Pr. Platz has served as Chaplain of a multi-faceted campus ministry that provides opportunities for gathering for Word and Sacrament, programs, counseling, service and leadership development. She will soon retire after 47 years in the ministry, which has included the development of the CARing Project and En Camina after school programs engaging students in the community of Langley Park adjacent to the campus and meeting needs of the elementary school there.

“Seed planter” is a way Pr. Platz has described her ministry. “The very momentary nature of ’seed planting’ means that all that is done, each seed provided, should be as fine as it can be. Accepting this role means the willingness to accept and trust the ministry of others never met, the caring of the church beyond itself, and above all, the work of the Holy Spirit…” as quoted in the bulletin from the worship service.

The Rev. Ray Ranker, who will continue planting seeds on campus after Pr. Platz’ retirement, has submitted these photographs from the celebration.

The Rev. Amy Thompson Sevimli delivered her report via video.

The Rev. Amy Thompson Sevimli, Assistant to the Bishop, gave her report by video because she was unable to be present at the assembly.
 
She gave highlights of what she is working on:
 
•         Bethany Lutheran has sold its building, and 80 percent of the funds from the sale went to planting new congregations.
•         Cristus Victor Lutheran has received funds from the sale of Bethany. It is restarting as River of Grace Lutheran.

She provided young adult ministry updates:
 
•         Project Connect – An initiative of three seminaries to help 18- to 30-year-olds determine their roles in the church, particularly if they are interested in rostered ministry.
•         Based on meeting him during the start of her work with the synod, Pr. Sevimli said the words of the keynote speaker are worth paying attention to, and he talks about things that we can put to use in the synod.
 
There are three congregations in the synod that have grown their ministries with young adults. These congregations have the following characteristics in common:
 
•         They have the support of the senior pastor.
•         There is dedicated staff time to this ministry.
•         One-on-one meetings are happening.
 
She indicated that she is available to help congregations as they seek to connect with young adults. She invited congregations to be in touch with her to request her help.
 
The Rev. Connie Thomson, the new mission developer for River of Grace Lutheran in Manassas, Virg., was introduced and spoke about starting a congregation over again. She thanked those present for their support of the congregation and said that one way to help her is to serve in their own communities. “When your congregations grow, ours will grow,” she said.

There is a small verse of scripture that has brought me great comfort lately. It’s buried among the Easter stories, in Matthew’s Gospel. According to Matthew’s telling, the followers of Jesus return to Galilee, their home country, after the resurrection. There Jesus comes to be with them, to teach them and to bless them. And it says (this is Matthew 28:17), “When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.” They worshipped him, but some doubted.

I love this verse first of all for its honesty. It rings true. Of course, some of the disciples doubted. They knew that Jesus had been executed and buried. They still had their questions, even with him standing in front of them. And yet he trusts them. He sends them out with his full authority to make disciples everywhere in the world. He promises to be with them, “to the end of the age.”

And I love this verse, too, because I think it applies to us. We worship our Lord Jesus because we love him, because we know that we belong to him. Through the course of our lives we have felt his power and his presence. And we know other people who have followed him and who have set us examples of decency and compassion. We want to be like them. We want to be like Jesus.

Place of Doubt

Yet we have our doubts. Increasingly, I think we wonder if worshipping Jesus and following him is making any difference. We find ourselves surrounded by people who don’t share our faith (some of whom don’t seem to have a religious faith at all) but whose lives go on very nicely. In this prosperous, powerful part of the world, Christian faith always gets a certain honorable lip-service. But is anybody’s life actually marked by faith in Jesus?

And does it make any difference if we do anything together? Busy as we all are, hard as everybody works, given so many opportunities to amuse ourselves and educate ourselves, what does it mean to be part of anything much larger than out family? Do we need a local community to support our faith? Do we need something like a synod?

If I believed I was the only one thinking these thoughts, I would keep them to myself. But I know that people everywhere are asking themselves how our faith matters. And they are asking themselves if, really, they need anyone else. Abstract answers to these concerns don’t carry much conviction any more. But concrete answers, based on what we can actually see, do matter.

