planting and renewal locally is con- nected to a director for evangelical mission in every synod, whose role is to organize local efforts to support new ministries, renewal of congrega- tions and mission support. Seminaries work together with denominational outreach partners to identify, nurture and place those with a vocation in mission development.
Mission accompaniment by the
ELCA locally and globally makes it more possible to carry out the Great Commission together than would hap- pen without our connectedness. And there appears to be a hunger at the grassroots to turn aside from divisive conflict and from collective depression over the decline of our churches and turn toward one another in mission. Bishops are also reporting this and acting on it. We can be heart- ened by this renewing passion for mis- sion: starting ministries, renewing our congregations, connecting to places of hurt and hope around the corner and the world, going deeper in the life of the disciple.
Creatures of cooperation Stetzer makes this bold claim: “Mis- sion focused churches are inevitably drawn to organized cooperation. Gripped by the desire to make Christ known to the nations, a church usually realizes it is unable to accomplish this task alone.”
He notes that current skepticism about denominations, the Ameri- can entrepreneurial spirit and a bias toward novelty has spawned new partnership networks. The Willow Creek Association, the Association of Related Churches and the Acts 29 Network are emerging denomination- like entities that share sermon out- lines, church planting, social action and mission activities.
Stetzer defines denominations as “networked cooperative relationships for mission.”
It is the possibility for deeper
organized cooperation among the various threads woven into the fabric of the ELCA, embedded into the new structural organization of the national office, that gives hope and goads
Membership growth, decline of select churches 1940 Assemblies of God 198,834 Latter-day Saints ELCA 816,774 3,117,626 Episcopal Church 1,998,434 LCMS Southern Baptist UCC 1,277,097 4,949,174 1,708,146 United Methodist 8,043,454 1960 508,602 1,486,877 5,295,502 3,269,325 2,391,195 9,731,591 2,241,134 10,641,310 1980 1,064,490 2,811,000 5,384,271 2,786,004 2,625,650 13,800,126 1,736,244 9,519,407 2000 2,577,560 5,208,827 5,125,919 2,300,461 2,554,088 15,960,308 1,377,320 8,340,954 2005 2,830,861 5,690,672 4,850,776 2,201,196 2,440,864 16,270,315 1,224,297 7,931,733 2009 2,899,702 5,974,041 4,633,887 2,057,292 2,337,349 16,228,438 1,111,691 7,853,987 SOURCE: YEARBOOK OF AMERICAN & CANADIAN CHURCHES 2010
imagination around mission. We con- tinue to move deliberately from tend- ing relationships (including gover- nance) toward missional collaboration among the various institutions and ministries of our denomination. How can we recalibrate this rich diversity of ministries and relation- ships—social ministry organizations, colleges, schools, campus ministries, outdoor ministries; hunger, youth ministry, rural, urban, parish educa- tion and other networks; and more— as we start ministries and renew congregations as centers for mission for the life of the world? We will look for a renewal of our relationships across the fabric of the ELCA to pay attention to emerging lay and rostered leadership for this mission. The best way this can be done is through local mission strategies like the one in Racine, Wis.—a possible future for a denomination understood as networked cooperative relation- ships for mission (page 25). It is in such grassroots collaboration with all the fabric of the ELCA that one
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