Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries

ELM is honored and excited to release the final version of “Candidacy and LGBTQ Individuals.” This one-of-a-kind resource was created for ELCA candidacy committees working with LGBTQ candidates. You are encourage to share this widely!  We released a draft version earlier this year in order to receive feedback and we are grateful for the suggestions and comments you made.  The document is stronger because of this communal effort.

Click to read or download the document (PDF): Candidacy and LGBTQ Individuals

This resource is timely in Advent, a season when we become more keenly aware of the now and not yet of so many things.  Now, more and more gifted and called LGBTQ people are attending seminary and serving as rostered leaders.  This is cause for joy and a celebration of these unique gifts in our church.  And, at the same time, some gifted and called LGBTQ people continue to face barriers in seminary, candidacy and the call process and are told “not  yet.”  We hope this offered resource will serve to honor the now and not yet as we both recognize the reality of barriers AND celebrate with joy the gifts of our LGBTQ leaders.

We are thankful to the ELCA for their support of this project and for all the faithful ones who contributed to this gift.  And thanks be to God who was, who is, and who is to come.

Learn how you can support LGBTQ leaders and allied ministries. The Fall-Winter MISSION Newsletter is now online. You may have received a copy in your mailbox a few weeks ago. Now’s your chance to tell your friends about the work of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries and why you support it!

This edition includes details about the 9 strategic steps we will take over the next 3 years to support LGBTQ leaders and allied congregations and ministries: Identify 90 congregations open to calling an LGBTQ pastor! Identify or create 12 HEALTHY internship sites for LGBTQ interns! Expand our role as a leader in innovative ministries! But wait, there more…

Click here to read our current newsletter.

Our Vision:
Freed and compelled by the Gospel of Jesus Christ to proclaim God’s love and seek justice for all, Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries envisions a church where all may serve God according to their callings.

Our Mission:
Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries affirms and supports LGBTQ Lutheran rostered leaders and those pursuing a call to rostered leadership while engaging allied congregations and ministries to proclaim God’s love and seek justice for all.

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to his people
by the forgiveness of their sins.
By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.

(Luke 1:76-79)

We give thanks for the light you give to those who sit in darkness.

 + Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries

It’s a sunny Saturday morning and I’m sitting in a quiet coffee shop in the West Village of New York City. Today is the 8th day I’ve been on the road meeting with supporters and friends of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries. My travels have taken me from San Francisco to Los Angeles to New York City. This may sound extravagant, but it is often much more affordable to book a multi-city trip and thanks to the wonderful hospitality I’ve received along the way, the expense to ELM has been very modest.

It can be difficult to travel. It is hard to be away from my home and my family. But I have been so royally treated – welcomed into people’s homes, fed, taken out, and been blessed by rich conversation about faith, life, ELM, and more.

This sense of being blessed is best expressed in this sign. This sign was hanging at the end of the driveway of supporters of ELM. Although we have talked by phone and exchanged letters, I had not yet visited this couple. The warmth and kindness exuding  from this sign was shared exponentially during my time with them. They were eager to hear the stories of LGBTQ leaders and how their support for Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries has been impacting people all across the church. They put my name in big letters, but what is clear is that their love is for this ministry and the collective work that we are all engaged in.

After I left Los Angeles, I received an email from a Proclaim member. A few of us had gathered at his home and he wrote that being with others from Proclaim encouraged him to lead a workshop on LGBTQ matters at a conference he was attending.  He wrote the following note to me about the workshop:

This ministry is “freakin’ cool.”  For many years, LGBTQ leaders were prevented from following their call to ministry. And still today, many barriers exist. Despite that, publicly identified LGBTQ people have been doing ministry throughout time, bringing their voices, hearts, passion for ministry, and faith to people longing to hear it.

Guest Blogger: Gretchen (Colby) Rode

Gretchen (Colby) Rode and Jill Rode are both members of Proclaim. Gretchen is the 2013 Joel R. Workin Scholar. 

