ELCA NEWS SERVICE
August 27, 2007
ELCA Consults White Pastors Serving Multicultural Congregations
07-148-FI
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Sitting upright at the first desk facing
the podium, the trio resembled students -- unmarked by a
collective decade of parish ministries. Mentors, each with
decades of experience, leaned back from the desk near the
windows, each moment learning new things from speakers and from
their younger counterparts.
Twenty-five pastors of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) accepted an invitation to come together here for a
consultation. They are white pastors serving congregations in
multicultural settings in Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland Heights
and Columbus, Ohio, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee,
Philadelphia, and Oakland and Riverside, Calif.
White pastors serve 100 of the 246 ELCA congregations where
at least 20 percent of the members consider themselves to be of
African descent, said the Rev. Julius Carroll IV, director for
African American ministries, ELCA Multicultural Ministries.
"I found the consultation to be a wonderful support for
white urban pastors in multicultural settings. I appreciated the
give and take of leaders who face similar challenges and
opportunities," said the Rev. David A. Roschke, Salem Evangelical
Lutheran Church, Houston.
One pastor said he's gone a long time feeling unappreciated
by the larger church. "This is the first time in 11 years I have
felt and believed that my contributions to the life and ministry
of this Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and to its African
American expression have been honored," said the Rev. Jeffrey M.
Iacobazzi, First Trinity Lutheran Church, Indianapolis.
"Speaker after speaker, executive after executive,
professional after professional in this organization thanked us
as white pastors," Iacobazzi said. "I was really glad to be
thanked by wholly dedicated faith-filled ministers," he said.
"It was worth the price of admission."
"The consultation provided valuable time to sit at the feet
of outstanding African descent theologians, lay leaders and
practitioners of ministry in this church. We were affirmed in
our call to multicultural congregations and communities and
refreshed by the opportunity to network with others," said the
Rev. William J. Gohl Jr., Epiphany Lutheran Church, Baltimore.
"I was encouraged by the experiences of seasoned pastors
serving in African descent congregations, as well as by the
resources our African descent sisters and brothers commended to
us for study and immersion," said the Rev. Arwyn A.P. Gohl,
Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church, Baltimore. "As an urban
pastor fresh from our seminary at Gettysburg, I felt empowered
and revived for ministry," she said.
Iacobazzi contrasted the help he received preparing for his
ministry to that of a missionary who would get months of
intensive training before being transplanted into an unfamiliar
culture. "We got none of that. We had to figure all of that out
on our own. It was often an isolating and lonely experience," he
said. "It felt to me like that was going unnoticed."
"Multicultural ministry is difficult, and it was affirming
to know that the ELCA understands something of the difficulties
of multicultural ministry," Roschke said. "The ELCA has a long
way to go in becoming more multicultural, but little by little we
move forward," he said.
In 1987 the ELCA's constituting convention adopted the goal
"that within 10 years of its establishment its membership shall
include at least 10 percent people of color and/or primarily
language other than English." At that point, about 2 percent of
the ELCA's members were people of color. Twenty years later, the
church claims approximately 3.1 percent of its members are people
of color.
BALTIMORE
The Rev. T. Gregory Knepp is the pastor of St. John Lutheran
Church in Baltimore. St. John was founded the same day in 1908
as, and across town from, Epiphany Lutheran Church, where his
longtime friend Bill Gohl is pastor.
In 2006, Arwyn married Bill Gohl and graduated from Lutheran
Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. Knepp urged the Gohls to
"come back to the city," Bill Gohl said. The Gohls had done
their seminary internships in the Baltimore area -- Bill's at
Epiphany.
Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church is Arwyn Gohl's first
call out of seminary. Epiphany is about two miles away. "We
both love it here, and we intend to be here for a very long
time," she said.
"Gregg is a model of commitment to community, longevity and
persistence," Bill Gohl said. The three pastors are building on
their friendship to strengthen the three Baltimore congregations.
Jerusalem is a 165-year-old congregation founded by and for
German immigrants. Members are now "a healthy mix of Anglo,
African American and African immigrant Christians sharing blended
worship and substantial commitments to outreach, evangelism and
social ministry in its neighborhood," Bill Gohl said.
The congregation at St. John, "like its surrounding
neighborhood, is 98 percent people of African descent, including
African American and African Caribbean members," Knepp said.
Epiphany is the ELCA's second-largest worshiping community
in Baltimore. It's an Anglo congregation in a community that is
attracting residents of African descent.
Bill Gohl said Knepp and he are working to help Epiphany and
St. John support each other in mission. "Epiphany can share
financial resources, and St. John's can help disciple us for
intentional multicultural ministry in an African descent
context," he said.
"Considering the common history of the two congregations,
St. John's and Epiphany have established a 'sister congregation
relationship,' which we hope may help Epiphany make the
transition to become a more multicultural congregation," Knepp
said.
The two congregations are planning to celebrate their
centennials together in 2008. The Gohls and Knepp said the ELCA
consultation inspired them to make the celebration "a multi-
congregational revival for Lutheran churches in Baltimore."
They've invited the Rev. Kathryn I. Love, assistant director
for evangelism and director for prayer and renewal, ELCA
Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission, to serve as
evangelist for the event. She spoke about evangelism among
people of African descent at the consultation and led a
discussion of evangelism best practices.
As a result of the consultation, Arwyn Gohl said she's taken
part in a multicultural worship project through the Calvin
Institute of Christian Worship, Grand Rapids, Mich., and the ELCA
Delaware-Maryland Synod. She said she's become more convinced
that multicultural worship "is necessary for Jerusalem to be
rooted in the community."
The Rev. James M. Capers, Lamb of God Lutheran Church,
Indianapolis, and the Rev. Lamont Wells, Lutheran Church of the
Atonement, Atlanta, led a day of workshops on worship and
preaching in the African American context during the
consultation.
