On June 3rd through 5th, Collin Caple, Rob Caple, Carla Burkhardt, and I attended the 2022 Assembly of the Southeastern Synod, held in the reinvigorated downtown area of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Collin, Carla, and I attended as elected voting representatives of St. Mark’s congregation. None of the three of us had attended an ELCA assembly before. We all found it to be an experience that was both informative and spiritually enriching.
The theme this year was “Unmute Yourself,” a call for all of us to be unafraid in telling our story of God’s grace to the world. The theme is based on Ephesians 4:12—“equip God’s people for work in his service, to the building up of Christ.” That message of evangelism will be the synod’s theme throughout the coming twelve months.
During the three-day Assembly, we heard numerous and diverse voices who unabashedly proclaimed how the message of God’s grace spoke to, and resonated in, their lives. Two of those who testified were former St. Mark’s parishioner Linda Veren, who focused on the deep faith of her father and the tremendous influence it had on her, and our own Collin Caple, who spoke of how our own Pastor Jason Davis has been such a powerful spiritual leader for Collin, and for our entire congregation, during the past two years. I wish you all could have been there to see the smile on Bishop Strickland’s face during Collin’s address.
Many of the “stories of faith in action” we heard were not from people born into a Lutheran family, but those who had come to Lutheranism in search of a Gospel of grace after having difficult, painful experiences in other faith pathways. It should be clear that grace is a message we all need to hear and remember in these troubling times, and that it is incumbent among each of us to help deliver that message, in word and in action, throughout our own communities. What can we do daily to express and personify God’s abundant love? It can be as simple as meeting a need in our community. In the words of Pastor Matt Henning of Grayson Georgia, whose workshop I attended, we can begin by asking these questions:
- How can we make our faith meaningful?
- How do we share our gifts as a congregation?
- What would be a need of our neighbor in the community?
- How will meeting this need connect them to the church and our congregation?
Here are a few ELCA resources that will help us reach out and meet needs beyond our immediate congregation:
- Provide assistance to those who have suffered natural disasters through Lutheran Disaster Response: https://www.elca.org/our-work/relief-and-development/lutheran-disaster-response
- Over 41,000 Americans die each year through suicide, over twice the number of homicides. Work with the ELCA in helping prevent suicide: https://www.suicidepreventionministry.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ELCA-Brochure-2015.pdf
- Pray for the Lutheran Church in Guatemala and for those dedicated ELCA church members and leaders who are involved in Guatemalan mission work. Join the prayer group each Friday afternoon through a prompt posted on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoutheasternSynodGuatemalaTeam
- Finally, here are some audio podcasts that will help us learn how to tell our stories: https://www.elca-ses.org/evangelism
Rob, Collin, Carla and I would like to express our thanks to our St. Mark’s family for allowing us the opportunity to attend. If you go to youtube.com and enter the words elca southeastern assembly 2022, you can watch a number of the presentations that we experienced. There is so much more I could share from the Assembly. But anything I can tell you is no substitute for having the experience yourself. Whether a voting member or not, make plans to attend when you can. You will find these annual synod assemblies to be a terrific way to interact with others of our faith and an uplifting and potentially transformative spiritual experience.
Blessings,
Robert Burkhardt
Last modified: June 27, 2022