Concrete Occurrences

Let me try these:

• I worshipped and preached yesterday at St. John Lutheran Church in Riverdale, Maryland. It was the congregation’s 90th anniversary celebration. There have been struggles here through the years, and questions about whether the congregation should close. But there were ten children for the children’s sermon, and three young people from an African Lutheran family assisting in worship. The meal after worship was catered and served by students from the University of Maryland Campus Ministry, who donated what they earned to the ELCA Malaria Campaign.
• The property of Bethany Lutheran Church in Forestville, Maryland, was donated to the synod when the congregation closed. After several months, the property has been sold. The congregation’s decisions, and the Synod Council’s, mean that there will be money for the ELCA to use for new missions around the country. The synod will eventually use close to $600,000 for ministry in Prince George’s County. Another $300,000 was deposited in a Virginia bank to help secure a mortgage for Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Haymarket, Virginia.
• People at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Manassas, Virginia, decided to open a new chapter in their history. They placed their congregation under the care and administration of the Synod Council. The council called Pastor Connie Thomson to move the ministry in new directions, with funding providing partly through an ELCA grant. The congregation renamed itself River of Grace Lutheran Church to mark its new beginning.
• At a meeting last week of pastors who have come to the synod in the last year, two of the new pastors were Ethiopian immigrants who were raised up for rostered ministry through our synod’s Candidacy Committee. The two serve as associate pastors in large suburban congregations where the membership is overwhelmingly European American.
• Mara Schleicher and some others in our synod challenged us to fill a shipping container with goods for the children’s hostels in Namibia. Everywhere I went last fall, congregations were receiving gifts of money for the project, and hats and books and soccer balls. (In two congregations where I visited there were contests after worship to see who could deflate a soccer ball quickest – they were trying to save space in the container.) Local contacts with the Namibian embassy led to the elimination of import duties on the goods.
• A group of us from the synod went to El Salvador last summer to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the independent Lutheran church there. There were armed guards everywhere, and signs of a church faithful in the midst of great adversity.  When our group returned, it made plans to ask the synod to support better salaries for Salvadoran pastors. Local Salvadoran members of synod congregations are part of the team for planning future actions.
• Driving off to preach one Sunday morning, I heard on the radio that people evicted from the “Occupy DC” camp in MacPherson Square had been welcomed into temporary shelter at Luther Place Memorial Church. By way of my Emergency Fund, the synod provided money the protesters needed to do their laundry.

A Pattern?

I could go on and on like this. I know the evidence is anecdotal. I know you can say there isn’t any pattern here. But I think there is a pattern. I think the pattern is one we know by heart in Christ’s Church. I think the pattern is: Life springing out of death.

The Christian witness in our synod is alive and vibrant today. I see signs of that vibrancy in many places as I travel. I see signs of life of where death would certainly seem to have the upper hand. Some of the signs of life are small. Most of them spring out of difficult decisions, and controversy. But in places where something has been allowed to change and to die, something new is coming to life.

Many of the signs of life I see call into question the institutional forms of our common life. How much change can we tolerate? How should we organize ourselves if we want to be quick and responsive with our help for one another? How can we let each other know if one of us has a really good idea? Who is responsible for saying “no” when that is necessary? What kind of authority will we give each other in our synod? Who will pay for all of this, and how?

But the Lord Jesus is moving among us. In the midst of some controversies we can’t seem to shake, struggling to recover from a great recession, we know that we are people whose witness matters. And increasingly we seem to recognize that we are counter-cultural people. Our Christian faith makes us question the materialism around us, the “it’s all about me” around us. We raise our voices for the poor and the young. We encourage questions. We sacrifice for the common good. We say that Jesus Christ is the light of the world.

Bravery

I want us all to be braver about sharing our faith. My prayer is for each one of us, every member of every congregation and ministry, to be able to say why Jesus matters in our lives. I want us to talk about what Jesus is asking us to be, so that with our neighbors and co-workers and friends we can give a reason for the hope that sustains us. In a world where hope is in such short supply, I long for us to be faithfully hopeful.

I know this is hard. I know that some of us associate talking about Jesus with coercion and condescension toward others. I know that some of us don’t really like to talk to others about our faith unless we’re sure ahead of time they’ll agree with us. I know that some of us remember when churches could grow and prosper without much talking about faith at all.

And I know that some things that we have done together have faded from the life of our synod. I know that we are united to each other by networks of common concern more and more, united to each other by formal structures less and less. Everything is different.

