wfn.org | ELCA Board Reviews African American Outreach Strategy

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 22, 2000

ELCA BOARD REVIEWS AFRICAN AMERICAN OUTREACH STRATEGY
00-069-FI

     MUNDELEIN, Ill. (ELCA) -- Since 1993, when the Division for
Outreach of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) began
developing ethnic-specific strategies, a team of African American
Lutherans has been crafting an African American Outreach Strategy.  The
division's board reviewed the strategy when it met here March 3-5.
     Lutheran church bodies have developed 11 African American
strategies over the past 50 or 60 years, said the Rev. E. Taylor Harmon,
associate executive director of the ELCA Division for Outreach (DO).
"We found them covered by dust," he said.
     Harmon told the board the African American Outreach Strategy is
not a report nor a five-year project but a work in progress.  He said
many of its recommendations will become part of the division's regular
programs in 2001.
     The African American Outreach Strategy is "to provide a vision and
plan of action that guides the Division for Outreach in its efforts to
provide leadership and support to synods and congregations as they reach
out in witness to the gospel with and among African Americans in diverse
socioeconomic contexts," stated the strategy.  The ELCA's 11,000
congregations are organized into 65 synods.
     The strategy is meant "to provide a framework for monitoring and
evaluating the effectiveness of the division's programmatic activities
in developing new congregations and supporting existing congregations in
the African American context."
     Harmon said a significant element of the strategy is that it is
the work of African American Lutherans.  "This board said you take the
lead, and we'll take the risks together," he said.  The team has met
twice a year.
     The team gathered statistics and other information about African
Americans -- population spread and growth, economics, education,
religious affiliation, and church and unchurched analyses -- to begin
with a clear picture of the context in which they were to work.
     One-third of the 230 Black ELCA congregations are without a
pastor, Harmon told the board.  Most of those have no hope of paying a
pastor under their current economic conditions, he said.
     Team members are now working in three groups to address leadership
issues, as well as issues concerning new and existing congregations.
     The Division for Outreach administers capital funds for loans,
real estate acquisitions and building programs in support of new
ministries and congregations in areas served by ELCA synods.
     "The myth is that, if you are a Black congregation, you're on the
dole to DO.  That's not the case," said Harmon.  A third of Black ELCA
congregations receive the division's assistance.
     "Most of these congregations are not going to make it, even with
DO dollars," he said.  "It's going to take a radical new direction."
     About 98 percent of the ELCA membership is White.  Although
African American Lutherans have taken the lead in developing the
strategy, Harmon reminded the board that the whole church must be
involved in carrying it out.
     "Black folk are at the table, but that doesn't mean you can get up
and go do something else," he said.  "It can change if we work together
... if we're clear about our direction ... strong new and existing
congregations."
     "This church really wants to be a multicultural, inclusive and
diverse church," said Harmon.  It has begun thinking with people -- not
about people -- engaging everyone in making decisions.  "It's risky
business.  It's bold business," he said.
     Harmon referred to another report the board received on
Theological Education for Emerging Ministries (TEEM) from the Rev.
Gregory J. Villalon, director for multicultural leadership development,
ELCA Division for Ministry.  Harmon called TEEM "a small step but a
major breakthrough."
     Villalon said TEEM recently changed its name from "alternate
route."  It was seen as a 'quickie route' because we need a body in an
ethnic ministry," he said.  The new name more clearly describes the
program as providing theological education on and off ELCA seminary
campuses to prepare leaders in new ELCA ministry settings for
ordination, he said.
     "How do we educate people without pulling them out of their
context and then putting them back after they've forgotten what they
were doing?" Villalon asked.
     The TEEM program allows some seminary requirements to be fulfilled
through "distance learning," through mentors and through church
institutions near the new ministry, he said.  Candidates devote a
similar amount of time to TEEM as those who attend a seminary full-time.
     TEEM candidates do not volunteer to be part of the program, said
Villalon.  They are usually identified by bishops or ELCA mission
directors.
     "I am excited.  Although the steps are small and the journey long,
the church is at a place where the units are working together, and we're
beginning to see things happening across the country," he said.
     Harmon told the board about another project, "Proclaiming the
Power 2000," sponsored by the African American Lutheran Association, the
Commissions for Multicultural Ministries and Women, and the Divisions
for Church in Society, Congregational Ministries, Global Mission and
Outreach.
     Proclaiming the Power is meant to "strengthen African
American/Black, Caribbean and African ministries in the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America."
     Seven two-day conferences are being planned across the United
States this year, and one is planned for 2001 in the U.S. Virgin
Islands.  The first three will be held May 5-6 in Los Angeles, May 12-13
in Chicago and June 2-3 in Toledo, Ohio.
     The African American Outreach Strategy team includes Josselyn
Bennett, ELCA Division for Church in Society, Chicago; the Rev. M.
Wyvetta Bullock, ELCA Division for Congregational Ministries, Chicago;
Valora Starr Butler, Women of the ELCA, Chicago; the Rev. Eric Campbell,
ELCA Commission for Multicultural Ministries; the Rev. James Capers,
Southeastern Synod, Atlanta; the Rev. Joseph Donnella, Gettysburg
College, Gettysburg, Pa.; the Rev. Will Herzfeld, ELCA Division for
Global Mission, Chicago; the Rev. Sherman Hicks, First Trinity Lutheran
Church, Washington, D.C.; the Rev. Raymond LeBlanc, First Lutheran
Church, Carson, Calif.; the Rev. Craig Lewis, Central Lutheran Church,
Minneapolis; Sylvia Pate, Dayton, Ohio; James Sims, Vallejo, Calif.;
Gaylord Thomas, ELCA Division for Church in Society, Chicago; the Rev.
James Thomas, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Bronx, N.Y.; the Rev. Booker
Vance, St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Chicago; and the Rev. Joseph Walker
Jr., Spirit of the Living God Ministries, Birmingham, Ala.

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