wfn.org | Lutheran Leaders Analyze the Future of Religious Institutions

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

January 18, 2006  

Lutheran Leaders Analyze the Future of Religious Institutions
06-006-FI

     ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (ELCA) -- Approximately 80 leaders
representing colleges, universities, seminaries, outdoor
ministries, social ministry organizations, and the synods
congregations and churchwide organization of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met here Jan. 12-14 to discuss
"The Future of Religious Institutions in American Society,"
emphasizing the governance of institutions and how Lutheran
institutions are interrelated and interdependent.
     The ELCA's 10,585 congregations are organized into 65
synods.  The Chicago-based church has 28 colleges and
universities, eight seminaries, and 145 camps and retreat
centers.  It relates to approximately 300 social ministry
organizations through Lutheran Services in America, based in
Baltimore.
     Conference addresses and discussions centered on three
themes: strengthening the common mission of Lutheran
institutions, collaborating in times of crisis and developing
future leaders for institutions.
     Robert Tuttle, professor of law, George Washington
University Law School, Washington, D.C., told the audience that
three developments over the past 20 years have had a direct
effect on the way religious institutions relate to each other and
to the U.S. government.  Church and state no longer have the
legal distinctions that separated them; the judiciary has
intervened in church matters because of sexual abuse cases; and
repercussions from corporate governance debacles have reached
nonprofit organizations, he said.
     Tuttle advised participants to have formal policies in place
regarding the finances of their organizations, the treatment and
conduct of employees and volunteers, and the protection of
sensitive documents.  "It's worse to have a policy and not use
it," he said, adding that everyone in the organization must be
aware of the policies and use them.
     Responding to several high profile cases of corporate
mismanagement, the government adopted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act,
Tuttle said, which could create a "culture of compliance."  The
act increased financial reporting requirements for most
companies, and those requirements will also be applied to smaller
companies.
     While Tuttle said the law will improve accountability, it
will be harder for smaller companies to meet the requirements
than larger companies.	He recommended that Lutheran institutions
collaborate to make compliance easier regardless of their size.
     "The most important moral lesson we can learn from all these
developments is that the core moral obligation is to be able to
open ourselves up to scrutiny by others," Tuttle said later.
"That's really what transparency means.  That's what it means to
be accountable to others."
     The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, Chicago,
offered the gathering "six challenges that will significantly
influence the future of ELCA institutions:" deepen the Lutheran
identity in the mission of the institutions; cultivate the
interdependence and interrelatedness of Lutheran institutions;
rethink "who gets to decide" and expand the institution's
capacity for leadership; work in the best interest of both the
institution and those it serves; nurture individual creativity
while being mindful of everyone involved; and exhibit humility,
integrity and courage.
     "To be the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is to be
expressions of the institutions of that church," Hanson said
later.
     "We are more fully this church to the degree to which we are
both clear about our identity and mission as those institutions
and expressions but also deeply committed to our
interrelatedness, our interdependency, which takes tending to,"
Hanson said.  "It's one of the great gifts of the ELCA that we
still have this depth of interrelatedness and commitment to that
interrelatedness."
     "With all the pressures on institutions and their leaders,
are we committed to asking the question: What can we do together
that we cannot do as effectively apart, not only for the sake of
our institutions but for the sake of our common mission in God's
work for the sake of the world?" Hanson asked.	"Our institutions
call us into that world because they are links to that world in
very clear ways," he said.
     The boards of religious institutions have gone through a
transition that Christa R. Klein, president, In Trust, Arlington,
Va., called "laicizing" -- from a majority of clergy as board
members to a larger number of professional lay members.  That
shift has required that board development include training in
what makes religious institutions different from public
institutions.
     In Trust is "an organization that teaches board members,
administrators and faculty members of theological schools best
governance practices so that they can enhance their schools'
capacity to provide the churches well-prepared ministers and
vital scholarship."
     "The board of a public corporation is basically working on
behalf of the shareholders and also making sure that the
organization is responsible and accountable for its actions,"
Klein said later.  "The board of a seminary has parallel
concerns, only its shareholders are really the future of the
church."
     Klein outlined three characteristics of a board.  She said
every board must be fiduciary -- caring for the institution's
assets and financial responsibilities.	A good board will also be
strategic -- reviewing the institution's performance and shaping
its future.
     The best board will be fiduciary, strategic and generative -
- reflecting on the institution's mission and engaging in
creative problem-solving, Klein said.  "The board becomes a
source of leadership for the organization," she said.
     Board members can "be leaders in generating the means of
framing the questions and issues that the institution has to
address.  That is a tremendous opportunity for board leadership,
but (board members) must have the time and the commitment and the
kind of intelligence and capacity for ambiguity to help with that
approach," Klein said.
     The conference included worship.  The Rev. Edward R.
Benoway, bishop, ELCA Florida-Bahamas Synod, Tampa, Fla.,
welcomed the participants and led a vespers service.  The Rev.
Ann M. Svennungsen, president, The Fund for Theological
Education, Atlanta, preached during a service that included the
Lord's Supper.
     "Raising up new leaders is no minor concern," Svennungsen
said.  "There are far too many voices calling them to something
else," she said.  "The lack of young preachers in the pulpit may
account for the lack of young adults in the pew."
     "The days of the lone ranger have long since vanished,"
Svennungsen said, stressing the importance of all types of church
institutions working together.	"In the 21st century we need each
other for the mission more than ever," she said.
     "We need this ecology to call forth future leaders,"
Svennungsen said.  "We know this ecology is not finally our
doing," she said.  "This ecology is a gift from God.  We tend to
this precious ecology."
     The Rev. Stanley N. Olson, executive director, ELCA Vocation
and Education, Chicago, provided the conference's closing
remarks, promising follow-up with the participants by e-mail.
This was the third conference of its kind since 2000.
     "We keep hearing in the conversation that the networks could
be strengthened," Olson told the group.  "We have strong networks
in this church," but they need tending, he said.
     "You are at the growing edge of the church," Olson said.
"You teach the church what it means to be the church."
-- -- --
     Three audio reports on this story are available in MP3
format for streaming:
http://media.ELCA.org/ramgen/audionews/060113.mp3
http://media.ELCA.org/ramgen/audionews/060117.mp3
http://media.ELCA.org/ramgen/audionews/060119.mp3
     or for download:
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/060113.mp3
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/060117.mp3
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/060119.mp3

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