ELCA NEWS SERVICE May 26, 2004 ELCA Launches Web Site to Help Place Lay Ministers 04-107-FI CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) launched "People and Places Online" -- http://www.elca.org/peopleandplaces -- to help the church's lay ministers find new ministries within the church. The site is supported by the ELCA Department for Synodical Relations and the Division for Ministry. Lay ministers of the ELCA are associates in ministry, deaconesses and diaconal ministers. The church's 10,721 congregations are organized into 65 synods, which maintain rosters of ordained and lay ministers. Only synod staff will have access to information posted on the Web site -- the resumes of lay ministers seeking placement and the job openings of ELCA congregations, institutions and agencies -- to make any possible matches. "This site is dedicated to greater national availability for rostered lay leaders in the ELCA," said the site's home page. A growing number of congregations, institutions and agencies recognize that ordained ministers aren't the church's only "well- trained ministry specialists," said the Rev. Richard J. Bruesehoff, director for leadership support, ELCA Division for Ministry. "Rostered lay persons are specialists in education, youth ministry, music, administration, counseling, spiritual formation, evangelism and volunteer coordination. They may work as parish nurses, in campus ministry, community organizing or senior ministries," Bruesehoff said. "How we can make congregations, institutions and agencies aware of these talented people, who also have the theological training that the church expects of its leaders?" Bruesehoff asked. "How do rostered lay leaders know which congregations, institutions and agencies of the ELCA are seeking to call people who have their training and expertise?" "People and Places Online is designed to bring these institutions and individuals together," he said. In May the Ninth Biennial Assembly of the Deaconess Community of the ELCA passed a resolution asking the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) to link its Web site to People and Places Online. The deaconesses are called to ministry by congregations and synods of the ELCA and ELCIC. -- -- -- The Web site of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada is at http://www.elcic.ca/ on the Internet. For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news