Cross-Focused Leadership for Missouri

What can we learn from past LCMS Presidents?  We believe they have important lessons to teach all of us – which is why we worked so hard to distribute copies of “At Home in the House of My Fathers,” a collection of essays and speeches from the first five LCMS presidents, translated and edited by Rev. Matt Harrison, to hundreds of delegates at the regional “Blue Ribbon” gatherings earlier this year.  These essays show us how our forefathers dealt with many of the same challenges we face today, and how they successfully overcame them.  We would be wise to learn from their experience.

Now we have another timely historical resource that can inform us even more as we gather in convention to chart a course for the “Good Ship Missouri” in the years ahead.

Issues, Etc. has made available Todd Wilken’s recent interviews with Dr. Martin Noland, Dr. Lawrence Rast, Dr. John Wohlrabe, Dr. Paul Zimmerman and Dr. Ken Schurb on five LCMS presidents from different eras.  Each shows how a pastoral heart and a theological mind worked together by God’s grace in a synod president to meet the needs of the church in his respective day.  These models show us the same cross-focused leadership that we believe is needed today and always among us. 

So, enjoy the podcasts or read the transcripts of the following interviews:

• C.F.W. Walther with Dr. Martin Noland of Trinity Lutheran-Evansville, IN
• Friedrich Wyneken with Dr. Larry Rast of Concordia Theological Seminary-Ft. Wayne, IN
• Friedrich Pfotenhaur with Dr. John Wohlrabe of Concordia Lutheran-Geneseo, IL
• J.A.O. Preus Jr. with Dr. Paul Zimmerman, author of “A Seminary in Crisis”
• A.L. Barry with Dr. Ken Schurb of Zion Lutheran-Moberly, MO

It’s well worth a listen — a transcript is available here.

A few reactions from CFLM members:

Pastor Tom Chryst likes Dr. Martin Noland’s descrption of C.F.W. Walther’s “Theological Mind”:

            NOLAND: …he had a theological mind that applied itself to the issues of the day. Part of the character of a theological mind is the ability to see what the problems are. You don’t always know clearly what they are, but you can say, “Oh, there’s some problem over there and it’s got to be theological, because there’s a whole lot of people. If it’s only one or two people, it could be a personality issue. But if it’s a bunch of people, there’s got to be something on it that’s at root theological. So then the theological mind goes after that and says, “Okay, what’s going on here? Let’s try to find out why are you guys disagreeing. Why are you getting into each others knickers on this?” And then drawing from the resources that we have as our church body, first the Scriptures, and then the Book of Concord, and then Luther’s Works, and then Walther himself had great command of the Orthodox Lutheran theologians. And from those, and in most cases those answer most of the questions, drawing from there and saying, “Hey, brothers, this is where our Lutheran Church has stood on these issues and now let’s bring about some peace on this.”

Pastor Tony Sikora on Dr. Rast’s talk about Friedrich Wyneken:

WILKEN: You’re the historian. Take us back to the mid-nineteenth century. What was the character of the times, the challenges that were facing the fledgling Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod at that time?

RAST: Yes, it was a new synod, and one of many at that point in time. In fact between the years 1840 and 1875 there were no less than fifty-eight distinct Lutheran synods formed here in the United States—no less than fifty-eight! Just incredible the number of Lutheran Synods that were popping up, no less the number of Lutheran congregations that were being formed and Lutheran pastors who were entering in to their ministries. So it was a very dynamic time, a very, very, very uncertain time in a lot of ways.

