From Pastor Schulte’s PenMay 2010 An Update On AffiliationSt. John Lutheran Church of Boerne is now officially a Lutheran Congregation in Mission for Christ congregation. The congregation ended it’s affiliation with the ELCA on March 7, 2010 when the second required vote to leave received 90.70% of the votes and the affiliation was officially ended when the Certified Letter to the Bishop of The Southwestern Texas Synod was received by the Bishop on March 18, 2010. Since that time St. John has affiliated with and has been officially received as a Member Congregation of The Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, a church of some 402 congregations located in 38 states. A total of 183 of these congregation have joined the LCMC since August 19, 2009. All three of our pastors, Pastor Henry Schulte, Pastor Jeffery Carpenter and Pastor Mariola Bergquist have been received and made members of the LCMC Clergy Roster following their application, interviews and action by the Board of Ministry.
Through all of this, the most striking thing is that St. John Lutheran Church of Boerne has not changed. We are still the same congregation we have always been. The ELCA changed but St. John did not. St. John decided that it did not want to go in the new theological direction chosen by it’s predecessor church body and is now affiliated with a church body that declares itself to be: free in Christ; accountable to one another; rooted in the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions and working together to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations. We continue our ministry seeking to fulfill Christ’s Mission, here an around the world. The Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ maintains a very flat structure emphasizing the fact that the church is where people of God gather together around Word and Sacrament. Therefore the congregation is where the church becomes a concrete reality for God’s people. Some congregations would like to see a minimum amount of church structure above the congregation, including an office of oversight and accountability/assistance. With this in mind, Lutheran Core, which has been an organization seeking to maintain Biblical and Confessional tradition in the church, following the August 09 ELCA CW Assembly. Lutheran CORE, at its September 25-26, 2009 Convocation, voted to create a new Lutheran Church in North America. Working groups have been busy seeking to have all things in place for the August 27, 2010 CORE Convocation, at which time a new church will be born with the name being proposed: “North American Lutheran Church” (NALC). Pastor Carpenter serves on one Working Group for Congregational Mission for the NALC and Pastor Schulte is serving on another Working Group for Synodical Relations, with the responsibility to develop plans for Call Process and Clergy Mobility for the NALC. Thus for a while, we will be involved in the work of both the LCMC and the NALC. You may keep up with these groups by going to www.lutherancore.org and www.lcmc.net. In the meantime we continue our life and ministry as a congregation, working full time to build up the body of Christ in this place, seeking to be faithful to our call: Being Disciples and Making Disciples.. |
