Looming Large: The Pivotal Place of the Laity in 100 Years of History

The decisions that are made in the name of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod are determined at the annual conventions. Between conventions, the day-to-day work of the synod is conducted by boards and committees, whose membership is approximately equally shared by clergy and laity. A review of annual reports of the synod show that during the 64 years from 1954 to 2018, 269 laymen from Earl Aasen to Charles Zitzmann provided 2,626 years of service for the synod. A normal term of service for each member is three years, but, as indicated by the preceding numbers, the average length of service was about ten years for each man. Most positions are filled by election at the conventions; some members are appointed.
The Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33, ESV). The 269 laymen who served the 2,626 years in the service of the Lord within the structure of the ELS received God’s law in their hearts at the time of their baptism. It is likely that the majority were baptized as infants and were increasingly exposed to and educated in the Christian heritage through their family, through the Sunday School and the Christian Day School. Christian higher education was a factor in the life of many. Therefore, the love of the Lord was in their hearts and, when they were sought out to be nominated or appointed to a synod board or committee, they willingly heard and accepted the call. Some men served one year, many served several years; in fact, 29 men (eleven percent) each served more than 20 years.
Most committee meetings are one day at a time, but some extend two or three days. Some meet once a year, but most are four or more times each year. The meeting dates are planned, but additional research, study, and advance preparation is necessary for each member to ready himself to resolve the issues on the next agenda. Travel time to the meetings may be fifteen minutes for some, but for others, it may be a day or two. In much of the twentieth century, the travel was often by railroad and the travel time was longer.¹ Expenses of the committee members are reimbursed by the synod, but there is no salary or financial remuneration for the time that is spent away from the family or from employment. Time is donated by the laymen. Their life experiences are another contribution that the laity bring to the work of the Lord, experiences and knowledge that are not readily available to the clergy.
At the 1918 Lime Creek convention of the Norwegian Synod of the American Evangelical Lutheran Church,² there were approximately 200 people listed³ as being in attendance. Aaberg states that thirteen of them were pastors.⁴ Obviously, the laity have been active participants from the first meeting of the old/new Lutheran Christian organization throughout this first century.
After organizing the synod at Lime Creek, the members did not sit back and relax; they immediately continued the Lord’s work in the new setting. They established a Missions Committee with a subcommittee for the West Coast, publications, constitution, historical committees, auditors, and a delegate to the Synodical Conference. Four of the men elected to the committees were laymen. At the 1919 convention, foreign missions, elementary education, higher education, church extension, and a railroad secretary were added. Five additional laymen were elected.⁵
Mission programs started early. Miss Anena Christensen served in Madagascar and was sent to India in 1926 through the Board for Foreign Missions of the Missouri Synod. She retired in 1939.⁶ Other ELS women missionaries were Sarah Tjernagel Schalow in China and Ruth Tjernagel Strohshein in the Philippines.⁷ The synod also participated in mission fields of the Synodical Conference.
Many of the synod’s current congregations started as home mission programs.⁸ Approximately twenty congregations were on the roll call in 1920;⁹ 149 congregations are shown in the 2017 Synod Report. Many were started by an assembly of Christians who sought a pastor from the synod to provide spiritual leadership.
Only eight years after the synod’s organizing convention and again in the succeeding year, a committee from privately operated Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato offered to sell the institution to the synod, but the synod convention could not finance the necessary $90,000. Synod representatives suggested that a request be made of the congregations to find fifty members who would finance the purchase and operational costs of the college. Within a week, seventy-four people had volunteered.¹⁰ The laity were willing to finance Christian higher education out of their own pockets.
Because the establishment of the Bethany Lutheran College Association by the private donors had been hurriedly completed without any official synodical authority, the committee’s actions were not immediately accepted by the members at the 1927 convention. Several days of discussion included a motion that the synod assume ownership of the college. The following day, the vote was taken and the purchase was approved 33 to 21. The purchase price and operational costs of the college were now the responsibility of the synod. The final payment to the association was made in 1944.¹¹ The voluntary financial efforts of the laity and clergy had secured a secondary education institution for the synod until the synod itself could finance it.
For several generations, but especially in this twenty-first century, the work of the synod has been assisted by modern industry and technology. The laity have provided leadership in the use of these assets in spreading the Gospel.
The wives of the clergy often exist in the shadow of their husbands without the acknowledgement of their service to the Church. They do not have a position in the pulpit, but they have more significance than only the one who irons his shirt, presses his suit, and provides eggs, sausage, toast, and coffee each morning. Frequently, they may be the lead or substitute congregation organist. Often they will sing in the church choir and perhaps direct it. They teach Sunday School or Christian Day School. The role of the pastor’s wife usually reflects his call as she works by his side.
Significant in service to the synod have been the administrative office secretaries, Melvina Aaberg, Mary Jane Tweit, and Elsa Ferkenstad. Their work has provided the necessary production of synodical writings, publications, and other documentation.
Over the last century, the laity have been pivotal in the organization of the restructured synod, in its early work into various mission fields, into the furtherance of Christian education in all phases of life, and in taking advantage of modern industry and technology for spreading the Gospel of Christ. It has been proclaimed locally and to the world by the combined actions of the clergy and laity of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod.
Mr. Norman Werner
Contributing Writer
King of Grace Lutheran Church
Golden Valley, MN
¹A railroad secretary was an important officer of the synod, planning the travel of synod officers and committee members.
²Aaberg, Theodore A., A City Set on A Hill, A History of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (Norwegian Synod), 1918-1968, Board of Publications, Evangelical Lutheran Synod, Mankato, MN. The synod’s name was changed to “Evangelical Lutheran Synod” in 1957.
³Beretning Synodemodet, 1918, pp.4-5. Many of the names are preceded by “Mr. and Mrs.;” some were followed by the word “family.” It was of the highest importance for the members of the laity to be present, more important than their farm work, than minding their store or attending to other personal business.
⁴Aaberg, p. 80.
⁵Translated from the Norwegian by Prof. Emeritus Erling Teigen as published in the Beretning Synodemodet for 1918 and 1919.
⁶Aaberg, p. 83.
⁷Aaberg, p. 84.
⁸Aaberg, p. 87.
⁹The Third Annual Convention of the Norwegian Synod of the American Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1920.
¹⁰Aaberg, pp. 96, 98.
¹¹Aaberg, p. 103.