We’ll make this the final post on Lischer’s, Open Secrets. Fittingly, it’s on Lutherans:

‘Lutherans fill their vacancies more deliberately than any of the churches in Christendom. Vacant congregations go months without thinking about choosing a new leader, and pastors, once they have received a call, may sit on it for additional months before hatching a decision. The time isn’t used for negotiating more favorable terms; it is simply filled with prayer and dormancy. The President-elect of the United States names a Cabinet faster than the smallest Lutheran congregation picks a pastor, because Lutherans consider the latter process far more important. All is left to prayer and the brooding of the Spirit, and everyone knows the Spirit always works slowly’. – Richard Lischer, Open Secrets: A Memoir of Faith and Discovery, 220.

Here’s a list of the earlier posts:

• Richard Lischer’s Open Secrets: Part I, On Theological Education
• Richard Lischer’s Open Secrets: Part II, On Theological Education 2
• Richard Lischer’s Open Secrets: Part III, On Homiletical Gridlock
• Richard Lischer’s Open Secrets: Part IV, On the Trinity
• Richard Lischer’s Open Secrets: Part V, On Symbols and National Flags
• Richard Lischer’s Open Secrets: Part VI, On Gossip
• Richard Lischer’s Open Secrets: Part VII, On the Church Calendar
• Richard Lischer’s Open Secrets: Part VIII, On Abortion