Convention Conversation: Confronting Church Challenges - With Amy Schweim

Now the reason I'm talking with Amy not only are we gonna hear about her ministry in caring for the next Jan and really the education of people of God within Lutheran Church Missouri Synod , but she and I also serve as those who will be at the Synodical Convention here in Milwaukee in just about a week or so , and Amy has served on two respective advisory

delegate conventions as a commissioned worker . She was there , you're just telling me , when President Kieschnik was elected back 2003 or four , and then back in 2016, . Last time the convention was in Milwaukee , which I was there as well . That was my first one , and now you're back in Milwaukee again here in 2023 .

So before we get into the convention itself , love to just get to know you a little bit better . What do you love about being a DCE and how many years and contexts have you been serving , amy ? Thank you .

Yeah , and I've served various , various roles , many different roles , over the last 28 years in this place . I have three kids 22 , 17 and 15 . And my oldest is serving his DCE internship down in Boca Raton , Florida .

I get to share the hope and love of Jesus with people whomever I meet , whether they're inside our church doors or out on the street or at my kids' schools . That's part of just part of who I am .

I also really appreciate the aha moments when someone like gets something whether it's in the Bible or recently been doing a lot of teaching and doing parenting classes and to see those parents light up and go gosh , this is who God wants us to be as parents . And to go out and to parent differently or parent better those are . That's just .

That to me is just really , really cool . I also we have had over the years here a really large social ministry presence in our community serving the least of these and to be able to offer just the tangible items meals , clothes , shelter , and then also the hope and love of Jesus and that's that just really is amazing to me .

And then this last season of ministry I've been doing a lot of training .

Our outreach ministries in our community have us working with kids and then in our coffee shop and so just loving on high schoolers and training them and helping them get real life experience and stuff that they can put on their resumes and get jobs following their experience with us yeah , Thank you for your service and for your ability to pivot and to evolve into

different roles .

There's a number of different issues right now which are swirling which this podcast has addressed . It could be pastoral formation Everybody listens to me , they know that I have a big time heart .

The United Leadership Collective has a big time heart for leadership development at all levels , from DC East to teachers , administrators to pastors , and we've got shortages that are pretty , pretty immense that I hope we talk about as well as then the CUS kind of controversy and Concordia Texas , concordia Portland that's right in your neck of the woods , right , the

closure , the closure there . So what are some of those topics and then other contexts before we dig in , as you were a part of life together , floor committee for , with pastor Esgid Allen bus , paul Lineman , your , your district president . So , yeah , talk about your hopes and fears .

give really bold , powerful , united witness of the love of Jesus to those around us . And then , right along with that comes one of my greatest fears is that our witness to our world is marred by what happens in Milwaukee . I just I really feel like we're at a time and place within our church and within our culture .

We just need to be working towards unification and I know I don't have rose colored glasses , I know we're never going to be 100% unified , but at least I'd be talking similar languages and to work towards sharing the love of Jesus with those that are around us . Topic there's a couple topics I'm most interested in hearing .

One is the lack of professional church workers within our body . We hear a lot about lack of pastors , but I also know there's a lack of DCS , there's a significant lack of Lutheran school teachers . And what are we doing to fill those gaps and how are we best meeting the needs . And how do we take somebody who maybe is wasn't raised in the church ?

How do we catch them up to speed and get them trained in a way that they can serve the church , they can serve alongside of us , that doesn't also impact their family life so profoundly ? I've just I've had some friends who've done that and it's just it's really hard on families and kids to be able to move from where they're at to back to St Louis .

So how do we meet people where they're at , get them trained and get them out into the work for sharing the love of Jesus ? I think the other piece with pastoral formation is helping the pastors who are coming out .

Obviously , it's really important that they know their theology , they know the Bible , they know confessions , but also just some more stuff on team ministry and teamwork and what it looks like to work with , whether it's a second chair person like a DCE , or how to help lead a preschool staff . How do those kind of team ministry situations ?

And then , of course , how to lead and to work with laity . I have been very blessed to work with some really strong , really great lead pastors , but I know that that is not the case in a lot of people's experiences within the church , and I'm sure it's probably that way in other denominations , but obviously my only experiences within the LCMS .

The training that we provided certainly could use a facelift , if you will , into 2020 and 2023 for our teachers , because we've had a number of them go through it and it wasn't the most pleasant or easy experience for them . We just need leaders at all levels . I'm so glad your son is going in .

What a legacy of a son following in his mom's footsteps and becoming a DCE . Can't wait to see . I'd love to see more male DCEs who are in that . I also am very , very hopeful that we will recognize context . As I read through a lot of the resolutions , amy .

I hear a lot of reference to Constitution by-laws resolutions from a lot of those places , but I don't often hear or read robust scripture and Lutheran confessions to justify the decisions that we're making . Once again , you cannot or should not legislate unity . This is a highly relational thing . I think our foundation of scriptures and the confession should be enough .

Then , as it relates to respective resolutions given in one time , or is it just honestly asking the question how's that working for us ? I mean not in a snarky way , but is it getting the desired result that we need ?

