Author: David Wendel

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Global Confessional and Mission Forum

The Global Confessional and Missional Lutheran Forum (Global Forum) met September 4-6 at the Lisak Resort, Bishoftu, Ethiopia. In August 2015, at the invitation of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC), the gathering of Lutheran church leaders and representatives of reform and renewal communities throughout the world convened, in conjunction with the NALC Lutheran Week in Dallas, TX. The Global Forum met for the second time during the 2016 NALC Lutheran Week in Anaheim, CA and in 2017 in Nashville, TN. The decision was made during the Nashville gathering to meet in East Africa in either 2018 or 2019. Due to the support and encouragement of the Norwegian Lutheran Mission (NLM), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT), the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) and the North American Lutheran Church (NALC), the dream of meeting in Africa became a reality.  Continue reading “Global Confessional and Mission Forum”

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Fulfilling Our Ministry and Mission Through Ecumenical and Inter-Lutheran Efforts

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:1-6)

With these Scriptural words quoted in the Initial Statement on the Ecumenical and Inter-Lutheran Commitment of the North American Lutheran Church, approved at the 2011 NALC Convocation, we acknowledged the goal for which our Lord prayed at the Last Supper, as He said, “Holy Father keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one…that they may all be one, even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” John 17:11b, 22-23. And more than acknowledging our Lord’s prayer, we committed ourselves to working together within the kingdom for unity in the Body of Christ, that increasingly, the world would see that “There is one body and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all…”  Continue reading “Fulfilling Our Ministry and Mission Through Ecumenical and Inter-Lutheran Efforts”

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NALC Delegation Attends GAFCON

The North American Lutheran Church sent a delegation of three as ecumenical observers to the third Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem in June. Attending as observers were Bishop John Bradosky, Pastor David Wendel and Pastor Bassam Abdallah. The invitation to attend this “by-invitation-only” conference was extended to us by representatives of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). The NALC and ACNA have been in ongoing ecumenical consultations since the formation of the NALC.   Continue reading “NALC Delegation Attends GAFCON”

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The NALC: Clergy and Laity

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. — 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 ESV

For many years, pastors and lay members of our congregations complained about the delegate and voting procedures in previous Lutheran church bodies. Continue reading “The NALC: Clergy and Laity”