wfn.org | ELCA Leaders Discuss Support for New Ethnic-Specific Missions

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 7, 2001

ELCA LEADERS DISCUSS SUPPORT FOR NEW ETHNIC-SPECIFIC MISSIONS
01-044-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The steering committee of the Commission for
Multicultural Ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA) discussed the church's support for new domestic missions and the
time taken to transform them into self-supporting congregations when it
met here Feb. 23-24.  The committee also asked church leaders to work
for peace in Iraq.
     In a "special order of business," committee members invited the
Rev. Robert S. Hoyt, director for program, new congregations, ELCA
Division for Outreach (DO), and the Rev. Richard A. Magnus, DO executive
director, to comment on support provided by the church to transform
ethnic-specific missions into organized congregations.
     "The Division for Outreach is committed to making ministries work
regardless of the time taken to turn them into self-supporting,
organized congregations," Hoyt told the committee.
     In an interview, Hoyt said the division helps to identify people
who want to begin and lead a new ministry and works with those who want
to participate in it in other ways.
     "The division also works to evaluate the effectiveness of a
ministry and its potential to grow and impact a community of people,
despite the amount of time taken for the worshiping community to become
self-reliant," Hoyt said.
     He added that all involved in building a ministry decide when a
mission can become self-reliant.
     "The majority of mission congregations become organized in three
to five years, then [add] up to another five years for them to become
self-reliant," Hoyt said.
     Becoming self-reliant does not mean that a congregation must
become financially independent.  Self-reliance is measured on the
quality and effectiveness of a ministry and the people who want to
contribute to it, he said.
     Hoyt added that ministries in contexts where the Lutheran church
is not known are expected to organize within three to five years.  In a
context where the Lutheran church is known, congregations are expected
to organize in less three years.
     "Some Asian and Latino missions have organized in less than three
years," Hoyt said.
     "In the ELCA, 43 percent of congregations under development are
ethnic-specific," said Hoyt.  "The board of the Division for Outreach
established a policy in 1988 indicating that 20 percent of new missions
must be ethnic-specific. The division exceeds that goal almost every
year," he said.
     Magnus told the committee that contexts for new ministries "vary
tremendously."
     "Each new ministry comes from a particular place with a particular
group of people," said Magnus.  Mission directors and people from a
community help define the uniqueness of a particular setting, so that a
plan for ministry will work with the group and its context, he said.
     Magnus added that "the economics are different in each setting.  A
mission director is asked to [identify] what resources will be needed
for how long and who can partner with [the division] in the cost of the
ministry, he said.
     "We do commit to some ministries where we know we will have to
provide funding for a very long time, perhaps as long as that ministry
is there.  We can only do that in a limited number of situations and
with strong partnership with a synod and local congregations who can
assist with costs," Magnus said.
     "The ideal, from our perspective, is that a congregation will not
need outside financial support from the division for more than five
years after it organizes.  We will, however, go with a longer plan if
that place and people require it," he said.
     Magnus said he would like the commission's steering committee and
staff to be the division's "strong partner" in helping the ELCA "become
the multicultural church it is committed to becoming.  We want the
commission's help, critique, support and prayers, but most of all we
want their partnership to support existing ethnic-specific ministries of
the church."
     Members of the committee shared stories with Hoyt and Magnus on
how "immigrant conditions" for some of the church's ethnic-specific
communities bear a "unique" challenge for ministry in the United States.
The ELCA's ethnic-specific ministries are African American and Black,
American Indian and Alaska Native, Arab and Middle Eastern, Asian and
Pacific Islanders and Hispanic/Latino.
     "Seventy-five percent of my congregation immigrated to the United
States from El Salvador, a country in Central America that has recently
undergone severe weather and economic disasters," said Carlos Alejandro
Gonzales, steering committee member, Silver Spring, Md.  "Most of our
church members send part of their [household income] to their families
in El Salvador, instead of providing resources to help support the
church and its missions," he said.
     "We hope the larger church does not judge the effectiveness of a
mission and its impact on a community by the number of its participants
or the amount of money used to support the mission," Gonzales said.
     Muna Tarazi, steering committee member, Troy, Mich., said many
people who move from the Middle East to the United States have little
knowledge about the Lutheran church.
     "Many that come to the United States from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon,
Palestine and Syria had a Greek Orthodox upbringing," said Tarazi.  She
said when people come to the United States and learn about a Lutheran
mission, they seek "support and assistance" from the Lutheran church.
     At its Oct. 13-14 meeting, the committee had received reports from
its five ethnic-specific subcommittees indicating that the "three- to
five-year trend" for new missions to become financially self-supportive
is not operative.  Reports further indicated that the amount of funds
provided to support missions is terminated before they are able to
become organized, self-supporting congregations.
     In response to those reports, the committee asked commission staff
to request DO staff to review its "current funding policies" designed to
support ethnic-specific missions.
     "Since 1990, the ELCA Division for Outreach received little
increase in program dollars," Hoyt told the steering committee on Feb.
24.  "We want to join with you in your request for more money," he said.
     "The Commission for Multicultural Ministries and Division for
Outreach have a common mission.  Both seek to help the church's [65]
synods and its ethnic-specific mission leaders develop strategies for
outreach," said the Rev. Frederick E.N. Rajan, executive director for
the commission.
     Rajan said the commission's steering committee and the division's
board will meet in the fall to examine support for new ethnic-specific
missions.
     In other business, the committee approved a resolution developed
and delivered by members of the ELCA Association of Lutherans of Arab
and Middle Eastern Heritage (ALAMEH) that calls upon the members of the
ELCA to lift the people of Iraq and the "Christian minority" there in
prayer.
     According to members of ALAMEH, more than three million people in
Iraq died in the last 10 years as a result of an embargo imposed by the
United Nations.
     "People in Iraq are unable to find enough food and medicine for
survival ... and are not able to keep [the country's] borders open for
travel and trade," according to the text of the resolution.  "There is
little evidence that the embargo has had any positive effects" on the
country's ability to keep peace.
     The commission's steering committee will transmit the resolution
to the ELCA Division for Church in Society for it's review.
     The ELCA Commission for Multicultural Ministries gives advice and
assistance to the ELCA's 10,851 congregations -- organized into 65
synods throughout the United States and Caribbean -- on ministry among
people of color and whose primary language is not English.  It develops
workshops and resources, print and video, to help the church dismantle
racism.

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