Project Isaiah 43

“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you see it?”

God spoke these words to the people of Israel in exile in Babylon, but there is no reason to believe God isn’t saying the same thing to the church today!

Do you wonder what the Lutheran Church of the 21st century will look like? Are you concerned about the future of your congregation or neighboring congregations?
 
This Spring, Bishop Barbins and the Northeastern Ohio Synod Staff invited every congregation to send four people to a Project Isaiah 43 event. Each Project Isaiah 43 event included a brief presentation time, but was heavily focused on conversations as we think together about the future of Lutheran Christianity. As we wrapped up the final event, one person asked, "Could we do this more? Like multiple times a year?" The answer is, of course! There is certainly power in gathering together as a synod to hear what is happening in our neighboring congregations and to get to know our fellow members of the body of Christ.

As for Project Isaiah 43, we will continue the conversations at Synod Assembly on June 1st at the John S. Knight Center. As we are "Waiting and Watching" for the Spirit to Speak, may we be ever mindful that God is already doing a new thing! May our hearts and minds be open to see it. 

Conference Events Summary

We are grateful for your participation in the Project Isaiah 43 Events. Here is a link to the full narrative summary of the conference events.
At our Project Isaiah 43 conference events, we “harvested” nearly 700 sticky notes with key ideas and thoughts from the conversations. These were all entered in a Miro board and then grouped to identify common themes for the narrative summary. You can view the Miro board here:

Working Hypothesis

​We truly believe that God is up to something in Christ’s church – that there is a reforming in the making. Our working hypothesis is that congregations are being called together in groups of 4-6 to be the Body of Christ together. These consortiums or collaboratives of congregations would have a shared mission and vision within their communities. They would be served by a staff of at least 2 pastors and potentially a deacon who would help shepherd the life of the consortium. Each congregation would maintain their own building, their own worship – and be led at least in part by a trained lay minister who could effectively and soundly lead worship when one of the pastors or the deacon could not be present.
Your synod staff will continue to refine the working hypothesis over the summer and work to answer some of the questions that came out of the conference events. Our hope is to report back out to the synod by the end of the summer and invite a "coalition of the willing" to work toward putting the working hypothesis into action. Stay tuned!

SYNOD ASSEMBLY Summary

The Project Isaiah 43 conversations begun at the conference events continued during the Synod Assembly on June 1, 2024. As the working hypothesis continued to evolve and the synod staff worked to determine what may be needed to put the hypothesis into action, it was determined that the participants at the Synod Assembly could help continue the conversation from two perspectives. The first would be in identifying the obstacles to establishing a collaborative of congregations. The second was in considering the possibilities that might come from such collaboratives and how people saw the Holy Spirit moving in this proposal for a new model for ministry.