. They could tell you with vivid detail, I think, about the time, 2 1/2 years ago, that I reported that the devil (who was duly noted by the congregation in the profile) got the better of my marriage and my wife left. And the depression that tried to get me for almost 2 years.

But we could also report that, during the same 6 years, and especially the last two, that the more I got out of the way, the more the Holy Spirit flooded the church. God saw to it that amazing leaders emerged. I / we never stopped wandering around the communities we served, forming relationships with people, sharing our experience of Jesus we thought they couldn’t live without.

The pulpit and lectern and altar rail went away. The big, garrish cross gave way to another cross (actually several — whatever our resident artisans think up every now and then). Our worship life grows in its contextuality every day! We have 21 teams and small groups — and growing. We ran out of parking spaces this weekend. God raised up a real live spiritual entrepreneur who leads our prayer, spiritual formation, and community life. A nationally-known and respected pediatric intensive care nurse and clinician/teacher left her amazing career to devote her life to leading our worship and creative arts. Another — an ackowledged expert and leader in the fields of leadership, entrepreneurialism, and creative thinking — joined our team, full time, unpaid, not always defined role, but he works wonders. A husband/wife team — physicians from the Dominican Republic — missionaries — are now leading the growth of our church in our mission with Spanish-speaking seekers. A team of people works overtime to create a welcoming environment for seekers — 7 days a week. Two amazing women have stepped up to lead our 40 Days of Purpose campaign and through them, their team, the campaign, the Holy Spirit is moving stuff around in a big way.

And I joyfully throw bursts of leadership energy in to stuff — here and there — show up to preach (but not exclusively me anymore) -- and, well...wow.

I attribute what has happened to God, first and foremost, to the amazing people here in north suburban Chicago second, occasionally to my persistence and less-than-consistent courage, but there is no way I can look back and conceive of this without the mentoring, coaching, friendship, and powerful faithfulness of Bill Easum, Tom Bandy, Jeff Patton, Linnea Nielsen-Capshaw, Sandra Pearson, the rest of the EBA team...and people who have been part of the EBA community over the years: the Kurt Oheims, Stephen Portners, Les Peines, David Loars, Mike Loomises (where are you?), Greg Wacks, Russ Nolands, Kathy Brearleys, Vicky Kellys, Ellen Evanses, Sandra Soley-Keeps, Alicias, Kent Wilsons, George Eberlys, and whoever else isn’t immediately occuring but to whom I will be grateful and loyal through eternity. This is why I push so hard for others to attend things like the Convergence, immerse in this virtual community. Not just because it feeds me...but because I have seen it work to transform a church and then a community — here. Amazing. Anyone who wants to really transform a church — hang deeply with these people and others like them. OK...I’m getting syruppy now. I’ll stop before I start soundling like Howard Dean.

Bruce