We all agree , the ideology is fantastic , but let's get it out To your point , recognizing the value of context while at the same time saying our institutions , our universities , our seminaries , our places of higher education , residential education , are treasures that should be maintained .

But we're having a hard time , I think , in the broader conversation , of saying two things need to happen at the same time . It's kind of an either or , rather than a both and approach . I pray for more of a both and approach . Anything more to add , though , because you touch on something there as it relates to formation .

One of my fears , I guess , is that that conversation doesn't have as much time to breathe for the convention to kind of just wrestle with the respective numbers of how many leaders will we need , not just pastors with other leaders , say , a decade from now and then what is the plan that we're going to put into place for that ?

That we're not able to actually have that loving dialogue , and that the Concordia University system , which God bless it . I mean , I'm grateful for it , but that that would be more of the touch . The Concordia Texas conversation would be more what gets people kind of fired up , and we don't let the floor committee six have its due time .

We'll just kind of wait and see how that goes . Anything to add to that , though , amy .

I will say that I think what you're talking about as far as not , we won't have the ability to have conversations in Milwaukee . That was the thing that I was wonderfully surprised about . We were able to sit around a very large table and have some conversations over some tough stuff and we didn't all agree . But I felt hurt .

I felt like I contributed to the conversation and that I guess I didn't know what to expect . But just some of my past experiences had not always been real good with committee kinds of things , and so I was very pleasantly surprised .

We had nice conversations and while we waited for our resolutions to be checked off , we got to know one another and it was fun , it was nice , it was relaxing , it was a great experience .

that committee . So Floor Committee 4 , that's not one we've talked about . What didn't you all agree on ? What is kind of maybe a little bit more controversial as the church starts to speak about our life together ?

it was not everybody agreed , but we were able to have a good conversation and come to a resolution on it .

And how are we going to involve them at a greater level and to not feel like that they are less than because they're not a pastor ? We have people in our congregation doctors that's an incredible education . They're not any less than because they're not a pastor .

And so to figure out our relationship with laity and to involve our laity and be empowering them even more , I think is so crucial as we move forward .

But I've been in situations where conversation gets shut down and there's not even a willingness to listen to a quote , unquote other side , so just to let people talk .

And I know that time is short , but I want people to feel like they've been heard and that if I have a different viewpoint than you , we can walk away and friendships are destroyed , relationships aren't damaged and we can give a powerful witness to the rest of the world and to other people around us .

That folks who are maybe three , four down would resist the urge , if only one or two voices have been heard on each side , to say I didn't call the question . That a lot of times the call to question has come far too soon .

I can think back four years ago when and there wasn't any one , this wasn't one person's fault per se , it was just the way it kind of landed .

We were talking about the Concordia University system and it got to the end of the day and there was still a lot to be said and I think it was President Harrison or someone else was the chair said well , we're at the end of the day , the orders of the day , and so we're going to break and we'll come back to a respective resolution .

And we came back to it like three days later because for those of you who aren't there , it is five , four and a half , five very , very long days . Usually , if you talk about floor committee on the Saturday before five and a half , really very , very full days , and for those of you like yourself , we serve for a handful of days on a floor committee .

Oh my goodness , this is a lot of work has gone into this . So I understand the sense of urgency . We've got a lot of business of the church to do , but to that point this respective CUS resolution came back , maybe on a Wednesday afternoon or something like that , and folks are flipping through their papers trying to figure out okay , which one is this ?

Now , this is the controversial one . Okay , hit your cue to get in to speak to it . And , like , one person was able to speak and then the guy right behind him I call the question to end debate hit one and it was like a 51 to 49 . And we were all tired . You know . 49 said no , we need to hear more .

And 51 said , you know , no , we're done with this . And a resolution regarding the Concordia's was made without an adequate hearing in my mind , and it's . This is all a lot of the offer . It's all a human process , you know , and we're trying to evolve and do the best we can .

So I pray people just put the best construction on everything and that people who have that wisdom wins the day and that love and charity for those who have diverse opinions , recognizing we're all the baptized , all within the same family of faith . We need to be united . In this day and age where Satan is having a heyday steal killing and destroying , dividing .

He wants to come at the church . We got a big , big target on our collective back and Satan just laughs when we treat one another like we're the enemy when we try to compete with one another . I , like I've been wrestling with this value of competition here . I'm a competitive guy , but there's something around . It's not . It's not competition against .

Actually , the root of the Latin is competition , or striving with . It's not striving against , it's just actually striving with , and so we are striving . The gates of hell collectively , cannot with withstand the assault of the church , all carrying the banner of Jesus , the crucified and risen one .

So we are all striving with one another rather than against one another . Any final thoughts there about the posture that we take as we enter into convention ?

Maybe it's with a pastor or a late delegate who is heading there , maybe for the first time , a lot of first timers who are there , and may this help set their heart , may the fruit of the spirit just rest upon their heart and upon their lips .

That love , joy , peace , patience , kindness , goodness , self-control all of those things would be what characterize us as a family of faith at the 2023 Synodical Convention . We'll see you next week with another episode of lead time . Thanks so much , Amy .

Thanks for listening and stay tuned for next week's episode .