INDIANAPOLIS
Iacobazzi describes First Trinity Lutheran Church as a
small, "borderline self-sufficient" congregation that is a 50-50
mix of people of African and European descent. He's been its
pastor for 11 years.
The congregation was founded in 1868. In the 1970s African
Americans moved into the neighborhood around First Lutheran, and
the congregation gained a reputation of being a safe and
welcoming place for biracial married couples, Iacobazzi said.
Many members of the congregation drive in from nearby
neighborhoods for worship. Neighborhoods to the north are
integrated, he noted.
Church membership "tilts toward older," Iacobazzi said.
"The neighborhood itself has a lot more young people than our
congregation does. We've made longstanding overtures to do
ministerial programs with the parents for their children, and
that's been a good thing for us," he said.
Iacobazzi is especially proud of a "rites of passage"
program First Lutheran offered teenage girls in the neighborhood
-- three hours each Saturday for 16 weeks, culminating in Sunday
worship.
"We were able to bring in a black female intern, and that
was a good experience for us as a congregation to experience
black leadership in the pulpit," Iacobazzi said. It was good to
show the teenage girls "that our congregation and our
denomination honor the anointing that women have for public
professional ministry," he said.
"No matter what it is that's going on in our building, we're
really trying to make statement after statement that this
building and certainly the people who continue to worship here
are assets and resources in this community," Iacobazzi said.
Many of First Lutheran's programs are possible because of a
"mission partnership" with a suburban congregation -- Christ
Lutheran Church, Zionsville, Ind. When Christ Lutheran called
the Rev. Steven E. Albertin to be its pastor in 1998, the members
wanted "a pastor who is willing to put us in regular relationship
with a community of people who are different from us," Iacobazzi
said.
The relationship between the two congregations has been
informal and "phenomenal," Iacobazzi said. Designed to be "a two-
way street," there have been pulpit exchanges and joint men's
retreats. Volunteers from Christ Lutheran help with the Bible
study at First Lutheran.
First Lutheran is working with a retired volunteer from
Christ Lutheran to launch an urban 4-H program that would
recapture the interests of middle-school students who have
"outgrown" Bible study, Iacobazzi said.
First Lutheran's growing interest in engaging its young
neighbors drew Iacobazzi into a talk that the Rev. Stephen G. Ray
gave at the consultation. Ray is a pastor of the United Church
of Christ and serves as associate professor of African American
studies and director of the Urban Theological Institute at the
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, an ELCA seminary.
Ray talked about "creolization" -- the impact of the African
American culture on the United States. Iacobazzi said he was
especially interested in what Ray had to say about the hip-hop
generation and its influence on younger generations. Older
generations have to work hard to see the good in that influence,
Iacobazzi said, but it's there -- including concrete messages
about the good news of Jesus Christ.
Iacobazzi bought two books that Ray recommended -- "Good
Hair" by Benilde Little and "Jesus and the Disinherited" by
Howard Thurman -- and retrieved from his files his copy of
another Ray recommendation -- "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by
the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
A member of the congregations' mission partnership planning
team suggested a "book club" may be a conversation starter for
the two congregations, and the "Letter" could "help us explore,
capitalize and celebrate our racial and ethnic diversities,"
Iacobazzi said.
Three women from the neighborhood are talking about starting
their own book club, meeting at First Lutheran, and they want
Iacobazzi as a member.
Iacobazzi said he had just about given up on keeping the
adults at First Lutheran interested in Bible study, until he
heard Valora Starr lead the consultation's Bible study. Starr is
an associate for programs of Women of the ELCA, the church body's
women's organization.
"Since returning to Indy I've offered a one-hour adult Bible
study on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings," Iacobazzi said.
"There's no pressure on participants to attend every week," he
said, but they do come back, sometimes with friends.
HOUSTON
Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church has been in southwest
Houston since 1955. "We were on the edge of Houston 50 years
ago; now the city goes out way beyond us," Roschke said. He
began his ministry at Salem in 1982.
The congregation is 21 percent people of color and reflects
the European, African, Latino and Asian diversity of Houston,
Roschke said. The church sits in a largely Jewish neighborhood.
Many of Salem's members are connected with the Medical
Center in Houston -- the complex of hospitals, medical schools
and research labs that are together Houston's largest employer,
Roschke said.
"Our congregation has tried to be welcoming, and we
certainly are more reflective of our community today than 25
years ago," he said. "That is always a challenging venture."
The Rev. M. Wyvetta Bullock, executive for leadership
development, ELCA Office of the Presiding Bishop, talked and led
a workshop, "Stating the Case for Identifying and Nurturing
African American Leadership," during the consultation.
"For me, leadership development is critical," Roschke said.
"Congregations need to lift up leadership and consider the
development of new leaders as part of their mission," he said.
"In my experience, when we have the choice, most people tend
to associate with or at least gravitate toward people who are
like ourselves. To reach out to someone different from me is
difficult and often needs to be more deliberate and intentional,"
Roschke said.
"I find it a never-ending leadership challenge to encourage
as well as model such reaching out across culture and ethnicity.
It makes multicultural ministry difficult," Roschke said. "Yet,
as we become partners in ministry with persons who are different
(from ourselves), our lives and the church are enriched."
-- -- --
Information about Multicultural Ministries is at
http://www.ELCA.org/multicultural/ on the ELCA Web site.
Congregation Web sites:
Epiphany Lutheran Church, Baltimore --
http://www.God-is-love.org/
First Trinity Lutheran Church, Indianapolis --
http://firsttrinitylutheran.blogspot.com/
Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church, Houston --
http://www.salemhouston.org/
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog
