Messiah Lutheran Church of Lebanon, PA Special Resolution 2011

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

WHEREAS Messiah Lutheran Church of Lebanon, PA accepts the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the true and inspired Word of God for all time and all places, and submits to the authority of said Scriptures; and

WHEREAS the historic Creeds of the Church, the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, and the additional Confessional documents of the Lutheran tradition further inform and define the beliefs and practices of this congregation; and

WHEREAS the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), by its actions in recent Churchwide Assemblies, most recently the 2009 Churchwide Assembly, has departed from the authority of the Holy Scriptures, the Creeds, the Lutheran Confessions, and the historic traditions of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church; and

WHEREAS both Scripture and reason call for fidelity and consistency between Christian understanding and Christian actions both in the lives of individual believers and in the life of a congregation of the Church of Christ; and

WHEREAS Messiah Lutheran Church of Lebanon, PA, through a careful process of prayer, study, and deliberation, has concluded that its mission in obedience to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ can more faithfully be accomplished as a member congregation of another Lutheran church body;

Be it therefore RESOLVED, that Messiah Lutheran Church of Lebanon, PA, pursuant to the relevant provisions of its constitution, hereby withdraws from membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and from the Lower Susquehanna Synod thereof, effective at the time of the second congregational vote in favor of such withdrawal, and upon approval of such withdrawal by the Synod Council of the Lower Susquehanna Synod,

And be it further RESOLVED, that Messiah Lutheran Church of Lebanon, PA, hereby requests to be received into membership in the North American Lutheran Church;

And be it further RESOLVED, that the Congregation Council of Messiah Lutheran Church of Lebanon, PA is hereby authorized to take all actions necessary to carry out the purposes of the foregoing resolutions.