God is Doing a New Thing in the ELCA: Trends from the FACT Data

2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-266
Author(s):  
Deborah L. Coe ◽  
Brad Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Faith Communities ◽  
Congregational Studies ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
The Past ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Protestant Denominations ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran ◽  
The Church

For decades, mainline Protestant denominations in the United States have experienced steady membership declines. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is no different, and our research team has been exploring this topic for years. Faith Communities Today (FACT) is an interfaith project consisting of a series of surveys conducted by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, of which the ELCA is a long-standing member. In this article, we examine data collected from the three decennial FACT surveys to discern where, despite declining membership, God is, to quote the prophet Isaiah, “doing a new thing.” We find that over the past twenty years, the typical ELCA congregation has had a gradually increasing: sense of vitality, belief that it is financially healthy, desire to become more diverse, willingness to call women to serve as pastors, openness to change, and clarity of mission and purpose. Because there are multiple possible explanations for these positive trends, we recommend approaching such trend lines cautiously, viewing them through a critical-thinking lens. Even though there is an increased perception of congregational well-being, overall finances and the number of people involved in the church continue to decline. There is still much work to be done.

scholarly journals Liturgy: Local and Contextual or Controlled from Above? A Nordic Perspective: Liturgical Renewal and Development in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in the Past Three Decades

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-121
Author(s):  
Sini Hulmi
Keyword(s):  
Creative Development ◽  
Common People ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
The Common ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran ◽  
The Church

Is the liturgy local and contextual and growing from below, or is it controlled from above? Does the liturgy belong to the people and to the congregation, and are they allowed to use it in their own way? Or is the liturgy the property of the Church, which gives strict orders for its use? Is it powerful men and women, meaning those people with authority, and the institutions (for example, the Church Synod and the Bishops’ Conference) who define the methods and ways in which liturgy is enculturated? Or do the ways of inculturation involve development from below, from the common people, even the poorest and most humble believers, at the congregational level? The balance between these two aspects—top-down and bottom-up worship—has repeatedly shifted over the last three decades, and there have been tensions between them in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. The goal of this essay is to clarify the reason for this confusing situation related to authority, fixed orders and the creative development of liturgical life.

The Church–Clergy Relationship and Anti-discrimination Law

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Hatzis
Keyword(s):  
First Amendment ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Supreme ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
House Of Lords ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran ◽  
The Church

In its recent judgment in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v EEOC, the United States Supreme Court held that the First Amendment precludes the application of anti-discrimination law to the employment relationship between a church and its clergy. In 2005 the House of Lords had reached the opposite conclusion, ruling, in Percy v Board of National Mission of the Church of Scotland, that the decision to dismiss an ordained minister was not a spiritual matter falling outside the scope of anti-discrimination legislation. This article argues that Percy largely neglected important aspects of church autonomy and that the reasoning in Hosanna-Tabor offers an opportunity to rethink whether secular law should be allowed to affect a religious group's decision to appoint or dismiss a minister.

scholarly journals Med troen som fællesnævner – fællesskab blandt unge i Indre Mission

Kulturstudier ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Tina Wilchen Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Collective Interaction ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran ◽  
The Church ◽  
Present Life

<div>Artiklen vil belyse de mekanismer, der ligger til grund for et velfungerende f&aelig;llesskab&nbsp;i en af Indre Missions ungdomsforeninger i &Aring;rhus. Troen har p&aring; forskellige&nbsp;m&aring;der en central position i f&aelig;llesskabet, og denne artikel vil argumentere for de&nbsp;unges tro som en social identitet, idet deres habitus synes at have en afg&oslash;rende&nbsp;betydning for den og deres oplevelse af det religi&oslash;st funderede f&aelig;llesskab. Artiklenvil ogs&aring; belyse, hvordan Biblen og dens fort&aelig;llinger udg&oslash;r den fortolkningsramme,&nbsp;som de unge er opvokset med og forst&aring;r livet igennem. Artiklen viser&nbsp;desuden den rolle, det kollektive samv&aelig;r spiller i de unges konstruktion af Gud&nbsp;og egen identitet som kristen.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Faith as common ground- community feeling among young evangelicals in Denmark</div><div><br /></div><div>The aim of this article is to demonstrate the mechanisms that underlie a youth association in the so-called Home Mission, a branch of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark. It is the result of anthropological research focusing on the sense of community among members aged between 15 and 27. In a number of ways faith plays a central role in the community, and the main argument of the article is that the young people's faith constitutes a social identity, since their habitus seems to have a decisive impact on their experience of the faith-based community. The article further demonstrates how the Bible and its narratives form the framework of interpretation with which the young people have grown up, and which, in their present life as adults, continues to mould their understanding and view of life, as well as the role that collective interaction plays in the young people's construction of God and their own identity as Christians. A core argument in the article is that faith is a socialization into a structure which results in all participants having the same frame of reference and therefore experiencing a strong feeling of community with one another within this particular wing of the Church of Denmark.&nbsp;<br /> <br /></div>

