The Fifteen Minute Rule

Before my 20+ year trip to the mission fields of Southern California, I was well taught the ways of mid-west life. Growing up in Northern Ohio in a town of less than 7000 people teaches you some things. I loved and hated the fact that everyone knew my business. I loved the fact that if I had an emergency on the way home from school, I could knock on a door and someone who knew me would help me. And I hated the fact that everything I did got home to my mother before I could. What's that about a village?

My best friend Tom and I would visit girls or grandparents on a summer evening. I'll have to leave the stories of the girls for later, but there was a predictable pattern of our conversation with the grandparents on their front porch. I clocked it for a while, and Tom and I would laugh about it. I called it the fifteen minute rule. For the first fifteen minutes you talk about current events. After fifteen minutes it was this:

"The folks out at Limestone Corners put that back 40 acres in corn this year. No one has had corn there since Elmer Swanson planted crops there!"

"Elmer Swanson, did Elmer farm that land?"

"Yes, his sister-in-law was a Benson. She married Carl, Elmer's brother and they farmed together for a while."

"I didn't know that. You mean they're related to Bud and Fran?"

"Yup!"

The folks who wrote the Old and New Testament loved the fifteen minute rule too. There are genealogies all over the Bible. To know me is to know my people. Small town ministry knows that. Small town ministry grows that.

Zion Lutheran in Huron OH, the church I'm serving,  will be 106 years old on March the 10th. After fifteen minutes we'd tell you our momma is Zion Lutheran in Sandusky. Long before Churchwide expressions of the Church created mission packages -- plans, procedure, and funding from the national HQ to establish new congregation, church starts were local.

We have amazing archieves in our church so a few years ago I checked it out. What does the fifteen minute conversation look like for Zion. To whom do we belonged? What's our Synodical History?

Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Huron was chartered on March 10, 1905 and became a member of the:

Joint Synod of Ohio [Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States] (joined 1905)

American Lutheran Church (ALC) (joined 1930)

1. Iowa Synod (est. 1854),
2. Buffalo Synod (est. 1845)
3. Joint Synod of Ohio (est. 1818).

The American Lutheran Church (TALC) (joined 1960)

1. American Lutheran Church (German), 
   
2. United Evangelical Lutheran Church (Danish) 
   
3. Evangelical Lutheran Church (Norwegian) 
   
4. The Lutheran Free Church (Norwegian) came into the ALC in 1963. 
   

(Lutheran Church in America (LCA) (1962))

1. ULCA (German, Slovak and Icelandic)
   
2. Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church (Swedish), 
   
3. Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church

     4.  American Evangelical Lutheran Church (Danish)

ELCA (1988)

1. The American Lutheran Church (ALC) (1960)
   
2. Lutheran Church in America (LCA) (1962)
   
3. Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC)

About every 30 years or so we  change our letterhead. We have been in the ELCA for 23 years now.

The people and the building(s) have been here for 5510 Sundays so far. We have known the global connection of our church through synods and we have found the local ministry of our parish through our neighborhood.

In the middle of the things we question about synodical affiliation, can there be some comfort that God works beyond labels? It the midst of all the questions, does the fifteen minute rule still rule. Now where is that rocking chair again?