The Gamaliel Foundation an organizing institute

A brief background paper:

for

Congregation Based Organizing Strategic Summit II

Leadership Development for Public Life:
Initiatives to deepen and strengthen the leadership arts of public engagement in the Church

In response to the invitation by Bishop Peter Rogness and other members of the MAPP Committee of the Conference of Bishops to join with you in conversation when in meeting on Friday, March 8th, the following is submitted as reflection on our recent initiatives to deepen congregation-based organizing... or what could be more appropriately termed Leadership Development for Public Life formation-the Arts of Public Engagement ... in the ELCA.

During the past thirty years, thousands of congregations (of various denominations and faiths), and tens of thousands of congregational leaders from throughout the United States, and now in several countries in Europe and Africa, have been rather quietly involved in organizing to develop relational power to address issues of social justice and to effect systemic change. The kind of organizing being taught and developed can be defined as: the intentional and disciplined putting of the diverse peoples of a community in relationship across all racial, economic, denominational and neighborhood1community lines for the purpose of making that community/region "work better" for the good of all.

What has also been occurring is congregational development, that is, both the growth of members as multi-faceted leaders within their congregations and the strengthening of congregations as organizations of people. For individuals, this includes the development of congregational leaders and lay members in areas such as: leadership skills useful in congregational life and in the public arena, understanding of themselves as leaders, depth of engagement in congregational life, understanding of their faith tradition's call to social transformation and linkage of that call to the work of congregation-based community organizing. For congregations, this includes the strengthening of ties between groups and individuals, the vitality of linkages to other organizations (including other congregations, but also a variety of community institutions), and the depth of connection between worship life and the congregation's presence in the wider social world.

Congregations have been publicly organizing around their mutually shared interests by building relationships of trust which can powerfully address issues in their communities and develop leaders with capacity for engagement in public life within the congregation and in the broader community. Doing the work of justice and seeking to live more by the iron rule ("Never do for someone else what they can do for themselves"), these congregations and their rostered and lay leaders have engaged in public witness in profound ways that give expression to a congruency of proclaimed Word and living a public life.

The community organizing tradition that developed under Saul Alinsky always had ties to congregations, but whereas those ties were once rather utilitarian, congregation-based organizing today stands in a more mutually enriching and respectful relationship to religious congregations and the ethical traditions they embody. As a result, CBO extends a broad and deep reach into communities: The first national study of the field of CBO, sponsored by Interfaith Funders (of which the ELCA is an institutional partner), documented that, of 4000 institutions participating in CBO nationwide, 3500 are congregations. In CBO, congregations form a variety of religious traditions typically collaborate under the auspices of a local organization affiliated with one of several CBO networks around the country: the IAF, Gamaliel, PICO, DART, and others.

Congregation-based organizing brings together a remarkable diversity of faith traditions, but equally noteworthy is its success in bridging the racial divides of American society. CBO draws together large numbers of African-American, white, and Hispanic congregation members (along with smaller numbers of Asian and Native Americans, and immigrants from literally dozens of countries around the world). Thus, CBO has come to reflect the vibrant religious and ethnic diversity of urban and, increasingly, rural life in America, channeling that diversity into serving the common good and protecting the interests of poor, working class, and middle class neighborhoods.

Congregations who commit themselves to public engagement have struggled with the culture of individualism and privatization, even the privatization of faith. They have built organizations of relationships which help to release the God-given power of people to participate in public life, not just naming problems that need solving, but learning strategies of organizing that move to systemic change. These congregations and their rostered and lay leaders have put together organizing efforts which have addressed such justice issues as developing affordable housing, creation of living-wage strategies, jobs creation, educational excellence and public school reform, neighborhood revitalization, utility-rate reform, health care, after-school enrichment and child-care, the naming of specific projects for city bond elections, equity at the marketplace for small farmers and ranchers, etc.

