by Bishop Bill Gohl
The problem, in my analysis, becomes exponentially worse when you hear from the pool of candidates we are raising especially for ordained ministry in this church. Our candidates feel ill-equipped to serve in places that are isolated, "too conservative," or who want their leaders to provide a broad range of ministry leadership, some of which is "outside my level of comfort and giftedness." Some of our metro areas are experiencing a glut of candidates waiting for calls in places that work for a spouse’s work or familial circumstances, and there are other areas where congregations wait for years before a candidate is available to serve, and then lives with the fragile fear of turnover just a few years later. Though our synod doesn’t have tremendous struggles with this phenomenon, there are places, like the Eastern Shore and Allegany County, where the wait sometimes seems interminable, and places like Baltimore, Wilmington and Frederick where the wait, generally, moves a lot more quickly.
With some admission that there is no program or recruitment effort that is going to stem this perennial problem that the church is living into, the ELCA Conference of Bishops voted unanimously to call this church into a season of prayer. That call will roll out in the weeks to come, but it is deeply grounded in inviting our congregations, ministries, and the people of God to pray for a new generation of leaders to be raised among us. Praying for vocations is a "recruitment" effort we all can and should get behind for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of the church.
The Lord will raise leaders for this church and the Lord will bring the promised harvest.
A second take-away from the Conference of Bishops was the time we spent with our synod's close neighbor and partner, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Linda Hartke, the President of LIRS, was with us and helped us to understand the rapidly changing landscape of immigration in the age of travel bans, executive orders and the volatile political climate.
LIRS, since 1939, has been resettling refugees – vetted and screened neighbors in need – through the partnership of congregations across this country. Last year, LIRS had some part in resettling nearly 40% of the 85,000 refugees resettled in the United States.
Of course, we are living through times when people are having difficulty distinguishing between immigrants, undocumented persons and refugees. The rhetoric of fear has lumped all of these neighbors into one indistinguishable mass so that out of an "abundance of caution," we simply close the door and leave the most vulnerable of our world to live or die on their own.
While not wandering into the fray caused by yesterday’s Presidential Executive Order, Linda shared an LIRS partner's video. This piece, prepared by UNICEF, helps to clarify what a refugee is and I share it as a helpful part of the conversation unfolding in the body politic across this country.
The care of our neighbor in need is political and it requires hard work for this church to find our one voice with which to advocate for our neighbor in need. After many battles about sexuality, ministry, capital punishment, reproductive rights – and the scars this church bears from all of those hard fought conversations and commitments; now is not the time to abandon our neighbor in need out of convenience, expediency or apathy. The needs are real and lives are on the line. We cannot be found silent out of fear of our neighbor, nor one another.
Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." – Matthew 9:35-38