Freed in Christ To Serve

 

Monday August 15, 2011

Freed in Christ to Serve

Orlando Florida: I find myself feeling very grateful to be a replacement for Pastor Pedro Suarez at the ELCA National Assembly in the Marriott World Center.  After literally landing in bed at 3:30 am Monday morning we awoke to the gathering of people from all over the world.  I began to taste the vastness of our church when Pastor Josephus the President of the Lutheran Church in Haiti was on my right and Pastor Phil Leer from North Dakota was on my left on the plane out of Minneapolis, Sunday evening.  Pastor Josephus asked if I was at all familiar with the Lutheran presence in Haiti; that conversation lasted a while with our mutual connection to Gladys Mungo serving Haiti’s Children, Inc.

We began under the theme “Freed in Christ to Serve.” At our first plenary we adopted the rules of organization and procedure as well as the Order of Business; with 946 people in attendance.  Before every action we pray and after each action we sing. 

I am amazed at the leadership abilities of Bishop Mark Hanson.  He leads with grace and a touch of humor that is appreciated by the community gathered.  The last time I was a voting member we did not have these wonderful high tech voting remotes that give the churchwide assembly the results in a few seconds.  In a blink of any eye, we learned that over 15% of our voting group was less than 30 and over 50% were at this event for the first time.  We are simply getting our bearings for the rest of the week.

The next step was worship – Oh my, it was a worship that touched all five of my senses; which means it moved me!  Bishop Hanson’s sermon stimulated us to ask the question: “Like Mary, are we as a church ready to be moved by the power of the spirit?”  It was a message that caused all of us to catch our breath and ponder with Mary the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  He held my feet to the question and concluded with—“by adjournment Friday, we will have given our answer!”   Imagine 1500 people singing with energy, sermon proclaimed powerfully and courageously, meal distributed beautifully, music performed lively and even the people worshipping joined in movement as we left the worship space.  These are the gifts of the people coming together. 

After supper we jumped into Plenary 2 with an introduction to Living into the Future initiative and the proposed Social Statement on Genetics.  But the highlight of the evening was the ELCA Malaria Campaign; where we voted to approve an appeal through our congregations across the world to raise 15 million dollars to eradicate malaria by the year 2015.   We set a goal so big that only God can accomplish it.  My heart was pleased to note the work we have already done to begin this work at Covenant!  Work was done and sleep was welcomed!  It was the end of the first day!