On Pentecost Sunday the doors were wide open at
Hope Lutheran Church, an ELCA mission in Columbus, Neb. Lifting their
voices in enthusiastic song, some 70 people gathered in June to install
Dick Woolard as pastor and dedicate the worship space they worked so
hard to renovate. Windows, woodwork, altar, kitchen, floors and
bathrooms were finished. Front pews were packed and extra folding
chairs stood ready at the back.
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| Hope
Lutheran Church, Columbus, Neb., presented members Clifford (left) and
Alfreda Schroeder with a framed photo of a temporary worship space the
couple donated for the congregation’s first months. |
“Some of you know this church was born in pain and locked doors and
people who said they were done with the ELCA,” preached Joyce Miller,
the congregation’s former interim pastor.
Moving
around the worship space, she followed eyes and hearts rather than a
set of notes. “Have you realized how far the Spirit has pushed us?” she
asked. “Humans are fractious.... How often has it happened that
fractious people have broken up a church? Well, today, fractious people
have put one together. It’s been wonderful to see people so desirous of
being the church.”
Among those gathered was a core group of
about 25 that met with Nebraska Synod leaders last September to discuss
starting an ELCA mission. Half of that group came from Trinity Lutheran
in Columbus—a 2,000-member congregation that left the ELCA last year
(July 2006, "
It's about Scripture").
Their departure left no ELCA presence in downtown Columbus. Several who
were interviewed said they didn’t like the direction Trinity was going
and wanted to remain in the ELCA. But not one expressed hard feelings
toward Trinity.
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