But our Lord Jesus promised to be with his disciples forever, and he promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against his Church. If the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church, the shifts and twists of American culture surely will not harm it. And we are blessed to be about the Lord’s business together. There is an excitement and an enthusiasm in our synod that makes me proud. We seem to know that among all the changes and chances of our present life, Jesus is calling us into something deeper and richer. I am not sure what our future will be. I know we will be blessed as the future is revealed.

Gratitude

So thank you for the opportunity to be your bishop and to share your lives of struggle and faith. In the other members of the synod staff I have the very best people in the world to work with. My family supports me and graciously makes room for all the commitments of a bishop’s life. I know you hold me in your prayers.

And I pray for you, too. I pray that in the midst of our doubts, our questions and our confusion, we may know together what will make for the glory of God and the good of our neighbors. I pray that we will become more and more what Jesus will have us to be, so that now and forever we can live in his presence.

In His name,
The Rev. Richard H. Graham
Bishop
Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

As a member of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Woodbridge, Virginia, Amanda learned from her pastor about the children who live in sparsely populated areas of Namibia and the work being done in children’s hostels by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN). Many of the children have been orphaned by epidemics of AIDS, malaria and TB, and all are vulnerable. The 19 ELCRN hostels care for 1,650 children with a place to live, food to eat and an education.

Amanda did some research. She learned that the hostels need many things, including clean, warm bedding. She knew just what to do. Amanda recruited helpers using social media tools, including Facebook and YouTube, and taught them to crochet “granny squares” which could be made into blankets for the hostels. With the help of friends, collected squares are assembled into 36-by-60 inch blankets.

The result is that the Metro D.C. Synod delegation traveling to Namibia in May will be carrying more than 35 warm blankets for the children’s hostels!

For more information about Amanda’s project, visit her Facebook page (www.facebook.com/CareSquares). Haven’t heard yet about the Gold Award, but with or without it we’re very proud of her.

Excerpted from article by Kathy Tobias

“More than half the population of Namibia are Lutheran Christians,” says the Rev. Bob Allard, synod Global Missions Committee who will travel with our delegation to this nation along the west coast of Africa. “[We] share Companion Synod relationships with the three Lutheran church bodies in Namibia – two indigenous (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia and Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia) and an all-German church (German Evangelical Lutheran Church). Nineteen Metro D.C. Synod congregations have sister congregations in Namibia.”

Work with children’s hostels, reception of visiting pastors, and provision of financial assistance for seminary students are a few of the many ministries shared between Companion Synods. In addition to Metro D.C., other ELCA synods with this relationship in Namibia are New Jersey, Northeast Iowa and Southwestern Washington, who will also be present for the Lutheran Churches Consultation.

Crosses hand-made by a member of a Metro D.C. Synod congregation will be presented to four Namibian bishops by Bishop Graham during the trip. Thirty-six lovingly stitched afghans will be given to children’s hostels, and funds raised through the Metro D.C. Synod’s Gifts of Hope appeal for sewer system repair, seminary books and hostel needs will be delivered.

“Following the Consultation, the entire delegation will visit churches and diaconal programs throughout the country. They will share in worship services, bring greetings, deliver messages, enjoy great singing and reconnect with Namibian pastors who have visited and served in Metro D.C. Synod congregations,” describes Pr. Allard. A journey through a game park will even be squeezed in to the trip.

Assistance from the Marylanders, with family and personal ties in the area and faith-ties to help the neighbor, was well received. Hear a brief report on the efforts from the Harrisburg-area television station.

Below are the results from the survey. Our Table felt that knowing some of the practices would show us how we can serve as a helpful resource.

In addition, we will lift up some BEST PRACTICES we’ve learned about in the months to come. This month, we want to focus in on writing a Mission Letter that accompanies a giving update to your members. Bold type in the survey results below indicate a best practice we will be lifting up in future months.

