High Expectations: Understanding the ELCA's Early Years, 1988-2002.

Mattes, Mark C.

High Expectations: Understanding the ELCA's Early Years, 1988-2002. By Edgar R. Trexler. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2003. 224 pages. Paper. $10.99.

Edgar Trexler, editor of The Lutheran from 1988 to 1999, offers a candid portrait of the first fifteen years of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America from its birth in 1988 until 2002. He gives not a year-by-year chronology of events in the ELCA but a topical presentation that analyzes the development of agendas and themes that have been at the forefront in shaping the life of the ELCA. The primary topics he explores include financial concerns, leaders (presiding bishops, council of bishops, staff), sexuality issues, ecumenism, successful ventures in the ELCA, diversity, and outreach.

Trexler boldly describes the challenges to institutional loyalty that has plagued the ELCA from the beginning. He points out that while the transition to the ELCA from its predecessor bodies was marked by good will, it produced dislodged loyalties (p. 29). Indeed, the newness of the ELCA's leadership and structure was both its promise and its "downfall, at least at the beginning" (p. 30). "Being 'new' raised expectations to impossible heights, suggesting that the church could do whatever it set out to accomplish. When it was unable to deliver on these expectations, people felt betrayed and began to find fault" (p. 30). Hence, "a lack of trust that infected the ELCA in many of its early dimensions, a sickness that would last for some years as members challenged its fiscal management, its perceived 'liberal' stances on social issues, its alleged lack of evangelistic zeal and the influence of pressure groups that felt the beginning of a new church was a time for them to get their oar in the water" (p. 30). With newness came new headquarters, new synodical geographies, untested leadership, loss of memory in the church-wide organization, and other hurdles.

While congregational giving has remained strong in the ELCA, less and less money has flowed from congregations and synod offices to the national headquarters, resulting in significant cutbacks. Trexler ably and winsomely portrays the leadership styles of Herbert Chilstrom, H. George Anderson, the ELCA Church Council, and the Conference of Bishops. He only alights on the ministry of the current presiding bishop, Mark S. Hanson, who is new to this office. He also objectively presents the results of the first sexuality study and how it was perceived in the wider public. He shows the ecumenical ventures of the ELCA, its successes and struggles, such as disagreement by some on the historic episcopate and the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.

Of great hope for the ELCA's future are successful national youth gatherings, efforts in social ministry, responses to hunger awareness and benevolence, and Global Mission Events. These are encouraging signs in the ELCA.

The role of teaching theologians is absent in the book, as is the significance of higher education in general (with the exception of pages 199-200). Should not some attention be paid to theological trends in the seminaries and colleges? One hopes that theology has more bearing in the ELCA than what is indicated here.

It is to Trexler's credit that he has honestly portrayed power struggles in the ELCA and the quest to find a clear vision for mission. Naturally the question arises: Whither the ELCA?