ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson has been doing a lot of Q&A sessions at conferences and while hosting a series of town hall forums. During one of these he was asked “Why be a Lutheran?” His answer impressed many and has been passed around the internet through Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, and other avenues. See it for yourself below. It left me thinking for myself “Why Lutheran?”
I was not raised as a Lutheran. Among all of the churches I visited in my formative years, a Lutheran church was not one of them. In fact, the first time I stepped into a Lutheran church was not until my early twenties. At the time I was not even looking for a church to attend. My young fiancée and I were in search of a church for our wedding.
As we drove around looking for a church, we were brought to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in San Carlos. We were not looking for a Lutheran church, we were just looking for a church. Our criterion was, primarily, was it available on our date.
We liked the looks of Holy Trinity. We followed up and met with the pastor, and we learned it was indeed available. We attended pre-marital classes, which led to membership classes. Before I knew it, I was a Lutheran. At the time I really did not consider myself Lutheran. I saw myself as a member of a friendly, loving community.
As time passed and life situations changed, we drifted apart from that church. In fact we drifted from church in general. It was not until after our children were born that Becky decided it was time to go back to church. She did some research and read up on the ELCA. She then set out to find an ELCA church to start attending and found New Creation.
I still wasn’t sold. I won’t go into details (many have already heard this story), but I eventually found it easier to attend church than to not attend. But again, I still didn’t feel I was a Lutheran.
I got more involved, finally ending up on church council and eventually president of the congregation. But in fact, in all honesty, I still didn’t consider myself Lutheran. It was not until I went to the Sierra Pacific Synod assembly that I started to get it. There I got my first glance at what being a Lutheran looked like. Since then, I really started following some of the goings-on within the ELCA. The more I read, the more I see, the more I hear, the more excited I am to be a Lutheran.
Why did I become a Lutheran? I fell into it. Why do I claim it? I claim it because as ELCA Lutherans we define ourselves in our relationship with God and our relationships with others, not in our differences. I claim it because of our tolerance and acceptance of others. I claim it because of our passion and caring for others. I claim it because I strongly believe in the good that the ELCA is doing in the world.
For me, that is “Why Lutheran?”
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