(Note: the blue horizontal menu bar directly above lists the subsections of the "Introduction." Be sure to read each of these subsections before moving on to the next primary section, "Getting Started.")

Introduction: History Lets Us See

Exploring congregational history, however, is not a process of unearthing the past and dumping it on a new generation. Instead, the historian creates opportunity for people to see that they were both more and less than they thought—that their histories involve success and failure, truth and deception, continuity and change. Nor is the history writing that you are preparing to do a nostalgic enterprise that diverts people to romantic "good old days."

On the contrary, you want to understand what really happened to your forebears and to you, so that you may respond faithfully to the moment at hand. As you open up your past, you will find that your stories involve moments of truth and decision, times when previous generations risked great change, and other times when they struggled against great odds to hang on to something precious. Such encounters can provide resources for your generation and succeeding generations to make both kinds of moves—and the wisdom to know when to invent and when to conserve.

As you probe your congregation's past, it is important to remember that the history of American Lutheranism and of the Christian tradition as a whole is only partially a history of councils, creeds, and great teachers and martyrs. The front line of this tradition is made up of countless groups of believers—sometimes small and remote from centers of power—who create out of their past and present.

The character of American Lutheranism in the next millennium will be shaped as much by the decisions of congregations regarding their budgets, educational efforts, practices of care, worship services, and selections of leaders, as it will by denominational statements or programs. What is hard for us to see but important for us to affirm is that Christian tradition is handed on and expanded as congregations go through the important process of defining themselves again and again.

So the act of writing a congregational history becomes much more than an antiquarian or nostalgic enterprise. On the contrary, it is an occasion when we can see again how the Christian tradition endures and becomes newly incarnate in a group of people gathered around Word and sacrament.

When one thinks of the thousands of congregations going through this unending process of redefinition and tradition bearing, it becomes clear that such moments are full of great opportunity and risk. At stake in those congregational stories is the emerging expression of the Christian gospel. Will it be fully formed? Will it be true to its past without being a slave to tradition? Will it take on a lively shape that is appropriate for its age? Congregations have a wonderful opportunity to contribute to a great and needed discussion about what it means to be Christian. A variety of answers will come from our histories. As these stories jostle each other, we may come to broader and better understandings of ourselves.