wfn.org | Asian Lutherans Discuss Challenges, Opportunities for 21st Century

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

April 19, 2001

ASIAN LUTHERANS DISCUSS CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES FOR 21ST CENTURY
01-094-SS*

     BANGKOK, Thailand (ELCA) -- "We're here because we've been
given a worldview of all God's creation and of God's people," the
Rev. Paul T. Nakamura told opening worship participants at the second
Asian Lutheran International Conference (ALIC) held here March 30-
April 3. The Torrence, Calif., pastor reminded the nearly 100
conferees that God has given one order: "Go and baptize. We're called
to be disciples. Be obedient to the Spirit."
     The conference brought together Asian leaders from churches in
12 countries. Several  members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) were among the participants. The group discussed
opportunities and challenges for the 21st century.
     ALIC formed two years ago as a network for Asian Lutherans. The
organization emerged to address common concerns, to facilitate joint
action for Christian witness, to discuss leadership issues and to
provide a forum for theological reflection, said conference planner,
the Rev. Pongsak Limthongviratn, director for Asian ministries, ELCA
Commission for Multicultural Ministries, Chicago.
     The Rev. Frederick E.N. Rajan, the commission's executive
director, presented a paper on Asian ministry in the 21st century.
The majority of U.S. Asians "have very close ties to Asian churches,"
he said. "Our hearts are still in Asia." Rajan reminded the group
that U.S. Asian Lutherans and Lutherans in Asia must work together.
"We must see our ministries as one," he said.
     "Every year the U.S. Asian population grows by 400,000 people,"
Rajan said. "But the ELCA's Asian membership grows by 200 a year.  So
the good news is that we have lots of opportunities for evangelism."
     The story on Asian leadership within the ELCA presents
challenges too. Rajan said 30 percent of the 113 Asian clergy in the
ELCA are retired. "Of the active clergy, two-thirds are over the age
of 55," he said.
     "Asian churches can share from their supply of pastors as
exchange pastors and as immigrant pastors recruited on a personal
basis," said Josephine Tso, president of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Hong Kong, in response. She underscored that Asian churches
have many resources to share with the ELCA.
     "However, this willingness must be balanced by and understood
in the light of our limitations in the face of great needs," Tso
said. "While we may only have five loaves and two fishes among us to
feed the Asian multitudes, I know that the best place to put them is
into the hands of our Lord, that he might bless them, break them and
multiply them to meet more needs than we ever thought possible."
     J. R. Hutauruk, head of the Protestant Christian Batak Church
in Indonesia, asked the group about putting Lutheran theology into
the context of the culture. "Do we take for granted that we have the
gospel and then study culture to learn how to transmit it?" he asked.
"Or do we redefine the gospel on the basis of our contextual
discoveries?"
     "Out of the struggles with issues such as ethnicity,
syncretism, globalization, poverty and languages, we need to redefine
the gospel," said the Rev. Yutaka Kishino, mission director, ELCA
Pacifica and Southern California (West) Synods, Yorba Linda, Calif.,
in response.  Kishino urged participants to discuss Hutauruk's
questions, asking, "How does the gospel speak in these contexts where
we are placed?"
     The Rev. J. Paul Rajashekar, academic dean, Lutheran
Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, presented a paper on the Asian
perspective of the marks of the church. "The church does not possess
Christ but is possessed by Christ," he said.
     Rajeshakar noted that the traditional marks of the church as
"one, holy, catholic and apostolic" are "ideal descriptions of what
the church ought to be." But, he said, "the central problem of the
church is the tension between what the church claims to be and what
it actually is  . As everyone knows, the empirical church is not
united but divided, not only catholic (in the sense of universal) but
also parochial, not only a holy institution but profoundly sinful and
profane, not only possessing apostolic authority but often
authoritarian and curtailing freedom."
     "It's clear that the church has to change," said Hiroshi
Suzuki, Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church's seminary in Tokyo.
"Today's church can only save itself when it's prepared to lose
itself. The world has drastically changed. The church has to change
no less drastically."
     Participants discussed the presentations and responses in small
groups and in plenary sessions. They also attended workshops, sang
and worshiped together.

* Sonia C. Solomonson is managing editor for The Lutheran, magazine
of the ELCA.

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