Lutherans Discuss Commitment to be "In the City for Good"

  LUTHERANS DISCUSS COMMITMENT TO BE "IN THE CITY FOR GOOD"
  97-CA-10-RF

     PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- Setting a strategy for the Evangelical   Lutheran Church in America's ministry in urban areas might be, in the   view of at least one voting member, "the most important thing we do" at   the ELCA's fifth biennial Churchwide Assembly.  The assembly meets here   Aug. 14-20.
     "If we don't have a presence in the cities, we're not going to   have a church," John Gruber, a voting member from Milwaukee told one of   three open hearings on the strategy document held Friday, Aug. 16.
     "In the City for Good," produced by the Urban Initiative Team of   the ELCA's Division for Outreach, asks the assembly to declare 1998-2008   a decade of emphasis on urban ministry and to commit at least $5 million   over that period to help urban congregations adapt to and transform   their neighborhoods.
     "We're selling a vision: that God is in the business of   transforming lives and communities, and our work is part of that," said   the Rev. Ruben Duran of Chicago, a member of the Urban Initiative Team.
     "The vision is a transformative vision that happens in three   dimensions   transformations of lives, communities and ministries in   congregations," said the Rev. Jerrett L. Hansen of Baltimore, leader of   the team.
     Asked to define "successful" urban ministries, the Rev. Susan   Ericsson of Philadelphia, a team member, said that success is not a   model but a spirit in which people are enlivened by worship and study   and sent out to make communities safe, healthy and economically viable.   "A church where people drive in on Sunday, have church, and drive away   for the next six days isn't a church," Ericsson said.
     "The foundation is context, context, context," Hansen said.  "You   have to understand who you are ministering to and make what you are   doing fit the context."
     The document notes that "urban ministry" applies to more than just   the nation's inner cities. "'City' is geography. 'Urban' is a set of   dynamics that can be found throughout our culture," Hansen said.  The   dynamics include "the changing racial makeup of communities, the   changing ability of people to find jobs and cope with underemployment,   and the growing distance between haves and have-nots," Hansen said.
     In his address to the assembly earlier in the day, ELCA Presiding   Bishop H. George Anderson noted that "congregations in rural areas and   urban settings often discover that they are the only institutions left   in local situations.  The bank's gone, the store's gone, the school's   gone   but the church is still there."
     "This unique position," he said, "offers the possibility of   identify with the poor and dispossessed in a way that our former   privileged position did not."  The church is "genetically engineered to   thrive in adversity and tribulation," he said.
     "Why are you asking for $500,000 (a year)?" asked the Rev. Robert   Gant from the Detroit area.  "Why not $2.5 million?"  While urban needs   are certainly greater, Hansen said, that amount "seemed achievable now"   to the team and the church council.   The team envisions the funds   to be "seed money" that might leverage other grants or contributions,   said the Rev. Warren Sorteberg, ELCA executive for Congregation Outreach   Services and staff advisor to the team.
     Earlene Reeder of Detroit asked how the initiative would help   empower "pew sitters" left behind in churches abandoned by "white   flight" from citites.
     "We envision some of the funds to go for preparing urban leaders,"   said team member the Rev. James L. Sims, Jr., Oakland, Calif.   "We need   to better identify those who will be leaders, pastors and lay   ministers."  The document calls for development of workshops and "Bible   schools" to train lay leaders.
     Asked about links with the ELCA's multicultural strategy, Hansen   noted that they should be inseparable and based on the local community.   For example, "if you're in Los Angeles," he said, "an urban strategy   would be a Latino strategy."
     Extensive discussion probed the difficulties often faced by urban   congregations struggling with the changing racial and economic makeup of   their neighborhoods.  The Rev. Kenneth Olsen, bishop of the ELCA   Metropolitan Chicago Synod, expressed concern about congregations that   "prefer to maintain chaplaincies than set higher standards of mission."
     "It's a faith issue," Olsen said.  "If you ask some congregations   suffering from a lack of mission and ask if they're willing to give up   their edifice complex, the answer is often 'Not in our lifetime.'"   Olsen noted that bishops can only try to persuade congregations to   change.  "We're presbyters, not bishops, and we won't have the power (to   effectively address such situations) under our ecclesiology."
     "What we're not about is supporting buildings or a pastor's job   we're about transforming lives," Ericsson said.  "The goal of ministry   is not having a full-time pastor but bringing people into relationship   with Jesus Christ.  There are congregations that are not going to   change, no matter what.  But this will be good news in a lot of   congregations saddled with a too-big building and inherited expectations   of how to maintain it.  In a lot of congregations all that is needed is   permission not to do it that way anymore," she said.
     Several voting members asked if the team had included   representatives of the unchurched and of other denominations among the   urban pastors, bishops, seminary faculty and students and lay leaders   with whom they consulted in developing the document. " Is the church   willing to say that we don't know what the heck we're doing, and ask   people who are doing it?" asked the Rev. Cedric Gibb of Orangeburg, S.C.
     The team listened to urban experts from many denominations, and   "listening to the unchurched is a high priority" in the process, Hansen   said.
      "As we prepare pastors we find our best ecumenical partners are   those with whom we have not traditionally worked, African Methodist   Episcopal and Pentecostals from whom we have walled ourselves off," said   the Rev. Philip Krey, interim dean at the Lutheran Theological Seminary   at Philadelphia and pastor of a small urban congregation. "It's a new   day.  We can critique theology, and work together.  Sometimes they take   our empty buildings and fill them within a year."
     The document points out a number of "practices that do not serve   Christ well," including a lack of attention to realities of racism and   white flight, attention to buildings instead of mission, and supporting   what the Rev. Fred Lee of Plymouth, Minn., called the "affliction" of   congregationalism over cooperative work.
     "In the City for Good" also stresses Lutherans' gifts for the   city, including the need for a message of grace in areas where hope is   in short supply and Lutherans' deep roots in urban areas.  In   Philadelphia, for example, Lutherans have been providing both worship   and social services for more than 300 years.
      "The good news is that we don't have to make a decision to get   into the city. We're already there," Hansen said.

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Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html