ELCA Black Rostered Leaders Engage the Future

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Two hundred and fifty African American and Black leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met here June 21-23 for the first Black Rostered Leadership Summit. Under the theme "Remembering the Past ... Engaging the Future," the goal of the gathering was to strengthen the ministry of Black Lutheran congregations for the 21st century.
"We, the rostered Black leaders of this Evangelical Lutheran Church in America must define ourselves among ourselves," said the Rev. Callon W. Holloway, bishop of the ELCA's Southern Ohio Synod, at the summit's opening worship. "We ministers must know what we and our ministries are about, if we serve God and minister among his people.
Rostered leaders of the ELCA are pastors, associates in ministry, deaconesses, diaconal ministers.
Others should know what we're doing and have input too. They are a part of this, but we are the ones who are accountable and bear responsibility for our ministry and our works of faith today," he said.
"We Lutherans of the Black church have gathered many times to meet the needs of the predecessor church bodies and now the ELCA. Can we come together to meet the needs of our people? We are marvelous wordsmiths and planners. If we do nothing else in the next few days I want to discuss an action plan and, more important, implementation -- converting our words into action," said Holloway.
"We cannot be afraid to lead this church. God has a mission for us. We will follow Him by leading the church from within or from without," he said.
"God has put us in this place at this time to lead this church. There is a huge amount of talent and power and love in this room and among our people beyond this room. We can make the church better and even more faithful than it is. We dare not withhold from the church the gifts given to us by God," Holloway said.
"As Black rostered leaders we are justified to serve God by speaking and meeting and leading in every aspect of life, including home and culture, politics, diplomacy, medicine, technology, economics, education and even in the institutional church. Others have credentials to speak as specialists; so do we," he said.
Only the church has the credentials to speak as the church, and it is the Black church that contains the seed of religious rebirth in American culture for our next generation, said Holloway. "Our credentials to lead this church are undeniable and are justified by grace, and they are pure in heart. We are not Nordic or Anglo-Saxon. That may be where this church came from but it's not where God is leading this denomination, he said.
"One of the greatest needs of our church is to strengthen our leaders by giving them opportunities to share experiences and to join hands," said the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the ELCA.
"This is particularly true of Black rostered leaders who are spread coast to coast. Scripture says -- it is good for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity. It's good for you and it's good for the whole church. Together we are going to be able to explore the special challenges of doing ministry in the Black community and identify ways to strengthen that ministry and to foster a sense of collegiality among one another. It will be good," said Anderson. Anderson's greetings were brought to the summit via video.
The Rev. Kenneth R. Olsen, bishop of the ELCA's Metropolitan Chicago Synod, the Rev. James Kenneth Echols, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Dr. Addie J. Butler, Vice President of the ELCA and Will Williamson, Lutheran Brotherhood, offered greetings to the summit.
"Black Americans continue to believe that there must be a God somewhere," Dr. Leah Gaskin Fitchue, Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Atlanta.
Black Americans are in many ways the most religious people in America. Eighty-two percent of Black Americans versus 67 percent of White Americans are church members. Ninety-two percent of Blacks versus 55 percent of Whites say that religion is important in their lives. Eighty-six percent of Blacks versus 60 percent of Whites believe that religion can answer their day-to-day problems, said Fitchue.
"As Black leaders of religious institutions you have a waiting audience," she said. When asked of the institutions that were the most important in facilitating a better quality of life, almost 50 percent of Black Americans said that the Black church had been the most significant institution."
"You should be the risk takers. You should be bold, radical, impossible, and outrageous about the role of the church in addressing the needs of Black people," she said.
"We are not called to be careful theologians. We are not called to be safe theologians. We are not called to be polite theologians. We are called to be as impossible as the task requires. It is an impossible task, and we are called to respond accordingly," she told the gathering.
"The public theologians have to be anointed spiritual guides. The spiritual guides are leaders who understand their roles in helping to lead people into a deeper experience of God," Fitchue said.
"It is that deeper experience of God that has made it possible for you and me to stand here, educated, refined and articulate, but we are still in need of daily prayer. The need for the daily prayers of Black people has not changed since we reached these shores, and it appears that it is not going to change anytime soon," she said.
"We look at the intellectual processing that is going on -- faith based -- good to the degree that it addresses an issue, acceptable to the degree that it provide solutions, but it is not the same as the Word of God. It must be considered in its proper position," said Fitchue.
Public theologians should be grassroots intellectuals, those who initiate and encourage public discussion of the issues, she said.
"For many of us if there are enough White people in the room we will not mention race. We think it is unacceptable to talk about racism ... as grass-root intellectuals we are charged to keep the issues before the people. Our people know that racism is alive and well. If we as religious leaders fail to lift it up, what do they think of us? They cannot look at us in the fullness of our being if we do not take the risk to use our intellect, not just for that which is palatable, but for that which is the truth is required," Fitchue said.
"We must refuse to give up the God that is in us. In the midst of evil and horrendeous chaos and confusion, we have a faith that pulls us back from sin. We must insist upon being obedient to the God spirit within us. That is what the our ancestors knew when they left Africa and it is the one thing they refused to give up and it is the one thing they passed on to us. Why do we have difficultly passing it on?" she asked. Fitchue was a keynote presenter for the summit.
The summit's objectives were to explore the challenges associated with doing ministry in the Black community in the 21st century, to identify ways of strengthening Lutheran ministry in the Black community, and to foster collegial relationships among ELCA Black rostered leaders.
The summit was made possible by grants from Aid Association for Lutherans, Appleton, Wis., and Lutheran Brotherhood, Minneapolis, both fraternal benefits societies.
Other sponsors of the summit were ELCA Commissions for Multicultural Ministries and for Women, the Divisions for Congregational Ministries, Ministry and Outreach, eight seminaries of the ELCA, and 20 of the ELCA's 65 synods.

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