wfn.org | ELCA's "Dial Bishop Anderson" a Success

[George Conklin <gconklin@wfn.org>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 13, 1998

ELCA'S "DIAL BISHOP ANDERSON" A SUCCESS
98-29-168-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The response to "Dial Bishop Anderson," recorded
telephone messages from the Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), "reached beyond our
expectations with an overwhelming average of 4,000 calls each month,"
according to the Rev. Eric C. Shafer, director for communication.
     The brief messages are seasonal and devotional and contain "updates
about what's hot in the church."  Anderson's messages are changed on the
first and 15th of every month on a Chicago number -- (773) 380-2930.  The
service began last year on May 1.
     In a message on volunteerism Anderson said, "In conversations with
pastors and lay leaders I often hear that nobody is volunteering any more.
Yet statistics show that 93 million Americans give over 201 billion
dollars' worth of time every year.  What's going on?"
     Anderson continued:  "We could argue that people have more causes
bidding for their time these days, so religion is losing out.  But whatever
the trend is, religion is by far the largest beneficiary among the more
than one million independent sector institutions in this country.
     Our church has seen the power of volunteers in many areas.  More than
90 people are serving overseas in projects of our Division for Global
Mission.  At home dozens of Mission Builders volunteer their construction
skills for church buildings.  Domestic Disaster Response benefits from
thousands of volunteers each year, and hundreds of young people join
Lutheran Volunteer Corps or similar organizations.  We are just beginning
to discover the talents that our members are willing to share," said
Anderson.
     This month Anderson thinks about "battleships and missionaries."  He
says,
"... we can't judge the strength of our global mission by the standards we
used to have.  It's like naval power.  We used to judge the naval strength
of a country by the number of battleships it had.  But airplanes and
missiles have changed the strategy of naval warfare, just as developments
on the mission field have changed the strategy of world mission.  The
fastest-growing areas of Christianity today are those former mission fields
where local converts have taken over spreading the message of Jesus
Christ."
     In other messages Anderson has talked about worship in the ELCA, the
loneliness of Christmas, and high school students in the "real world."  In
May the bishop shared highlights from the mail that crosses his desk.
     "Members of the ELCA like the personal message and they can hear
Bishop Anderson's thoughts at any hour, day and night," said Shafer.
     Audio recordings and printed text of the bishop's messages are also
available on the World Wide Web at http://www.elca.org/ob/dial.html.

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director 1-773-380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html