And one of the things that characterized that uncertainty was about just what it meant to be a Lutheran. There were some different voices that were offering different perspectives on that. Some said it was your ethnicity that was determinative. You know, whether you’re a German or a Fin or an English speaker, you kind of carve out your Lutheranism according to the language that you spoke. Others said, no, it was a matter of really holding to the spirit of Luther, rather than the doctrine of Luther. Theologians like Samuel Schmucker, who taught at Gettysburg, who was a leader in the General Synod, a large Lutheran synod on the United States scene, said that we don’t want to be beholden to older thinking. What we want to do is develop Lutheranism into a progressive movement that really has the courage to step beyond its founder, even if that means discarding some of the doctrinal points that he made. And then there was Wyneken in the Missouri Synod, who said, no, we want to be faithful to the Scriptures above all as rightly confessed by we Lutherans over time in our Lutheran Confessions. So we locate our Lutheran identity in the doctrinal position taught by the Scriptures and affirmed in the Lutheran Confessions, both in the sixteenth century by Luther and his colaborers as well as by us here in the mid-nineteenth century in the face of a lot of confusion and a lot of discord over what it is that the Bible actually teaches. So it was a dynamic time. It was an uncertain time, and Wyneken and his coworkers stepped forward and said, what defines us is our theology.

Rev Paul Cain on Dr Schurb’s talk about A.L. Barry:

I remember “both/and” as important to A. L. Barry. No false choices! Therefore, I loved this part from Dr. Schurb on President Barry:

Faithfulness and outreach. That was the violin string that Al Barry admitted that he played all the time, and he had many different ways of saying it. He talked about doctrine and evangelism, always in the same breath.
Maybe his most evocative way of saying it was, “Keep the message straight, Missouri, and get the message out, Missouri.” And that really was a summation of his career in service to the church and especially his years as synodical president.

He championed what he called a “five-fold vision statement,” which the Synod actually adopted, in fact. And nobody was more pleased with this than Al Barry. They changed it slightly when they adopted it—made it stronger. He wanted to be strong in the Word. That was point number one. Point number two was people-centered and people-sensitive, but the Synod changed that to Christ-centered and people-sensitive. And President Barry thought that was great. It actually made a more strong statement: Christ-centered and people-sensitive. Reaching out boldly with the Gospel—there’s that strong emphasis on outreach and mission. Faithful to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions, and a church body marked by peace and unity. And just about everything he did really was done with that thought in mind.

 Join us in the conversation .. pick out a part of the interviews that really speak to you or affect how you view these presidents, and post it as a comment below.

Synodical politics is a serious business. And it should be. When there are over 6,000 congregations to lead and over 2,000,000 baptized souls to care for, not to mention a fallen world of hurting souls desperately in need of Christ’s Gospel comfort and forgiveness, seriousness is in order. Rev. Matt Harrison understands that, which is why he several years ago wrote a paper entitled “It’s Time: LCMS Unity and Mission.” “It’s Time” is Rev. Harrison’s vision of “The Real Problem We Face and How to Solve It.” If you care about the future of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod but haven’t yet read “It’s Time,” what are you waiting for? It’s time. You will discover in Rev. Harrison’s words a serious man who grasps the seriousness of the issues we face and who is seriously ready to get to work on them. A couple of presidential elections ago in the United States, we heard a lot of about the importance of “gravitas” in a leader. To stand in the same room with Pastor Harrison is to know and experience what is meant by the word “gravitas.”

Yet for all his seriousness, Rev. Harrison is also a Lutheran’s Lutheran. In addition to his reputation for preaching, teaching, and dispensing God’s mercy to His children in need, Pastor Harrison is widely known (and loved) as one who understands what it means to embrace the joy of daily living and live life to the full while not taking himself too seriously. No wonder he wrote a book about it. In A Little Book on Joy: The Secret of Living a Good News Life in a Bad News World (Lutheran Legacy, 2009), Rev. Harrison writes, “Good humor is for the Christian a healthy indication that we know the Gospel and that this life is serious business, but not so serious that we can’t laugh at ourselves and others.” Obviously he understands the value of humor: he plays the banjo and sports a moustache while admitting, tongue in cheek, that “as a synodical bureaucrat, I am after all deeply and profoundly shallow.” We’re not so sure of that. But there is no disputing that he is deeply and profoundly adventurous and maybe a little crazy. Did you happen to catch the video of him riding a zip line at Merimac Caverns in St. Louis?