The organizing is not just about winning on issues, however, and not just about congregational leadership development. It is also, and perhaps more profoundly, about having a means of powerfully living the faith in public life for the sake of justice and systemic change; about living the biblical mandate, having been made in God's image and freed in baptism to "love and serve all people in the name of the Lord Jesus, and to work for justice and peace in all the earth;" about not just having a theology of the cross, but, as Douglas John Hall says, about "seeking to live publicly as a people of the cross."

Over the past decade in the ELCA a series of institutional conversations have occurred among various leaders of our Lutheran seminaries, church wide divisions and offices, synods and congregations, focusing on the work of congregation-based organizing as a tool to build/organize congregations relationally and faithfully, to build strong lay and rostered leadership around the biblical mandates, and to release the power within the baptized community to participate more prophetically in the neighborhoods and communities they serve. In 1997, the Church-wide Assembly of the ELCA adopted Initiatives for a New Century, and included in this vision a commitment to "leadership development for a new century" which was to include laity as well as rostered persons.

These various "conversations" (which included a DCS/DO initiated conference, in San Antonio, 1992,) culminated for us in a conference on "congregation-based community organizing as a tool for ministry," held in Daytona Beach, February 2000. A central question focused the 130+ participants, many of whom have been deeply involved in CBO for over the past 20+ years: Is congregation-based organizing strengthening for organizing the congregation's mission, and is CBO an effective and faithful means for the church to deepen the work of justice in the world? The response of those present... which included three seminary presidents (Echols, Krey and Lull) several synodical bishops, some seminary faculty and students, funders, churchwide staff from DCS, DO, DM, and DCM), along with numerous rostered persons and lay leaders who have been involved in this kind of leadership development and organizing for 15 -25 years ... was a strong "yes."

The following initiatives were developed by the conference participants for the strategic deepening of the ELCA's engagement in congregation-based organizing/leadership development for public life:
To engage ELCA seminaries to train seminarians and faculties in the principles of CBO and to integrate these principles into their curricula; and explore the development of CBO curricula for First Call Theological Education in each synod of the ELCA;
To explore the creation of a Lutheran Campaign for Human Development and other vehicles for expanding financial support of CBO in the ELCA;
To promote the recruitment of Lutherans as professional organizers;
To design events and opportunities for increased communication ecumenically and across CBO networks and will encourage inter-network collaboration on justice agendas;
To consult with the Division for Outreach, Division for Congregational Ministries, Division for Ministry, the synods and congregations, and network organizers in efforts to employ the principles of CBO for congregational development (evangelism, stewardship, leadership training, etc.) and to encourage local CBO participation; and
To interpret the theological foundations of CBO in appropriate venues.
In order to accomplish the above, it was thought necessary to implement one other initiative: To have a person serve in DCS as Director for Congregation-based Organizing in the ELCA to "shepherd" the other initiatives.

On Ash Wednesday, 2000, the CBO strategy team met with Bishop Anderson to present the initiatives and ask for his support. Bishop Anderson opened the meeting by presenting the ELCA Bishops' Pastoral Letter on Wealth and Poverty, calling for the Church "to walk more closely with the poor and to do the work of justice," and encouraging congregations to use congregation-based organizing as one of the means to carryout this mandate. Bishop Anderson arranged for the team to meet in April with the ELCA Cabinet of Executives. A total dollar amount of $150,000 from the MAPP Fund was put in place for what was thought to be a necessary minimum of three years to move the initiatives. (This level of funding will not be enough to fund the organizing of these initiatives for three years, but the process has begun).

I was called by the ELCA Church Council to be the Director for Congregation-Based Organizing in the ELCA, within the Division for Church in Society, and began my work on February 1, 2001. A summary of the work of this year follows and speaks of the interest in, and commitment to, the type of leadership formation that strengthens capacities in the arts of public engagement and provides an organizing framework for doing mission within the congregation and in the larger community with power and depth.

