ELCA Leaders Discuss Support for New Ethnic-Specific Missions

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The steering committee of the Commission for Multicultural Ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) discussed the church's support for new domestic missions and the time taken to transform them into self-supporting congregations when it met here Feb. 23-24. The committee also asked church leaders to work for peace in Iraq.
In a "special order of business," committee members invited the Rev. Robert S. Hoyt, director for program, new congregations, ELCA Division for Outreach (DO), and the Rev. Richard A. Magnus, DO executive director, to comment on support provided by the church to transform ethnic-specific missions into organized congregations.
"The Division for Outreach is committed to making ministries work regardless of the time taken to turn them into self-supporting, organized congregations," Hoyt told the committee.
In an interview, Hoyt said the division helps to identify peoplea who want to begin and lead a new ministry and works with those who want to participate in it in other ways.
"The division also works to evaluate the effectiveness of a ministry and its potential to grow and impact a community of people, despite the amount of time taken for the worshiping community to become self-reliant," Hoyt said.
He added that all involved in building a ministry decide when a mission can become self-reliant.
"The majority of mission congregations become organized in three to five years, then [add] up to another five years for them to become self-reliant," Hoyt said.
Becoming self-reliant does not mean that a congregation must become financially independent. Self-reliance is measured on the quality and effectiveness of a ministry and the people who want to contribute to it, he said.
Hoyt added that ministries in contexts where the Lutheran church is not known are expected to organize within three to five years. In a context where the Lutheran church is known, congregations are expected to organize in less three years.
"Some Asian and Latino missions have organized in less than three years," Hoyt said.
"In the ELCA, 43 percent of congregations under development are ethnic-specific," said Hoyt. "The board of the Division for Outreach established a policy in 1988 indicating that 20 percent of new missions must be ethnic-specific. The division exceeds that goal almost every year," he said.
Magnus told the committee that contexts for new ministries "vary tremendously."
"Each new ministry comes from a particular place with a particular group of people," said Magnus. Mission directors and people from a community help define the uniqueness of a particular setting, so that a plan for ministry will work with the group and its context, he said.
Magnus added that "the economics are different in each setting. A mission director is asked to [identify] what resources will be needed for how long and who can partner with [the division] in the cost of the ministry, he said.
"We do commit to some ministries where we know we will have to provide funding for a very long time, perhaps as long as that ministry is there. We can only do that in a limited number of situations and with strong partnership with a synod and local congregations who can assist with costs," Magnus said.
"The ideal, from our perspective, is that a congregation will not need outside financial support from the division for more than five years after it organizes. We will, however, go with a longer plan if that place and people require it," he said.
Magnus said he would like the commission's steering committee and staff to be the division's "strong partner" in helping the ELCA "become the multicultural church it is committed to becoming. We want the commission's help, critique, support and prayers, but most of all we want their partnership to support existing ethnic-specific ministries of the church."
Members of the committee shared stories with Hoyt and Magnus on how "immigrant conditions" for some of the church's ethnic-specific communities bear a "unique" challenge for ministry in the United States. The ELCA's ethnic-specific ministries are African American and Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, Arab and Middle Eastern, Asian and Pacific Islanders and Hispanic/Latino.
"Seventy-five percent of my congregation immigrated to the United States from El Salvador, a country in Central America that has recently undergone severe weather and economic disasters," said Carlos Alejandro Gonzales, steering committee member, Silver Spring, Md. "Most of our church members send part of their [household income] to their families in El Salvador, instead of providing resources to help support the church and its missions," he said.
"We hope the larger church does not judge the effectiveness of a mission and its impact on a community by the number of its participants or the amount of money used to support the mission," Gonzales said.
Muna Tarazi, steering committee member, Troy, Mich., said many people who move from the Middle East to the United States have little knowledge about the Lutheran church.
"Many that come to the United States from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria had a Greek Orthodox upbringing," said Tarazi. She said when people come to the United States and learn about a Lutheran mission, they seek "support and assistance" from the Lutheran church.
At its Oct. 13-14 meeting, the committee had received reports from its five ethnic-specific subcommittees indicating that the "three- to five-year trend" for new missions to become financially self-supportive is not operative. Reports further indicated that the amount of funds provided to support missions is terminated before they are able to become organized, self-supporting congregations.
In response to those reports, the committee asked commission staff to request DO staff to review its "current funding policies" designed to support ethnic-specific missions.
"Since 1990, the ELCA Division for Outreach received little increase in program dollars," Hoyt told the steering committee on Feb. 24. "We want to join with you in your request for more money," he said.
"The Commission for Multicultural Ministries and Division for Outreach have a common mission. Both seek to help the church's [65] synods and its ethnic-specific mission leaders develop strategies for outreach," said the Rev. Frederick E.N. Rajan, executive director for the commission.
Rajan said the commission's steering committee and the division's board will meet in the fall to examine support for new ethnic-specific missions.
In other business, the committee approved a resolution developed and delivered by members of the ELCA Association of Lutherans of Arab and Middle Eastern Heritage (ALAMEH) that calls upon the members of the ELCA to lift the people of Iraq and the "Christian minority" there in prayer.
According to members of ALAMEH, more than three million people in Iraq died in the last 10 years as a result of an embargo imposed by the United Nations.
"People in Iraq are unable to find enough food and medicine for survival ... and are not able to keep [the country's] borders open for travel and trade," according to the text of the resolution. "There is little evidence that the embargo has had any positive effects" on the country's ability to keep peace.
The commission's steering committee will transmit the resolution to the ELCA Division for Church in Society for it's review.
The ELCA Commission for Multicultural Ministries gives advice and assistance to the ELCA's 10,851 congregations -- organized into 65 synods throughout the United States and Caribbean -- on ministry among people of color and whose primary language is not English. It develops workshops and resources, print and video, to help the church dismantle racism.

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