Red and Yellow, Black and White...

I am a proudly confessional, liturgical, historical, Biblical Lutheran. I sing out of the Lutheran Service Book each Sunday, use Luther's Morning Prayer almost every day, sing A Mighty Fortress with gusto and cross myself obsessively.

I am also a Lutheran in the eyes of people.... that must mean I take liturgically colored gelatin cubes to potlucks, adore tuna noodle casserole (I mean hotdish), drink lots of black coffee, have German ancestors, and, of course, hate change.

Thus, the famous Lutheran joke....

How Many Lutherans Does it Take To Change a Lightbulb?

 

Answer:

CHANGE!?!?!

Or, this alternative answer.....

Enough to create a Light Bulb Committee to address these topics:
1) determine first if they need a new light bulb
2) If they determine they need one.... debate if it is worth the change
3) Research different light bulbs and present their findings to the church council who can make a recommendation for the congregational vote in November.
4) determine if they need a "change the light bulb team" to help turn the ladder while someone holds the bulb.
5) Arrange a service of dedication for the new light bulb
6) propose to the budget committee an estimated yearly cost for keeping the new bulb lit (which will ultimately be cut from the budget in 2012)
7) Find an appropriate Martin Luther quote about light to put on the bulletin the first Sunday of the new bulb so everyone knows what "Luther would have thought about a new light bulb"
8) call the seminary to make sure it is not unconfessional to use a light bulb that may have been made by Baptists.
9) seek out private donors in order to avoid a capital campaign fund to afford a new bulb.
10) Have church split because the largest donor's great-great grandfather donated theoriginal light bulb 50 years ago.


There's just one problem. I am a devoted, happy Lutheran who is mostly of Scotch-Irish and Cherokee background, with maybe four splashes of German and a bit of English. I speak with a drawl, eat fried okra, chicken livers, pecan pie and sweet iced tea. I don't drink coffee. And, most scandalously of all...
I prefer the front of the church, not the back pew.

But, really, let's be honest.
The Garrison Keillor, "Lutfisk, hotdishes, coffee and Jell-o Lutherans".... are dying.
Baptized membership in my denomination, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, is down by 2 percent.
Communicant membership is down by 1.5 percent.

None of the American Lutheran denominations are growing.... all of them are either holding steady of shrinking.


But all is not lost.

In 1910, 93% of the world's Christians were in Europe or the Americas.
Only 1.4 percent were in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Now, 23% of the Christians in the world are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In 1910, 4.5% were in Asia/Pacific.... now it's 13 percent.

Technically, the US still has the most Christians.... followed by Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Philippines, Nigeria, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Germany and Ethiopia.

But, counting Christians in China is notoriously hard, and most of the sources I read figured that in all reality, China is probably the country with the most Christians.

Nigeria has twice as many Christians as Germany.
Brazil has twice as many Catholics as Italy.
And....
There are THREE TIMES as many Lutherans in Africa as in the US and Canada combined!

Of the 17 countries with more than a half a million Lutherans....
6 are African,
3 are Asian.

There are three African Churches that have more members individually than the LCMS.... The church in Ethiopia, Madagascar, and Tanzania.

The fast growing Lutheran Church... also one of the fastest growing the in world... is the Mekane Yesus church of Ethiopia.

The other thing it keep in mind is this--
Not only are African Lutherans gaining more converts... the age of marriage is lower, and the number of children per woman is higher.
Acording to this map, most of the countries experiencing the most Lutheran growth have an average of at least 5 children per woman.
And, this list tells us that most Africans are marrying in their early twenties or even late teens.
 It's not a bad church growth policy to think about!

So, no, the typical Lutheran is no longer a German eating hot dishes... or a Swede eating lefse.
It's a Ethiopian eating Injera, or a Malagasy eating romazava.

All together now!

"Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world,
Red and Yellow, Black and White,
They are precious in His sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world!"

Besides, the more colors the better!

Bonus clip: