wfn.org | ELCA Launches Web Site to Help Place Lay Ministers

[NEWS@ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

May 26, 2004

ELCA Launches Web Site to Help Place Lay Ministers
04-107-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA) launched "People and Places Online" --
http://www.elca.org/peopleandplaces -- to help the church's lay
ministers find new ministries within the church.  The site is
supported by the ELCA Department for Synodical Relations and the
Division for Ministry.
     Lay ministers of the ELCA are associates in ministry,
deaconesses and diaconal ministers.  The church's 10,721
congregations are organized into 65 synods, which maintain
rosters of ordained and lay ministers.
     Only synod staff will have access to information posted on
the Web site -- the resumes of lay ministers seeking placement
and the job openings of ELCA congregations, institutions and
agencies -- to make any possible matches.
     "This site is dedicated to greater national availability for
rostered lay leaders in the ELCA," said the site's home page.
     A growing number of congregations, institutions and agencies
recognize that ordained ministers aren't the church's only "well-
trained ministry specialists," said the Rev. Richard J.
Bruesehoff, director for leadership support, ELCA Division for
Ministry.
     "Rostered lay persons are specialists in education, youth
ministry, music, administration, counseling, spiritual formation,
evangelism and volunteer coordination.	They may work as parish
nurses, in campus ministry, community organizing or senior
ministries," Bruesehoff said.
     "How we can make congregations, institutions and agencies
aware of these talented people, who also have the theological
training that the church expects of its leaders?" Bruesehoff
asked.	"How do rostered lay leaders know which congregations,
institutions and agencies of the ELCA are seeking to call people
who have their training and expertise?"
     "People and Places Online is designed to bring these
institutions and individuals together," he said.
     In May the Ninth Biennial Assembly of the Deaconess
Community of the ELCA passed a resolution asking the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) to link its Web site to People
and Places Online.  The deaconesses are called to ministry by
congregations and synods of the ELCA and ELCIC.
-- -- --
     The Web site of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada is
at http://www.elcic.ca/ on the Internet.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news