ELCA NEWS SERVICE August 12, 2003 ELCA Assembly Hears First of Presiding Bishop's Reports 03-CWA-08-BMC MILWAUKEE (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, presented the first of the ELCA's new strategic directions, evangelism outreach, at the 2003 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Each day of the assembly the presiding bishop will focus on one of the strategic directions. The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 11-17 at the Midwest Airlines Center. There are about 2,500 people participating, including 1,031 ELCA voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "Making Christ Known: For the Healing of the World." Hanson is presenting his report over five days, discussing each of the strategic directions in detail. Hanson explained that "evangelical outreach" is more than a document in a three-ring binder that gets mailed out to churches. "We are not coming to Milwaukee to market a mission strategy; rather, we seek to renew the vocation of all the baptized to witness to others about what God is doing in the world." Hanson pointed out that, according to the 30,000 members of the ELCA who participated in the strategic planning, evangelism has been by far the most frequently cited priority for the next 10 years. Hanson said that to grow as a church, members of the ELCA must grow in three areas: witnessing, inviting and being willing to change. He encouraged the assembly to identify the persons and Scripture passages that have shaped witness, and asked each person present to invite an unchurched or "de-churched" person to join in worship. "My prayer is this -- that God may grant us the courage so that like Peter and John in the Book of Acts, we will say, 'We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard,'" said Hanson. -- -- -- Information about the ELCA Churchwide Assembly can be found at http://www.elca.org/assembly/03 on the Web. For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news