ELCA NEWS SERVICE May 6, 2004 ELCA 'Plan for Mission,' Restructuring Enters Phase Two 04-092-FI CHICAGO (ELCA) -- May through July 2004 is "Phase Two" of the next steps for "Faithful Yet Changing: The Plan for Mission in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)." There are three phases to a process that will lead to a new design for the ELCA churchwide organization's structure, budget and staffing. Phase Two involves "building and developing models." At its April 17-18 meeting the ELCA Church Council received a report on Phase One and revised the timeframe and processes for the remaining two phases. The council adopted the three-phase process for planning in November 2003. The council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies. Assemblies are held every other year; the next is Aug. 8-14, 2005, in Orlando, Fla. The Church Council constituted a "representative panel" of nominees from various units of the ELCA. Thirteen people accepted invitations to serve on the panel: + Kevin J. Boatright, Lawrence, Kan. + The Rev. J. Elise Brown, Manhattan, New York + Mary T. Froehlig, Manhattan Beach, Calif. + Frank Hanna-Williams, Tillamook, Ore. + The Rev. W. Arthur Lewis, Atlanta + The Rev. Margarita Martinez, bishop ELCA Caribbean Synod + Bjorn Scarseth, Issaquah, Wash. + Rod Schofield, Colorado Springs, Colo. + Jill Schumann, Baltimore + Janet Thompson, Eagan, Minn. + The Rev. Steven L. Ullestad, bishop of the ELCA Northeastern Iowa Synod + Karen Walhof, Bloomington, Minn. + The Rev. Stephen M. Youngdahl, Austin, Texas Thompson chairs the church council's planning and evaluation committee and will facilitate the panel's first meeting May 13-14. "The representative panel will analyze responses and create elements of alternative designs for the churchwide organization," the council said in November 2003. "The panel will invite a widespread response to this analysis and suggested design elements." The council's revised timeframe for Phase Two said a survey will be sent in late May to groups that participated in Phase One. A summary and analysis of the survey responses are to be ready by the end of June. "The planning and evaluation committee will discuss the material online and by conference call, and the presiding bishop will begin to draft a proposal starting in July," according to the revised timeframe. "A meeting of the presiding bishop with organizational design consultants will occur in late July. This approach will permit the discussion of elements of the design with the planning team and eventually the writing team during August," it said. Phase One began in January. Building on the strategic directions the Church Council adopted in April 2003, the first phase included small-group and plenary conversations during various scheduled meetings of ELCA boards and committees. Discussion focused on how the work of the church is carried out in the ELCA's three expressions. Five million people across the United States and Caribbean are members of the ELCA's 10,781 congregations. ELCA congregations are organized into 65 synods, each headed by a bishop. The ELCA Constitution calls congregations, synods and the churchwide organization "interdependent expressions of this church." Dr. Kenneth W. Inskeep, director, ELCA Department for Research and Evaluation, brought a report to the council's April 2004 meeting summarizing the content of Phase One conversations about the "expectations" Lutherans have of the churchwide organization in the ELCA. He said the conversations yielded three models for the churchwide organization -- expert tender of networks, instrument of change and connector and sustainer. As an expert tender of networks, the role of the churchwide organization would be one of "gently guiding and directing," Inskeep said. "The goal of churchwide work would be to help people achieve their own, locally shaped goals. The churchwide organization would help the networks do this work better, making it of higher quality and more effective and more efficient," he said. As an instrument of change, the churchwide organization would be "out in front, holding itself and the other expressions of the church accountable, particularly on issues related to the full participation of women and people of color or primary language other than English and other issues of social justice," Inskeep said. As a connector and sustainer, "the churchwide organization will continue to provide support for a critical ministry that is too easily overlooked or disregarded. People with disabilities, rural, outdoor ministries, preschools, schools and a host of other ministries" would be supported through a series of "desks," he said. "Not only are these expectations different, but they are often contradictory," Inskeep said. "The conversations, perhaps in spite of themselves, produced a silhouette of a churchwide organization. It is a churchwide organization with global mission, evangelical outreach, leadership development and support, and some level of support for congregations specifically designed to achieve a shared common purpose such as identity development. These are the areas of consensus around which it might be possible to create a coherent churchwide organization," he said. Inskeep said there was "considerable talk" of developing and supporting cross functional teams that include participants from the churchwide organization, synods, congregations, social ministry organizations, seminaries, colleges, schools and other institutions. These teams would be managed and maintained for particular purposes by the churchwide organization, he said. Phase Three of the planning process, August through November, will be "a time of decision-making." A writing team and design consultants are to be involved in drafting a proposed redesign for the churchwide structure by Sept. 1. A final proposal is to be ready for the Church Council's meeting here Nov. 11-15. -- -- -- Information on the ELCA's planning process and related documents are available at http://www.elca.org/planning/ on the Web. For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news