I write to you as a newly married lady (legally in Minnesota!  Whoop whoop!) as of August 25th.  Being married (to the lovely Jill Rode) has been a wonderful life change.  Jill and I have been long distance for the last two years, so just being able to be in the same place for two months has been such a blessing.  Our wedding was an amazing time of worship with the people we love as they witnessed our vows and a wonderful time of celebration and partying afterwards.  It was awesome to be able to share this with our families (who have sometimes not been so excited about the same-sex marriage thing) and our friends who came from such distances to be there.  We are certainly blessed and continue to thank God for this time together.

In addition to being a newlywed, I have been spending this fall semester at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, as opposed to my usual academic home of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (PLTS) in Berkeley, in order to join my wife at school.  I have been welcomed so warmly by the Luther student body with whom I have great opportunity to interact not only in classes, but in also in my work as one of the baristas at the campus coffee shop (and who doesn’t like the person serving them cappuccino?).  Sometimes I like to pretend I’m an undercover seminary spy collecting all the top secret information about Luther.  It is in this capacity that I have located the books that are sold for a quarter, the tunnel connecting the library and the dorm, and the only office in Northwestern that gives out red licorice.  In my time here, I have noticed some key differences: I have heard more about Law and Gospel and the different uses of the Law (I won’t say if there are two or three, you can argue about that amongst yourselves) in the last six weeks than I have in my whole life.  And, I find myself missing the frequent conversations PLTS seems to cultivate about how we interact with pluralism and promote activism within our Lutheran identity.  However, when it comes down to it, what I’ve really noticed about these two seminaries (and would wager I’d find if I spent semesters as a spy at other seminaries) is that they are full of a lot of big-hearted students yearning to figure out what all this Bible, theology, and church history will mean for us when we’re serving parishes.  And, even more than that, what all this Bible, theology, and church history mean for us as Christians.  Because, as seminarians, we are dying to understand this call we have and to work through that call to share the love of Christ in the world.

In the next few weeks, my wife and I will be filling out our assignment paperwork and undergoing approval interviews as we finish our second-to-the-last semester of seminary.  We are leaning hard on this call that we feel from God to serve our church.  We are thankful that we are in a church which finally ordains clergy in same-sex relationships and we are nervous about where we will be called and how our relationship will affect those opportunities in our country which is oh-so-slowly figuring things out when it comes to LGBTQ people.  It is an exciting time; when the anxiety seems to perk up it helps to remember the promise and command that God gave Jeremiah: “You shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.  Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you.”

Paz, Gretchen (Colby) Rode
Joel R Workin Scholar 2013

by Chris Wogaman
Minneapolis, MN
Proclaim Member, Awaiting Call

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” –Genesis 32:26

I’ve never been a wrestler, of the literal type, at least. But I think we all know something about hanging on for our blessing.

The story from which the above quotation comes has both captivated and guided me through seven long years of wilderness wandering in waiting for a first call. And like Jacob, I’m going to hang on for my blessing.

Jacob’s brother, Esau, is threatening his life and the lives of those whom he loves. Who knows who this nocturnal wrestler could be? One of Esau’s men, perhaps. But here, in the darkness of night, in the wilderness, Jacob meets the one who has created and sustained him, in the form of a wily fighter who won’t let a fair fight get in his way of showing the upper hand.

The sensual element of physical wrestling, flesh-on-flesh and bone-against-bone, lights up these millennia-old pages with physical fire. I can almost see the sparks flying between them, like a buzz saw cutting a copper pipe. And I’m pulling for the underdog, for how many pipes make it through a saw without being cut into pieces?

Hanging on for the blessing, particularly in a religion that has devalued us, denied our relationships, and even put us to death in literal flames, can wear out the mightiest faith warrior. Among our Proclaim community are several such warriors, for whom that blessing didn’t come easy. But each fight, each struggle, each persistent battle for our blessing, strengthens us and those who come after us, and those who see and know the struggle in their own lives. Supportive community, such as this one, can inspire and support us in our darkest hours.

And we will have our blessing.

May you be strengthened with the supernatural strength of Jacob through the darkest nights of your soul, which will yield your richest blessing: a true heart of strong faith, which this world desperately needs.

