| As
we look forward to a new church and calendar year, I have been thinking and praying
about what that year will look like and what God is calling us to do. I am reminded
that since it is the year of Matthew we will once again hear Jesus' emphasis on
our call to "baptize and teach" as seen through the eyes of the evangelist.
As a synod we have heard God's call for us to make Christ known, and we have committed
ourselves to "empowering, equipping and encouraging" one another in
this work. As
a synod staff, we have identified four major priorities that will shape the next
steps of our journey together. These four priorities are: Leadership
Support: How do we best support our clergy and lay leaders in congregations, conferences,
synod and churchwide ministries? How do we equip and sustain one another in our
shared work as leaders? Mission
Interpretation: How do we best discern and interpret God's mission for us, and
invite others to participate? How do we communicate and celebrate our reason for
existence? As congregations, conferences, and a synod? Stewarding
our Relationships: How do we best care for one another? Listen to one another?
Challenge and support and love one another? Stewardship:
How is God calling us to give ourselves away? How do we respond in these days
of scarcity and consumerism, of anxious concern and continued abundance? We
see these as areas of both challenge and opportunity, areas which both require
and invite attention, areas where renewed effort promises to bear fruit. In
line with these priorities I will be making visits throughout our synod in January
and February. I come for two conversations: one on stewardship and another on
the sexuality study for the ELCA. In early January, the ELCA's task force on sexuality
will make public their recommendations. These recommendations will be considered
by the Churchwide Assembly in August of this next year. It will be good for us
to talk together about what they might mean and how we are called to respond.
I will also have with me my assistant, John Rehl, who will help us address the
issue of stewardship in the life of the Church today. I believe that our stewardship
of God's abundance is one of the most pressing spiritual matters before us today,
and so it will good for us to talk together about what this means and how we are
called to respond.
I look forward to these visits as conversations, important times for us to listen
to one another and learn from one another as we faithfully endeavor to fulfill
our call to baptize and teach. We are finalizing the details, but the tentative
schedule in each conference will include two gatherings, one for rostered leaders
in the afternoon and an evening session for all interested persons in our congregations.
I look forward to your participation in these gatherings. I will be mailing the
full details of these gatherings to all of you in the coming weeks. I
know that these are uncertain times for the church, but the promise we have as
the body of Christ is that he is always with us. After Jesus told his disciples
to "Go and make disciples of all nations…. baptizing and teaching them…"
he also said, "Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
In the confidence of that promise from God may we faithfully baptize and teach.
Your
Brother in Christ, Bishop
Jim Stuck
(reprinted
from the November, 2004 I-K Synod Epistle)
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