Lutherans Are "In the City for Good"

     PHILADELPHIA (ELCA) -- Building upon nearly 300 years of ministry and service in America's cities, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has declared a decade-long, $5-million effort to help urban congregations transform the lives of their members and their communities.
     "Christ calls the Church to be in the city for good, for the good of the people and the place," the Rev. Jerrett Hansen of Baltimore said in presenting the initiative to the ELCA's fifth biennial assembly meeting here Aug. 14-20.  The assembly voted nearly unanimously to adopt a "direction paper," titled "In the City for Good," to guide its urban strategies through 2008 and commit at least $500,000 each year to help congregations adapt to and transform their neighborhoods.
     "The direction is for the whole church to prepare and pray for ministries in our cities," Hansen told the assembly. "There is a need for the clear voice of Jesus to be heard in our communities."   Hansen is Urban Team Coordinator with the ELCA's Division for Outreach.
     "The opportunity is present," he said, "for us now to see ourselves as interdependent, as members of one church whose lives and ministries are inextricably woven together."
     "In the City For Good" calls for new education programs for urban lay leaders, culturally relevant worship opportunities, support for the training and salaries of urban pastors, cooperation with community groups in solving neighborhood problems, and presents a benchmark against which congregations can assess their strengths and weaknesses.
     Hansen stressed that "urban" ministry was not defined by geography but by "a set of dynamics" that are present in many areas of America.  Those dynamics include changing racial and ethnic makeup, decline in the number and quality of jobs,  and growing disparity between rich and poor, he said.
     All congregations can embrace the initiative by forging partnerships with urban congregations and using the gifts they have "to be merchants of hope in the name of Jesus Christ," Hansen said.
     Support by voting members from urban and rural areas underscored Hansen's point and demonstrated that the whole church is ready to take on this task.
     "Across America, cities large and small have had and will continue to have serious problems," said Livingston Chrichlow of Elmont, N.Y. "As downtowns have been isolated from the mainstream of the economy, people have been forgotten."
     Dawna Svaren of Pullman, Washington, recalled her experience at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Los Angeles, a church fortified by bars and barbed wire that "suffered a break-in once a week." Yet "it's a congregation that keeps its doors open" to the community for worship and after-school programs.
     "These congregations support their communities; the whole church needs to support these congregations," Svaren said.
     "Our church has the word to give to dying cities," said the Rev. Cedric E. Gibb of Orangeburg, S.C.
     Bishop Glenn Nycklemoe of the Southeastern Minnesota Synod observed that "rural congregations certainly are in solidarity" with the recommendations. "So many of these issues are the concerns of our rural congregations as well."
     "This proposal is a mission and vision that is wonderfully suited to every one of our congregations," said the Rev. Wayne Kendrick of the Lino Lakes, Minn., noting that all congregations are essentially in the business of changing lives and shaping communities.
     Several voting members questioned the adequacy of the funding provided in the initiative. "Given the state of affairs in the city, many congregations are in need of hope," said the Rev. Charles Leonard of Philadelphia. "There are so many times when a little extra money would help them realize their dreams."
     At a pre-vote hearing on the initiative last Friday, John Gruber of Milwaukee said that the urban initiative "might be the most important thing that we do at this assembly.  If we don't have a presence in the cities, we don't have a church."
     The Rev. Ruban Duran of Chicago, a member of the team that drafted the initiative, told that session that "we're selling a vision: that God is in the business of transforming lives and communities, and our work is part of that."
     "The vision is a transformative vision that happens in three dimensions   transformations of lives, communities and ministries in congregations," Hansen told the hearing, an informal discussion of the proposal.
     Asked to define "successful" urban ministries, the Rev. Susan Ericsson of Philadelphia, a team member, said that success is not a model but a spirit in which people are enlivened by worship and study and sent out to make communities safe, healthy and economically viable. "A church where people drive in on Sunday, have church, and drive away for the next six days isn't a church," Ericsson said.
     "In the City for Good" also stresses Lutherans' gifts for the city, including the need for a message of grace in areas where hope is in short supply and Lutheran's deep roots in urban areas.  In Philadelphia, for example, Lutherans have been providing both worship and social services for more than 300 years.

For information contact:

Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html