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	LCMSNews -- No. 150
	December 29, 2003

	New housing corporation seeks to help
	inner-city congregations receive grants

	By Kim Krull and Joe Isenhower Jr.

	A new LCMS National Housing Support Corporation is designed to
help struggling inner-city congregations receive grants and technical
assistance for housing ministries -- which has been difficult for them,
sources say.

	The LCMS Board for Human Care Ministries proposed the new
nonprofit, national charitable organizations to help congregations,
districts and social-ministry organizations with housing and community
development.

	In November, the Synod's Board of Directors approved the
organization, which has now filed for incorporation with the State of
Missouri.

	"This is welcome news," said Rev. John Brazeal, pastor of Christ
the King Lutheran Church, a downtown Chicago congregation that has
helped rehab and build new homes in a neighborhood once designated a
slum.

	"As congregations," Brazeal said, "we want to get involved with
our communities and show that we care. But there are so many challenges,
from lack of money to what happens if a volunteer steps on a rusty
nail."

	"Our districts and congregations are doing some wonderful things
in housing ministry," said Marie Kienker, deputy director of LCMS World
Relief/Human Care and the former manager of LCMS Housing Ministries.
"Our goal in setting up this new corporation is to partner with them and
to serve as a conduit of resources that will help secure funding to meet
increased needs for revitalized communities."

	Kienker said that forming a new housing corporation enables
access to governmental and private sources of funding otherwise
unavailable to the Board for Human Care Ministries. The new corporation,
she continued, is "a Synod-controlled corporation formed to assist in
carrying out the housing ministry activities of LCMS World Relief/Human
Care."

	Rev. Matthew Harrison, executive director of World Relief/Human
Care, led efforts to start the new housing-ministry corporation.

	"A congregation is a corporate citizen of a neighborhood, and if
that neighborhood is in decline, it's absolutely the right thing to get
involved," said Harrison.

	In the last half of the 1990s, Harrison was pastor of Zion
Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, Ind., leading the congregation's efforts to
help transform its decaying urban neighborhood into a stable community
of new and rehabbed homes.

	"The complexities that confessional Lutheran congregations face
in the inner city can be mind-boggling," Harrison said. "Often, churches
are the only institutions left, along with liquor stores and drug
houses.

	"Inner-city pastors and congregations are so busy just
maintaining faithful Word and Sacrament ministries," he said, "that most
don't have the time or resources to seek help from foundations and other
sources.

	"The key to a healthy inner-city neighborhood is home
ownership," Harrison continued. "This corporation will make it much
simpler for congregations to make sure that their neighbors get loans to
own homes. The church can bring decency, civility and order to the inner
city with more home ownership. And, ultimately, that opens the door for
the church to evangelize in the inner city."

	New potential funding sources give hope to Rev. C. Jay Koehler,
a former parish pastor who directs a project by Redeemer Lutheran
Church, Interlochen, Mich., to turn 17 acres into housing for retired
church workers.

	"Our biggest hang-up is money," said Koehler, who said he is
concerned that the Redeemer project will lose support from a local
nonprofit if he doesn't secure another source of funding.

	"By doing this [housing-ministry support] on a national level,
we have a way to appeal to resources throughout the country instead of
being limited on a congregation or ... district basis," Koehler said.
"This has got to open a lot more doors."

	Kienker said the Housing Support Corporation continues the
Synod's leadership in housing ministry -- "providing decent, affordable
housing to low and middle-income families."

	Since 1986, the Synod has been involved in "Nehemiah Plans,"
housing initiatives that have stabilized communities and drawn families
to churches in cities like Brooklyn, N.Y., and Memphis, Tenn. The Synod
also started the Low Income Housing Loan Fund to provide financial
assistance for housing ministries.

	That fund, however, now stands and at less than $1 million,
according to Kienker, and provides no money for technical assistance.

	"New funding sources are critical," said Harrison, who,
according to the new corporation's bylaws, will serve on its board of
directors through his executive-director position.

	As this story was written, the Board for Human Care Ministries
was appointing four other corporation board members, seeking candidates
with experience in housing and community-investment banking. The new
board is scheduled to hold its first meeting next month.

	One of that board's first efforts, Kienker said, will be to
compile successful housing-ministry models and "best practices." She
encouraged veterans of LCMS housing ministry to share their expertise by
calling (800) 248-1930, Ext. 1394, or e-mailing her at
marie.kienker@lcms.org.

	For more information on Harrison's housing-ministry efforts in
Fort Wayne, read his "Theological and Personal Reflections on
Confessional Lutheran Involvement in Neighborhood Renewal" at
www.lcms.org/?4000 <http://www.lcms.org/?4000>	.

	Kim Krull is a freelance writer in St. Louis. She writes for
LCMS World Relief/Human Care.

	*********************************

	If you have questions or comments about this LCMSNews release,
contact Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org or (314) 996-1231,
or Paula Schlueter Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org or (314) 996-1230.

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