What you see is what you get! (WYSIWYG)
Reading between the lines of christian mission statements.
In the previous blog, we were exploring the mission statement of Trinity Lutheran Church, in Denver. In their 2,100-word mission statement they called themselves a confessional church and (lucky for us) they tell us exactly what that means.
What is a Confessional Church?
“A confessional church is a church that clearly tells you what it believes and teaches and does. Many churches do not have a confession of faith, or if they do have a faith statement, it’s not very long or very clear. So, you never know what you’re going to get. At Trinity what you see is what you get.”
Okay, that makes sense. By reading their mission statement anyone who might be church hunting could read their mission statement and decide whether they might want to visit or not. I agree that it’s good when a church’s mission statement says what you can expect from them. But I do not agree that the length of a mission statement automatically corresponds to its clarity. I have read dozens of church mission statements over the past several years and found some lengthy ones to be very unclear and some brief ones that state very clearly what the church is all about.
The longest one I encountered had over 7,000 words, with 28 sections covering nearly all aspects of christian life. They had rules and regulations for tithing and giving, for abstinence from all liquor or strong drink, for use of tobacco and what foods and drinks were allowed. One section called Adornment gave directions on what women were allowed to wear in public. They dictated regulations for wholesome speech, and to top it all off, a section on marriage, divorce, and remarriage. However, nowhere in their 7,000 words, did they think to include the word “welcome”.
Granted, they certainly left little to question, but what have we really learned about that congregation? By reading between the lines, we start to realize that in order to be accepted as a part of their congregation, you must subjugate yourself to the control of the church… and that means you will be held accountable for every one of those 7,000 words. That kind of religious control may be appealing for some people, but certainly not for me. (1)
The shortest mission statement I have encountered belongs to a small church called Kirk of Bonnie Brae. They needed only 136 words to express what they are all about. Read for yourself.
Kirk of Bonnie Brae
Welcome to the Kirk of Bonnie Brae! We believe that all people are children of God and are created in the image of God. We believe that welcoming all people was and is at the heart of the ministry of Jesus. We find joy in being a diverse community of faith, and welcome everyone to join our spiritual journey.
We celebrate people … of all ages, races, and ethnicities; of all gender identities and gender expressions; of all sexual orientations; of all faith backgrounds and no faith background; of all viewpoints on the issues impacting our society; of differing physical and mental abilities; who are single, married, divorced, separated, widowed, or partnered; who are well-fed or hungry, sheltered, or homeless; who wonder how a congregation could welcome all of the above. We welcome and celebrate you!
So, what do you think? With only 136 words, are you able to ascertain what kind of church they are and what you might expect from its congregation? It’s pretty clear that they are a welcoming church. The word welcome appears five times and they are very clear about who is welcome at their church; anyone and everyone! Some people (congregations) might feel uncomfortable with that level of diversity.
Trinity Lutheran is one of those congregations. The word welcome never appears in their mission statement. Since they have stated that “what you see is what you get” we must conclude that since welcome is not mentioned in their mission statement, then it is not something that is important to them. As you will see for yourself, not everyone is welcomed at Trinity Lutheran.
The Acorn and the Tree
Trinity Lutheran’s mission statement is a clear case of the proverbial acorn not falling far from the Martin Luther tree. In order to understand Trinity Lutheran, we need to understand the writings of its founding patriarch. Their mission statement directs the reader to other Lutheran doctrines such as the Orders of Creation, the Table of Duties, the Small and Large Catechism, all written by Martin Luther himself.
So, let’s take a brief look at the roots of Lutheranism in hopes that it might help us understand the workings of Trinity Lutheran. (I say brief because Martin Luther was rarely brief.) Let’s see if we can discover in the writings of Luther the reasons behind Trinity Lutheran not being a welcoming church. The following is from Luther’s catechism.
But those who refuse to learn (i.e. believe as we believe) are to be told that they are denying Christ and do not belong to Him. They are not to be admitted to the Sacrament, accepted as sponsors at Baptism, or allowed to exercise Christian liberty in any way. They should instead be simply directed back to the pope and his functionaries, yes, even to Satan himself. Moreover, their parents and superiors should refuse them food and drink, telling them that the prince is of a mind to expel such rude persons from his realm, and so on.
Ironically, his very next sentence is,
Of course we cannot, and we should not try to force the Christian faith on anyone.
Let me see if I understand this correctly. True Lutherans are directed to deny food, drink, and shelter to non-conformers and also to shun them from being included in the community (2). When this was written in the 1500s, being shunned by your community would have been a death sentence. That is of course unless the actual death sentence was to be burned at the stake. Yet it’s important that, as good christians, they don’t force their Christian faith on anyone. “And they’ll know we are christians by our love, by our love, and they’ll know we are christians by our love.”
Rather than giving you a paraphrased version of their statements, I have decided to let Trinity Lutheran to speak for themselves. It will be up to you, the reader, to decide if Trinity Lutheran is a welcoming church and whether you would be welcome or comfortable there.
