Money and Mission Engage Lutheran Outreach Leaders

MUNDELEIN, Ill. (ELCA) -- Good financial news and initial work on a new mission strategy occupied about 60 staff and 20 board members of the Division for Outreach of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America here May 5-8. The division's staff, including about 40 mission developers who oversee the establishment of new congregations in specific territories of the church, met before and with the board.
The division's 1998 budget received a boost of more than $900,000 from increased giving to the ELCA, said the Rev. Richard A. Magnus, executive director of the Division for Outreach: $425,000 to help launch funding for "In the City for Good," a 10-year project to open creative new outreach opportunities in urban settings; $320,000 for additional new congregational starts; $75,000 toward the Mission Founders Program; $50,000 toward salary increases for mission developers; and $40,000 to increase the work of a network of peer advisors for urban, small town and rural congregations.
"The church is acknowledging that its primary purpose is to witness to Jesus and to do that by starting new ministries," said the Rev. Julius Carroll, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Oakland, Calif., about the budget increase. The Mission Founders Program will help the ELCA raise more money for new missions, said Carroll, who chairs the division's board. Mission directors have not had a salary increase since 1988.
Asked to visualize the church of the future, the Rev. Timothy Lull, president of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif., addressed joint sessions of the division's board and staff. "Mission has moved on to center stage for the ELCA," he said, and that will require "new partnerships, reform and repentance."
Since the 1950s Christianity has lost its position of privilege in the United States, said Lull; and with the growth of other faith groups since World War II, it is no longer possible to assume that the majority of the people are Christians. The church must be involved in mission, and that requires "flexibility and a genuine interest in other people different from us," he said.
The worst mission strategy is having no strategy at all, which is the most common strategy for most Lutheran congregations, said Lull. Another strategy is to emphasize hospitality and a variety of "worship possibilities," which is a good strategy that does not work under all circumstances, he said.
Lull recommended a strategy that builds on the strengths of Lutheran theology and "the recovery of our sacramental history." He said Lutheran congregations do good jobs educating their children, but need to provide more interesting opportunities for life-long learning. The church's emphasis on "the priesthood of all believers" should lead it to help everyone apply Christian values to their daily lives.
"The future church will be far more serious about vocational support for its members" to help people figure out what it means to be a Christian throughout the rest of the week, said Lull. It must tell young people that "God cares about what you do with the rest of your life."
He predicted that in 20 years about a third of the average congregation's staff will be seminary trained, another third will be trained by mentors or through some "alternative route" of education, and the other third will earn part or all of their salaries from some other source. Lull said different denominations will probably do more together, but each will work harder to maintain their unique confessional integrity.
The joint meeting of staff and board members used much of their time together to discuss a draft mission strategy that Carroll called "a good balance between new mission starts and helping existing ministries re-root themselves in their neighborhoods, so that every congregation is a mission congregation." The draft had been a topic during nine regional gatherings earlier in the year.
The draft four-point strategy outlines ways to multiply the number of new ministries and new congregations, to work with partners to renew existing congregations, to develop and implement ethnic-specific strategies and to plan with partners to reach out to people living in poverty.
The board will continue to discuss the strategy at future meetings. Magnus described it as a work always in progress.
The board directed staff to begin working with other units of the ELCA to develop a churchwide challenge and report back this fall. The challenge will be to start 2,000 new congregations between the years 2000 and 2020.
In proposing the challenge to the board, the Rev. Robert S. Hoyt, ELCA director for new congregations, mentioned that several congregations have started "satellite ministries" that have developed into new congregations.
"We are finding that we cannot compete with ourselves," said Hoyt. People accustomed to an existing congregation with a full set of programs will drive past a new congregation, he said, but that existing congregation can start a "satellite ministry" of all its programs in a distant, growing community.
An ELCA Identity Project will raise awareness of the Lutheran church among the general population of the United States and Caribbean, said the Rev. Eric C. Shafer, director of the ELCA Department for Communication. An advertisement campaign in the fall will provide a toll-free number and web site where people can locate their nearest ELCA congregation.
Kristi S. Bangert, ELCA director for internal communication, said a new emblem for the church will be a key element of the campaign. It will be prominent on a number of business and personal items, as well as in advertisements.
She said the identity project follows research into the media and the messages most likely to reach "boomers" and "busters" -- people in the two generations since World War II. Bangert added that ELCA congregations will also receive training on how to use the project's materials and how to handle the anticipated response.
The full Division for Outreach gathering marked the retirements of the Rev. J. Richard Gantt, mission director in the ELCA's South Carolina and Southeastern Synods, and the Rev. Walter F. Johnson, mission director in the ELCA's Indiana-Kentucky Synod.

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