In a plenary address at the Eleventh Assembly, LWF General Secretary-elect Rev. Martin Junge shared his vision for the LWF's future. © LWF/Erick Coll

26.07.2010

“I learnt to hold on to values – justice, human dignity, non-violence, tolerance”

Growing up under Chilean dictatorship shaped General Secretary-elect’s vision for LWF

STUTTGART, Germany, 26 July 2010 – Growing up in Chile under the rule of a military dictatorship and suffering the resulting losses of freedom “profoundly shaped” the values of the General Secretary-elect of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). In an address to the LWF Eleventh Assembly today, Rev. Martin Junge said that during his formative years, he “learnt to hold on to values – justice, human dignity, non-violence, tolerance – which the political and social contexts were belying almost daily.”

Junge said that words from the pulpit affirmed these values in the people of his home church, inspired them to have hope, to develop “that evangelical stubbornness that leads to creative resistance,” and liberated in them the energy “to turn to their neighbors who were suffering from persecution, hunger, illness and from the loss of their rights.”

The story of his faith journey reveals that he understands the mission of the church holistically, the General Secretary-elect said. “I believe that proclamation, diakonia and prophetic presence in society (advocacy) belong intrinsically together. They all influence each other in a process of transformation.”

Illustrating this point he challenged the Assembly to ask what sense it would make to engage in advocacy, defending the rights of people, if at the same time the proclamation from Lutheran pulpits is the bad news that people are dirty sinners, worth nothing but harsh punishment.

“What sense would it make,” he added, “if we feed people in need through diakonia but build fences around the table of the Lord, making it an exclusive event for a few? What sense would it make to proclaim the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ, who became one of us in order to show God’s solidarity and compassion, if this Gospel does not move us to solidarity with and compassion for others?”

There needs to be coherence, and also sound balance, between these three dimensions of holistic mission, Junge said. Achieving this coherence and balance “is going to be a task for the LWF in the years to come.”

Three key concepts as orientation points

He told the Assembly there were three aspects of the LWF’s nature that will be orientation points for his service as General Secretary. Firstly, there is the LWF’s polycentric nature, meaning that it does not have one centre but many. “The LWF is globally present,” he said. Each member church brings something valuable to the table. “There is no church in this communion which doesn’t have something to give. There is no church in this communion which isn’t in need to receive.” He urged member churches to “circulate and share” their capacities, experience and knowledge.

A second concept is that of transcontextual dialogue. Junge said that this term expresses the idea that, while the human race is increasingly interconnected through various forms of media, it has not learned how to live as neighbors. Churches need to be “contextual,” he said, “responding to conversations, challenges, needs and questions, which are identified locally.”

This sort of active engagement with and contribution to “the wider questions of our neighborhood” is also an excellent entry point for inter-religious conversation, with a particular emphasis on diapraxis, he said.

Inclusiveness is the last concept that “will shape the way” in which he will serve the communion, Junge said. Noting that advances have been made over the years to more actively and intentionally include women and youth in the life and decision-making processes of the LWF, he said that “there is homework left for us.”

“We have quotas but often we have difficulties reaching them,” he said, noting that decisions made in an Assembly might not be enacted locally. But even if quotas are reached, this is not sufficient, he said. Reaching quotas “might ensure presence, but not necessarily participation.”

The LWF needs to be transformed by the power that women and youth bring to the global communion, the General Secretary-elect said. “It is time for us men to get involved in making our churches and the communion more inclusive.”

“Grace always finds its way to the neighbour”

Junge stressed that grace has two dimensions – vertical and horizontal. The vertical dimension is grace coming to us as a gift from God, “similar to the rising sun.” The horizontal dimension of grace compels us to serve others. “Grace doesn’t live enshrined in individual lives,” the General Secretary-elect said. “Grace will always find its way to the neighbor. A self-confined grace, a grace that is egoistically stocked and jealously fenced from others, will vanish like the manna in the desert.”

“There is an economic order that is absolutely unfair, unjust and a deep expression of sin, depriving millions of human beings of their rights and even their lives.” Citing hunger, child soldiers, HIV and climate change as just some of the world’s sorrows the LWF is called to address, Junge said that the sorts of change required to care for our neighbors is “of a deeply spiritual nature.”

We Lutherans hold to this theological emphasis on grace, as revealed in Jesus Christ, in the incarnation, he said. “Jesus Christ came right into the midst of this world … and we are caught by God’s movement towards the world.” Because God through Jesus Christ gives such a strong witness to God’s love for the world, “we too understand that we are called to not only live in this world, but also to love it and to love our neighbor.”

Reformation belongs to entire Body of Christ

The General Secretary-elect foreshadowed that he will be proposing that the LWF should hold its next Assembly in 2017, thus making it an event marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. “The LWF needs to mark this anniversary,” he said, adding that it needs to be an ecumenical event. “The Lutheran Reformation is not the exclusive property of Lutheran churches. It belongs to many other churches.” It is meant to be a contribution to the entire Body of Christ, and that is the way we should be commemorating it, he said. (990 words)