The origin of the word synod is the combination of two Greek words: syn (together) and hodos (way, path or road, direction, manner of life, journey). Synod means way or road together. In the gospels, “the way” is shorthand for the way of discipleship, the way of the cross, and Jesus as the way that leads to life.
In May, we come to the regular fork in our road together, or the regular pause in our way together, that is a bishop election. We get to consider our direction and manner of life in terms of Jesus, the cross, abundant life, and discipleship. And we get to call a bishop to lead and accompany us for the next leg of the journey.
Regardless of how well orchestrated they are, changes in bishops, like changes in pastors, are disruptive. Expectation and anxiety rise as relationships change, ministry slows, at least for a time, and some aspects of our life and journey together stop. This time of transition can be especially unsettling for the staff, synod leadership, congregations in the call process, and rostered ministers seeking calls.
When we last came to this fork in the road in 2019, I endeavored to maintain our momentum and reduce anxiety by announcing my openness to continue to serve as bishop. To my regret, some received my announcement as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:29) because I was perceived as attempting to prevent the one the Holy Spirit wanted to serve as bishop from running. So I haven’t said much about the bishop election this time. Now some ask about my openness to serving another term; others express the opinion that the time has come for a change. I am not a fan of whispering to some thoughts that might impact us all. So what should I do?
Allow me to share my three hopes for our synod assembly. First, I want the assembly to be a positive, good, even holy experience. I remain committed to direction I received from Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson that the bishop’s role and responsibility at an assembly is to help the voting members do their work. Second, I do not want to tie myself up in emotional or spiritual knots over a bishop election. So I have worked and am working to be at peace whatever the outcome. I will either get to continue doing some things I love as bishop or I won’t have to do some things I really don’t love as bishop. Third, as I indicated in the June newsletter, I want to protect Cathy, Chelsey, and our staff from derision, both derision about me and derision directed at them. I hope Synod Council will lead us in honoring people’s right to critique without dishonoring the Eighth Commandment and Luther’s interpretation of it. I am bolstered by people who have promised that they will not allow derision to happen or will call a halt to it if it does.
As for the election and my openness to serving, I will do as I did in 2013 and be guided by the results of the ballots. Right after the speeches in 2013, Cathy, Chelsey, and I decided to leave the assembly and head home to Chicago. On our way out the door, the results of the third ballot turned us around. I have attended enough bishop elections in the last 12 years to trust that the triune God is at work in the process; we do well to treat it as a holy thing.
Allow me also to respond to some of the scuttlebutt floating around. I am not constitutionally prohibited from serving another term. I am neither exhausted by nor uninterested in the work. Quite the opposite. I remain energized and committed because I continue to encounter and be encountered by Jesus in my service as bishop. I am invigorated by Pastor Bright coming alongside as Assistant to the Bishop. I am profoundly grateful that Ann Stavros, Rebecca Bossenbroek, Lynn Kriser, Chelsey Satterlee, and Cathy Satterlee continue to journey with me and with our synod. I am inspired by Sandy Schlesinger’s partnership and leadership of Synod Council. I am eager for our synod to call our next Director for Evangelical Mission.
As for the road ahead, I am excited by the opportunities I anticipate we will encounter, particularly when we share the story of Jesus in word and deed for no reason other than that it is such good news. I am undaunted by the challenging landscape that lies ahead, including retirements, call processes, and congregations that will need to face their sustainability and decide what, if anything, they want to do about it. All of this in a changing denomination and a changing world. And, as the pandemic taught us, the only thing certain about the next leg of the journey, for the church and for the world, is the certainty of God’s love in Jesus Christ. So the most important thing we do is proclaim Christ crucified and risen as the power and wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).
And my openness to serving and my vision of the road ahead are secondary to the synod’s call. When I was installed as bishop, I was asked, “Will you commit yourself to this new trust and responsibility in the confidence that it comes from God through the call of the church?” This is the same question pastors and deacons are asked when they are installed in the confidence that it comes from God through the call of the church. In the course of my life and ministry, I have known times when I was convinced that God was calling me to a specific trust and responsibility, only to have the church call someone else. In retrospect, I am grateful that God through the church did not call me. And I have been blessed beyond measure when God through the church has called me. So my question is not about my openness to serve, but about whether God through the church, meeting as a synod assembly, is calling me to serve.
If you call me, I will happily and gratefully serve. If you call someone else, I will help to prepare you for the next leg of the journey and then, grateful for the privilege of leading and accompanying you for a time, wave goodbye as I watch you head down one fork in the road and I turn to head down the other, confident that Jesus is leading us both to our common destination of discipleship, the cross, and abundant life.
So, I invite you to join me in holy waiting and fervent prayer. Pray for our synod and our way together. Pray for those who are planning and will lead our assembly and bishop election. Pray for the one whom we will call to serve as bishop. Pray especially for those who will open themselves to serve and not be called. And please remember that we do not pause on our journey until May and that we still have traveling to do as we follow in the way together.
May the peace of Christ be with us all!
The Rev. Craig Alan Satterlee, Ph.D., Bishop