ON TO ONTARIO

In just a few days I will leave for a week in Hamilton, Ontario to attend a week-long Summer Institute offered by the Allelon Movement. I have signed up for two courses: "Mission-Shaped Groups - Structures for Missional Formation" and "Missional Church - Its Nature and Purpose." I will fly out toward Toronto, Canada on Sunday after worship so I can get to Hamilton, Ontario in time for Monday morning's first session at 8 a.m. .

It may sound rather odd for me to say that I am "going back to school" for a week, but it is something I have been thinking about for some time.

The classes will meet Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and they are being held at "The Freeway," a church that is part of the "emerging church" movement that operates its own café that serves the public from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Look it up on the web at http://www.frwy.ca/

My reason for going to this Summer Institute is so I can become part of a "Learning Community" of church leaders from Canada and the United States, leaders who are actively involved in working with churches on the local level. The point of the Institute is to provide us with an opportunity to gather together with people who are "on the same wavelength" when it comes to working for the transformation of the church in North America.

There's a certain irony to this whole experience. As a pastor in the Metro New York Synod, I am already involved in a "movement" in the church that encourages us to "travel together" in the ministry of the gospel. That's actually what the word "Synod" means. It means, loosely translated, that we are traveling the "same way together" (Greek: "sun" = "same" and "odos" (pronounced "ho dos" = "way"). My experience for the past 20 years (at least ) since the formation of the ELCA Metro NY Synod, however, has not actualized this potential. We simply have not yet found a way as ELCA Lutherans to really walk the "same way."

It's really no wonder to me that we are witnessing the rapid decline of many churches in Metro New York. God intended that we should be in this work together, yet in truth we are not. We (pastors and churches) still work largely in isolation from one another, even though there is clearly more strength in numbers.

I believe that it doesn't have to be that way forever. That's why I'm making this journey and spending a lot of money. It won't be a vacation. In fact, if all goes well, it will probably require even more work from me (and you) as we begin looking for new ways to embrace the mission God is already carrying out among us. For some of us it will mean taking more time to study and pray together. For others it will lead into new areas of active ministry with people from outside our congregation. For all of us it will be necessary for us to grow spiritually.

So here is my "fair warning." Please keep me in your prayers and pray for our future together. I am excited about what God has done among us in the past, and I am eagerly looking forward to what God is going to do among us in the months and years ahead. There is so much God wants to do with us, and if we are open to the leading of God's Holy Spirit, we will see many new things emerge from within us.