The Rev. Dr. Jonathan Linman

The comments of pre-identified pastors represent their opinions only. —Synod Council Executive Committee.

The Rev. Dr. Jonathan Linman

Responses to the Document "Listening for Leadership"

Using the descriptions on the "Listening for Leadership" document (Bishop Profile, page 3) share specific examples of how you have served in a PASTORAL role in previous calls, experiences, and leadership:

When I taught at seminary, if someone called me professor, or if someone called me pastor, pastor always rang and sang in me with the deeper, truer resonance. There are similarities between working as an assistant to the bishop and being a congregational pastor. In my Synod call, those to whom I offer a listening ear who are members of my ‘congregation’ are other pastors, deacons, lay leaders, and those considering calls to public ministry. My pastoral focus in the past ten years has centered on shepherding with care, devotion, and presence those in vocational discernment and overseeing people in processes to become pastors and deacons. It’s always a great privilege to hear the stories of faith and the stirrings of God’s presence in calling persons to ministry. It’s also a great pastoral joy to conceptualize, plan, and lead our various synodical spiritual retreats and conversational Bible Studies for the inspiration, challenge, and encouragement of God’s people in our Synod.

Using the descriptions on the "Listening for Leadership" document (Bishop Profile, page 3) share specific examples of how you have served in a BRIDGE BUILDER role in previous calls, experiences, and leadership:

During my congregational call in Pittsburgh’s inner-city, I served in an impoverished, tough, changing neighborhood with many challenges. In order to address our community’s needs, I convened a Community Leaders’ Coalition which crossed neighborhood, racial, and organizational boundaries to bring together religious and secular leaders that we might collaboratively discern how best to improve our community’s quality of life. Our efforts got the attention of our City Councilman and the Mayor’s Office. A significant fruit of our efforts was securing a Community-Orientated Police Station in our area, which brought officers closer to the real lives of people, thus building more positive relationships between the police and residents in the community.

Using the descriptions on the "Listening for Leadership" document (Bishop Profile, page 3) share specific examples of how you have served in a LEADER role in previous calls, experiences, and leadership:

I lead as a teacher of the church, interpreting our life together theologically and biblically, that we may better see the big picture with something approaching God’s wide-angle vision. My preferred teaching style is not in lecturing. Rather, it centers on leading conversations, listening to observations from others, and distilling wisdom for the good of our life together. Our synodical strategic plan calls for deepening Lutheran identity for the 21stCentury toward better communicating the good news of God’s grace to the world. It’s been a joy to help coordinate and lead many of these efforts, especially during 2017, the 500thAnniversary of the beginning of the Reformation. My teaching leadership focused on developing resources and leading events, often in local ministry settings, that heralded our Lutheran message. I have also been a leader in ecumenical and interfaith settings, serving as a national co-chair of the Lutheran-Methodist Full Communion Coordinating Committee, and as a member of the current round of US Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue. Additionally, I lead through writing as a form of teaching when I draft inspirational, thoughtful, and challenging pieces for our synod e-newsletter about what’s going on in church and world.

Using the descriptions on the "Listening for Leadership" document (Bishop Profile, page 3) share specific examples of how you have served in a ADMINISTRATOR role in previous calls, experiences, and leadership:

The root word for administration is “ministry.” Or as a friend once observed, “good administration is good pastoral care.” I take that wisdom to heart and try to live this out in my approach to administration. My second call was to serve as Director of the Center for Christian Spirituality at General Seminary here in New York, where I oversaw degree programs in Christian Spirituality, hired adjunct faculty, supervised employees, attended to budgets, and engaged in strategic planning for the Center and the seminary. Currently, I oversee the administration of our complex Candidacy process for rostered ministries in the ELCA. In leading meetings, I try to make certain that when it’s all said and done, everyone is clear about who does what, when, where, how, and why.

A common theme in all the roles referenced in the previous section is the idea of bringing all congregations and conferences together. As Bishop, how will you use your time and staff to help congregations and conferences who may feel disconnected from the synodical offices and life of our synod?

