wfn.org | ELCA Assembly Hears How Program Raises Future Leaders

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 13, 2001

ELCA ASSEMBLY HEARS HOW PROGRAM RAISES FUTURE LEADERS
01-CWA60-LS

     INDIANAPOLIS (ELCA) -- Lutheran college students discovered career
aspirations and served at-risk children through an Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA) initiative. Participants in the 2001 ELCA
Churchwide Assembly heard a report on that initiative Aug. 13.
     The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the
ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 8-14 at the Indiana Convention Center.  There
are about 2,500 people participating, including 1,039 ELCA voting
members.  The theme for the biennial assembly is "Making Christ Known:
Sharing Faith in a New Century."
     A leadership team for the ELCA initiative "Develop Leaders for the
Next Century," used funding to award grants to encourage leadership
development, said the Rev. Steven Ullestad, chair of the initiative
committee.  Final reports on each of the seven initiatives, launched by
the ELCA in 1997, are being presented at this assembly.
     Initiative grants resulted in mentoring, modeling and immersion
programs for youth with leadership potential, Ullestad said.  He said 51
grants, for a total of $132,000, were awarded.
     One grant developed an after-school program for students in
Fresno, Calif., said Joanne Chadwick, executive director of the ELCA
Commission for Women.  In the "Direction Sports" program, two Lutheran
students from California State University at Fresno mentored at-risk
area students by combining after-school tutoring with a basketball
program. "These kids [in the program] were facing lots of challenges,
including language barriers," Chadwick said.
     From their experiences with Direction Sports, the two university
students decided on careers. One has enrolled in a teacher education
program to work with diverse students and the other has selected a major
in social work, Chadwick said. "Lives will continue to change here
because you have helped us to start," she said.
     ELCA Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson called the initiative the
"most forward-looking" of the ELCA's seven "Initiatives for a New
Century."
-- -- --
     Information about assembly action is at
http://www.elca.org/assembly/01 on the ELCA's Web site. Recorded updates
during the assembly are available by calling 773/380-2477.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html