Before we make up our minds on this, though, I would call attention to the growth and development of the early church as we have it described in Acts and in Paul’s letters.

We know in the Gospels that Jesus called 2, then 4, then eventually 12 men to be his disciples. A number of women also became part of this group, though they were not officially disciples!

At the time of Pentecost, the 12 had grown to 70, and those 70 gathered together “for fear of the Jews” experienced the Holy Spirit as “tongues as of fire” and as the “sound of a rushing wind.” After Peter, and presumably others, preached his sermon, the size of the faithful group grew to about 3000.

Whether one uses 12 apostles or 70 followers, that meant one “pastor” for every 250 or 43 “members” of the Way.

The fellowship continued to grow, and soon the “Hellenists” in the fellowship complained that the needs of their widows and orphans were not being met. So the council of 12 apostles appointed seven deacons to oversee the “hands on” ministry.

Soon after, Paul was added to the number of apostles and his efforts among the gentiles produced more growth and the structure of the church changed again to include Paul’s on-the-ground assistants and bishops, who oversaw groups of congregations.

From church history we know that when the center of Christianity moved from Asia Minor to Rome, church structure changed once more to accommodate different needs; the church then became hierarchical, with the Bishop of Rome being, in essence, the Presiding Bishop of the whole church, with other bishoprics and dioceses formed as needed.

Here at Faith we’ve had growth over the years, and we’ve had to adjust our structures and methods of doing ministry to meet new needs. Your constitution committee is attempting to take seriously the needs of a congregation with nearly 500 worshipers on an average weekend and a total budget of just over one million dollars.

In developing a structure to meet this situation, the committee is relying on research done over the last quarter century or more by the Alban Institute. Alban’s Susan Beaumont has written Inside the Larger Congregation, which the committee has reviewed.

In short, the proposed revision suggests a congregation council of seven voting members, and more accountable committees, boards and ministry teams who, along with staff, actually carry out Faith’s ministries. The council’s responsibilities will include three areas: visioning/planning, policy setting and fiduciary. The committees, boards and ministry teams will be responsible specifically for their ministry areas and will maintain regular communication with council about those ministries.

Yes, size matters for how we organize ourselves and carry out our ministry. I urge you seriously consider the needs of Faith at this point in time as you review the proposed constitutional revision. And I urge to remember that even near the beginning of the church in the book of Acts, the structures and methods needed to change in order to meet the emerging situations in which the early church found itself.

Lyle A Kleman
Intentional Interim Pastor

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How do we move into the future? Do we lurch unsteadily? Do we “rush in where angels fear to tread?” Do we tiptoe carefully? Do we “back in?” Do we even go there? Do we walk boldly and with confidence?

At this point in the life of Faith Lutheran Church, Clive IA, we have little choice but to move forward into our future. But how we get there just might be a demonstration of how much we trust the Holy Spirit.

There are some obvious signs of moving into our future:

• a more-or-less final draft of a Revised Constitution soon will be unveiled;
• a Ministry Site Profile is on its way to completion and soon will be in our hands and in the hands of the bishop;
• staff already are planning for next fall, the de facto beginning of the program year, and have laid out the calendar through December;
• council members and other leaders are discussing seriously what the shape of Faith’s ministry should like in the future.

My observation in all of these activities is that there certainly is an excitement about our future; there is, of course, a bit of apprehension, but nevertheless there is a confident anticipation about the future; there is little, if any, “shrinking back” from the prospect of having to make changes as we move into the future.

And that is important. In the book of Revelation, Jesus tells John near the end of the book that His words are “trustworthy and true,” that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of everything. We have little reason to hesitate as look toward tomorrow from today. We have the promise of Jesus that He will be with us “until the close of the age.” We have the assurance that the Holy Spirit continues to lead us. We have the ancient promise to Abraham and Sarah that God blesses all nations of the world, and we are part of that world.

But we are not there yet. Our transition time is a time to plan, to reflect, to remember and to dream. Without this time we very well could rush into the future without thinking about it; or we might decide on a whim to not go there. Without this time, we would not be able to contemplate our future direction, to plan our ministry, to discern our vision and purpose, or to dream about possibilities for ministry and service.

I encourage all of us, then, to enter into tomorrow with boldness and confidence. I encourage all of us to think critically about our mission and vision, and how we can as a community of faith proclaim, grow in and live the faith tomorrow. I encourage all of us to recommit ourselves to this community of believers, and to recommit ourselves to the world-wide Body of Christ, the community of Saints, the fellowship of believers.

Finally I urge all of us to give thanks and pray for our congregation’s leaders – council, boards, committees, ministry teams, staff, and particularly for the call committee.

The Spirit enables not only to “not stop thinking about tomorrow,” but actually move there with all the confidence in the world.

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Okay, finally this blog is up and running – thanks to the expertise of Kala, our office manager, and Miranda, our communications person.

You’ll hear more about this soon from our Constitution Revision Committee Chair, Tom Penningroth, but this is to let you know that here at Faith we’ll have a marvelous opportunity to lay groundwork for the future through the adoption of a Revised Constitution.

A major change proposed will be to reduce slightly the size of the Congregation Council, but have it also focus on three specific areas: Visioning/Planning, Policies affecting the life of the congregation, and Fiduciary (financial) responsibility. Note that the council would not “represent” the various ministries at Faith that it does now, but rather focus on those three areas I just noted.

Two effects of this proposed change: Council would put more responsibility on staff for implementation of ministry programs, in fact would insist on accountability while becoming less “hands on”; second, the various advisory board and committee chairs would not have an “extra” (council) meeting to attend and could spend all or most of their time and efforts on advising the staff members to whom they relate.

There are other advantages to this type of reorganization, and you’ll hear more about them in Faith Weekly, Enews, three Congregation Forums on the topic and likely on Sundays in the form of brief announcements and/or handouts.

When Tom and his committee are ready to present this information to the congregation, I urge you to take time to read it, especially the “unstarred” provisions, formulate questions and bring them to the forums or email them to our vice-president, Ryan York, and/or committee chair, Tom Penningroth.

A congregation’s constitution belongs to the congregation – not the council or any council committee, not the pastor or pastors, not the synod. A constitution is the basic document under which we organize and function, in order to do ministry.

So look for, dare I say “anticipate,” the soon-to-be-unveiled Faith Lutheran Church Constitutional proposal. I find it exciting (okay, I’m in a definite minority by saying that, but I also like meetings!), and I hope you will, too.

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