Historically, one of the main duties of a bishop is to visit local congregations. My internship supervisor wisely drummed into me the importance and joy of visitation in pastoral ministry. That laid a foundation for me always to prioritize in my ministry visiting and otherwise connecting regularly and consistently with those in my care. I will bring this passion for visitation to whatever ministry to which I am next called. It would be an organizing principle for our life together. Many of my greatest joys in synod ministry have included those times when I escape the computer screen to be with God’s people in the places where they lead and serve. Visiting may involve the presence of the bishop and staff members in local ministry settings. It may also include phone conversations and faithfully attending to email correspondence, as well as other creative ways of staying connected that we can imagine together.

Additionally, in whatever ministry setting, I would cultivate opportunities to worship together, to be in conversation with one another, to socialize. One of the best things we did in recent years was to schedule those Friday evenings for pastors and partners during weekend visits to conferences when the only agenda was to enjoy appetizers, drinks, and a meal together. Those occasions went a long way in helping us feel connected with each other. Another dimension of staying connected is to attend to the pastoral care of our leaders in proactive, intentional, regular ways. Together with those in my care, I would discern and seek ways of more effectively delivering such pastoral care. In order to embody the ministry of presence out in the mission field beyond the confines of our Synod office, the staff would need to be configured in such a way as to allow the bishop to engage in more frequent visitation. A staff person, such as a Chief Operating Officer whose duty it is to oversee day to day Synod operations, would be called for.

Congregational vitality and mergers are a primary area of focus. As congregations face a loss of members, youth, and income, what role do you see the Bishop having regarding issues of congregational vitality, mergers, strategic planning, and congregational renewal? Give any examples in which you ministered to people in a congregation in transition.

Congregational vitality and renewal are at heart spiritual matters. Thus, first and foremost in my approach is seeking to infuse spiritual experiences of God’s grace and mercy into everything we do together in the church, locally and synodically. People today hunger for experiences of God. We are good at talking about God, but we are less adept at cultivating experiences of God in all that we do. We are preoccupied with attending to the church as institution, the skeleton of our life together. We could do a lot more with focusing on our communal spirituality, the flesh and sinews of the church as the body of Christ, the breath of God blown upon our dry bones that gives us life. Another way of putting it is that we do fine with ‘talking the talk,’ but God beckons us to more consistently ‘walk the walk’ in worship, holy conversation, prayer, and staying close to and grounded in the scriptures and our sacramental life together. Thus, laying more solid spiritual foundations through cultivating deeper spiritual experiences in our mission and ministry is the key to greater vitality and renewal in our congregations.

A deeper, experiential spirituality is also the key to effective evangelism. If people see the glow of God’s grace in our faces and actions, they will ask us, “where do you get that?” And we’ll naturally respond with that scriptural, evangelistic invitation, “come and see.” Our authentic spirituality is also key to attracting and keeping our youth, who want to see the genuineness of our lives of faith. Deepening communal spirituality is the foundation for making possible greater generosity in financial stewardship. That is, people who experience God’s abundance are more likely to give in greater abundance. Cooperation between congregations that might lead to mergers for mission becomes more thinkable when communal spiritual vitality opens our horizons to see with God’s eyes the wider vision of our life together that is not so focused on our own congregations. Strategic planning is best undertaken when it emerges from deep prayer, worship, and Bible Study. In short, attending to our communal spirituality is the key that opens portals to all sorts of holy possibilities in our mission and life together. Without a solid spiritual foundation, there is no program, gimmick, magic wand, or charismatic leadership that is going to fix the church. The good news is that we have the good news! Which is to say, by God’s mercy, through the means of grace, we are given all that we need in abundance for us faithfully to do God’s work, and God will give the growth according to the divine will.

Faith formation is a vital part of congregational and synodical life. Children, youth, young adults, adults, and diaconal formation are especially important. As Bishop, how would you encourage and strengthen faith formation? Provide examples of faith-formation efforts you have led.

