'Connections' Theme of 2000 ELCA Communicators' Consultation

LISLE, Ill. (ELCA) -- Trends in the Lutheran church, working with secular news organizations, international communication and a Lutheran media program were among a variety of topics discussed here at the 2000 ELCA Communicators' Consultation. The Aug. 24-27 consultation, featuring a "Connections" theme, brought together about 160 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) communicators and invited guests who participated in plenary and workshop sessions.
ELCA communicators have been meeting regularly since the mid 1990s to discuss communication issues and methods and the church's ministries. Most of the participants are communicators in the 65 synods of the 5.15 million-member ELCA.
The ELCA Department for Communication hosted the conference. It began in the ELCA's churchwide offices in the Lutheran Center, Chicago, and concluded here at the Hickory Ridge Conference Center in suburban Chicago.
In videotaped opening remarks Aug. 24, the Rev. H. George Anderson, ELCA presiding bishop, praised the communicators for their work to make connections between individual members and the church. "Thank God for you and your work," he said, noting that many communicators are underpaid and not always appreciated for their efforts.
Anderson offered special thanks to the communicators for their work on the ELCA Identity Project, a multi-media Lutheran identity campaign aimed at bringing attention to the ELCA and the Lutheran church through advertisements. Aid Association for Lutherans (AAL), a fraternal benefits organization based in Appleton, Wis., provided financial support for the project and the communicators' consultation. The ELCA Church Council also provided funds for the Identity Project.
There were 153 Identity Project training events in 55 synods in the past two years, said Kristi Bangert, director for internal church communication and marketing, ELCA Department for Communication. Nearly 1,000 matching grants totaling about $2 million were made available to synods and congregations which participated by placing the advertisements in their communities, she said.
"The best work in the Identity Project has been in our congregations," she said. "That's where the rubber meets the road." Bangert thanked Terry Bowes, Longmont, Colo., Kris Davis, Greater Milwaukee Synod, Wendy Blanck, ELCA Department for Communication, and AAL for their project leadership.
The "Connections" theme offered consultation participants an opportunity to improve their skills and examine their faith connections, said the Rev. Robert N. Bacher, executive for administration, ELCA Office of the Bishop.
"Connections include both our ongoing opportunity to grow in our connectional skills and in a connectional faith," he said.
The Identity Project, growth of the ELCA's Web site and Lutheran Vespers, a radio ministry of the ELCA featuring the Rev. Walt Wangerin Jr., and leadership in significant ELCA events were part of a report on the Department for Communication's activities in the past two years. The Rev. Eric C. Shafer, director, presented the report.
"You are a vital part of the ELCA communication team," Shafer told the communicators. "We hope to challenge you and all of us to make connections with the news media, the poor and the world more a part of your communication ministry."

Churchwide connections
+ Dr. Kenneth Inskeep, director, ELCA Department for Research and Evaluation, discussed social trends and how they impact the Lutheran church. Lutherans must be more active in telling the world what they believe, he said. "The primary thing Lutherans have to think about in this new millennium is what we have to tell about us," Inskeep said. "Piety without judgment. That's what it means to be Lutheran."
+ The 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Indianapolis will elect a secretary and a new presiding bishop, said Myrna J. Sheie, executive assistant, Office of the Bishop. The ELCA Initiatives for New Century, adopted by the 1997 Churchwide Assembly, will "have their sunset in 2001, although we hope they will go on," she said. There will also be a report to the 2001 assembly on issues related to homosexuality, she said.
+ The Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary, preached a sermon on "truth-telling" in the consultation's opening worship. He told several stories about lack of truth-telling in secular circles and in the church. Almen criticized people in the church who do not tell the truth, especially in instances in which a congregation is experiencing conflict. Innuendo and rumor are spread quickly by phone and now by e-mail, and "the community of faith pays a heavy price for such sinning," he said. "Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned about the dangers of what he called 'cheap grace,'" Almen said. "Now, in our era, we can point to the electronic reality of cheap sin."
"Truth-telling is holy work," he said. "Truth-telling demonstrates true community. In being good stewards of the truth, you will be servants of God, crucial and strategic servants of God engaged in genuinely holy work."

News connections
+ The weekly Faith and Values section of the Dallas Morning News has generated lots of feedback from readers, said Diane Connolly, the newspaper's religion editor. In a keynote presentation, Connolly showed several examples of stories from this award-winning section. She urged the communicators to tell reporters about how people are impacted by their faith in their everyday lives. That's news, she said. News about church committees or programs may not always be newsworthy, Connolly said.
+ Get to know local reporters and learn how to get information to them effectively, was the advice offered by a panel of reporters who answered questions from consultation participants. News panelists included Connolly, Cathleen Falsani, Daily Southtown, Tinley Park, Ill.; Judith Valente, PBS-TV's Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly, Chicago.
+ The Lutheran, the magazine of the ELCA, is about connecting our church with God's holy labor of love to the world so God's people can share love in the world, said the Rev. David L. Miller, editor. Sonia S. Solomonson, managing editor, shared the magazine's current mission statement with the communicators.

Connections with youth
+ Many of today's youth have been raised on electronic games and television, and face family challenges, said Gaylord M. Thomas, director for community development services, ELCA Division for Church in Society. "Youth today are in worse shape than you are," he told the communicators. "They don't have socialization skills. If we're going to affect the youth of today, we have to work from the inside out. We have to strengthen their faith." Thomas organizes an annual camp -- The Simba Circle -- to address the needs of African-American males. One Simba Circle alumnus, Sean McMillan, Chicago, said "to follow Jesus is to follow him into the margins" of society. "Jesus found a way to express the love of God. This is ultimately your task as communicators." Another Simba Circle alumnus, Brandon Morton, Chicago, recited original poetry about his own life experiences.

International connections
+ The World Council of Churches (WCC), of which the ELCA is a member, connects 400 million Christians in 133 countries, said Kristine Greenaway, director for communication, Geneva, Switzerland. WCC is a leader in the "Decade to Overcome Violence" which will kick off in early 2001, she said. The WCC is also forming an ecumenical advisory alliance this year to bring member churches and non-members together "to speak on the world stage," she said.
+ The first copies of a new Slovak translation of the Bible were presented to the ELCA and to Augsburg Fortress, the publishing house of the ELCA, by Lubor Michna, director and chief executive officer, Tranoscius, a church publisher in Slovakia, and the Rev. Thomas J. Drobe