ELCA Education Board Sees Campus Ministry Policy Documents

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The board of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Division for Higher Education and Schools (DHES) saw a working draft of "policies and procedures for campus ministry" during its meeting here March 7-8. The board's campus ministry committee supported the draft "in principle" and noted the "process document" will return to the board's September meeting in final form.
Scott S. Fintzen, Gaido and Fintzen Attorneys at Law, Chicago, presented the document to the board. He said he began drafting policies for campus ministry while he was associate general counsel for the ELCA, 1998-2002.
The ELCA began in 1988 as the result of a merger between three Lutheran church bodies. Those involved in shaping one church from three did not concern themselves with rethinking campus ministry, said Fintzen. The ELCA has gone 15 years with a variety of practices for campus ministry, he said.
There are about 150 ELCA campus ministries across the United States, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands -- some conducted by an ELCA congregation near a college or university, others directly supported by one of the ELCA's 65 synods and yet others on the campuses of the ELCA's 28 colleges and universities.
Fintzen said the purpose of drafting policies and procedures was to evaluate "all aspects of campus ministry to determine how we can be more effective stewards of the resources with which we have been entrusted." He said the purpose was not to reduce the importance of campus ministries nor to cut their budgets.
"The current structure creates unnecessary liability risks" and is "needlessly complex," said Fintzen. He said the roles of the people and governing structures involved may become confused, leaving uncertain who is responsible for what.
A congregation extends a call to its pastor and becomes the pastor's employer, said Fintzen. For staff of a campus ministry, a call may come from an entity other than the employer, he said. That leaves questions about such things as who approves vacations and who negotiates salaries, he said.
Fintzen said background checks are not required for campus ministry staff, but it's unclear who would decide if a background check is in order before calling someone to serve in a campus ministry. While there have been no lawsuits against a campus minister in the ELCA's 15- year history, he called the situation "a time bomb waiting to go off."
A board member, the Rev. Jayne M. Thompson, Lutheran Campus Ministry, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kan., expressed "grave misgivings" about the document. She said "risk management" was the reason behind drafting the policies.
Thompson challenged Fintzen and the division to get the draft document into the hands of everyone serving on a campus ministry board and to pay close attention to the concerns of those now serving in campus ministries while finalizing the policies.
The division provided each campus ministry with copies of the draft policies, said Sue E. Rothmeyer, DHES director for campus ministry. Campus ministry staff can make copies for all their board members, said Rothmeyer, an ELCA associate in ministry.
Another board member, the Rev. Gwendolyn S. King, Colby Sawyer College and Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., suggested that Lutheran ministry policies should reflect the tradition's distinction between law and gospel. "There's not a lot of grace here," she said.
After the meeting, the DHES board chair, Raymond E. Bailey, Fort Collins, Colo., said the board's discussion is just the beginning of an "exciting time" for ELCA campus ministries and the development of policies and procedures.
"It will be a while before it is a completed document, ready for implementation," said Bailey. "There will be revisions along the way, but it will be because we have talked and listened," he said.
"We have about 150 campus ministries around the nation in various colleges and universities. Each is doing ministry and outreach, sharing the Word and Sacrament in their locales," said Bailey. "Campus ministries, schools, colleges and universities are all vital components of the work of this division," he said.
A time line that accompanied the draft policies and procedures said the document would be reviewed by an annual campus ministry meeting, as well as the ELCA Conference of Bishops and agencies that receive campus ministry grants. A writing team will finalize the document in mid-August for presentation to the next DHES board meeting here Sept. 20-21. -- -- --
The home page for the Division for Higher Education and Schools is at http://www.elca.org/dhes on the ELCA Web site.

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