wfn.org | ELCA Congregations Experience New Vitality and Growth

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

February 3, 2000

ELCA CONGREGATIONS EXPERIENCE NEW VITALITY AND GROWTH
00-26-FG**

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Hundreds of congregations, with Sunday morning
worship attendance averaging between 100 and 300 people, are
experiencing new vitality and growth as a result of the Mid-Size
Congregation Transformation Project of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America (ELCA).
     "Congregations with a worship attendance of 100 to 300 people each
week have a unique set of dynamics unlike any other size congregations,"
said the Rev. Marta Poling-Goldenne, director for witness, Christian
education, and evangelism, ELCA Division for Congregational Ministries.
     "Stretched between tight budgets and increasing demands for
programs and services, these congregations and their leaders frequently
feel the stress of having not enough resources and staff for their
ministry," Poling-Goldenne said.
     About 40 percent of the ELCA's nearly 11,000 congregations fall
into the mid-size congregation category. Seven of the ELCA's 65 synods
are at work on the project.
     Congregations involved in the project have reported major
successes in growth and strengthened spirituality in one year.  They
have gathered together to check on their progress and fine tune their
programs in "retooling and celebration events" held around the country
in 1999 and scheduled for 2000.
     The Division for Congregational Ministries is managing the mid-size 
congregation pilot project, a product of "Witness in God's Action
in the World"   one of  seven ELCA "Initiatives to Prepare for a New
Century."  The Initiatives, approved by the 1997 Churchwide Assembly,
are significant areas of ministry for the 21st century.
     The Rev. John Weber, pastor of Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran
Church, Peachtree City, Ga., helped to design the two-day workshops
conducted last summer.   Weber is one of nearly a dozen presenters who
have initiated the program with presentations in selected synods of the
ELCA.
     The synods are: Northwest Synod of Wisconsin; Southeastern Synod
(Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia); Central States Synod
(Kansas and Missouri); Northeastern Minnesota Synod; Northeastern,
Northwestern and Southern Ohio Synods; Northwestern Pennsylvania Synod;
and Greater Milwaukee Synod.
     In each of the pilot areas, letters were sent to pastors of
congregations that fit the mid-size profile on the basis of worship
attendance.
     According to Weber, the thrust of the two-day workshops is to help
congregations find out what it takes to grow beyond a "growth plateau"
where they feel "locked in." He said, "The growth that is expected
relates more to the spirit of the congregation rather than to numbers."
     Most of the workshops offered congregations 10 "handles" that
would help them set goals for growth.  They are to multiply hospitality
ministry, strengthen community outreach, ground growth in prayerful
planning, expand and diversify worship, create additional lay-led
ministries, deal with conflict constructively, streamline the decision
making process, staff for growth, move from a "volunteer" to a
"minister" mentality through acknowledging spiritual gifts; and expand
Christian education and youth ministries.
Thinking together about these handles helped free some
congregations to do what they had already been thinking about doing,
said Weber.    Each congregation participating in the workshops was expected to
formulate three specific goals their leaders thought it could reach in
the coming year.  Congregations worked in clusters of three to five.
They met several times a year and reported to each other on progress
made toward goals.
     That gave them accountability, Weber said.  All participating
congregations in each synod will continue to gather for reporting and
"retooling."
     A key component of the plan is the involvement of lay people.
Congregations were invited to send a minimum of three lay people with
the pastor to the initial workshop.  Some sent nearly 20.  The strength
of lay involvement has proven to be central to the strength of both
spiritual and numerical growth experienced by each congregation, Weber
said.
     According to Weber, the program gives lay members a chance to get
excited about their congregation's mission, and to work on meeting the
goals that bring about positive changes.
     Weber uses an example of a congregation in Ohio noted for its
rapid growth.  The congregations is known as the "cathedral in the
cornfield."  Members of the congregation visited the church Weber serves
in Georgia.
     After they went home, they moved "coffee hour" from the church
basement to the narthex, said Weber.  As a result, about 40 people stay
after worship services and relate to each other, he said.
     The congregation decided also to print door hangers for every
residence within a four-mile radius of the church.  Twelve new families
came and five of the family members are interested in attending the
church's membership class.
     Weber emphasized that the workshops for mid-sized congregations
are not designed only to be "how to sessions."  The workshops also "give
out lots of ideas."  Lay people get fired up by those ideas and begin to
think about what they can do -- how they can adopt those ideas to work
in their congregations, he said.
     Many mid-size congregations are going through the pains of change,
and those pains cause the church to stagnate and keep them from growing
spiritually or numerically, Weber said.  The workshops have helped
congregations to recognize their pain and get past it to newly energized
life and action.
     The Rev. Carl L. Johnson, evangelism resource pastor for all three
ELCA synods in Ohio, said the project has helped many churches become
aware that they have unique characteristics.
He said, "Most members of mid-size congregations see their church
as smaller than it is.  They don't realize the power of God in the midst
of their congregation.  These churches are building relationship with
like-size congregations and are learning from one another while they
support one another."    More than 200 people   37 pastors and 175 laity  
involved in the mid-size congregation project in Ohio meet to study together,