Faith formation occurs when our communal spirituality is vibrant and vital. Without experiences of God mediated through faith practices, we are essentially just passing on information about the faith. However, when the content of our Christian faith tradition is delivered in worshipful, prayerful, mutually conversational experiences, then formation in the faith can happen in the power of the Spirit. People of all ages and circumstances – children, youth, college aged persons, adults, and persons preparing for all kinds of ministries – thirst for sacred experiences. In keeping with my comments above about communal spiritual vitality and renewal, cultivating occasions for experiential faith formation is central to my vocational self-understanding and practice. In my opinion, our churchly “business meetings” become “ground zero” in the battleground of insisting that the tail of the institution of the church does not wag the ecclesial dog, which is the gift of God’s grace for us and for the world in Christ Jesus. I want to invite every one of us in our life together in the synod to muster the en-Spirited courage to do the counter-cultural thing to insist that even our business meetings invite sustained experiences of God infused into the whole agenda, and not just brief devotions or prayer to begin and end our meetings. When our meetings convey deep, communal spirituality, faith formation will happen in the places where we least expect it – when we’re talking about budgets and buildings and wringing our hands about the future of the church in an age of institutional decline. Moreover, when faith formation becomes a centerpiece even of our meetings, the happy side effect is that the edge is taken off our sometimes conflicted lives together, unity is nurtured, and we are fed spiritually, making us less anxious, and more open to be about the real business of the church, which is proclaiming to the world the good news of Christ. This is the antidote to meeting burn-out.

One of the most compelling faith formation resources I developed in my synodical call is the Small Catechism program that I created during the Reformation 500 anniversary year. This is a resource that provides formats for events that are worshipful, prayerful, and conversational where the language of Luther’s Small Catechism is enfolded into the very practices that Luther addresses, explores, and explains. When people engage the Small Catechism in this worshipful way, they begin to talk about their faith, bearing witness to the hope that is in them in Christ Jesus. Again, it’s such spiritual experience that nurtures faith formation – if not to say transformation – and makes it possible for us to move beyond simply passing on information about faith. I desire that we would consistently model such formational approaches in all that we do as a Synod, thus inspiring our leaders to go and do likewise in their local ministry settings.

What is your understanding of our synod’s current strategic plan, and how would you advance that plan as Bishop?

I have been involved with our synod’s strategic planning process from the beginning. I was part of a team that developed materials that sought to improve the work of our Synod Council, which opened the door to developing a synod strategic plan. As a staff member, I was among those leaders who provided input into the articulation of the plan, and I have been a member of the teams that have been involved in its implementation all along. From my perspective as a staff member, our strategic plan has provided focus for our work together which otherwise would risk being even more unwieldly and unmanageable. For example, our plan names themes for each program year which makes retreat planning easier and more coherent since the plan already provides an annual focus. Thus, I think it’s crucial that we have a strategic plan.

But it has also become clear that our strategic plan has not been understood, owned, and embraced by everyone in the grassroots parts of our Synod, even though the plan was overwhelmingly passed at one of our Synod Assemblies. Advancing our strategic plan means redoubling our efforts at making it understood and embraced by all in our Synod, not just our leaders. Moreover, the particular areas of focus for our strategic plan were identified several years ago. In our rapidly changing church and world, I believe it is time to revisit the specifics of the plan and its focus. Perhaps our times call for different emphases. That would be up to us to discern and decide together in collaborative and conversational ways. The title of the plan is “For Such a Time as This.” Well, the times, they are a changin,’ and we need to be nimble enough to craft particular aspects of the strategic plan in ways that are most faithful to addressing the needs and opportunities before us right now.

What do you see as the principal challenge of our synod in the next six years, and how will you approach and address it?

In my experience and opinion, the principal challenge before us in the next six years is improving our relationships with one another, thus nurturing a more positive and conducive climate for effective and faithful ministry and mission. The word ‘Synod’ means ‘on the way or on the road together.’ At this point in our shared life, how together are we really? God has blessed us in our Synod with the gift of diversity. But with such diversity comes tension, and sometimes conflict. In our dance of interdependence as a church, sometimes we don’t know precisely who is called upon to lead and when, and who is called upon to follow. Thus, in this dance, too often we end up stepping on each other’s toes. Our trust in each other has been compromised in various ways and through various actions and inactions. Moreover, we live in particularly anxious, divisive times in nation and world. This anxious spirit also infects our life together in our Synod. Thus, we are beckoned to seek to improve the ways we relate to each other. God has entrusted to us in the church the sacred ministry of reconciliation for the sake of an unreconciled world. How can we offer the gift of reconciliation to the world if we are unreconciled with one another? Some might say that improving the quality of our relational life together is preparatory to our mission. I would argue that attending to such reconciliation is, in fact, a major focus of our current mission, so that maybe we can come to a point where the world looks at us and says of us, as the world did of the early church, “see how they love one another.” What a gift we would give to the nations if such love would manifest itself in more convincing ways in our life together. We need each other, perhaps now more than ever, for the sake of the mission to the world that Christ has entrusted to us.

