Lutherans Gather to Address the Multicultural Challenges

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (ELCA) -- Some 300 Lutherans met here Nov. 5-7 to discuss the continuing challenges of building a multicultural church into the new millennium. The meetings were part of the 1999 Multicultural Mission Institute, an educational program of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
"It's time for a change. We've had enough of a dead church," said the Rev. William B. Trexler, bishop of the ELCA Florida-Bahamas Synod, one of 65 synods of the ELCA.
"God's order is for change -- revival, not just reformation," Trexler said at the opening worship. "The church needs to change its focus from maintenance to mission. We are called to become a global, multicultural church and to enhance our work in spiritual formation."
The theme of the institute was "Making Christ Known: Multicultural Challenges of the New Millennium." Through Bible studies, worship, workshops and speakers, the Institute was designed to: focus on, support and encourage unity as a multicultural community in Christ; equip and inspire participants for ministries in their settings; build a multicultural community through dialogue; strengthen and support African American, Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, Arab and Middle Eastern, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanic congregational ministries; develop a better understanding of issues related to being multicultural; strengthen and support synod multicultural ministry efforts; and build bridges with White Lutherans for a better multicultural church.
"We're in the news business, not the advice business. There's a difference between Jesus Christ and Ann Landers," Trexler said. "The good news is about God's news, not the church's well-being. The good news is that the kingdom of God has come near. A new age has begun. The God that was far off has become close and personal," he said. Three things are foundational for faith formation: prayer, Scripture, and patience, Trexler said. "There is no solo salvation. We'll need our ecumenical 'fishing partners' in the new millennium," he said.
Recently the ELCA has entered into ecumenical partnership with the Reformed Church in America, which had representatives at the opening worship. The Rev. Stan Perea, coordinator for urban ministry of the Reformed Church in America, brought greetings to the Institute. The Rev. Johncy Itty, social justice office of the Episcopal Church, also brought greetings. An ELCA full-communion proposal is now being considered by the Episcopal Church.
Trexler's exhortation that it's time for change was echoed by many other presenters during the weekend event. In a Bible study the Rev. Titus D. Clarke, born in Liberia, Africa, told participants that the changing face of America will force the church to change.
"In a changing environment, the church must think about new ways of doing ministry. It will face the challenge of interpreting the gospel to people with diverse world views and cultural backgrounds," said Clarke, who is a pastor at the People's Community Church at All Saints Lutheran Church in Baltimore and a student at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
Clarke told the group, "It's not our differences that separate us -- it's our ignorance." He said that the strength and progress of the church depends on diversity. "We need to broaden the scope of our message to meet the challenge of the new millennium," he said. "We must bear witness to a Christ who crosses social boundaries."
Sean Thomas-Breitfeld, a member of the Multicultural Advisory Committee of the Lutheran Youth Organization, brought a message from the youth representatives to the institute at worship on Saturday morning. Using the Bible story of Exodus, Thomas-Breitfeld suggested that the people walking at the back of fleeing Israelites couldn't see the pillar of fire because their leaders were in front of them. "We see the backs of their heads," he said, "But Jesus enabled people from the back to move forward. He didn't walk in front of them. He walked with them. Leaders need to step back and let others go forward."
The Rev. Sa'id R. Ailabouni reminded participants in a plenary session that Jesus came to the poor and that the poor were the people who waited to hear God because they depend so much on God. Ailabouni is program director for Europe, the Middle East, and the Horn of Africa, in the ELCA Division for Global Mission. "Maybe because we are no longer poor, we don't know the mission," he said. "The year of Jubilee is now. Jesus said, 'I've come to set you free,'" Ailabouni told participants.
The Rev. Marysol Diaz Feliciano, pastor at Iglesia Luterana San Marcos, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, gave an overview of the Hispanic Lutheran ministry in the United States and talked of the challenges facing Hispanic Lutherans. She shared that she has felt marginalized "by the very institution that means to minister to me. We get treated like we're problems to be solved."
Feliciano said, "The 'Jesus way' challenges the church to face itself honestly to see that it has much to learn from you and me, from the marginalized." She said the church needs to see Latinos and Latinas as "a people worthy to be sitting at the table," not as a special project. "We need to be at the table. Does the dominant culture know that it doesn't own the table?"
Referring to the focus on education in the ELCA Initiatives for a New Century, Feliciano said "Latinos and Latinas are seriously=20 under-represented on the faculties of schools of theology." The initiative= s are designated significant areas of church ministries for the next century.
The Rev. Edmund Yee, professor of Asian studies at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif., talked about the history of Asian ministries in North America and outlined some of the challenges that such ministry faces today, including the inability to retain second generations in Asian congregations; the lack of unity in the Asian communities; conflicts between Asian heritages and with Lutheran identity; and the fact that gender and sexuality issues are not dealt with in the Asian community.
"We have inherited a church for all people -- there are no barriers," the Rev. Marlene Whiterabbit Helgemo, pastor at All Nations' Indian Church, Minneapolis, told participants in a Sunday morning Bible study that looked at the biblical story of Peter's dream. Helgemo, a Hochunk Indian, led the group in an exercise to show how the concept of kinship is played out in tribal culture.
Workshop topics included preparing leaders for tomorrow; the issues facing youth; music and mood in worship; how the church can publicly expose racism and hate groups; re-inventing the past to shape the future; sharing information about the Lutheran Theological Center in Atlanta; Caribbean Lutherans and the church; world percussion and praise; and partnerships with the ELCA and Lutheran fraternal organizations.
The closing worship was led by the Rev. Lenier L. Gallardo, Iglesia Luterana Principe de Paz, Miami, who preached that the "very purpose of God is to be multicultural and the ELCA has to be multicultural to be faithful to the purpose of God." According to Gallardo, "We are not multicultural because society tells us to be. We are multicultural because that's the future to which God is calling us. Are we ready?"

[**Kate Sprutta Elliott is editor for Seeds for the Parish in the ELCA
Department for Communication]

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