Keep a Good Lent!
Be sure also to read:
Statement by Three Dissenting Members of the ELCA Task Force on Human Sexuality
Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust: A Critique by Carl E. Braaten
When There Are No Biblical or Theological Grounds to Change, Dont
WordAlone Network responds to ELCA human sexuality proposals
Lutheran CORE leaders urge rejection of ELCA task force recommendations
My counsel to pastors is this: wait and see what actually happens in August; in the meantime, take action to protect yourself and your congregation, such as amending your congregation's constitution to require pastor's subscription to Visions and Expectations; do not forward any more money to Higgins Road, but invest your mission giving in worthy causes; begin to look for other forms of wider church fellowship; insist that in regard to the foregoing you are acting in conscience and loyally to your ordination vows and will not be bullied or intimadated about the foregoing; bear witness against at every possible opportunity against the bullies, even if you must suffer for it. If in August, the proposals pass, then look to the formation of a non-geographical coalition with a good conscience, in that the ELCA by passing that local ordination option has de facto ceased to exist as a church.
My advice to congregations is: don't give your money to anything you don't believe in, don't participate in the stacked deck of ELCA assemblies according to their rules any longer; don't continue in the state of sloth but demand that your pastors teach you the Scripture, the Confessions and trustworthy Lutheran and ecumenical theology. And if all that fails, then wipe the dust off your feet. Or, wait like me until they kick you out.