Our work is not so much about conflict resolution as it is about creatively managing our conflict and tensions. The work before us is about coming to the point of celebrating our diversity, and not just tolerating it. In order to re-build trust and to come to the point of celebrating diversity, I believe that we are called upon in this season to engage in proactive and intentional processes that nurture healing and reconciliation led by professional others from outside of our synodical systems. It was clear to me from our town hall meetings last autumn that people have high expectations of the bishop’s office and the Synod. When high expectations are not met, disappointments are deep and abiding. We have an opportunity now to discern, name, and communicate realistic expectations of each other. I believe that God is calling us to take the time and expend the energy and resources to intentionally get us to a point of being more cooperatively on the road together, that we might more fully enjoy each other’s company on the journey into God’s promised future. In short, God beckons us to be healed in our communal, synodical life, so that we can be healers in mission for the sake of the world.

As Bishop, what steps will you take for self-care? How can congregations be a support for the office of Bishop? How will you, as Bishop, also encourage self-care for pastors, deacons, and synod lay leaders?

Adequately engaging in self-care that nurtures well-being is the most daunting challenge for one discerning a possible call to the office of bishop. I have seen first-hand for ten years the unending requests for meetings, the emails that don’t stop, the daily crises that need to be addressed. It is a demanding calling that is more often characterized by heart-break than joy. Also, is it even realistic, given the need to attend to the daily requirements of the church as it currently is, to strive to live into a vision of what our life together could be, especially since such vision would require systemic, transformational change which would undoubtedly be resisted? Given the demands of office, and the unrelentingly complex schedule, could I, or anyone else for that matter, stay well? That’s a serious question for anyone considering this office.

I often find myself saying that public ministers in the church are called upon to be well-grounded lightning rods, for public ministry attracts all sorts of creative and destructive energies from people and intractable, difficult situations. If those in ministry are not well-grounded, they will be electrocuted, as it were, overcome by the overstimulation of everything that is swirling about them. So how do we stay well-grounded as lightning rods, so that the energy we receive may pass through us and dissipate into God’s good earth where it belongs? For me, the answer to this question has everything to do with my involvement in monastic spirituality in the Benedictine tradition which cultivates a holistic and balanced lifestyle, if we could only replicate features of it in our non-cloistered, busy, complex lives of ministry. Regardless of what the future holds, I will continue to seek opportunities for monastic retreat two times a year, creatively endeavoring also to incorporate into my routines Benedictine themes, and in so doing model faithful self-care, practicing what I preach – physician, heal thyself. I also want to invite our pastors, deacons and other lay leaders to join me on occasions of retreat to assist them in their own self-care, that together we may model for all of God’s people the well-being that our Lord Jesus desires for everyone. In short, I share with you the words that I need always to tell myself: slow down, breathe, be still, and stand firm.

How can congregations be of support to the Bishop? We could support and assist each other by communicating clearly our realistic expectations of each other, speaking of each other in the most positive light, thus keeping Luther’s understanding of the 8thCommandment. Above all, let us pray for one another every day.

Thank you for reading these reflections as you engage in discernment about who next may be called as bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod. Please know that in offering these statements, I am not announcing a campaign to run for office. “Pre-identification” is not an official nomination, so I am in discernment along with everyone else. I offer these reflections to serve this discernment, that you may read these thoughts in company with statements from others “pre-identified.” Moreover, as a teacher in the church, I have thought long and hard about the challenges and opportunities before us as a Synod, and thus I have a passion to share with you my reflections. I love our church, and I want her to thrive. May God’s holy will be done in Christ Jesus as together we journey into our future in mission, propelled by the winds of the Holy Spirit.