Devin Strong, Spirit of Peace Lutheran Church

There are many wonderful things about church, including the dear friends that we make, the uplifting songs that we get to sing, and of course, the homemade goodies afterwards, but the one thing that absolutely everybody hates about church is the politics of it—whether it’s the cliques and the unwritten rules in the local congregation or the policies and procedures of the larger denomination.

I am the first to admit that the politics of the Christian Church have done their damage in the world, from so many white churches that quietly going along with the Jim Crow laws during the Civil Rights era in this country, to the Lutheran Church in Germany’s complicity with the Nazis during World War Two, all the way back to the Christians’ war with the Muslims during the Crusades. Religious politics can be awful, and certainly in our time, modern Lutherans have had their problems with the politics of our denomination, especially when the larger church appears to be more progressive than individual Lutherans or their congregations.

As you read this, I will be attending our annual Synod Assembly, a regional gathering of Lutherans from across the Southeast, held this year May 28th-30th in Columbus, Georgia. At this regular meeting, we will engage with other Lutherans—both pastors and lay people. We will hear reports of the good things that the church in all its forms has accomplished in the last year.

We will hear from speakers and attend workshops. We will study the Bible together and enjoy great worship. We will also debate resolutions that set church policy and encourage the general direction of the larger church.

For all the hassles and dangers of church politics, I write to you today to lift up and celebrate what can happen when people of faith get together in larger groups.

For one thing, when we come together and decide to speak, we speak with a much louder voice than any one of us speaking alone, and likewise, when the church decides to act as a group, we can act with much more power and effectiveness than any one of us acting alone. We can multiply resources and get more done, as when we decide to feed hungry children, clean up after a natural disaster, or stand up against injustice.

More than that, when Christians come together in larger groups, we can hear diverse opinions and understand perspectives that we have not considered before. We can also hear from topic experts on issues that we do not have time to study on our own.

Nobody likes it when a group that they are a part of makes a decision that they do not agree with, but this is part of life in the human community. Whenever human beings

get together, there will be differing opinions. This can happen with groups as small as the nuclear family! The only alternative to diverse communities is for all of us to remain in our own individual cubicles, accomplishing nothing of consequence.

As for the Lutheran Synod Assembly, two lay people and the pastor are encouraged to attend from every congregation. The design means that lay people should outnumber the professional clergy two to one, keeping crazy pastors from getting too far afield from where our congregations are. Please pray for the Southeastern Synod as we meet in Assembly this weekend. Pray that we make God-honoring decisions, and remember that politics can be a good thing!