Title: ELCA Outreach Board Wants Church to Focus on Evangelism
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

October 3, 2002

ELCA OUTREACH BOARD WANTS CHURCH TO FOCUS ON EVANGELISM
02-234-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The board of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) Division for Outreach met here Sept. 27-29, received
reports on three current planning processes in the church and asked the
ELCA to devote itself to telling people, especially those who don't
attend church, about Jesus Christ.
     The Rev. Gary M. Wollersheim, bishop of the ELCA Northern Illinois
Synod, shared a first draft of "Toward a Vision for Evangelism in the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: Sharing Faith in a New Century."
The draft is the work of the ELCA Evangelism Strategy Task Force, which
Wollersheim chairs.
     The Rev. Kathie Bender Schwich, executive assistant to the
presiding bishop and director of the ELCA Department for Synodical
Relations, updated the board on a churchwide strategic planning process
leading up to a report to the ELCA Churchwide Assembly next August in
Milwaukee.
     The Division for Outreach board also discussed an African American
Ministry Strategy, which the ELCA Commission for Multicultural
Ministries is developing, and how the new strategy is interrelated with
the division's existing African American Outreach Strategy.  The 2003
assembly will also receive the new strategy.
     The division's board affirmed the work of the Evangelism Strategy
Task Force, expressing appreciation for "the tremendous progress made on
the current draft."  The board also encouraged the task force "to be
courageous in pursuing new structures and ways to move the church
forward in this critical work."
     In a related action, the board said, "In light of the exciting
proposals being brought together by the Evangelism Strategy Task Force,
the board of the Division for Outreach asks the Office of the Presiding
Bishop, the Church Council, and those involved in strategic planning, to
make evangelism and outreach the central focus of the ELCA in its
planning toward the future vision, purpose and structure of the church."
     "It is the belief of the members of this board that the ELCA's
clear calling is to reach out to all peoples with the gospel of Jesus
Christ for a transformational relationship, and that is done through
enthusiastic evangelism and strategic outreach to unchurched peoples,"
said Dorothy Baumgartner, DO board chair, Seattle, Wash.
     "The board was very appreciative and enthusiastic about the
energy, the perception, the courage and sense of boldness that is
exhibited in the evangelism strategy," said Baumgartner.
     "Because of the strategic planning process that the ELCA is going
through, we as a church are in a process of discernment about our
mission and vision, values, goals and directions," said Baumgartner.
"As part of that process, we continue to surface understandings of who
we are as a church, and who we are called to be as God's people," she
said.
     In an effort to improve communication between the Division for
Outreach and the Commission for Multicultural Ministries, the division's
board welcomed Justin "Jay" Oakman, St. Paul, Minn., a member of the
commission's steering committee who will attend board meetings.  The
board appointed one of its members, Ardith "Ardie" Senft, Glendale,
Ariz., to attend steering committee meetings.
     In other action, the board acknowledged the Division for
Outreach's relationship with Lutherans Concerned/North America (LC/NA),
an independent organization promoting the involvement of gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgendered people within the Lutheran church.   LC/NA
assisted the division in researching and developing "Congregational
Hospitality to Gay and Lesbian People," a 1999 report on hospitality in
ELCA congregations.
     In Spring 2001, the board asked the ELCA Church Council to grant
"Independent Lutheran Organization" status for LC/NA.  The council
decided to stop granting such status and gave divisions the option of
creating "acknowledged relationships" with independent organizations.
     In August 2001, the ELCA Churchwide Assembly mandated a study of
homosexuality that will bring recommendations to the 2005 Churchwide
Assembly on whether or not the church should bless same-gender
relationships and whether or not the church should ordain people in such
relationships.
     Several Division for Outreach board members expressed concern that
their action might be misunderstood as endorsing a specific outcome for
the study.  So, the board preceded its acknowledgment by noting LC/NA's
collaborative work in developing its 1999 report and its hope to
continue such work.
     Baumgartner said the board's acknowledgment was specifically about
hospitality and not about ordination or blessing relationships.  "It is
about the importance of Lutherans Concerned's helpfulness to the
Division for Outreach as we continue to learn as a church to reach out
to gay and lesbian people," she said.
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     The Division for Outreach home page is at http://www.elca.org/do/
on the ELCA Web site.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html