Week of the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Dear Friends in Christ:

I had indicated in my midweek message last week that there would not be a message this week because of my time in Phoenix with Nathan. However, our Congregation Council has directed me to communicate with you their initial support for a set of new banners for the Washington Blvd. entrance that would replace the Black Lives Matter sign. Before making a decision about placing new banners, the Council wishes to communicate this possibility to the wider congregation membership and to seek responses to this proposal.

You may recall that I shared with you in a recent midweek message a set of recommendations that I offered to the Council concerning our public witness as a congregation alongside our commitment to becoming an ever more welcoming and inclusive congregation community. Before acting on that set of recommendations, the Council wanted more time to reflect on them. Much of the concern had to do with the Black Lives Matter sign and what might replace it if we were to remove it. In response to that, I developed an amended set of recommendations which offered the suggestion of a set of new banners that would replace the Black Lives Matter sign. What follows is the narrative that I offered to Council at the recent October meeting.

The amendment to the recommendations is actually quite simple: to remove the Black Lives Matter banner from the second-floor windows at the Washington Blvd. entrance and to replace it with a set of three banners (approximately 3x5 feet each) preliminarily designed as pictured below:

In descriptive summary, this set of banners:

• Identifies our congregation on the side of the building at the main entrance that does not otherwise prominently name our church;
• Expresses the biblical language of what I propose to become our congregation’s official, publicly-focused mission statement;
• Features colorful logos and the websites of our ELCA’s three expressions of the church, that is, our congregation, our synod, and our churchwide organization.

Here are further rationales for approving this recommendation to replace the BLM banner with a new set of banners:

• I sensed during the conversation at our September meeting a good deal of concern that if we take the BLM banner down, what does that say to our community? This alternative actually says a lot to the wider community about our self-understanding as a church and gives websites where people can go to find a great deal more information.
• I am called to be Pastor to our whole congregation, which includes people across the spectrum of political viewpoints. My calling to attend to all members of our church is being made more difficult by the ongoing divide in our congregation that the BLM banner has provoked. This conflict has actually grown in some intensity since our return to worshiping indoors. The proposed alternative set of banners may be a compelling compromise to possibly unite people across the political spectrum.
• Retaining the BLM banner does not necessarily advance our anti-racism efforts. In fact, keeping the banner up may be impeding what will need to be our capacity as a congregation to engage in frank, open, respectful conversation and education about racism and efforts to become anti-racist.
• I believe that the BLM banners served an important purpose in provoking us to begin to deal with the problem of racism. Now is the time to engage the real work of antiracism formation and community-building as advocated for in the additional recommendations I offered in September. Thus, it may be that the BLM banner has outlived its useful purpose at this point.
• It is likely the case that we will see membership loss because of the pandemic. Surveys reveal that up to a third of formerly active church members may not return to church at all. Given this, we cannot afford additional membership loss due to the banner controversy. RELC is in major transition as a congregation and is at a crossroads in terms of its future. We need to enter that future as strong as possible in terms of membership numbers and member activity and commitment.
• Among our approved vision statements, the call to build a deeper sense of community in our congregation is listed as the first priority among the other vision statements. The divisiveness provoked in relation to the BLM banner does not at this point serve our work of deepening a sense of community among our members.
• The phrase, “do justice; love kindness; walk humbly with God” has a history (dating to the consultant process during the pastoral interim) of being well-received in our congregation as a summary statement of our self-understanding. I believe it communicates to the wider community the kind of message we want to send, inclusive of a passion for justice. Moreover, the phrase is biblical and thus less prone to partisan or ideological misunderstanding.
• Identifying the websites of our congregation, along with our synod, and churchwide organization, is in keeping with my experience of our congregation as one which embraces our relatedness to the wider of church.
• Moreover, websites are the new front doors to the church. It’s appropriate that our church’s various websites are named literally at our front door!

Therefore, I offer to you this amended set of recommendations:

1. That the Black Lives Matter banner be removed and replaced with a three-panel banner with our congregation’s name, statements from Micah 6:8, the logos related to our congregation, synod, and churchwide organization, along with these entities’ website addresses.
2. That the removal of the signs and placement of new signage be accompanied by communication overseen by the Pastor to the whole congregation clearly expressing the rationale for removing the signs as well as stating a commitment to engage in intentional inclusive community building initiatives in our congregation.
3. That the Council be directed to make plans for activities that serve to repair, renew, and deepen our communal life together as a congregation.
4. That the Council furthermore be directed to make plans for activities that also serve to make our congregation more inclusive of the wide variety of races, ethnicities, cultures, and nationalities increasingly represented in the greater Arlington area.
5. That the Pastor and others engage in teaching in the congregation about the nature of the relationship between church and state from Lutheran perspectives rooted in scripture, the Creeds and the Lutheran Confessions.
6. That all of these efforts would be inclusive of the widest possible representation of congregation members reflecting and honoring the diversity of opinion that exists in our community.
7. That amidst and informed by these educational and formational efforts, a policy/protocol statement be drafted in due course that outlines criteria for moral discernment and decision making about the nature of our congregation’s public witness to our moral commitments.

Again, our Congregation Council wanted me to share all of this with you before they make a decision about a new set of banners. It is our strong desire to be more widely consultative in the exercise of leadership in our congregation, in keeping with recommendation 6 above. Your responses will inform the Council’s discernment and decision.

Thus, as your Pastor, and on behalf of our Congregation Council, I invite your responses to this set of recommendations which has as its initial focus the possibility of new banners for the Washington Blvd. side of our church building. You may This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or schedule a time to talk on the phone or in person one-on-one. I also invite you to share your responses in a more communal setting in person after the coffee hour after worship this coming Sunday, October 17 at approximately 11:45 in the fellowship hall.

May God in Christ continue to lead us faithfully forward under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,

Pastor Jonathan Linman