Future Lutheran Leaders Will Be Sensitive

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Future Lutheran leaders will be sensitive to the will of God and to the needs of the people they serve, and they would recognize the people's abilities to lead as well. All will rely on local congregations to nurture their faith. More than 150 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met here Feb. 6-8 to identify the qualities of those who will lead the church in the 21st century.
Parish and campus pastors, chaplains, bishops, bishops assistants, church executives, educators and lay members took part in the consultation "Leaders for Tomorrow" sponsored by the church's Division for Ministry.
"Every one of God's children has an errand to run," said Sue M. Setzer, an ELCA associate in ministry who works for a career and personal counseling service in Charlotte, N.C. She said the church should identify the leadership skills of its people, match the skills to the errands, and put the errands in order.
"There is a crying need today for faithful, trustworthy leaders," said the Rev. Joseph M. Wagner, executive director of the ELCA Division for Ministry, in presenting a concept that leaders are shaped by their faith and their contexts.
"The development of leaders goes with the development of communities of common values," he said, describing a path of formation that weaves between church and society. The teaching of the faith is heard in the public arena, that dynamic influences both church and society, and the gifts and qualities of leadership surface, said Wagner.
The local Christian community is "the make or break point of this whole thing," said the Rev. Timothy F. Lull, president of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif. "A central missional goal for our church today is to strengthen and expand that core of Christians in every community who are articulate enough about their faith to give lively and faithful expression to it through their daily lives -- in family, work, and civic settings as well as within the church's own life."
The church's leaders must be more aware of what is going on in the world around them and recognize the church's unique role to affect change for the better, said Christine Grumm, director of the Chicago Foundation for Women and former vice president of the ELCA. "We need, at every level, in every congregation, conflict management and peacemaking tools," she said. "Talk needs to be turned into action."
The Rev. Kenneth W. Wheeler, assistant to the bishop of the ELCA's Greater Milwaukee Synod, was one of many participants to point out that no one under the age of 30 was in attendance. "The new leaders are already among us," he said. "We just need to be open to hearing them and accepting them on their own terms."
The young leaders of the church find violence, inhumanity and racism unacceptable, he said. "Leaders of tomorrow will care about the children. Leaders of tomorrow will value relationships. They will recognize that people are our greatest resources," said Wheeler.
"The church provided a safe environment for me to test my wings," said the Rev. Gary F. Anderson, Incarnation Lutheran Church, North Oaks, Minn. He noted that many leaders -- past and present, inside the church and outside -- honed and are honing their skills in church youth groups.
The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, provided a hopeful note about finding leaders for the future, saying that ultimately Jesus cares for his church. "We will not heal the church, but we can be healed and blessed, made whole and blessed. And that's the way every generation's leaders have been given to the church," he said.
The Rev. A. Craig Settlage, associate executive director of the ELCA Division for Ministry, agreed, "If we live in the awareness of the risen Christ, we will find ourselves empowered for God's mission to the world and prepared to pass on to others the wondrous task of ministry."

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
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