tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8751647840670538354.post5350788638641554244..comments2024-01-25T14:45:53.444-08:00Comments on Pastor Lura N. Groen: For my Dear Lay Leaders, who wish their pastor would take a stronger stand for JusticeLurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16127222848209940044noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8751647840670538354.post-71257153248651248092017-01-28T16:11:19.861-08:002017-01-28T16:11:19.861-08:00I'm so glad you shared this here, even though ...I'm so glad you shared this here, even though it is painful to read. <br /><br />I believe you. And your experience shows how badly the ELCA has failed to live up to our ideals. In theory, we (meaning, as I did on the blog, Lutherans, and most other protestants) believe in the priesthood of all believers. That is, that God uses all people of faith, and that clergy, although we have some specific jobs to do, are no more holy, no closer to God, than anyone else. <br /><br />"Lay Leader" means any leader who is not ordained or consecrated- any leader who isn't clergy. So council members and Sunday school teachers and worship leaders and trusted voices and volunteers, etc. Perhaps my using the term was an example of the problem itself. <br /><br />I am so, so sorry that we, the ELCA, failed you, and didn't value your thoughts and insights. I'm committed to trying to do better.Lurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16127222848209940044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8751647840670538354.post-28945488115296503582017-01-28T15:56:50.324-08:002017-01-28T15:56:50.324-08:00Thanks very much for your post, but it strikes me ...Thanks very much for your post, but it strikes me as extremely foreign to my experience. In my opinion, the very last thing most pastors in the ELCA value are the thoughts, or dare I even say, insights, of lay leaders. (I'm not even sure what a lay leader is, tbh.) When I read, "[W]e believe that lay people are just as likely to be doing the work of God as the clergy," who is the "we" in that statement? Yes, I have certainly met a small handful of pastors who would support such an assertion, but generally speaking I don't think the average ELCA pastor has been trained to even think in these terms.<br /><br />I've spent a great deal of time in the Roman Catholic Church, The Episcopal Church, and the ELCA. I've been quite active at all three expressions of the ELCA, and I can honestly say that at least in my experience, the ELCA is by far the most clerical church of the three. Our church, at its very best, is church for the sake of the world. Mostly though, we are the church for the sake of the church, and far too often, we are simply church for the sake of employing the pastor—-which I think is why we have more pastors now than when the ELCA was founded, while the lay membership in congregations continues to decline rapidly.Dale Loepphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13309365301432442153noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8751647840670538354.post-81256101232503095672017-01-28T10:43:43.791-08:002017-01-28T10:43:43.791-08:00AMEN, AMEN, AMEN!!!AMEN, AMEN, AMEN!!!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16879482089685642095noreply@blogger.com