Maintaining Churches' Multidimensional Ministries Is a Major Challenge LWF Project Committee Discusses the Sustainability of the Church and Its Mission
MONTREUX & GENEVA, Switzerland, 30 June 2006 (LWI) * The leader of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cameroon (ELCC) says the greatest challenge for the Cameroonian church is how to support its multidimensional ministries in a sustainable way. Many churches of the South including the ELCC, still depend on foreign subsidies to keep their church institutions running, Rev. Dr Thomas Nyiwe, president of the ELCC told participants in the May 2006 meeting of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Project Committee in Montreux, Switzerland.
As they had the previous year, Committee members discussed sustainability of the church and its mission during the three-day meeting.
"The debate on sustainability inevitably involves the issue of strategies [to] overcome underdevelopment, enabling individuals as well as communities to live fuller and more satisfying lives," explained Nyiwe. He noted that this would have to take into account the contextual reality and address the root causes of dependence accordingly.
Dependency, according to the ELCC president, emphasized the "donor-recipient dichotomy in partnership," which had, in the past, provided some Northern partners with decision-making power while weakening the capacity of the "recipient-church" to work toward sustainable development.
Ensuring Sustainability
Nyiwe noted that the intervention of some Northern partners had not been clearly understood. "The [assumption is] that the Northern partners always have the solutions for their Southern partners" and that the situation in the Southern churches "can be quickly mended," he said.
He said ensuring sustainability was difficult especially for many Southern churches that were struggling with issues of poverty, corruption, and the maintenance of church-related institutions and structures, among other challenges. For the Northern partners, he noted, it was equally difficult in view of "the complex challenges of globalization and secularization and the negative implications these ideologies bring to the Western societies."
The ELCC president stressed the need to develop a mutual relationship between the Northern and Southern partners. As a communion of churches in the Lutheran tradition, "we are called together to promote a 'globalization of solidarity' in fostering common strategies for the sustainability of Lutheran churches throughout the world," he concluded.
No Universally Applicable Model of Sustainability
There "is no universally applicable model of sustainability," according to Knud Jorgensen, director of the Areopagos Organization, a foundation based in Denmark and Norway that supports theological studies and interreligious dialogue. Sustainability, he told participants in the Project Committee meeting, cannot be exported. It must instead take shape and form in each local setting. It is also "a matter of a spirituality, where we meet one another at the foot of the cross and learn to receive and grant forgiveness."
He noted that sustainability requires that each church develops its own identity such that "a contextual understanding of itself and its mission becomes the center of the self-understanding of the church."
Jorgensen pointed out that sustainability "depends on participation both in the design and implementation of actual projects and on participation in the governance and decision making of the organization." Sustainability thus calls for giving priority to the development of contextually relevant leadership within the larger framework of organizational development.
Call for Greater Exchange of Experience
At its Montreux meeting, the LWF Project Committee said room should be made for project holders and their partners within the same regions to meet and exchange experience, identify common challenges, and develop new project approaches. It was, furthermore, decided that the LWF Project Committee's current decision-making criteria should be elaborated to focus more on the missional, diaconal and spiritual dimensions.
The project monitoring and evaluation process was also a matter of deliberation at the meeting. The Committee decided that an expanded regimen of monitoring and evaluation in project work should focus more strongly on the the three dimensions. The Committee also planned to initiate a process to elaborate on guiding principles for sustainable partnership.
Help for Earthquake Victims in Indonesia
The LWF Project Committee members expressed their deep sympathy to all those affected by the earthquake in Java, Indonesia, late May. They called for all LWF member churches to pray for the victims of the natural disaster and to take the necessary action to meet their needs. According to the Indonesian Ministry of Health, nearly 5,800 people were killed and some 38,000 others were injured in the early hours of 27 May in Yogyakarta and in the nearby villages of the Bantul area in the south. Between one and two million people were rendered homeless by the catastrophe.
Project Supervision and Approval
The LWF Project Committee recommends to the Council, after consultation with member churches and partners globally, the criteria for projects within the Department for Mission and Development (DMD). It also approves projects and authorizes DMD to seek funding.
The Committee reports to the LWF Council through the Program Committee for Mission and Development.
DMD endeavors to encourage, support, and cooperate with the 140 LWF member churches, with related agencies, and with other groups as they strive to create, develop and maintain ministries that are committed to participation in God's mission to all creation. DMD project work provides an opportunity for the holistic and participatory mission of the church, encompassing pastoral and missionary activities as well as projects focusing on communications and development. (884 words)
(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140 member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total membership of 66.2 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)
[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service. Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]
LWI news online: http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Welcome.EN.html
LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION P. O. Box 2100 CH-1211 Geneva 2 Switzerland
Tel.: +41/22-791 63 69 Fax: +41/22-791 66 30 Editor's E-Mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org