ELCA Board Focuses on Community Organizing and Development

ROCKFORD, Ill. (ELCA) -- Community organizing and development was the focus for a meeting here Sept. 28-30 of the board of the Division for Church in Society (DCS) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). In addition to its business sessions, the board toured downtown development programs and heard from a special guest speaker.
"Community organizing is a tool to get from one place to another," said Tony Aguilar, assistant to the bishop for urban ministry and congregational development, ELCA Metropolitan New York Synod.
Aguilar told the board that the church must look first at the strengths of a community and the skills of its residents, rather than looking only at the needs of a community. "If we don't organize around limitations, we can do great things," he said.
Faith-based organizing gives the church a new way to talk about Jesus, said Aguilar. "Organizing is what we do. Jesus organized."
"We think of the church in a very narrow sense," said Aguilar. The ELCA has 5.15 million members in 10,851 congregations in 65 synods across the United States and Caribbean, he said, "but the world is the church."
"Our folk are everywhere," Aguilar said. "How do we deal with them in a way that is proactive?"
The Zion Development Corporation (ZDC) of Rockford is an example of a community coming together with corporations, government and churches to make a difference, said Aguilar. Board members toured ZDC programs in downtown Rockford.
Members of Zion Lutheran Church formed the ZDC, a faith-based neighborhood development organization serving a 40-block area near the church. The downtown neighborhood is ethnically diverse, made up largely of low-income renters, said Bradley Roos, ZDC executive director.
"We're looking at those issues that our neighbors face" -- issues often related to the "normal deterioration that we've come to see in center cities," said Roos. Through housing, economic and social development, ZDC has been successful in reducing crime and removing an adult book store, he said.
The DCS board visited Longwood Plaza Apartments, a 65-unit housing complex for low-income elderly people which the ZDC restored from an abandoned hotel. ZDC plans to partner with Swedish American Hospital, Rockford, to establish a full-scale wellness center and program in the apartment building, Roos said.
"This building was symbolic of what was happening in the city and this neighborhood," said Roos, when the economic center of Rockford moved from downtown toward the expressway. Fixing up the building had a visual impact that also restored pride in the neighborhood, he said.
ZDC is providing the neighborhood with some much-needed green space, said Roos. The corporation purchased properties at key entry points at the north and west sides of the area, cleared them of debris and planted daylilies. "That's the first thing people will see," he said, instead of abandoned lots strewn with trash.
The board toured the Patriots' Gateway Center (PGC), a multi- purpose community center built and run by a separate corporation that members of Zion Lutheran Church created. The congregation's long- range planning committee identified needs in the neighborhood, and a community center kept coming to the top of the list, said Bill Moore, PGC president.
PGC houses programs operated by about 15 organizations, including the Rockford Park District, Winnebago County Health Department, YMCA and YWCA. It runs several supervised after-school programs and a computer lab for members. The Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Rockford School District 205 ECE and Zion Lutheran Church are "anchor agencies" providing staff, materials, design and direction.
The DCS board also saw the Grand Apartments, "a crime-ridden hotel" which the ZDC purchased and rehabilitated to provide permanent supportive housing to people who would otherwise be homeless.
"Not only was it impressive to see the community development initiative the church has undertaken as part of its mission in the community, but it reinforces our faith in the church's ability to be active on behalf of the common good in its community," said the Rev. James M. Childs Jr., DCS board chair. Childs is a professor of theology and ethics, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio.
During its business sessions, the board affirmed the action of the Corporate Social Responsibility staff in joining with other churches and organizations to ask AT&T to reconsider its decision to carry the Hot Network on its cable television service. The ELCA holds stock in AT&T but protests its association with the adult film network, said Childs.
The board approved nine stockholder resolutions with a variety of corporations. The resolutions must also be approved by the ELCA Church Council when it meets Nov. 10-13 in Chicago, before they can be sent to the corporations.
The DCS spending plan for 2001 and the division's strategic plan provided the board with opportunity to discuss in depth the work of the division, said Childs. The board approved the spending plan "with adjustments due to any unanticipated spending reductions" and received the strategic plan as a "work in progress," he said.
The board received a report of an Older Adult Ministry Consultation, "Toward a Society for all Generations" held Jan. 27-28 in Chicago. It commended the report to ELCA officials "for consideration as churchwide strategic plans are developed." Among other things, the report suggested establishing "some central place where information about aging ministries could be collected and disseminated."

For information contact:
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