ELCA Assembly Hears Presiding Bishop's Report

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In his report to the 2007 Churchwide
Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
Aug. 8, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA,
defined what leadership means for a "sent church." Calling the
voting members and others of the assembly "leaders," Hanson
reflected on how "our shared leadership" might impact the church
for the future particularly by 2012 -- the ELCA's 25th
anniversary.
The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of
the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 6-11 at Navy Pier's Festival Hall.
About 2,000 people are participating, including 1,071 ELCA voting
members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "Living in God's
Amazing Grace: Thanks be to God!"
"I believe leaders for a sent church first will be followers
of Jesus Christ," Hanson told the assembly. "Together let us
lead this sent church, so that by 2012 each leader has at least
one mentor and (serves) as a mentor to at least one other person,
each of us teaching and learning what it means to be a follower
of Jesus."
Leaders of the church will be evangelists who will "not be
embarrassed to reveal their baptismal identity" and neither
"uncomfortable talking about Jesus," he said. "Is it too much to
hope that by the ELCA's 25th anniversary, half of ELCA
congregations will have at least one trained evangelist? Yes,
pastors are called to be evangelists, but a sent church views
evangelism as the vocation of all the baptized."
A sent church also shows "growing evidence that (its)
members are becoming fluent in the first language of our faith,
the language of Scripture," said Hanson. "How are we going to
lead a church sent to be about God's mission in a multi-religious
world if we do not know our sacred story?"
Hanson highlighted two significant communication initiatives
of the ELCA designed to help leaders communicate the story of the
ELCA -- an ELCA branding campaign and a redesign of the church's
Web site.
"We've seen a decline in membership and in average worship
attendance. We, together, intend to reverse these trends not by
becoming something we are not but by revolutionizing the way we
communicate who we are," he said.
The ELCA branding campaign will be unveiled next month in
Denver and Boulder, Colo. The church will run ads in newspapers,
outdoor billboards, bus shelters and Web sites. Each ad ends
with the tagline, "God's Work. Our Hands."
"The message of the campaign is that this church is called
to share God's boundless love in the world," said Hanson.
The new ELCA Web site -- set to launch in 2008 -- will focus
on "telling the story of this church, what it stands for, and
sharing the ways in which God, through this church, has an impact
on people across the globe," he said. "If we make a real
commitment to creating simple, powerful communication" then "I am
confident that we will grow in evangelical outreach, that we will
support congregations in their call to be faithful and welcoming,
and that we will step forward as a public church."
Hanson asked the assembly to "bury the notion" that the ELCA
"is a poor church." Income from the ELCA's 10,470 congregations
exceeded $2.7 billion in 2006. Funds held by congregations in
endowments and investments add another $2.2 billion, he said.
"The $4 billion is only a fraction of the capacity we have to
support God's mission for the sake of the gospel and the life of
the world. We cannot be a sent church without being a generous
church."
Hanson called on leaders to "double the number of members
(of the church) who are persons of color or whose primary
language is other than English" by 2012. "In doing so, we will
renew the commitment made by the founding members of this church
that we will be at least 10 percent people of color or people who
primary language is other than English," he said. "The church's
failure to become multicultural in our increasingly diverse
society means we are not heeding God's call to be a sent church."
Leaders for a sent church will be pontiffs, prophets and
poets, said Hanson. "Pontiff literally means bridge-builders"
and "prophets are truth-tellers," he said. Poets engage in the
"large questions of life."
Hanson concluded his report to the assembly by reciting the
mission statement of the ELCA -- "Marked with the cross of Christ
forever, we are claimed, gathered, and sent for the sake of the
world" -- and prayer.
- - -
Information about the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly can be
found http://www.ELCA.org/assembly on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog