Lutherans Work Toward Ministerial Health, Wellness

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In an effort to strengthen and support the health of ministry candidates and rostered leaders, and their spouses and families, a task force of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is developing a strategic plan for 2000-2006.
     The Rev. Stephen L. Ganzkow-Wold, consultant for ministerial health and wellness, ELCA Division for Ministry, said the program will initially focus on spiritual and physical health, wellness and health promotion through the ELCA medical benefits plan, and an evaluation of ethnic- and multicultural-specific health and wellness needs.
     An ideal image of ministerial health and wellness is represented in a circle, Ganzkow-Wold said.
     The six parts of wellness -- physical, spiritual, emotional, social, vocational and intellectual -- are represented as parts of a "wholeness wheel," he said.
     "Circles are used to symbolize wholeness," Ganzkow-Wold said.
     In the center of this circle is the baptismal promise that Christians are claimed by Christ and members of the body of Christ, Ganzkow-Wold said.
     "This firm foundational promise of undeserved love and forgiveness provides us with health and wholeness," he said.
     "Spiritual well-being is the adhesive that holds this all together," Ganzkow-Wold said.
     A healthy balance of all six parts of wellness will produce "faith hardiness," he said.
     The biblical foundation for health and wellness can be found in the book of Hebrews 12: 1-3, said Ganzkow-Wold.
     Wellness programs stemming from the strategic plan will be available to the ELCA's 65 synods, said Ganzkow-Wold.  Each synod will be encouraged to use the resources developed by the churchwide staff and focus on the individual needs of its synod, he said.
     Ministerial health and wellness programs will be designed to support candidates and rostered leaders in all developmental stages of ministry -- candidacy, seminary, first call theological education, = mid-career,=20 pre-retirement and retirement, Ganzkow-Wold said.
     The strategic plan for 2000 and beyond will build on the work of the InterLutheran Coordinating Committee on Ministerial Health and Wellness, a joint project of the ELCA and The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod (LCMS), said Ganzkow-Wold, who serves as the committee's project coordinator.
     Since 1995 the committee has created a workshop curriculum on health and wellness and entered into working partnerships with administrators of the church bodies' medical benefit plans and other organizations and institutions. In the fall of 1998 the committee sent "A Letter on Peace and Good Health" to all ELCA rostered leaders and congregations to help recipients understand the biblical foundations of health and wellness, said Ganzkow-Wold. This partnership with the LCMS will continue as the ELCA develops a new strategic plan, he said.
     Funding for the InterLutheran Coordinating Committee on Ministerial Health and Wellness was provided in part by two fraternal benefits organizations: Aid Association for Lutherans, Appleton, Wis., and Lutheran Brotherhood, Minneapolis.
     Final decisions on the specific goals and programs of the ELCA's Ministerial Health and Wellness plan will be announced this fall, Ganzkow-Wold said.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html