In his Little Book on Joy, Rev. Harrison relates the time when, during his work among the Cree in Canada, he accidentally left his wife standing in the snow while he went on his merry snow-mobiling way. He drove nearly half a mile before he noticed she was missing from the back of his Ski-doo (he had thought she was sitting right behind him). Thankfully, his wife Kathy is the forgiving sort. She is also undoubtedly a woman of good humor. As presidential speechwriter Peggy Noonan has said, “Humor is the shock absorber of life.” Certainly a good sense of humor helps absorb the shock of being left behind in the snow while your husband takes off down the trail.

In chapter 9 of his book, “The Joy of Family,” Pastor Harrison writes:

“It’s precisely in the family, because of sheer proximity, that we sin against others the most, that we make the most visible mistakes. If we take ourselves too seriously, our lives can be most unbearable. The Gospel of free forgiveness in Christ frees us to expect mistakes, forgive them, and to find the humor in them after the fact.”

Here he’s speaking of our blood-related family, but isn’t this also true of our church family, not only in our congregations but in our church body as a whole? It’s one thing to show generosity to poor, weak orphans in Haiti or needy strangers whose sins we do not know personally. It’s quite another to unconditionally love those whose closeness puts them in a position of being constantly able to inconvenience and cause us trouble! And yet, just as we count on our nuclear family to bear with us, brushing aside our failures and foibles with some good-natured ribbing, we count on our church family to do the same, continuing by God’s grace to take joy in one another and find the humor in our shared journey even as we sometimes have difficulty walking together as a synod.

As we head into the final two weeks before our national synodical convention, we are glad to speak up as two lay women of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod who are overjoyed at the prospect of an LCMS president named Rev. Matthew C. Harrison. Such a thing would be good news indeed, and that’s no secret. Let’s spread the word.

Jenny Jordan and Cheryl Magness

We reached out to some of the voices of support for Rev. Matthew Harrison we’ve been hearing, and asked them to offer their personal perspectives with our readers. Some inspiring testimonies were sent in. Click on any of the photographs below to read what people who know Rev. Harrison have to say about him.

And for something a little different – a video from our friend Rev. Jonathan Fisk in the Philadelphia area. We’ve noticed his fun Video series on YouTube and asked him to chime in on the LCMS convention. This is his regular weekly V-Log, but his comments on Matt Harrison start right around the 4:05 mark.

No one who has ever been forced to lived for a year in a tent or other makeshift housing will ever forget the feelings of depression and helplesness that accompanies that situation.  “Displaced persons,” whether they are displaced due to war, natural disaster, or economic collapse, are the most vulnerable people on our planet.  They are the “sojourners” whose needs are addressed by the Mosaic laws.  The neglect of these people by the rich and powerful resulted in blistering condemnations by God through his Old Testament prophets.  And the New Testament has the same concerns for these uniquely distressed people (James 1:27; 2:13-16, 25).

For this reason, we are overjoyed to see the LCMS World Relief and Human Care department initiate its new “Building Homes and Hope in Haiti” project.  The project has purchased land to build three villages and 300 homes, including an orphanage, medical clinic, school, and chapel in each village.  Behind this we see the experience of LCMS World Relief and Human Care in its “LCMS National Housing Support Corporation.”  We also see behind this the direct, personal interest and experience of its director, the Rev. Matthew Harrison, who led the “Zion/St Peters” housing project in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

All for which we thank our Lord for his gifts to the church, i.e., the talented and dedicated team at LCMS World Relief and Human Care, and for the contributions to the work in Haiti that make this possible.

For more information, see this link:  http://www.worldmag.com/webextra/16744

The workbook for the 2010 regular convention of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has just been published.  That means that it’s time for the delegates to begin their work of studying reports and overtures, and reviewing the candidates for the many offices to be filled.

