The ELCA starts the new year with a newly formed Vision team

Chicago – The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) recently announced the Rev. Louise Johnson, Executive for Administration, has accepted the Executive for Vision, a new position in the churchwide organization.

Starting in January 2024, Johnson will lead a small team in a new effort that will emanate from the ELCA's vision, purpose, goal, and priorities, which call for the church to work together to share the difference God's grace and love in Christ make for all people and creation.

"The Spirit is alive and at work in our church, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in word and deed. But there are still so many who have not experienced the difference God's love in Christ makes," stated Johnson. "We are embarking on a journey with our church to discover new ways to tell the old, old story to a world longing to hear. I am grateful and humbled to lead this team as we listen for the leading of God, who is "about to do a new thing (Isaiah 43:19)."

The ELCA will welcome back the Rev. Dr. Wyvetta Bullock, as Interim Executive for Administration, beginning in January. Bullock was the Executive for Administration from 2007-2021 and served at the churchwide organization for more than 30 years. She currently serves as Associate to the Bishop in the ELCA Metropolitan Chicago Synod.

"The churchwide organization continues to build teams and strategies that seek to foster and support our shared mission of proclaiming the good news of God's love in Christ. Inspired by a vision of the world being more and more aware that we are caught in the grip of this saving love, we are determined to be mutually supportive and increasingly innovative in the ways that we work together as faithful partners throughout the ELCA," said the Rev. Michael Burk, Presiding Bishop Pro Tem.