Thought for the Week

19^th October 2025

The ELCE’s pastoral conference met this week in London. It is good to get together. I’ve been known to say that the ELCE is a PhD waiting to happen because ELCE pastors come from different Lutheran churches around the world with their traditions and emphases. 😉 It is heartening that more people are undertaking Westfield House Certificate courses that are a step towards ordination and that there are some men considering that pathway; men who are ‘local’ to the UK! 🙂 Time will tell whom the Lord provides as pastors for his church.

Pastoral conferences can be all sorts of things! Here in the ELCE they are a combination of study (biblical and confessional); reports – mainly the ELCE Chairman’s report; business (the one before Synod can have more business) as pastors raise issues and matters they are facing or work on tasks given to them by Synod; there is the mutual support and sharing; and also worship – 4 services and 4 pastors preach (supposedly a brief message). These are good days together.

One document we discussed for Synod was about the various ‘pathways’ to ordination because the enquirers now come from a wide range of circumstances. There are men who have grown up in the ELCE. There are men who have come to Lutheran theology from other churches and find a home in the ELCE. And we have enquiries from clergy from other denominations who discovering Lutheran theology and making enquiries. While we want pastors, we are also conscious not to be hasty with the laying on of hands (1 Timothy 5:22). I often get a surprised reaction when I say that my training in Australia was 7 years (full-time) as people want things much faster in our ‘instant’ world. (I’m not saying that training should be seven years just that the church should not be hasty and have agreement about what she wants from her pastors.)

One thing I didn’t expect in our discussion was the question about how exactly the ELCE would respond to clergy from other denominations becoming Lutheran? That’s why I like collegial working together – people see things variously and the outcome is invariably better – and so the topic of ordination was raised – and some work now will be done not so much on what it is for the ELCE – though agreement and clarity never hurts! 😉 – but about how aligned are the views of ordination so we are better prepared to help clergy from other denominations become ELCE pastors.

A lot of this can seem church bureaucracy – and almost unnecessary – yet the Lutheran Church understands and teaches (see the Augsburg Confession for starters) that the Office of the Ministry is instituted by Jesus so that people can be confident and assured that when they are receiving the Means of the Spirit – words, water, bread and wine – they are encountering Jesus. Lutheran spirituality is one of reception and Jesus established the mechanism for that reception – notably in worship, catechesis, teaching, evangelism, and pastoral care where pastors bring Jesus to people (and try to get out of the way of the encounter so the focus is Jesus). I will be interested in how the ELCE addresses this topic – the goal is to help men to be Lutheran pastors in a clear and orderly way.

And hidden behind personal discerning of feelings, and studies, and the bureaucracy of the church remains the Holy Spirit – working so that there are pastors who serve in Jesus’ name and those who receive such ministry can grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus – and live each day in Jesus’ name.

GS