As of February 1. 2001, the following has been accomplished or addressed:

Meetings have been held with the eight seminary presidents; individual visits have been made to seven of the eight seminary campuses, with meetings with the president, academic dean and contextual education directors. Each seminary visited has committed to having a pilot initiative in Leadership Development for Public Life training on its campus in 2002-2003. Specific plans include, but not limited to, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago 3-day intensive (April 2002); Lutheran School of Theology Southern Seminary two-week summer school course (June 2002); Trinity Lutheran Seminary one-week summer session (June 2002); Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary one-day intensive for seniors and January term course (January 2003); Lutheran School of Theology at Philadelphia is sending students to national training with one of the organizing networks and in discussion about training on campus; Lutheran School of Theology at Gettysburg is in discussion about a January term, 2003; Wartburg Theological Seminary has invited us to develop a pilot at their campus; Luther Seminary is open to developing a pilot as a part of their contextual education initiatives.
Region #2 has committed to a pilot initiative in CBO training for First Call Theological Education, fall 2002-spring 2003. Region #5 will have FCTE 3-day event in the fall of 2002. Conversations continue with Regions #4, 7 and 9 at this time.
Continuing education events in LDPL Training will be held through Luther Seminary's Kairos Program, in February 2003.
Conversations about linkages between LDPL and Asset Mapping, and their mutual benefits and complimentary foci, are being explored. Dr. Jody Kretzmann, Northwestern University, cofounder (along with John McKnight) of the Asset Based Community Development model, has accepted our invitation to join our strategic planning team. Dr. Luther Snow has received grant approval to continue to expand his work in congregational asset mapping, and his work will behoused in the DCS office, with protocol relationships having been negotiated with representatives of DO and DCM.
Regional site visits with congregational leaders, pastors, synod staff, and in some instances synod bishops, as well as network organizers, have been made in South Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island, Queens, New Haven, Boston, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Atlanta, Columbia, Milwaukee, Chicago, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco/Bay Area, Portland, Seattle, Columbus, Omaha, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas/Fort Worth. These visits have included meeting with network organizers from IAF, Gamaliel, PICO, and DART.
Over 150 one-to-one individual meetings have been conducted with various leaders, pastors, organizers and church-wide staff members across the church.
A church-wide conference, Congregation-based Organizing Strategic Summit. Leadership Development for Public Life has been planned for February 22-24, 2002, Daytona Beach, Florida. A Church-wide Joint AALLB Grant of $30,000 has been approved and funded, along with commitments from: DCS-$20,000, DM-$5,000, DCand DCM- $10,000. This event will gather seminary faculty and staff, bishops, synod and church-wide staff, pastors, lay leaders, seminary students, funders, and judicatory partners to build the constituency for and further the commitments to the Leadership Development for Public Life initiatives as developed at the Daytona Conference, 2000. (As of this writing, 2/7/02, 168 persons have officially registered, with fees paid, for the summit)
A second joint AAL/LB church wide grant application for $50,000 was submitted and funded ($46,250) to provided the needed support for four, three-person teaching teams to provide the needed leadership for the negotiated pilot initiatives at the seminaries and FCTE colloquies.
Two, one-day trainings for interested church wide staff in facets of LDPL
Two, one-day intensives in LDPL for area clergy and lay leaders in Omaha and St. Paul.

Looking ahead into 2002-2003:

· Implementing seminary initiatives.

· Developing LDPL curriculum specifics for each teaching site.

· Training teaching teams.

· Continuing regional site visits, deepening LDPL initiatives in ELCA.

· Securing funding base for CBO staff position and for broadening the training.

· Working on website presence for CBO in ELCA

· Building seminary consortium relationships for CBO training.

· Broadening FCTE - LDPL pilots.

· Leading workshops at two Global Mission Events.

· Grant writing for Parish-based/contextual - LDPL alternative to Clinical Pastoral Education.

I consider it an honor and privilege to be a part of this work of the church. I look forward to the time ahead and pray God's blessings and the power of the Holy Spirit to continue to nurture and empower our witness in Christ's name.

Respectfully,

Rev. Terry K. Boggs, D.Min.
Director, Congregation-based Organizing in the ELCA Division for Church in Society, ELCA

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