Trouble in LAMP land
Growing
pains hobble ministry
to remote North
By
Doug Koop
ChristianWeek staff
 COURTESY OF LAMP Remote ministry: LAMP executive director Don Johnson says the changes to his northern ministry amount to "refocusing and improving." |
EDMONTON–A
Lutheran mission group is going through a
difficult transition as it works to refocus its
ministry strategy in the North. The Lutheran Association of Missionaries and Pilots (LAMP) currently describes itself as "a cross-cultural ministry sharing Jesus Christ with God’s people in remote areas of Canada and Alaska." Founded in 1970, the ministry involves Lutheran pastors–who are also professional pilots–providing pastoral services and support to Christians in isolated settlements. |
In recent years, five airplanes and pilots have been serving vast areas in northern Ontario, across the northern parts of the western provinces, throughout the Northwest Territories, and in Alaska.
But there’s trouble in LAMP land. Four pastor/pilots have left the organization this year, and only one has been replaced. According to Landon Schkade, who directs ministry operations from LAMP’s Edmonton office, the organization is currently interviewing candidates to fill vacancies left by the pilots who either retired or accepted other ministry calls.
One of those who left, Lee Barry of Yellowknife, NWT, has started On Eagles’ Wings, a new organization that he describes as "an ecumenical ministry to people in remote and isolated places in northern Canada." He maintains that it doesn’t differ from what he used to do with LAMP, but that LAMP has changed.
The transition trauma is threatening to surface longstanding tensions between some of the supporting groups, including Lutheran Church-Canada (LC-C) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC). Church circles are currently abuzz with rumors that LAMP is sidling away from its airplane ministry and retooling to become a church planting organization.
"Simply not true," says LAMP executive director Don Johnson, who has been heading up a long range planning process since assuming leadership in 1994. "What we are doing is not new, or strange, or different. We are refocusing and improving."
Johnson is adamant that "there’s nothing to suggest that we’re going to reproduce our denomination (LC-C) in the North. That’s not where we’re coming from."
And while some areas currently served by airplanes are now more accessible by road than when the work began, he explains that LAMP’s ministry area is expanding and that the need for airplanes will continue. "We will have at least five airplanes," he says.
The print edition of CW has a fuller version of this story.
