My name is Matt and I am a Lutheran Pastor

My name is Matt and I am a Lutheran Pastor.  If that sounds like the beginning of a 12-step recovery meeting, fine. I'm in a kind of recovery, I think.  I have been a Lutheran Pastor for 11 years now. At a recent meeting, my clerical identity was pinpointed as a stumbling block for church renewal and change.  Now, the person was not attacking me personally as a pastor, but was raising a point of contention.  He suggested that the pastoral office gives a perception that those who wear a black shirt and collar are spiritually aloof, haughty, distinctly above the laity. He claimed that Pastors are part of the problem, because we are not one of the people. We don't have to work in the world like everyone else. We are sheltered by church life.  By title and uniform, we "outrank" our parishioners, giving us more power or votes when it comes to decisions. We are set apart by virtue of a seminary degree and a special wardrobe. Anti-clericalism is as American as apple pie, so I'm not shocked that it was tossed on the table as a source of the problems we face as a church.  I'm just not convinced its the real problem.  It may be symptomatic of the bigger problem, redefining what it means for us to be Church in the 21st century. I think we are in recovery as a church. Our habits and behaviors must change in order that we might flourish again. Recovery is hard work, accomplished by the grace of God and a surrender of the self.  So, I am a recovering Lutheran Pastor, whose life is being re-formed somehow.

Lutherans and Mennonites Worship and Serve Together

In 2011, the local mission work of Zion Lutheran Church and Akron Mennonite Church around two symptoms of poverty, affordable housing and food insecurity/hunger, drew them together at the Mennonite church’s annual Mission Fest weekend.  Typically, the weekend highlighted the global mission work of the Mennonite congregation and its deep relationship with Mennonite Central Committee, headquartered in Akron.  But the growth in local mission through the proclamation of a “local theology rooted in Scripture and community life” encouraged the Mennonite congregation’s leaders to consider a local focus for the mission fest weekend.