wfn.org | Lutherans Are "In the City for Good"

[ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 19, 1997

LUTHERANS ARE "IN THE CITY FOR GOOD"
97-CA-30-BF

     PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- Building upon nearly 300 years of ministry and
service in America's cities, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has
declared a decade-long, $5-million effort to help urban congregations
transform the lives of their members and their communities.
     "Christ calls the Church to be in the city for good, for the good of
the people and the place," the Rev. Jerrett Hansen of Baltimore said in
presenting the initiative to the ELCA's fifth biennial assembly meeting here
Aug. 14-20.  The assembly voted nearly unanimously to adopt a "direction
paper," titled "In the City for Good," to guide its urban strategies through
2008 and commit at least $500,000 each year to help congregations adapt to
and transform their neighborhoods.
     "The direction is for the whole church to prepare and pray for
ministries in our cities," Hansen told the assembly. "There is a need for the
clear voice of Jesus to be heard in our communities."   Hansen is Urban Team
Coordinator with the ELCA's Division for Outreach.
     "The opportunity is present," he said, "for us now to see ourselves as
interdependent, as members of one church whose lives and ministries are
inextricably woven together."
     "In the City For Good" calls for new education programs for urban lay
leaders, culturally relevant worship opportunities, support for the training
and salaries of urban pastors, cooperation with community groups in solving
neighborhood problems, and presents a benchmark against which congregations
can assess their strengths and weaknesses.
     Hansen stressed that "urban" ministry was not defined by geography but
by "a set of dynamics" that are present in many areas of America.  Those
dynamics include changing racial and ethnic makeup, decline in the number and
quality of jobs,  and growing disparity between rich and poor, he said.
     All congregations can embrace the initiative by forging partnerships
with urban congregations and using the gifts they have "to be merchants of
hope in the name of Jesus Christ," Hansen said.
     Support by voting members from urban and rural areas underscored
Hansen's point and demonstrated that the whole church is ready to take on
this task.
     "Across America, cities large and small have had and will continue to
have serious problems," said Livingston Chrichlow of Elmont, N.Y. "As
downtowns have been isolated from the mainstream of the economy, people have
been forgotten."
     Dawna Svaren of Pullman, Washington, recalled her experience at
Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Los Angeles, a church fortified by bars and
barbed wire that "suffered a break-in once a week." Yet "it's a congregation
that keeps its doors open" to the community for worship and after-school
programs.
     "These congregations support their communities; the whole church needs
to support these congregations," Svaren said.
     "Our church has the word to give to dying cities," said the Rev. Cedric
E. Gibb of Orangeburg, S.C.
     Bishop Glenn Nycklemoe of the Southeastern Minnesota Synod observed
that "rural congregations certainly are in solidarity" with the
recommendations. "So many of these issues are the concerns of our rural
congregations as well."
     "This proposal is a mission and vision that is wonderfully suited to
every one of our congregations," said the Rev. Wayne Kendrick of the Lino
Lakes, Minn., noting that all congregations are essentially in the business
of changing lives and shaping communities.
     Several voting members questioned the adequacy of the funding provided
in the initiative. "Given the state of affairs in the city, many
congregations are in need of hope," said the Rev. Charles Leonard of
Philadelphia. "There are so many times when a little extra money would help
them realize their dreams."
     At a pre-vote hearing on the initiative last Friday, John Gruber of
Milwaukee said that the urban initiative "might be the most important thing
that we do at this assembly.  If we don't have a presence in the cities, we
don't have a church."
     The Rev. Ruban Duran of Chicago, a member of the team that drafted the
initiative, told that session that "we're selling a vision: that God is in
the business of transforming lives and communities, and our work is part of
that."
     "The vision is a transformative vision that happens in three dimensions
  transformations of lives, communities and ministries in congregations,"
Hansen told the hearing, an informal discussion of the proposal.
     Asked to define "successful" urban ministries, the Rev. Susan Ericsson
of Philadelphia, a team member, said that success is not a model but a spirit
in which people are enlivened by worship and study and sent out to make
communities safe, healthy and economically viable. "A church where people
drive in on Sunday, have church, and drive away for the next six days isn't
a church," Ericsson said.
     "In the City for Good" also stresses Lutherans' gifts for the city,
including the need for a message of grace in areas where hope is in short
supply and Lutheran's deep roots in urban areas.  In Philadelphia, for
example, Lutherans have been providing both worship and social services for
more than 300 years.

For information contact:

Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html