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Authority to Call
Perry W. Toso

May 25, 2004

"Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock" (I Peter 5:2-3).

"You have scattered my flock and have driven them away. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD" (Jeremiah 23:2,4).

"If anyone aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble task. Therefore a bishop must be above reproach.not violent, but gentle" (I Timothy 3:1,2,3).

"And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness" (II Timothy 2:24-25).

The following briefly summarizes how a church in good standing in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is soon to be dismissed from the ELCA, and how its newly called pastor, with 31 years of service to the ELCA, has been summarily removed from the clergy roster of the ELCA.

The bishop of the Southeastern Synod of the ELCA, Ron Warren, decided to refuse to submit any candidates for call to the Church of the Good Shepherd in Florence Alabama, and in written form additionally declared that he would not sign any letter of call issued by them, should they call anyone as their pastor. That does not leave many options for a congregation except to close its doors and die! However, that assumes that their only option is to seek candidates through the synod office.

What the Church of the Good Shepherd did was to issue a call to an ELCA pastor, Rev. Perry Toso, in good standing (but not recommended by the synod office), after a properly called congregational meeting and a unanimous vote to issue a letter of call. As a result, the Church of the Good Shepherd is being dismissed from the ELCA and Pastor Toso has been removed from the clergy roster on the basis of these two charges:

1) That the Church of the Good Shepherd did not properly consult with the synod or the bishop's office. (But it did! The charge is disingenuous at best, given the bishop's refusal, in writing, to submit either a candidate, or to sign the letter of call for any candidate.)

2) That it did not follow its own constitution in this process. (This charge is demonstrably false. Anyone is welcome to study Good Shepherd's constitution and try to discover any fault in their process.)

Rather, what is demonstrably in the case here is that the bishop has egregiously exceeded the authority of his office on both legal and theological counts, and has used the power of his office to intimidate, threaten, terrify, and coerce. Legally, it was formerly the case that a Lutheran bishop's signature merely attested that two things had happened:

A) that the congregation in question held a properly called congregational vote, and

B) that the called candidate is a pastor in good standing in the ELCA..

Both those requirements were obviously met in this case! What Bishop Warren's action has demonstrated is that the authority for call (at least in the Southeastern Synod of the ELCA) no longer rests between a congregation and pastor but in a bishop's pen! This, in turn, overturns almost 500 years of the Lutheran doctrine of ministry, which deposits ultimate authority for all ministry of the Word primarily in the congregation. When this fundamental confessional position is overturned, we are returned to the good old days prior to 1517.

Rev. Perry W. Toso is Chair of the ALC Ministry Committee and the senior pastor of Church of the Good Shepherd in Florence, Alabama. You may contact him at: ptoso@bellsouth.net

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