Last week when I gave my February Pastor's Report to the Congregation Council, I ended the list of items with the words "The Elephant."
I'm not sure anyone really noticed the item until I reached it as I went down the list. No one asked me what it meant, and no one knew what it meant either.
What I was referring to was the informal discussion that has been going on between members of the Council and even among staff members about my future as pastor of Hope. What caused the discussion to arise is the fact that this spring, at our Metro NY Synod Assembly, we will elect a new bishop for our synod after having Steve Bouman serve in that office for nearly twelve years, the longest term of any bishop of our synod since the 1988 merger that formed the ELCA.
Why were church members talking about me? Those who know me best know that I have been very active in leadership roles over the 25 years I've served as pastor at Hope. I was Conference President for the Long Island Conference of the Eastern District of the ALC prior to the merger. I was also active in the work of the Lutherans Cooperating in Metro New York Evangelism Committee for several years, in which role I organized several large scale evangelism events for the churches of Long Island and offered evangelism workshops as well.
Then as the ELCA was being formed, I was drawn into the work of the "Transition Team" that formed the Metro New York Synod. I was eventually chosen to serve on the Synod Council for several years, and that was followed by an appointment to serve as the Metro NY Synod representative to the Region 7 Coordinating Council for a four-year term that lasted five years.
Along the way I also served for two 2-year terms as Dean of the Peconic Conference after which I was selected to serve for two years as chair of the Synod Re-organization Task Force. Now I am serving the second half of my second 4-year term as Dean of the conference (a total so far of ten years as Dean), and I am a Coordinator for and chair of the Commission for Evangelical Outreach and chair of the synod's Mission Planning Team.
All these things have been uncompensated volunteer responsibilities (except for a small stipend I receive as one of the three coordinators for the Commission for Evangelical Outreach.)
So again, why are members talking about me? I think it's because when they look at this synod resume, they think my name will be on the list of potential candidates for the office of bishop.
It's flattering to be thought so highly of by members of our congregation and staff. I am honored just by the thought that I could serve in such an important role in the church. But I think that with respect to our synod, I have probably reached my "peak" of responsibility. We have a very liberal synod, even for the ELCA, and from the very beginning our synod's bias has been clearly focused on the urban character of this great Metropolis in which we live. I am a native Long Islander who is still impressed by the huge buildings in Manhattan and goes into the city mainly for meetings. I am used to spending hours on the LIE and the LIRR just to get places, and I still think of everything beyond the bridges as "upstate."
The reason I put this item on the list for the Pastor's Report is that the discussion that was going on made me realize that as a congregation we all need to be thinking about what the future holds for us. Now that I am getting to the age when people start asking, "Are you thinking about retirement?" I realize that I need to be thinking about what our future as a church should be.
What does our future have in store for us at Hope? What should we be striving towards during the next six or seven years before I reach the traditional "retirement age?" How am I going to continue to provide helpful and useful leadership for Hope during the remaining years God gives me to serve here?
As important as these questions are to me personally, I know that I cannot answer them on my own. We need to be asking these questions together and working to develop a strategic plan for the foreseeable future. That's why I proposed to the Council that this spring we should select people who have the gifts we need to provide leadership in planning our church's future. Who should be on this team? I think that 4 or 5 really gifted people are enough to get the ball rolling if we empower them to do so. If we organize our efforts carefully, a small group can stimulate a response from many of our members. That way the end product will be the result of a large-scale collaborative effort rather than just a collection of the exotic ideas of a select few.
In my mind THAT'S the elephant we need to talk about. Let's pray and think together about how God can carry out His mission here through us in the years we still have together. I am confident that if we get started on that now, the future will be full of exciting outcomes and miraculous results.
