wfn.org | Starting New Congregations is High Priority for Lutherans

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Title: Starting New Congregations is High Priority for Lutherans
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

>March 25, 2009  

Starting New Congregations is High Priority for Lutherans
09-070-MRC

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Starting new congregations is a priority
for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), but
developing a congregation from scratch can be a frenzied
experience.

According to the Rev. Justin A. Grimm, emotions are
minute-to-minute in mission development work.  "There are
highs and lows that come right at you, one after another."

Grimm serves as pastor of Advent Lutheran Church, Lake
Ann, Mich.  Advent became a congregation of the ELCA in 2007.
About 160 members, a third of them children, worship in a
renovated firehouse garage.  With help from the ELCA Mission
Investment Fund, the congregation purchased 10 acres of land
to construct a church building. The congregation plans to
break ground in 2010 and move in by Easter 2011.

Grimm began his ministry shortly after ordination in
2005.  "My bishop asked me if I would consider starting a new
church (in Lake Ann)," said Grimm, who wasn't sold on the idea
at the time.  After talking to his wife and praying about it,
Grimm said he soon realized that he could do it.  "It's what
I was trained to do."

Grimm said he began under the "old parachute drop" model,
where the mission developer is dropped into the ministry area
and hopes for something good to happen.  He quickly assembled
a leadership team, made up of an administrative assistant, a
musician and an "evangelist to help with reaching out to folks,"
and began knocking on a lot of doors for months.

Some highs and lows were "literally back-to-back, knocking
on doors, moving from one household where the family was excited
about a new congregation to the next where there was no interest,
maybe even a little hostility at the thought," Grimm said.

But the joys of mission development became "the many
Baptisms and the way people who have never stepped foot in a
church before become leaders," he said.

It's about "setting a new course, dreaming big and
empowering people," he said.

The lows are the constant struggle to find the funds to
do the ministry, the amount of energy and work it takes, and
the number of evenings away from his family, Grimm said.

The majority of members and leaders at Advent today "are
folks who would not be in church if it were not for the
excitement of a new church," he said.  "Many had come from
bad experiences with other church communities, and some
had no faith background at all.  It's such a raw gift to be
able to meet folks where they're at in life and walk with them
on their faith journey."

"Although I didn't always like setting up chairs every
week," Grimm said, "it was those moments that helped remind
me and (others) that the church is not a building but people."

In 2008 the ELCA has identified 70 locations in more
than 25 states to begin new congregations.  Fifty-seven of
those are under way -- 41 as congregations under development,
and 16 as synodically authorized worshiping communities. There
are another 197 congregations under development that started
in previous years in urban, suburban, rural and small-town
settings.  Of the current congregations under development,
about 2 percent are American Indian/Alaska Native, 47 percent
European American, 1 percent Arab/Middle Eastern, 14 percent
Asian/Pacific Islander, 14 percent African/African
American/Black, 19 percent Hispanic/Latino and 3 percent are
multicultural.  There's one prison congregation and one
maritime congregation under development.

ELCA Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission
(EOCM) rolled out a new plan for evangelism in 2008 that
involves the ELCA's 65 synods creating mission strategies,
each unique to its regional setting.  Plans are designed
to unite congregations in serving their communities.  "We
ant to help congregations reconnect or strengthen their
relationships with the surrounding community," said the
Rev. Stephen P. Bouman, EOCM executive director.

The Rev. Giselle Carvalho Coutinho started mission
development work in 2006 at Bridge of Peace Community
Church, Camden, N.J.  She said Camden is the second poorest
city in the country with the second highest crime rate.

"It was the intention of the ELCA New Jersey Synod to
build a multicultural ministry here, reaching out to
anyone who needed a church home," Coutinho said. The
ministry of Bridge of Peace began eight years ago. It
became an organized congregation of the ELCA 18 months
ago.

What helped grow the ministry is strong, local lay
leadership, Coutinho said.  "We do asset mapping with our
new members," she said, a process of identifying a person's
gifts and cultivating those gifts for leadership
responsibilities.

Coutinho also attributes the congregation's growth
to its ability to engage community and society.  "We have
a Peace Center.  We do advocacy work, counseling, provide
meals and look for ways to reach out to our community,"
she said.  "We're a 'Reconciled in Christ' congregation,
and we work to raise awareness on topics like autism and
people living with disabilities."

"We are all created in God's image. We are beautiful.
It's also not about what we can't do but what we can do.
This is the congregation's identity," Coutinho said.

Bridge of Peace is a multiracial, multiethnic and
multilingual congregation.  "We worship in three languages
-- English, Spanish and Portuguese," she said.  There are
144 members -- one quarter white, another African American,
a quarter Latino and another of mixed ethnic background. "We
are evangelists.  We include everyone."

A great challenge of the congregation is financing some
of its programs, said Coutinho.  The church is raising funds
to hire a full-time director for the Peace Center.  Despite
the challenge, "we do make our benevolence.  People tithe here.
How many congregations can say that?  We are an example of
how it can be done, if you really preach and teach," she said.

"But it's not always about funds.  It's about people's
gifts and how gifts can be shared with one another.  This is
my joy," Coutinho said.  "The Lutheran church is open, seeking
to be a church home for the community.  There is so much hope
because there's always an ability to help people and share
the gospel."
- - -

Information about developing new ELCA congregations
is at http://tinyurl.com/cjndxj on the ELCA's Web site.

Information about Advent Lutheran Church is at
http://www.adventlakeann.org and Bridge of Peace is at
http://www.bridgeofpeace.com on the Internet.

For information contact:

John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog