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Five more Minnesota churches quit ELCA
Fargo-Moorhead Forum (ND) ^ | 10/28/10 | J. Shane Mercer

Posted on 10/28/2010 7:57:35 AM PDT by SmithL

Another five churches from the Northwestern Minnesota Synod have parted ways with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, according to information on the synod website.

Those congregations are First Lutheran Church of Roseau, Folden Lutheran Church of rural Vining, Faith Lutheran Church of Mentor, First English Lutheran Church of Menahga and Our Redeemer’s Lutheran Church of Badger.

A total of 15 NMS congregations have left the ELCA this year, Synod Bishop Larry Wohlrabe wrote in an Oct. 26 letter. That represents a decline of just over 5 percent of the synod’s total number of congregations.

The letter also states that the synod has 253 congregations with 103,480 members and that the departing churches accounted for a loss of 3,002 members. That’s just under 3 percent of total baptized members.

The average congregation size of the fleeing churches is 200.

The ELCA continues to deal with fallout after the 2009 Churchwide Assembly when it opted to allow individuals in same-gender relationships to serve in the clergy.

In his letter, Wohlrabe wrote that they “grieve the loss” of the 15 churches, but also made the case for proper perspective.

He also noted that 14 congregations have failed to pass first votes to disaffiliate from the ELCA. Two votes are required for a church to disaffiliate.

The NMS has seen more congregations depart than any other Minnesota synod, according to Oct. 1 numbers from the ELCA national offices. Those figures show that a total of 32 congregations in the state have passed final disaffiliation votes, though those numbers include only 10 departures from the Northwestern Minnesota Synod.

The national ELCA offices said that no eastern North Dakota churches have taken second votes while two churches in western North Dakota had done so.


TOPICS: Current Events; Mainline Protestant; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: cwa09; elca; exodus; homosexualagenda
The exodus continues
1 posted on 10/28/2010 7:57:42 AM PDT by SmithL
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To: lightman; rhema

Wohlrabe celebrates the 14 congregations that couldn’t muster the 2/3 majority vote to leave. How many individuals did those 14 congregations lose?


2 posted on 10/28/2010 8:05:52 AM PDT by SmithL
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To: SmithL

1 Timothy 3:1-5

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.


3 posted on 10/28/2010 8:06:16 AM PDT by VRWCTexan (Those who forget history, are doomed to repeat it !)
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To: SmithL

Keep it up.


4 posted on 10/28/2010 8:33:07 AM PDT by Belteshazzar
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To: SmithL

bookmark


5 posted on 10/28/2010 8:48:41 AM PDT by GOP Poet (Obama is an OLYMPIC failure.)
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To: SmithL

Its my understanding that 3 congregations in east central Illinois are taking their second vote this Sunday. Flatville, Royal and American Lutheran, Rantoul.


6 posted on 10/28/2010 9:01:24 AM PDT by Western Phil
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To: SmithL

It is sad to think of all those people that are still members of the ELCA. They are either too ignorant or too indifferent to do what is right. There is only one choice. You either follow Christ, or you depart from him. Those that remain in the ELCA are doing the latter.


7 posted on 10/28/2010 9:50:30 AM PDT by Nosterrex
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To: Western Phil
Pastor David Barnhart keeps a very comprehensive list of congregations leaving the ELCA on his blog, and updates it regularly: http://davidbarnhart.blogspot.com/
It's worth bookmarking.
8 posted on 10/28/2010 10:58:35 AM PDT by SmithL
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To: SmithL
Wohlrabe celebrates the 14 congregations that couldn’t muster the 2/3 majority vote to leave. How many individuals did those 14 congregations lose?

Could be easily more than half. I haven't yet seen a "failed" disaffiliation congregational vote that wasn't at least 50 percent in favor of leaving the ELCA.

9 posted on 10/28/2010 12:46:49 PM PDT by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: SmithL; lightman
[From Barnhart's blog] The following list of churches that have taken their first and/or second votes since August 2009 represent a potential net loss of 207,966 baptized members. Add to that number thousands who left to begin new Lutheran congregations and still thousands more who have left on their own, and the figures are staggering. The ELCA has announced it is laying off some 60 employees; several synods have also had to let employees go. The list of congregations that have scheduled votes to leave the ELCA this year and next is growing. We have posted 20 churches that are voting on Reformation Sunday, October 31.

What better day to leave the Egregiously Laodicean Church in America than Reformation Sunday?

10 posted on 10/28/2010 12:50:29 PM PDT by rhema ("Break the conventions; keep the commandments." -- G. K. Chesterton)
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To: aberaussie; Aeronaut; aliquando; AlternateViewpoint; AnalogReigns; Archie Bunker on steroids; ...


Lutheran (EL C S*A) Ping!

* as of August 19, AD 2009, a liberal protestant SECT, not part of the holy, catholic and apostolic CHURCH.

Be rooted in Christ!

11 posted on 10/28/2010 1:06:13 PM PDT by lightman (Adjutorium nostrum (+) in nomine Domini)
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To: rhema
What better day to leave the Egregiously Laodicean Church in America than Reformation Sunday?
Here I stand!
12 posted on 10/28/2010 1:09:25 PM PDT by SmithL
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To: SmithL

“Narrow is the way, and few there are that seek it.”

“You shall know them by their fruits” (no pun intended)

The 5% that left are the TRUE believers, I don’t know what to say about the rest.


13 posted on 10/28/2010 3:13:22 PM PDT by Sola Veritas (Trying to speak truth - not always with the best grammar or spelling)
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