Title: ELCA Council Receives Plans for a New Evangelism Strategy
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

November 18, 1999

ELCA COUNCIL RECEIVES PLANS FOR A NEW EVANGELISM STRATEGY
99-291-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) are developing a new strategy for evangelism, mission and
outreach for the next 10 years. Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson
told the ELCA Church Council the new strategy will be ready for
consideration by the 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.
     The council met here Nov. 12-14. It functions as 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, 2001, in Indianapolis.
     ELCA units and divisions are preparing a comprehensive report on
activities of the past decade in response to the "Evangelism Strategy: A
Telling Witness of God's Good News," which was established by the ELCA's
1991 Churchwide Assembly.
     "The comprehensive report will allow us to review all that we have
done in outreach and ministry," said the Rev. M. Wyvetta Bullock,
executive director, ELCA Division for Congregational Ministries. "The
report will also help us prepare recommendations for the future,"
Bullock told the Church Council.
     At their meetings this fall, boards of the ELCA's Division for
Congregational Ministries, Division for Global Mission and Division for
Outreach requested staff to coordinate with the ELCA Department for
Communication and other units of the church to recommend strategies for
evangelism and outreach for the next decade. Staff will bring an
interim report to spring 2000 board meetings and a final report to
boards in fall 2000. The Church Council will review the development
process and receive the boards' actions as information.
     Through the 1991 evangelism strategy, the 11,000 congregations of
the ELCA were encouraged to examine their own ministry of hospitality,
review opportunities to share God's good news with people in its unique
settings, and develop ways to meet, engage, witness to and invite people
to faith in Jesus Christ, said Bullock.
     Other goals of the strategy include to establish 50 new
congregations a year, to have at least 10 percent of the ELCA's
membership be people of color or whose primary language is not English,
to train leaders, and to request the ELCA presiding bishop to "appoint a
coordinating committee to oversee the implementation and further
development of the evangelism strategy."
     To explore directions and recommendations for future outreach,
evangelism and mission, a churchwide consultation will be held April 25-
26, 2000, the Rev. Richard A. Magnus, executive director, ELCA Division
for Outreach, told the Church Council. The consultation will include
the council, churchwide units, the ELCA Conference of Bishops,
congregations, seminaries, other institutions and ecumenical partners,
Magnus said.
     In Spring 2001, a final version of the new evangelism strategy
will be distributed to churchwide boards and the Conference of Bishops.
The ELCA Church Council will take action on the strategy for
transmission to the 2001 Churchwide Assembly.

For information contact:
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