This year, the entire workbook is available online.  The main portion of the workbook can be found here:

http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/2010%20Convention/convention_wb.pdf

Information about the candidates can be found here:

http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/2010%20Convention/synopses_statements.pdf

A copy of the final report of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Structure and Governance can be found here:

http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=15930

This link includes several resources related to the final report, including Appendix 1, which is the very significant document with proposed changes to the Constitution and Bylaws of the synod.

For delegates:  you will receive printed copies of these books in the mail by early May.  You may share this article and the links above with pastors and lay leaders that you know in your circuit (just copy the web-address of this article into your e-mail message to them).  After they have had an opportunity to read these documents, ask them for their opinions about the candidates and overtures.  This will help you make informed decisions and make your work at the convention much easier. 

May our Lord bless your study and labor on behalf of His church!

Cross-Focused Leadership for Missouri

Pastor Matthew Harrison, the Executive Director of World Relief and Human Care for the Synod and also a nominee for the Presidency of the LCMS, will be at Trinity Lutheran Church and School in Traverse City, Michigan, on Thursday, May 6, and Friday, May 7.

On Thursday, Pastor Harrison will be speaking from 1:00pm- 4:00pm about “Opportunities for the LCMS and World Lutheranism”.  A time for Q&A will also be provided, as well as time to discuss Rev. Harrison’s new book, “A Little Book on Joy”.  We hope many will come and hear Matt’s encouraging reports of mission opportunities that the Lord is placing before our synod.  While this presentation will be geared toward pastors, anyone interested may attend. 

On Friday evening, Pastor Harrison will also talk about missions, but the main topic for his address that evening will be “Living the Good News Life in a Bad News World”.  Copies of “A Little Book on Joy” will be available.  The presentation will be from 7pm – 9pm, with time for Q&A afterwards.  Everyone is invited. 

Reports from previous presentations have been overwhelmingly positive.  People are coming away genuinely encouraged and renewed by Pastor Harrison’s convincing and uplifting teaching. Please let your pastor, your elders, your lay delegate to the national convention, and all your friends know about this great opportunity to meet Pastor Harrison and “share the joy” with their brothers and sisters in Christ.   

  
Pastor Harrison was baptized in a small rural parish, raised in a large suburban church, was a missionary to native Canadians in Ontario, served as a graduate assistant at the seminary in Ft. Wayne, studied in Australia, vicared in Texas, and served as pastor in rural Iowa and inner city Fort Wayne, Indiana. After co-founding a nationally recognized neighborhood renewal project in what was the poorest census tract in Indiana, he became the Executive Director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care and has administered nearly $100,000,000 of charitable giving worldwide. He writes, translates, and speaks extensively. He delights in his wife, Kathy, and two boys, Matthew and Mark. He is an avid bluegrass banjo player and luthier, and finds joy in it all. He is a great speaker, so it will be well worth your while to set aside the time to come and hear him!

If you wish to follow Pastor Harrison’s work more closely, check out his blog at mercyjourney.blogspot.com. You can also check out the work of LCMS World Relief and Human Care at lcms.org/worldrelief.

The Committee for Convention Nominations has published its report of nominees for the numerous offices, boards, and commissions of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.  Its report may be found here:   http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=13531

Since Recommendation #18 of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synodical Structure and Governance proposes to alter the program boards and commissions of the national offices, a number of these nominations may be voided by the convention.  These would be nominations for Board for District and Congregational Services, Board for Mission Services, Board for Pastoral Education, Board for University Education, and Commission on Theology and Church Relations.  If these nominations are voided, the Commitee for Convention Nominations may have to devise an alternative method of nominations for the new boards or commission.