Strengthen us, O God, for the struggle is long and the night is filled with challenges from outside our bodies and inside our souls. With your strong hand, guide us into that place of blessing that you have prepared for us, through your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

by Amalia Vagts, Executive Director

Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries has been busy! We’ve adopted updated mission and vision statements and affirmed our plan for 2013 – 2015. Yes, this involved some serious butcher block paper & post-it notes…

We began by identifying people who are closely connected to the work of ELM. Next, we agreed upon 9 goals for the next 2-3 years. Then we agreed on the strategies to achieve these goals. Lastly, we adopted a new mission and statement to more accurately describe and guide our work. A big shout-out to the fabulous Jessica Vazquez Torres who facilitated this process for us.

In short: Who? What? Why?

WHO: Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries is focused on the following  8 constituencies:  LGBTQ people called to ministry, congregations and ministries, ELM donors and supporters, ELM’s growing edge, ELCA decision-makers, theological and ministry educators, movement partners, and ELM leadership.

WHAT: Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries is committing to the following 9 goals:

1.         Expand our role as a leader in extraordinary and innovative ministries.

2.         Identify 90 congregations open to calling rostered leaders in Proclaim.

3.         Identify and/or create at least 12 viable internship sites that would make excellent settings for LGBTQ candidates.

4.         Distribute candidacy resources to every synodical candidacy committee.

5.         Increase our intercultural competency and our capacity to raise up ministry candidates connected with underrepresented communities.

6.         Proclaim members will be actively engaged in planned strategies geared toward creating a church where all may serve according to their callings.

7.         Develop new relationships with key leaders whose work directly impacts ELM’s constituencies.

8.         Become an organization that meets widely accepted benchmarks for nonprofit excellence.

9.         Expand organizational capacity through increased giving from existing and new supporters.

WHY: This is best summed up in our newly adopted vision statement:

Freed and compelled by the Gospel of Jesus Christ to proclaim God’s love and seek justice for all, Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries envisions a church where all may serve God according to their callings. 

Our whole plan is summed up in our newly adopted mission statement:

Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries affirms and supports LGBTQ Lutheran rostered leaders and those pursuing a call to rostered leadership while engaging allied congregations and ministries to proclaim God’s love and seek justice for all. 

We invite you to join us in this work!

1. Provide resources through your annual contribution or special gift.

2. Learn more by watching our 6 minute video.

3. Read all about Proclaim members.

4. Sign-up for our monthly eNewsletter or suggest some friends to us! Email Amalia (director@elm.org).

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world.  Romans 1:8

We have 139 members of Proclaim, the professional community for publicly identified LGBTQ Lutheran rostered leaders and those pursuing a call to rostered leadership.  Thanks be to God for each of them and for the ways they are proclaiming their faith throughout the world!  But, who are all these people?  How can I learn more about them, what they are passionate about, how they are called, and what they like to eat?  Drumroll……Proclaim Profiles!

Thanks to Brenda Bos we now have an online page dedicated to sharing parts of the lives of Proclaim members.  These are stories that need to be told – stories of faithful LGBTQ leaders in our church.

Erik Christensen came up with the idea of Proclaim Trading Cards and started sharing one profile a day on his Facebook page.  There is no gum included with these trading cards, but if you’d like to open a pack of Juicy Fruit or Double Bubble while you read Proclaim Profiles, go for it!

Just to get you started, here are a few to check out:

Ángel D. Marrero-Roe recently joined the ELM board and is currently on internship in Boston, MA.  He’s got a great call story in the “Did you always want to be clergy?” section – check it out!

Find out about the first marriage John Brett was asked to perform and read the best description of a peach you’ll ever experience.

In addition to ministry type things (she just started her internship in Santa Monica, CA), Becca Seely likes to plan themed parties, write young adult fiction, and has some very interesting food tastes.

Barbara Lundblad is a pastor, preacher and teacher.  Her list of who has inspired her is itself quite inspiring!

David De Block likes to describe his ministry at Central Lutheran in Seattle as being an “information kiosk” and his photo includes some cute and cuddly friends.

Those are just a few!  Check out the rest HERE!