wfn.org | Lutheran Diaconal Ministers Strengthen Community, Elect Leaders

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 28, 2001

LUTHERAN DIACONAL MINISTERS STRENGTHEN COMMUNITY, ELECT LEADERS
01-219-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- About 45 diaconal ministers of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) gathered Aug. 6-8 in Indianapolis to
strengthen their community and to discuss ways these lay ministers
relate to the whole church.  The group elected six of its members to
leadership.
     "Together for Ministry" was the theme for three days of worship,
prayer and workshops.  "Together for Ministry" was also the title of a
report to the 1993 ELCA Churchwide Assembly for the church's study of
ministry.  As a result of the report, the assembly created diaconal
ministry as an official lay ministry of the church.
     "Diaconal" comes from the same Greek word as "deacon" -- diakonia
-- meaning "service" or "ministry."  An ELCA bylaw says, "Diaconal
ministers shall seek in a great variety of ways to empower, equip and
support all the baptized people of God in the ministry of Jesus Christ
and the mission of God in the world."
     A two-year study developed "six identifying marks" of diaconal
ministry.  "Diaconal ministers shall be rooted in the Word of God, be
trained to carry out a particular service, be committed and prepared to
assist the baptized for ministry in the world and in the church, give
particular attention to ministries at the boundaries between church and
world, exemplify the life of Christ-like service addressing all forms of
human need, and finally, be grounded in community," it said.
     One purpose of the Indianapolis gathering was to focus on the
sixth mark, discussing elements of community: decision-making processes,
patterns of gathering, patterns of leadership, and patterns of relating
within their community, within the ELCA and with similar communities in
other church bodies.  Workshops dealt with diaconal identity, gifts and
resources, elements needed to help minister more effectively, and
discernment of indigenous leaders.
     The community adopted a consensus model for decision-making and
elected six diaconal ministers to provide leadership:
 + Madelyn Herman Busse, assistant to the bishop, ELCA Rocky Mountain
Synod, Denver;
 + Heather Lancaster Feltman, director, ministry of health and peace,
South Carolina Christian Action Council, Columbia;
 + Edgar C. Kruse, specialist for stewardship services, ELCA Central
States Synod and Division for Congregational Ministries, Independence,
Mo.;
 + Dr. Lake Lambert III, assistant professor in religion, Wartburg
College, Waverly, Iowa;
 + Sue Setzer, executive director, Career and Personal Counseling
Service, Charlotte, N.C.;
 + Margaret Schmitt Ajer, regional staff, ELCA Department for Synodical
Relations and Division for Ministry, La Mesa, Calif.
     Making decisions by consensus requires discernment.  "The
corporate world is beginning to embrace words like 'discernment' as
referring to careful, informed decision making," said Busse.  "We just
include being informed by the Spirit in our discernment."
     The Rev. H. George Anderson, ELCA presiding bishop, complimented
the community for its "integration of contemplation and action."
Diaconal ministers "need to visibly combine the spiritual life with the
active life" of ministry.
     "You are called to be salt and leaven, living out what Lutherans
understand as vocation," Anderson told the gathering.  He commended them
to a cycle of "prayer, meditation and testing" as they work beside
others in society.
     "We are engaged in a process of defining what this ministry is
since it is so young and new to our church," said Lambert.  "The main
progress that we made was taking on greater responsibility as a
community for the interpretation of diaconal ministry to the whole
church," he said of the gathering.
     "Diaconal ministers are not as concerned about having clear
definitions of diaconal ministry as we are about leading the church in a
rediscovery and reinvigoration of diakonia -- Christ-like service in the
name of God," Lambert said.  "All Christians, not just diaconal
ministers, are called to this service through their baptisms.  Diaconal
ministers are called to the leadership of this ministry by our faithful
proclamation of the gospel in Word and deed," he added.
     The ELCA Division for Ministry hosted the gathering, building on a
similar gathering the previous year in Biloxi, Miss.  The community
decided to meet again in 2002 at a time and place to be determined by
the newly elected leadership.
-- -- --
     Philip Deming, San Diego, wrote an article about his experience as
a diaconal minister for Lutheran Partners, the magazine of the ELCA
Division for Ministry.  The publication serves about 19,000 ordained and
lay ministers of the ELCA.  The article is available at
http://www.elca.org/dm/lp/diamin.html on the Web.

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