wfn.org | LCMS - Campaign targets recruitment, retention of church workers

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

The Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod
Board for Communication Services

LCMSNews -- No. 61
September 13, 2002

Campaign targets recruitment,
retention of church workers

"What A Way," a new Synodwide campaign to boost recruitment and retention 
of professional church workers, officially gets under way next year.

A kickoff-celebration event set for March 13-15 in St. Louis will involve 
teams of district presidents and three others from each district, along 
with representatives of various departments at the Synod's International 
Center that support the effort.

Formerly known as "Serving with Joy," the "What A Way" campaign is funded 
from $250,000 allocated by the Synod's Board of Directors.  It was the only 
project to receive new funding in a Synod budget that reflects $9.1 million 
in cuts.

Synod President Gerald Kieschnick will head the initiative, and Dr. L. Dean 
Hempelmann, director of pastoral education with the Board for Higher 
Education, chairs the working group that is setting the course for the 
initiative's work. Members of the group, besides Kieschnick and Hempelmann, 
are Dr. Bruce Hartung, director of LCMS Health Ministries and executive 
director of the Commission on Ministerial Growth and Support; and David 
Gehne, who represents Concordia Publishing House and is a student at 
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.

The working group is taking over the reins from a recruitment and retention 
action group that ended its work last April.

"Our new recruitment and retention initiative, `What A Way,' is meant to 
help us in the LCMS rebuild a lifestyle in our homes and congregations of 
encouraging people to serve the Lord as church workers and to remain 
steadfast in their high calling," Kieschnick said. "We want very much and 
need the support of members of LCMS congregations as we move full steam 
ahead."

In an address at last year's Synod convention, Kieschnick noted that in 
recent years, the Synod has lost 1,500 more pastors and 3,000 more teachers 
than have been gained.

Hempelmann said that "What A Way" will "center around new materials and 
programs that will be developed to help us be about rebuilding a lifestyle 
of recruitment and retention in our church."

He indicated that 12 Synod departments are on board so far to support the 
initiative.

Hempelmann said the working group has identified a number of needs that the 
"What A Way" initiative will address.

"At a time when the Synod has a short supply of workers, we need gifted 
workers who see their vocation as a high calling and who can guide people 
to a full and challenging spiritual life," he said.

He spoke of the need for "change in the culture and lifestyle of our church 
that will help identify and enlist workers and nurture them in their 
calling.  A wholistic and healthy lifestyle of recruitment and retention 
has eroded over the last 50-plus years, but it can be rescued and rebuilt.

"We need to build a base of `best practices' for supporting church 
workers," Hempelmann said, adding that congregations and districts that 
have developed ways to actively support their church workers and those 
workers' families will be "held up as models" for others.

"This is a significant initiative that deserves our very best efforts," 
Hempelmann said.

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