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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 8, 2002

ELCA BOARD CONDUCTS BUSINESS OF OUTREACH
02-044-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The board of the Division for Outreach of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) emphasized maritime,
rural, new and renewed ministries of the church while conducting its
first business session of 2002 here March 1-3.  Dorothy Baumgartner,
chief administrative officer for Trinity Lutheran College, Issaquah,
Wash., chairs the board.
     The ELCA's 10,816 congregations are organized into 65 synods
across the United States and Caribbean.
     The ELCA Northwest Washington Synod asked the Division for
Outreach to increase its funding for the Lutheran Association for
Maritime Ministry (LAMM).  The division's board forwarded
recommendations to the ELCA Church Council about support for LAMM.  The
council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative
authority of the church between its biennial churchwide assemblies.
     Board member the Rev. J. Elise Brown, Advent Lutheran Church,
Manhattan, New York, called maritime ministry "a hidden ministry in our
church among invisible people in the world."  LAMM "operates on a
shoestring" out of no real office, she said, yet it conducts a very
significant ministry of the church.
     Maritime ministries of the ELCA provide spiritual and practical
assistance to ships' crews that visit U.S. harbors from around the
world.
     The recommendations included a pledge of increased funding through
a grant from the ELCA Division for Global Mission and emphasized a
higher visibility for maritime ministries by forming support
partnerships with various units of the church.
     Last year the ELCA Churchwide Assembly and the ELCA Minneapolis
Area Synod asked the church to increase its support for rural ministry,
especially with those operating family farms.  Sandra A. LaBlanc,
director for rural ministry resources and networking, ELCA Division for
Outreach, organized a consultation Feb. 27 in Chicago to consider the
church's accomplishments and challenges in rural ministry.
     "This ministry is too large for one, two or three people to do,"
said LaBlanc.  The temptation is to believe that adding staff "takes
care of things," she said.
     As a result of the consultation, the division's board recommended
that no new churchwide staff be hired and that the division's rural
ministry advisory committee work with the ELCA Office of the Presiding
Bishop to create an Alliance for Rural Ministry.
     The alliance would "pull together not only people in churchwide
divisions but seminaries and grassroots coalition representatives and
whatever other groups they identify," said Baumgartner.  Together those
participants would advocate for "rural ministry all across the church
and outside of the church," she said.
     LaBlanc told the board that the division's rural ministry advisory
committee plans to meet with its Episcopal and Presbyterian partners
next year.
     The board ratified the appointment of the Rev. Ruben F. Duran as
the division's executive for new congregational development.  He is
responsible for promoting the development of area strategies, local
initiatives and emerging models for the multiplication of new ELCA
communities of faith in the United States and Caribbean.  Duran has been
the division's executive for mission outreach services.
     In his report to the board, the Rev. Richard A. Magnus, executive
director, ELCA Division for Outreach, said the division helped develop
27 new ministries in 2001.  The division is projecting 35 ministry
starts in 2002.
     The ELCA Grand Canyon Synod asked the church to develop a strategy
addressing the mission needs of fast-growth areas of the United States -
- areas for which the U.S. Census Bureau has projected significant
population growth in the immediate future.
     The outreach board responded with plans to host a consultation
"mid-2002" with a variety of ELCA divisions and institutions.  The
consultation is to define what "fast growth" means for the church,
identify "dilemmas" the church faces in addressing the mission needs of
fast-growth areas and propose first steps in developing the requested
strategy.
     The Rev. David D. Daubert, executive for renewal of congregations,
presented plans to develop a comprehensive manual to guide congregations
as they consider renting, building or renovating worship space.  The
manual will coordinate the advice of several ELCA units, emphasizing the
congregation's ministry more than where it is housed, he said.

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