This week I get to do a little sabbatical breaking and go to the convention of the Florida-Georgia District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.
If you’re unfamiliar, this is a business meeting of the churches in our District. Just under 200 churches will be represented, each with two votes – one for their pastor, and one of a selected layperson (our layperson is Andrew Cheyne). At this convention, we will be voting on some things like boring bylaw revisions, some things that should probably be no-brainers like supporting Lutheran schools as mission outposts, some potentially controversial things like how we train pastors, and some more out of the norm things like how we regard this thing called “Zionism” in our churches. We will also vote on some leaders, including myself as regional vice president for our region, and our own Joel Holcombe for the Nominations Committee.
All of this can be a little much to think about, especially if you’re just used to thinking locally about your own congregation. We can really wonder how helpful it is to have a circuit (about 7 churches around us), a region (about 30 churches), a district (about 200), or a national Synod (a little over 6,000). Perhaps you may even bemoan the fact that we have a denomination, since Jesus Himself prayed that we “would be one, even as You [the Father] and I [Jesus] are one…..” (John 17)
But if you think about it, we gather together in groups so that we can accomplish things bigger than ourselves. We gather so that we can more fully grasp the vision that the God of the Universe has for us. His vision is no small vision. No one church can accomplish it by themselves. But likewise, each church is responsible for that action.
At our last convention, 3 years ago, our congregation put forth a resolution that each church should pray outloud on Sunday morning for God to raise up pastors, church workers, and lay leaders. I personally thank Dr. Fuelberg for the idea for that resolution. You’ve heard that prayer in our sanctuary every Sunday since. This year also we did something unheard of, we sent 3 young men to the Seminary. God heard our prayer and answered it. Imagine if all the other congregations would pray the same prayer – or perhaps took it upon themselves to pray for something different but also important.
This is what we do as the broader church. We look for places where our congregations can share ideas, raise up leaders, and seek to follow God’s will. So if you have some time this Thursday through Saturday, do a little praying for our convention, that we would grasp even just a part of God’s vision for us and begin prayer and work that aligns with it.