In Synod We Trust?

Quoting the closing words of Host Todd Wilken on the December 3 Issues, Etc. show, in which the election of a new leader in the Orthodox Church in America was discussed. Pastor Wilken’s comments are certainly words we in the LCMS should take to heart:

I am struck, every time we have a conversation like this, and there were two here in this hour alone of this program. Every time we have a conversation about the church bodies great and small in the United States, how the problems that plague one plague all. What do we see there in the Orthodox Church of America? Up to this point they’re trying to make a good faith effort to restore trust. Now the breaches in trust take many forms in church bodies. The breaches in trust may be financial, they may be administrative, they may be in terms of church discipline, but they exist. The worst thing that any church body, any church can do, in the face of a deteriorating and crumbling trust, is to deny that it exists, is to say “No, we trust each other, and if we don’t, those who are pointing out the breaches in trust, they’re are the ones who are really destroying the trust.” Worst thing you can do. You want to know the best way, and perhaps Metropolitan Jonah has shown us a bit of an example here, the best way for a church body to restore trust is to admit that it’s broken, and then to get to the real heart of the matter. The worst thing you can do if the breach in trust is say financial is to deny that there are financial problems. The worst thing you can do if it’s administrative is to deny that there are administrative problems. If it’s doctrinal, the worst thing you can do is to deny there are real doctrinal differences in your church body, if you want trust, and you should. The first step is honesty. Honesty becomes the church.

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photo credit: siesja