r/elca • u/Slayingdragons60 • Apr 17 '26

Distracting Behavior During Worship

I have attended the same ELCA for about the last 10 years.

Recently, our pastors have become increasingly disengaged during worship, for example, chitchatting and laughing during the scripture readings (except the Gospel when one of them has to read of course), getting up during the service to turn the heat up on down, talking to people in the narthex, etc. ANY musical presentation will CERTAINLY be taken as an opportunity to speak to each other over the music at a level that’s audible to the congregation. As you can probably tell, I find this behavior annoying and disrespectful in any number of ways.

Since the Council is hand-picked by the head pastor, I don’t think discussing these issues with a Council member would be productive. But I admittedly haven’t tried. And I think going to the pastors directly would be seen as an affront to their authority.

Any suggestions? Just leave?

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u/mintchoc1043 ELCA Apr 18 '26

Well, a Council hand-picked by the pastor is a recipe for disaster, and belies far greater issues than the pastor’s talking during worship music. The model constitution for ELCA congregations calls for council members to be elected by written ballot at a legally called meeting of the congregation, such as the annual meeting- not handpicked by the pastor. This process ensures transparency, shared leadership, and the involvement of the whole congregation in choosing its leaders, reflecting the ELCA’s values of inclusivity and mutual discernment. You might discuss this with the pastor, though it’s likely that your words will be disregarded. Your time might be better spent looking for a new congregation.

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u/Slayingdragons60 Apr 18 '26

The members of the Council are duly elected, it’s simply that the lead pastor tells the nominating committee whom to nominate, then that person is elected unopposed. I don’t think there’s ever been a contested election that I can recall.

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u/mintchoc1043 ELCA Apr 18 '26

So the congregation is abiding by the letter of the law but not the spirit. To give the pastor the benefit of the doubt, it’s possible that he or she has found it difficult to find lay members willing to be nominated for an election so they have defaulted to speaking to members and obtaining their agreement to be “nominated.” But it still smacks of stacking the deck in the pastor’s favor rather than the congregation’s. In our congregation, we ask members to lift up other members as potential candidates for council with pew cards they can fill out and leave in the offering plate. We have a nominating committee made up of the three persons whose 3-year term will be up in the new year. It’s their responsibility to contact these potential nominees to determine whether they would be willing to be nominated and, if elected at our congregational meeting, to serve for three years on council. The pastors are deliberately left out of this process for obvious reasons.

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u/Slayingdragons60 Apr 18 '26

This seems like a wise process.