Lead people to ‘real freedom and security,’
Anderson urges Magnet Church attendees

Anderson: "Folks have made a bad bargain."

WEST CHESTER, PA (April 4, 2003) – The Rev. Dr. H. George Anderson delivered a kind of pep talk to church leaders during the ninth annual Magnet Church event at Calvary Lutheran Church here.

Anderson, the event’s keynoter and the immediate past presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, first described a church "at work on so may fronts that its razor gets worn down." His theme was "Keeping Your Mission Edge Sharp."

He said sometimes congregations can get caught in seeing mission "in terms of the congregation and what it does and forget the mission edge" that the church is all about. That mission is helping people to understand that in an age where freedom and security are elusive in the real world, real freedom and security come through understanding how baptism "transforms the way we think. We can turn away from the past to the sunrise of a new day, freed from the power of sin and raised to new life. There is a forgiveness in the way we are freed."

Baptism, Anderson said, helps believers "discover the way we are important to God. I’m different because God sent his son to die for me. We are brought to safety from the mortal arms of our parents to the eternal arms of God" as part of a new power structure. The old order of cause and effect is broken, and we become part of a "new kingdom with new options for the world."

After reminding his listeners of the message of God’s unconditional love through Christ, Anderson challenged his listeners to use this mission edge "to cut through the fake answers people seek in the real world and get to the heart of the matter." That heart is that people’s hearts will remain restless until they find their rest in God.

In his remarks he described some of the fake answers people encounter in real life. Many modern people have less time for their neighbors. These "here and now people" use their spare time to run to the store or get to high school ball games. They often work two jobs plus overtime for security, fun to the shore or a flea market. The church tends to write such people off. "We’ll say if you like church, fine, otherwise we may not pay them much attention," he said.

Such a climate is indeed "rocky ground for the seed of the Word." Anderson said. But he urged his listeners to dig deeper, suggesting that living such busy lives may mask in many their need for religion. "What if this behavior is a sign of a spiritual disease?" he said. "In the same way Esau sold his birthright to Jacob in the Old Testament, modern day people "sell their birthright for a mess of pottage," finding junk food for their spirits and discovering after entering into their modern-day bargain that later they are still hungry.

People desperately seeking bargain-style freedom in the real world end up "chained to their desk, locked in a dead end job and tied down, " Anderson said. "They long for newness…They want to do something different," And thus through therapy and entertainment they seek to escape to another world to see something new. "Folks have made a bad bargain," he said. "They’ve given up their freedom and settled for fun. The game ends. The music stops, and they are still left with hunger." He noted the decade of the nineties was forecast to be a time of leisure. "But people now work two jobs plus overtime…because there is no longer job security." Money becomes a central need for many, he said, and people decide that their net worth is the way to measure their self-worth.

Beneath it all people are left with a root need, to be loved and needed in an increasingly impersonal world, Anderson said. "Many people are hurting. They are crying, "Love me for God’s sake’." In such a world, people frequently strive to make the world small enough so they can control it "and not think beyond the here and now."

The challenge of the modern church is to help people to understand "that the world they may be living in is ephemeral, that God’s time is different, that there is another reality and that in God’s kingdom comes real security," he said.

Preacher at the event’s morning worship was the Rev. Steve Godsall-Myers whose message was based on Romans 16:1-16. Godsall-Myers noted the curious list of greetings at the outset of Romans is a reminder of how Paul needed to be near the mission edge to reach so many people. He urged the congregation to find "different ways to encourage others through proclaiming the gospel…Who are the people you want to get on your mission edge list?" he asked.

Seminary President Philip Krey brought greetings to attendees and said the event is one way the seminary works to "listen to congregations."

Workshop topics ranged from Planting the Church Today and Empowering Mission Partnerships to Rethinking Your Vision.

The event featured a series of workshops. Anderson led one on "The Church’s Mission Today." He is serving this spring as St. John’s Summit Visiting Professor. An alum of LTSP, Anderson received this M.Div. from the seminary in 1956 and also received his Master of Sacred Theology at the school.

Godsall-Myers led a Senior Pastors Roundtable discussion. "Churches Planting Churches: How Congregations Can Partner to Plant Churches in the 21^st Century" was another workshop at the event. It was led by the Rev. Claire Schenot Burkat, Mission Director for the New Jersey and Southeastern Pennsylvania Synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Rev. Paul Heal, Canon for Congregations—The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. "Empowering Partnerships for Mission at Home and Abroad" was led by the Rev. William Erat, executive director of Lutheran Children and Family Services. Mark Staples, the seminary’s director of communications, led sessions on "Rethinking Your Vision."

The Magnet Church Event for large and growing congregations is sponsored by the seminary and the Northeastern and Southeastern Pennsylvania Synods.