Gulf Coast Synod Assembly Highlights: Thursday, May 31

Heidi Fowler, Jim Koppe, and I attended the first day of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod Assembly today. The event began with worship. Bishop Blom preached from John 1 and Philippians 1 (yes, including our More Space for Grace theme verse). He focused on God's choice to restore the whole creation to its intended harmony via God's own human touch. Jazz Sunday, the wonderful ensemble from Lake Jackson, provided musical leadership for the eucharist. They brought the house down with their rendition of "Come On, Get Happy" during the offertory. Lakeside's communion vessels were among those used to distribute the elements. Heidi and I had the privilege of serving the sacrament at one of five stations.

Synodical Bishop Election
ELCA Presiding Bishop, the Rev. Mark Hanson, introduced the process for electing a new synodical bishop. As you may know, the current Bishop, the Rev. Paul Blom, will be retiring this year. Bishop Hanson compared and contrasted the process of electing a bishop to the process a congregation goes through to select a new pastor. Both are means to the same end: discerning the Spirit's leading in the identification of leadership. Bishop Hanson will lead us through the election process, and has already set the precedent of anchoring it in Scripture and prayer.

First Ballot. The first ballot was an eccleasiastical, or nominating, ballot. Any member of the roster of ordained ministers in the ELCA is eligible for election. That means there are in excess of 13,000 possible nominees! 56 pastors received at least one vote in the first ballot. 75% of the ballots cast (203 of 270) would have been required for election. No one received that total. Below are the top 10 vote-getters (with ties):

• Mike Button (52) -- Pastor of Christ, Brenham
• Herb Palmer (30) -- Pastor of Faith American, Bellaire
• Robert G. Moore (22) -- Pastor of Christ the King, Rice Village
• Robert W. Moore (16) -- Assistant to the Bishop, Gulf Coast Synod
• Mike Aus (15) -- Pastor of Living Word, Katy
• Mike Rinehart (11) -- Pastor of Grace, Conroe
• Liz Stein (10) -- Assistant to the Bishop for Leadership, Gulf Coast Synod
• Lawrence Bade (9) -- Pastor of St. Paul's, Brenham
• David Roschke (9) -- Pastor of Salem, Houston
• John Boldt (8) -- ELCA Deployed Staff for Stewardship
• Kathy Haueisen (8) -- Executive Director of the Melanchthon Institute, Houston

This evening, those receiving votes for Bishop who do not wish to be considered for the office had the opportunity to remove their names from the second ballot, which will take place tomorrow morning. If a nominee does not remove his or her name from consideration before tonight's deadline, he or she must remain on the ballot until eliminated from the election process.

Second Ballot. Again, 75% of the votes cast are required for election on the second ballot. If there is no election on the second ballot, the list will be reduced to seven nominees, who will each have five minutes to address the assembly prior to the third ballot.

Third Ballot. Two-thirds of the votes cast are required for election on the third ballot. If there is no election on the third ballot, the list of nominees will be reduced to three, who will participate in a "meet and greet" tomorrow afternoon.

Fourth Ballot. If necessary, the fourth ballot will be cast early Saturday morning. 60% of the votes cast are necessary for election on this ballot. If there is no election, the list of nominees is reduced to two.

Fifth and Final Ballot. A simple majority of the votes cast is required for election on the fifth ballot. Our new bishop will be installed in September.

Other Business

• We heard a great keynote address from Presiding Bishop Hanson about stewardship of the Word and stewardship of our resources. He later presented part of his report from the churchwide expression of the ELCA.
• Pastors Carol Spencer and Bill Bentzinger spoke for the ELCA Mission Investment Fund. Our Lakeside contingent stood as both holders of an MIF loan and as MIF investors.
• A resolution approving an African-American Mission Strategy for this synod was approved.
• 2008 Minimum Compensation Guidelines for Clergy and other professional leaders was approved as presented.

The assembly is off to a good start. Check this blog often over the next few days for more assembly updates.

Memorial Day

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. I hope that amid all the family gatherings, cookouts, and the rest, we truly take time to thank God: for those who gave their lives in defense of our nation, for those who have served in the armed forces, and for those who are serving now. It is vital for our national well-being that we remember the sacrifices some have made that we might continue to live as free people. It is often said that "freedom isn't free," and I think that is absolutely true.

The Lutheran function within the body of Christ is to remember and proclaim that salvation is by grace, through faith, without regard to the works of the law. In other words, free. At least, free to us. The cost was borne by Jesus, who emptied himself that we might live in God's presence. Our freedom wasn't, and isn't, free to God. The Bible says: You are not your own. You were bought with a price.

Ours is a remembering faith. Every Sunday, as the bread and the wine are lifted, we hear these words: "do this in the remembrance of me." The Greek word which is translated "remembrance" is anamnesis. An-amnesis. Jesus says to eat and drink so that we don't get amnesia about him. One of the benefits of the sacrament (but certainly not the only one) is that we remember Jesus. We remember him. We remember the price he paid to reclaim us.

Every Sunday is its own kind of Memorial Day. See you at worship, so we can remember together.

Thoughts on Pentecost

This coming Sunday is the Day of Pentecost. Among the Jews, Pentecost was a day to celebrate God's gift of the Sinai Covenant (Ten Commandments) through Moses, fifty days after Passover. Jews from all over the known world sojourned to Jerusalem in order to observe the day. That's why there were Jews from Parthia, Media, Elam, and the like in the "Holy City." God used that moment to energize and equip Jesus' disciples to go out and proclaim the Resurrection Good News among the Jewish pilgrims. The church came to life when inspired disciples began to share the Gospel in the language of the visitors. Can you imagine how it all must have sounded?

Martin Luther once said that the Church was a "mouth-house" not a "pen-house." He envisioned the church as a people who would talk about Jesus. His sense of things was that the written word is the servant of oral proclamation. The analogy could be made to musical notation. Staffs with clefs, key signatures, time signatures, notes and rests are not music themselves; they are but the printed map to guide in the reproduction of a particular musical work.

You could say the same thing about the printed Bible, I think. The dried, ordered ink on the Bible's page is like the musical score. It must be somehow "vocalized" in order to do its proper work. Perhaps sound waves do not need to be produced (God's Word can be received by the deaf, after all), but nonetheless, the ink on the page needs some kind of sensory interpretation. In order to be God's Word for us, it must also be received. The old rhetorical question on this topic goes like this: If no one heard the tree fall, did it make a sound?

I suppose a church blog is something like that, too. It has life only when people are engaged by the words here and use them as a springboard for their own conversation and/or witness.

Your comments will help these electronic ink spots sing!

Welcome to Lakeside Lines!

The Reformation happened during a time when Gutenberg's movable type printing press was revolutionizing communication. Martin Luther's 95 Theses spread like wildfire through this new technology.

Today, anybody with a computer can publish their thoughts on a blog. I wonder what Martin Luther would have done with such an opportunity. Any thoughts?