As in previous years, you can expect to see published lists favoring candidates for these offices.  Now would be a good time to sit down with your pastor, or someone else familiar with the synodical scene, and get his opinion on the nominees whose names he recognizes.  You also might try “Googling” the nominee’s name, i.e, entering his or her name in the search field at the Google website, and see what comes up (sometimes adding LCMS to the name helps find the correct person).  All rostered church-workers of the LCMS should, at a minimum, be listed on the LCMS web-site under “Directories,” and possibly on their congregation’s web-site.  The nominations book, with pictures and credentials of all nominees, will be mailed to all delegates in the upcoming months.

Not all nominees will be elected, which is the nature of an election.  If a person you know is a nominee, and not elected in July 2010, you should thank him or her for taking the time to fill out the forms, and for letting their name stand for election.  Congratulations is in order for those who are elected.  Here at Cross-Focused Leadership for Missouri we thank all nominees who have let their name stand for office and who desire to serve their Lord and our church!

You can view the entire video at the PBS Religion and Ethics Newsweekly website.

Quoted near the end of the clip, Pastor Harrison said,

“The strength of the people just absolutely impressed everybody—a woman who just had her arm guillotined with nothing but Tylenol being treated by our doctors, smiling and thanking them for the love. It was an experience that was just overwhelming for our people.

and,

“It’s going to be very important for all the religious community in the United States to come along their faith communities, their denominational partners in Haiti and walk together with them, but especially to realize the strength is there. The strength of the future is in Haiti, not the United States, and the answers to their future are there, not here.”

I don’t like being told to be happy.  As a missionary kid, living in West Africa and attending a missionary boarding school, I heard lots of biblical advice on being joyful.  “God loves a cheerful giver!” and “If you’re sad, it’s because you’re turning your back on God!”  It seemed every time I turned around, “Joy” was a new law I had to follow.  We were told, “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  And should we not be getting “the desires of our hearts,” it was certainly proof-positive that we were failing in the “delighting in the Lord” department.

Me and Joy go way back.  I have some “Joy” baggage.  Because of that, I tend to steer clear of admonitions to “be joyful.” whether they come from a book, a fellow Christian, or a computer-animated singing tomato.

But Pastor Matthew Harrison’s “A Little Book On Joy”  is something completely different than those teachings I experienced so many years ago.  He portrays joy as a gift from our heavenly Father.  What an idea!  According to Pastor Harrison, joy isn’t something we gin up from within ourselves to prove to God that we’re worthy of His blessings, as many Christian authors seem to say.  Instead, joy is something graciously bestowed upon us, by Christ, and in Christ.

From the forward, written by Rev. John Nunes, director of Lutheran World Relief,

The trek Harrison takes us on possesses no quick steps, no self-help remedies, no instantaneous quick fixes or superficial solutions.  With practical, substantive prayer suggestions, reflective questions, and ponder-worthy insights, we are offered Scripture’s nurturing that grows the fruit of the spirit.

So what is within the pages of this “little” book?  A treasure trove of devotional help, to start with.  In the second part of the book, you’ll find short texts for each of ninety days to guide your prayer and meditation.  Although designed to begin with Ash Wednesday, they can certainly be used anytime.   Also included is a brief guide to ordering your prayers, based on a little book Martin Luther wrote for his barber.

In the first half of the book, you’ll find chapter after chapter on different expressions of joy within the Christian life – the joy of the Holy Spirit, the joy of a faithful pastor, the joy of repentance, joy in our weakness, the joy of God’s mission and joy in our everyday life, to name but a few.

In a uniquely Lutheran voice, Pastor Harrison has cast a vision of joy not as a matter of obedience or law, but as a wonderful outpouring of the matchless grace of Jesus, our Prophet, Priest, and King.  Praise be to God for the joy He works within us, despite our many weaknesses, sin and sorrow.

Rev. Matthew Harrison’s “A Little Book  On Joy: Living a Good News Life in a Good News World” is published by Lutheran Legacy Press.  Read more and pre-order the book at the Logia online bookstore.