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SALT LAKE CITY — When the Rev. James Gonia, Bishop of the Rocky Mountain Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, sees families at Salt Lake International greet returning LDS missionaries "part of my heart just bursts."
He, too, was a missionary for his church.
"I remember coming into our airports and meeting our families as they welcomed us home from abroad. There’s something very, very poignant about that scene,” Bishop Gonia said, addressing the faith's Rocky Mountain Synod Assembly Saturday at a downtown hotel.
Bishop Gonia and Elder Von G. Keetch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' First Quorum of the Seventy addressed some 300 voting members of the Lutheran church's assembly Saturday, speaking on the roles of each faith's tradition in mission in the world.
Elder Keetch, who had an extensive legal career specializing in issues of religious liberty before his recent church calling, told the gathering that he had not only represented three ELCA congregations, he also has represented the denomination. "I have known of your great faith and works for a long time," he said.
Elder Keetch noted that the word mission appears neither in the King James version of the Holy Bible nor the Book of Mormon. "And yet, as Mormons, we use and probably overuse, the word mission in just about everything we do and everything we say."
The LDS Church may be best known for its missionaries, young men and young women sent across the world of missions 18 months to two years in duration. An oft-heard saying in the LDS Church is that "every member is a missionary," he said, adding that the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a four-fold mission to perfect the saints, proclaim the gospel, redeem the dead and care for the poor and needy.
There's no direction of mission this way or that way. As one person I saw, he spun a globe around and said, 'Stop the globe anywhere and that's the center of God's mission in the world.'
–Bishop Gonia
The 13th chapter of the Book of John may best explain what "mission" really means to members of the LDS faith, he said. During Christ's last hours with his disciples, he washed their feet and then left them with a new commandment, Elder Keetch said.
"The single thing that the Lord wanted to impress on his disciples while was still with them, 'A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another even as I have loved you.'
"In the heart of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 'mission' means that. Mission means no more and no less than teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and serving others," Elder Keetch said.
Bishop Gonia said when he thinks about mission from the Lutheran tradition, the church has shifted from talking about the church's mission "to talking about God's mission in the world and the fact that we are participants in it."
People who come from "companion churches" across the globe and become part of ELCA in the United States give us "a new way to receive the gospel and a new way think about the gospel to think about our own participation in the work that God is up to in this world.
"There's no direction of mission this way or that way. As one person I saw, he spun a globe around and said, 'Stop the globe anywhere and that’s the center of God’s mission in the world.' "
Other assembly activities on Saturday included excursions to Temple Square, a viewing of “Meet the Mormons” and tours of the Beehive House.
The ELCA's Rocky Mountain Synod Assembly concludes Sunday with closing worship service at 10 a.m., which will include voting members and each ELCA congregation in Utah. A joint choir including members of every ELCA Utah congregation will be featured at the service at The Sheraton Salt Lake City Hotel.
