A Letter to Pastors and Leaders
From President David H. Benke

My beloved friends in Christ,

Pastors and members of Atlantic District congregations,

On the Fourth Sunday of Easter, 2003, "Good Shepherd Sunday," I became your President again. My appeal has been upheld. My suspension from the clergy roster of the Missouri Synod has been lifted. The dispute resolution panel rendered its decision and the case has been concluded. Thanks be to God!

I am going back to work. I am returning to the Call placed by you and God upon my heart to serve as the President of the Atlantic District.

Through sixteen dark months my life has been consumed by refuting complaints and judgments involving

the heresy of syncretism,

the sin of unionism,

and the violation of the first and second commandments.

My presence and praying at Yankee Stadium were determined to be in accord with the theology, position and practice of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

All complaints and judgments against me were determined to be invalid and unsustained.

Details of the Dispute Resolution Panel decision will be released today in a separate memo from the Synodical President's office.

It has been a time of great learning for me.

• I have learned to wait upon the Lord.
• I have learned to trust in his unfailing love.
• I have learned that he does indeed send his angels to keep charge over us.
• I have learned to be thankful in every circumstance.
• I have learned to rejoice in the Lord always.
• I have learned to forgive as I have been forgiven.
• I have learned to be constant in prayer.
• I have learned to be watchful and vigilant.
• I have learned that the secret of boldness and courage is in spiritual humility.
• I have learned to stand and stand firm.
• I have learned to love my enemies, and to pray for those who persecute me.
• I have learned that the love of family and friends is a sustaining force in the human spirit.
• I have learned true tolerance.
• I have learned much about the true depth of our Lutheran faith heritage and the dynamic nature of its teachings about mission, baptism, the Holy Trinity, interaction in the world, and prayer in public places.
• I have learned that I have only begun to learn.

I want to say thanks.

First of all, I thank Almighty God for the grace in Christ Jesus bestowed upon me through my baptism that is renewed daily.

Thanks then to my wife, Judy, who has had to share the burden in the heat of the day through it all. No one knows more than she what a toll this takes on a human life. Her love and care has lifted me one day at a time, even as in many ways she has suffered more than I. Her faithful care for me – a notoriously impatient man stuck in an exiled prison without bars for what seemed like forever – gives me cause to thank God not only daily but through the course of every day!

Thanks to you, the pastors and people of the Atlantic District. Your support in prayer and conversation has been absolutely unwavering, and has been a cloud of blessing that has surrounded me. You were, of course, the people on my mind, in my heart and on my lips at Yankee Stadium when I represented you. You accompanied me in spirit to the podium to offer a prayer for healing in the Precious Name of Jesus, and you have borne witness to the living Christ to me and to the population of New York State in word and deed every day since 9/11.

I continue to pray for your healing, for the healing of our communities, for the families of all the victims and especially those from our own midst, even as we take up the task together again to "Engage the World with the Gospel of Hope." I love you in the depths of my heart as God's people entrusted to my spiritual care.

Thanks to Chip Froehlich and Deric Taylor, who have undertaken the spiritual supervision of this great parish and mission center, the Atlantic District, and have been a blessing to you and to me. They have my undying gratitude, and I pray yours as well, for their grace under pressure.

Thanks to the Board of Directors of the Atlantic District and its Praesidium, a dedicated group of Christian leaders who have never wavered for one second from our mission to engage the world with the Gospel of hope. God has graced their dedication through storm and stress with the blessing of steering our churchly ship on a straight course – this is the Spirit's gift of administration, and it has been granted throughout our most timely moments. And all of us should thank the entire Atlantic District Staff, a group that forms a real-world on the go team that is exemplary of what the Body of Christ in action is all about!

Thanks to my close advisors, to Howard Capell, Gene Schnelz, Don Matzat, and Ken Doka, along with Chip. Their tenacity and day-in, day-out dedication has been at a level so high as to sustain me when I had given up any hope of a just conclusion. Their insights and common sense prevailed. Sound and lasting procedural and theological approaches to mission and ministry have been debated for decades in the LCMS and have now been at least partially clarified through this case. These men are the human reason those things came to pass.

Thanks to LCMS President Gerald Kieschnick for his constant support and encouragement, and the thousands and thousands of pastors, leaders and laity in the Missouri Synod who have understood not only the beauty of our theology, but the need to proclaim boldly the love of God in Christ in every circumstance. The amount of emails, letters, words of encouragement, handshakes and hugs I have received in the last year and a half all around the country can only be measured in the growth of our faith and love – and that has been immeasurable! I've spoken about the wonders of God's mercy here in New York after 9/11 in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Minnesota, California, Nevada, and Florida.

Thanks to my dear friend Bishop Stephen Bouman of the ELCA Metropolitan New York Synod, co-chair of Lutheran Disaster Response of New York with me, and to our Executive Director John Scibilia; to Marlene Lund of Lutheran Schools Association; to the tremendous staff at Lutheran Social Services, where I spent most of my time "in exile" as the interim CEO working with people dedicated to putting love into daily action; to all the ecumenical partners, pastors and leaders, who have understood the commitment of the LCMS to presenting a witness to Christ through my prayer at Yankee Stadium – even across the divide of religious belief.

Thanks to those in public life - to congressmen and others, to senators, to my city council member Erik Martin Dilan and others, and to Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City for understanding what freedom of religion means in the United States. They showed their support in letters and words, up to and including the resolution of the City Council of New York.

Thanks to my family, across the country, for prayers and constant contact; to my mom, whose simple words of faith and hope and gentle spirit helped me to understand what the beatitudes are all about.

Thanks to God's people at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, my spiritual family, for their patience under pressure, for their feisty love in action, for their unfailing love, for being the shelter in the storm and the place where hope always abounds.

It is not possible for me to put into words the thanksgiving that flows from my heart to God and all of you. To God be the glory!

I close this letter by telling you that we have work to do together in the Atlantic District. I have hungered and thirsted for the opportunity to return to you, to converse with you, to enjoy the labor in the vineyard for the sake of the Gospel with you. I look forward to serving as your President again and, by standing for re-election, well into the future – it is the call of God upon my spirit.

My vocation is stronger than ever. Vocation comes only from love – from the call of God's love on the human heart, and from the call of God in the human heart to love others. I love you more now than ever, my beloved sisters and brothers in Christ in the Atlantic District.

The call of God upon my heart to "seek the welfare of the city," in the words of Jeremiah, is absolute. That call has been issued by God through you to serve the great and global metropolitan regions of eastern New York, from the end of Long Island through the City up the Hudson Valley to and beyond Albany. It is my great privilege to return to that vocation.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing.

With love in Christ,

Dr. David H. Benke
President, Atlantic District, LCMS
Pastor, St. Peter's Lutheran Church

Back to "It's OK to Pray"...The SPIRIT Page

Home | Who We Are | Calendar | Our School | Prayer for America | Directions | Contact Us | Links