Trinity Lutheran Mission Statement
Orders of Creation
(Editor’s note: The Orders of Creation is a Lutheran doctrine that describes the social structures of human existence, such as the family, state, church, and economy. The doctrine is based on the idea that God established these social domains and that they are the basic framework for human life.)
“God is a god of order. Birds cannot become pine trees. Oceans do not turn into azaleas. Boys do not turn into girls. Women do not become men. No amount of screaming will turn the bird into a pine tree. No amount of denial will change the Atlantic into an azalea. No social media post or politician’s speech will make boys into girls or women into men.
When we conform our thoughts and words and deeds to God’s orders, we live a better life. When we expect to get pinecones from a pine tree and to see a boy grow into a man, we find wisdom. When we expect otherwise, our foolishness leads to all kinds of destruction. (This is a thinly veiled threat.)
Marriage
Marriage has three purposes: the procreation of children, faithfulness to one’s spouse, and the symbolizing of Christ’s marriage to His church. Marriage can therefore only be between one man and one woman since God Himself has only one Bride, the holy Christian Church, and when He instituted earthly marriage in the first times of the world, He brought together just one man, Adam, and one woman, Eve. Marriage cannot be between two people of the same sex or multiple people at the same time because God did not establish marriage to be that way. We support and protect marriage so that God’s will might be honored and the children He has given us might be protected. (Another thinly veiled threat.)
Sex and Gender
We are not free to be whatever we would like. We were made to be some things and not others, to be male or female, neither both at the same time nor the opposite at some time nor something else altogether. If we were free to be whatever we would like, we would be greater and more powerful than God Himself, and since we plainly are not gods, do not have such control, cannot even keep ourselves alive without His help every moment, we can scarcely become something we were not made to be. We might play act, but we cannot become other than He has made us to be. (3)
WYSIWYG
What does this mission statement tell us about Trinity Lutheran? Clearly, not everyone is welcome at their church. Perhaps that is the one good thing about being a confessional church. They are indeed very clear about who is and who is not welcome at their church. Members of the LGBTQ community can see for themselves what kind of church Trinity Lutheran is and choose to steer clear of that kind of religious based bigotry.
Lutheranism is so German.
As a German, Luther was greatly concerned about the need for everything to be orderly. Just look at his writings. In the Table of Duties, Luther describes and sets standards for the social structures of human existence, such as the family, state, church, and economy. The doctrine is based on the idea that God established these social domains and that they are the basic framework for human life. In the Table of Duties Luther gives instructions for Pastors, and Preachers and also for the congregation which are told to obey and submit to authority. (4)
What we see in Trinity’s mission statement is that orderliness is more important than God’s love. Imagine how uncomfortable Trinity Lutheran would be with Kirk Bonnie Brae’s mission statement. It would put them WAY out of their comfort zone. It’s obvious that Trinity is most comfortable with an orderly world, dictated by authority/subordinate relationships. Imagine if they had to deal with a congregation the contained “all faith backgrounds and viewpoints”. That would be way too messy for them. It’s pretty clear that they are not a diverse community of faith, nor do they have any desire to be.
Remember, what you see, is what you get.
End Note:
1) Churches like this can be very legalistic. By attending a church like this, you have opened your life to constant scrutiny with multiple ways to fail. This kind of highly regulated, performance based christianity can lead to what some christians are calling Spiritual Abuse. An internet search for the phrase spiritual abuse, resulted in 225 books on the topic, with titles like, Churches That Abuse: Help for those hurt by legalism, authoritarian leadership, and spiritual intimidation, Recovering From Churches That Abuse, and The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse. If you’re experiencing that kind of authoritarian leadership in your church, I would encourage you to get some help and find another church.
2) Denying food, drink, and shelter to non-conformers, and shunning them from community involvement sounds like “spiritual abuse” to me. See end note one.
3) Trinity Lutheran: “We might play act, but we cannot become other than He has made us to be.”
I once interviewed a pastor who identified as gay. She told me that she played acted for decades that she was straight, but the time came when she decided to be honest with God and the rest of the world. By embracing how God had made her she felt God’s blessing on her as a gay person. It was not just okay; it was how God had made her. “This is what God wanted, she said, “this is not a mistake that we have to fix.” To read her perspective on being gay in a christian world follow this link.
4) Of all the instructions given in the Table of Duties, the one I find the most disturbing is the one written for widows. “The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.”
Whatever happened to James 1:27 “This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
Someone forgot to tell the Widow Clicquot that she was already dead when she made the decision (in opposition to religious authorities of that day) to carry on her husband’s champagne business after he died.
Coming soon: A Tale of Two Churches
After reading Trinity Lutheran’s mission statement and the writings of Martin Luther, I was about to conclude that all Lutheran churches were pretty much the same. Then I discovered Bethany Lutheran in Denver.
From Where I Stand
Dale Crum