Heteronormativität als Verhinderung? Oder warum die ›Die Ehe für alle‹ in Österreich (noch) eine Frage des Gewissens ist

2019 ◽  
Vol 79 (6) ◽  
pp. 407-423
Author(s):  
Thomas Scheiwiller
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Legal Form ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Challenging Issue ◽  
Marriage Ceremony ◽  
Civil Union ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran ◽  
The Church ◽  
Family Models

Abstract The acceptance of alternative lifestyles concerning diverse family models and sexual orientation remains a challenging issue for churches. In 2019 marriage was legally equated with a civil union in Austria - the legal form can now be chosen independently of sexual orientation. As a result, the Evangelical Lutheran Church felt compelled to re-evaluate marriage as its preferred legal form in a synodal meeting. The synodal document shows that a compromise was sought between the socio-politically conservative and the liberal wing of the church. The aim of this essay is to draw attention to the tensions, inconsistencies and attempts of harmonization evident in terms such as ›creation‹, ›conscience‹ or ›blessing‹ which have been left open to interpretation, while the term ›marriage ceremony‹ (Trauung) has been omitted altogether in order to avoid conflict.

Norwegian Ecclesiastical Affiliation in Three Countries: a Challenge to Earlier Historiography

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 359-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick Hale
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
New World ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Trends ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran

AbstractHistorians like Oscar Handlin and Timothy L. Smith asserted that international migration, especially that of Europeans to North America, was a process which reinforced traditional religious loyalties. In harmony with this supposed verity, a venerable postulate in the tradition of Scandinavian-American scholarship was that most Norwegian immigrants in the New World (the overwhelming majority of whom had been at least nominal members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway) clung to their birthright religious legacy and affiliated with Lutheran churches after crossing the Atlantic (although for many decades it has been acknowledged that by contrast, vast numbers of their Swedish-American and Danish-American counterparts did not join analogous ethnic Lutheran churches). In the present article, however, it is demonstrated that anticlericalism and alienation from organised religious life were widespread in nineteenth-century Norway, where nonconformist Christian denominations were also proliferating. Furthermore, in accordance with these historical trends, the majority of Norwegian immigrants in the United States of America and Southern Africa did not affiliate with Lutheran churches. Significant minorities joined Baptist, Methodist, and other non-Lutheran religious fellowships, but the majority did not become formally affiliated with either Norwegian or pan-Scandinavian churches.

scholarly journals Kön, kyrka och kyrkligt ledarskap

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrik Hagman ◽  
Eetu Kejonen
Keyword(s):  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Church Of Sweden ◽  
Pastoral Work ◽  
Church Culture ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Theological Study ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran ◽  
The Church

Gender, Church, and Leadership: A Theological Study of Young Priests in Finland and Sweden This article explores how gender, views of pastoral work and views of ecclesiology interact among young priests in the Church of Sweden and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Using a survey we develop a model used to discern if the young priests emphasize leadership or serving in their pastoral work. We then compare this model with their views on e.g. sex, gender and the Church. The article shows that sex has is a significant factor in how one tends to view pastoral work. Men tend to see pastoral work more as leadership, whereas women tend to emphasize serving others. At the same time, another factor – to what degree they are enculturated in church culture and tradition – plays a role in clarifying some patterns in the data. This factor, too, interacts with sex, but in some cases it has more explanatory power than sex. The article sheds light on a polarization in views among priest in both Finland and Sweden.

The Gatekeepers of Change:

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-29
Author(s):  
Steinunn Arnþrúður Björnsdóttir
Keyword(s):  
Renewal Process ◽  
Change Process ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran ◽  
Financial Issues ◽  
The Church

The case study focuses on a renewal process, initiated by the Church Central Authorities and the response of pastors in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland (elci) to the process. The main finding was that participation at the grass roots level was limited. This can be explained partly by the method used by the Church Central Authorities and partly by the very structure of the church, which places the authority to make changes in the parish with the pastor and parish council. Tensions between parishes and central church authorities, issues of authority and structural and financial issues emerged as important factors that determined the success of the change process, or lack thereof.

scholarly journals The Confessional History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States

1892 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 93-109
Author(s):  
John Nicum
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Present State ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
History Of ◽  
Eastern Pennsylvania ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran

To the earliest Protestant communions which found a home upon the hospitable shores of North America belongs the Evangelical Lutheran Church. As early as 1638 a colony, professing the Lutheran faith, arrived from Sweden. They purchased from the Indians a tract of land, lying in Eastern Pennsylvania and in the present State of Delaware, established a number of churches, built houses of worship, and were served by devout and liberally educated ministers.

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