wfn.org | Future Lutheran Leaders Will Be Sensitive

[Frank Imhoff <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Reply-To: ElcaNews <ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG>
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 2, 1998

FUTURE LUTHERAN LEADERS WILL BE SENSITIVE
98-041-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Future Lutheran leaders will be sensitive to the
will of God and to the needs of the people they serve, and they would
recognize the people's abilities to lead as well.  All will rely on local
congregations to nurture their faith.  More than 150 members of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met here Feb. 6-8 to identify
the qualities of those who will lead the church in the 21st century.
     Parish and campus pastors, chaplains, bishops, bishops assistants,
church executives, educators and lay members took part in the consultation
"Leaders for Tomorrow" sponsored by the church's Division for Ministry.
     "Every one of God's children has an errand to run," said Sue M.
Setzer, an ELCA associate in ministry who works for a career and personal
counseling service in Charlotte, N.C.  She said the church should identify
the leadership skills of its people, match the skills to the errands, and
put the errands in order.
     "There is a crying need today for faithful, trustworthy leaders,"
said the Rev. Joseph M. Wagner, executive director of the ELCA Division for
Ministry, in presenting a concept that leaders are shaped by their faith
and their contexts.
     "The development of leaders goes with the development of communities
of common values," he said, describing a path of formation that weaves
between church and society.  The teaching of the faith is heard in the
public arena, that dynamic influences both church and society, and the
gifts and qualities of leadership surface, said Wagner.
     The local Christian community is "the make or break point of this
whole thing," said the Rev. Timothy F. Lull, president of Pacific Lutheran
Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif.  "A central missional goal for our
church today is to strengthen and expand that core of Christians in every
community who are articulate enough about their faith to give lively and
faithful expression to it through their daily lives -- in family, work, and
civic settings as well as within the church's own life."
     The church's leaders must be more aware of what is going on in the
world around them and recognize the church's unique role to affect change
for the better, said Christine Grumm, director of the Chicago Foundation
for Women and former vice president of the ELCA.  "We need, at every level,
in every congregation, conflict management and peacemaking tools," she
said.  "Talk needs to be turned into action."
     The Rev. Kenneth W. Wheeler, assistant to the bishop of the ELCA's
Greater Milwaukee Synod, was one of many participants to point out that no
one under the age of 30 was in attendance.  "The new leaders are already
among us," he said.  "We just need to be open to hearing them and accepting
them on their own terms."
     The young leaders of the church find violence, inhumanity and racism
unacceptable, he said.  "Leaders of tomorrow will care about the children.
Leaders of tomorrow will value relationships.  They will recognize that
people are our greatest resources," said Wheeler.
     "The church provided a safe environment for me to test my wings,"
said the Rev. Gary F. Anderson, Incarnation Lutheran Church, North Oaks,
Minn.  He noted that many leaders -- past and present, inside the church
and outside -- honed and are honing their skills in church youth groups.
     The Rev. H. George Anderson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, provided a hopeful note about finding leaders
for the future, saying that ultimately Jesus cares for his church.  "We
will not heal the church, but we can be healed and blessed, made whole and
blessed.  And that's the way every generation's leaders have been given to
the church," he said.
     The Rev. A. Craig Settlage, associate executive director of the ELCA
Division for Ministry, agreed, "If we live in the awareness of the risen
Christ, we will find ourselves empowered for God's mission to the world and
prepared to pass on to others the wondrous task of ministry."

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