SURVEY RESULTS

1) Does your congregation prepare a Narrative Budget?
               Yes-  40.4%      No- 59.6%
2) Do you ask your members to make a financial pledge each year?
                Yes- 88%      No- 12%
3) If you ask for financial pledges, does everyone in the church get the same letter or do you send different letters?
                Same Letter-  86.4%      Different Letter 13.6%
4) Do you send Thank You Letters if someone makes a pledge?
                Yes- 52.2%      No- 47.8%
5) Does your congregation print the weekly giving and expenses in the worship bulletin?
                Yes- 26%      No- 74%
6 & 7) Do you send “individual giving updates” to your church donors/members during the course of the year?  If so, how often?
                Monthly 4.2 %  (2 churches)
                Quarterly 66.1% (31 churches)
                Bi-Annual  4.2% (9 churches)
                Annual   4.2% (2 churches)
                Never   6.4% (3 churches)
8 ) If you send an “individualized giving update” to your members during the year, do you send a Mission Update Letter (i.e. celebrating your ministry in some way)
               Yes-  27.7% (13 churches)     No-  72.3% (37 churches)
9) Does your congregation offer an electronic giving option?
                Yes-  82% (41 churches)      No- 18% (9 churches)

BEST PRACTICE: MISSION LETTER

Here’s what we’d like to suggest. Send a well-crafted, brief, one-sided Mission Letter with your giving statement. Many of you already send at least a quarterly giving update, reminding the individual giver how much they have contributed, which is important. Sending other correspondence with it can give donors something more.

1) Speak about your congregation’s mission, how you are changing lives, or some ambitious goal that you are starting to tackle.
2) Be upbeat and hopeful but challenge people to grow in generosity.
3) Use pictures whenever you can as people are drawn to images.
4) Ideally the person writing this should be the one who has the most influence over the mission of the congregation- THE PASTOR or Council President. If you can, initial or sign all of these letters in blue ink. (The extra effort to show your members/donors you care is well worth the extra effort!)

Download this sample Mission Letter (pdf file), “Off to a Good Start,” to see an example of the impact a Mission Letter can have. Also available is a reproducable Survey Results and a Best Practice handout from which this blog post is taken.

If you need any assistance, or would like an outside perspective on a draft you have written, please contact me (pastordavegoserve.net) or the Rev. Phil Hirsch (phirschmetrodcelca.org).

Editor’s note: The Rev. Dave Sonnenberg is chair of the synod’s Stewardship and Mission Table

A YAGM group explores their surroundings, here at a cave in Petra, Jordan.

“People here have said that if you’re here for a week, you want to go home and write a book about it; for a month, you want to write an article; for a year, you’re too frustrated to write anything at all,” relays Michelle Steiner of her experience in Jerusalem with the ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) program*. But she tackles the task in her latest news update (dated March 1, 2012).

“Every day that I am here is another day of experiences that fills out the ideas of ‘occupation’ and ‘conflict’ in my mind, adding more and more facets to my awareness of the situation. As much as I feel obligated to convey my experiences and observations of life here, I also feel obligated to not rush to judgments without a full understanding of the context, or at least as complete of an understanding as is possible over the course of several months,” Steiner writes.

Striving to be “neither watered down nor sensationalized,” Steiner describes with words and pictures the political situation in which she is immersed.** Read her observations in her full update (pdf file).

** Steiner invites questions regarding the observations she’s shared. “I will do my best to provide an answer or point you to a resource that may be helpful. You can do so by going to the ‘questions’ page on my blog (http://michellesyagm.wordpress.com/questions/) and leaving a comment.”

Any outdated features in your church building? Renovations to churches were highlighted in Construction Executive magazine, including a project at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in McLean, Virginia.

Front and center in the piece was an inviting picture of the church’s glowing entry on an evening’s street view.

The economic downturn delayed dreams for many worshipping communities that wanted to expand or update according to the article, “But churches aren’t in the business of giving up. They have faith, perseverance and a mission to serve their communities.”

Read ideas and experiences in “Giving Their All” by Joanna Masterson (Constructive Executive, September 2011).

Using ashes as a sign of repentance is an ancient practice, often mentioned in the Bible*. The imposition of ashes is often practiced at the beginning of the season of Lent.

The Washington Post did a short piece on the bus stop opportunity on Wed., Feb. 22. See a series of photos online.

Ashes symbolize several aspects of our human existence:

• Ashes remind us of God’s condemnation of sin, as God said to Adam, “Dust you are and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). 
• They suggest cleansing and renewal. They were used anciently in the absence of soap. On Ash Wednesday ashes are a penitential substitute for water as a reminder of our baptism. 
• Ashes remind us of the shortness of human life, for it is said as we are buried: “earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” 
• They symbolize our need to repent, confess our sins, and return to God.

* See Jonah 3:5-9; Job 42:6; Jeremiah 6:26; Matthew 11:21.