pray and support one another.  "The project really hit a nerve," Johnson said,
"because mid-size congregations have not experienced this kind of
special attention in the past."
     "The project is helping these congregations pray more as they seek
God's will in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ," Johnson said.  "It
is teaching them the power of prayer and the power of the gospel."
     The churches are looking at "hospitality evangelism," one of
Johnson's special interests.
     "We are leading people to understand that pastors and lay people
need to embrace courageous leadership skills   to be willing to take
risks, to realize that change will be involved, and to have thick skin,"
Johnson added.
     Many churches are learning that they need to change their
leadership structure from a committee system to the organization of task
forces and small groups.  When that happens, said Johnson, everybody's
role changes. Both clergy and lay people are being trained on how to
handle the criticism they know they will receive.
"They are working for the long haul," Johnson said, "and they are
being reminded that Christ is their leader, not certain people.  The
program is teaching laity the purpose of the church -- to give Christ
away."
The Rev. James A. Wilson, Sr., pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church,
Plymouth, Wis., has been the coordinator for the ELCA Greater Milwaukee
Synod.
     Redeemer has identified specific groups of people to target and
planned some kind of outreach activity every month.  Activities, like
musical events and an Easter cantata, are designed to encourage people
to come to church.
     A non-alcoholic New Year's Eve party at Redeemer drew 600 people
this year, up from 200 when the idea was first tried eight years ago.
The party at Redeemer Lutheran Church has become a community tradition
for whole families, said Wilson.
     The congregation is now growing faster than the town, increasing
10 percent a year for the past five years, according to Wilson.  The
baptized membership is 615.  Average worship attendance in 1994 was 145.
Last year it was 234.
     The mid-size congregation project has helped congregations look at
church design and asked how they could get more out of the organization
they have, Wilson said.  The format of council meetings has changed at
Redeemer.  Now, council members spend more time with devotions and
prayer.  They have reduced the time spent on business and spend more
time "visioning" and looking at the congregation's hospitality.  Members
are visiting other congregations and reporting back on their experience
and what the other churches are doing.
     The Rev. James Capers, assistant to the bishop and mission
director for planting congregations in the ELCA Southeastern Synod, said
the project is helping congregations to look at their ministry
differently.
     Some of the congregations are adding small groups.  Others are
adding worship services and moving toward forms of contemporary worship,
said Capers.
     The Rev. Christine Kouhi Hallemeier, assistant to the bishop of
the ELCA Central States Synod, noted, "Mid-sized congregations in the
synod are the most generous in their giving to the wider mission of the
church, and yet are severely under-resource."
     In introducing the project to eligible churches, Hallemeier asked
the council of each participating congregation to sign a covenant when
their church registered for the Mid-Size Congregations Transformation
Project.
     In the covenant, each council pledged that its congregation was
choosing to participate "as a way of exploring new ways to structure our
ministry.  We seek to strengthen our capacity to involve new people in
the gospel life which blesses us, Hallemeier said.
     Forty-three councils of the 83 invited congregations signed the
covenant.
     Hallemeier said, "Those congregations which had the most number of
participants at the event benefited the most.  Those congregations where
the pastors participated out of desperation, or where lay people had
been convinced to attend under duress, benefited the least."
     She also said that the synod's bishop, the Rev. Charles H. Maahs,
"has had several pastors say to him that this was the most significant
churchwide-sponsored event that they have ever attended."  Bishops in
other participating synods were equally enthusiastic regarding the
project.
     The Rev. John Hogenson, coordinator of the mid-size congregation
project for the ELCA Northeastern Minnesota Synod, is pastor of
Bethlehem and Trinity Lutheran Churches in Grand Marais.
     Hogenson emphasized that "numerical growth is incidental to growth
in understanding the dynamics of the mid-size church and creative ideas
on how to go forward.  The program provides lots of ideas to help grow
your church."
     Bethlehem, in order to expand its caring ministries, added a
"telecare" and a lay visitor program.  Once a quarter, every household
in the parish is contacted by phone.  The caller asks how things are
going and what is happening that they would like the church staff to
know.
     Hogenson said, "We are getting information we would not have
gotten otherwise.  People say, 'They didn't want to bother the pastor,
but  could you call the prayer chain about   '"
     From Web site pages and audio tapes to congregational evaluations,
the ELCA Christian Education and Evangelism team and "Witness to God's
Action in the World" Initiative team is assisting congregations of the
ELCA to be about their primary business of introducing people to the
good news of the gospel.  The Rev. Ron Warren, bishop of the ELCA's
Southeastern Synod, Atlanta, leads the Initiative team.
     Other parts of the initiative include two projects to help
Lutheran Men in Mission (LMM), the ELCA's men's ministry housed in the
Division for Congregational Ministries.  An audio tape focusing on how
men can share their faith with other men was completed in time for
distribution to men who attended a national gathering at Breckenridge,
Colo., last August.
     A second LMM project involves building models for men's ministry
in ELCA congregations located in Minnesota and North and South Dakota.

**Frederick H. Gonnerman, Northfield, Minn., is a communication
coordinator for the "Witness to God 's Action in the World" ELCA
initiative.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html