LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 305

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OTHER REPORTS 303

Division of Mission and Ministry

Steps taken by the Lutheran Council in 1982 to bring
income and expenses into balance hit two division programs
especially hard. Eliminated were the staffing of social ministry
planning, with reassignment of this work to remaining DMM
executives, and youth agency relationships as a separate
department, with the remnant of this work continued by one
support staff person.

A follow-up to the council-sponsored National Assembly on
Lutheran Social Ministry in May 1981 in Cincinnati was the
release a year later of a document, “Social Ministry Affirma-
tion: A Challenge to Lutherans Toward the Year 1990.” It
includes specific recommendations for immediate and long-
range response to the challenges facing social ministry.

A series of seven ‘‘disaster preparedness” workshops has
been held under the council-administered Lutheran Domestic
Disaster Response Board. Participants have been equipped to
be key respondents to disasters which hit their own and nearby
communities. Emphasized was the key role of church people,
especially in the long-term recovery after a disaster when
people are putting their lives back together and handling guilt
and grief.

The board’s consultation and financial aid given over
recent years have reflected an increase in technological disas-
ters such as the radioactive water spill at Church Rock, N.M.,
which the Navajo Indians call the “sore that never heals,” and
an ongoing disaster, such as the Mt. St. Helens eruption in
Washington State.

The Lutheran Commission on Ministry with Disabled
Persons, established by the council in 1980, promoted partici-
pation by Lutheran congregations in the International Year of
Disabled Persons in 1981 and in following up the year’s goals.
The commission has expressed alarm and strong discourage-
ment of actions by the Reagan administration to roll back or
eliminate newly won gains in federal programs related to
persons with disabilities. Also the commission has taken steps
to establish a resource, information, and referral system.

A major project for the cutback youth agency relationships
unitis launching “Lutheran Living Faith,” a Christian growth
program for any Lutheran age 11—20 who is a Boy Scout,
Explorer, Girl Scout, Camp Fire or 4-H member, Future Farmer
of America, Future Homemaker of America, or member of any
other civic youth agency. It replaces the Pro Deo et Patria
program which has existed since 1944 and the God-Home-
Country program going back to 1951. An enthusiastic response
has met the introduction of “Lutheran Living Faith,” for which
the materials used by the participants and their counselors
were ready in April 1983.

The unit is also coordinating a pilot project to develop a
relationships structure between Lutheran congregations and
Camp Fire and preparing materials under the theme “Side by
Side” about relationships between the churches and the
various civic youth agencies. The unit’s Lamb Award for
adults who give “distinguished service . . . in fostering the
physical, mental, moral, and spiritual growth of youth”
through the agencies was awarded to 54 persons in 1981 and 58
in 1982.

Described as ‘“‘the culmination of a dream for churches and
ethnic groups to work together to make a better contribution to
the whole church,” sessions of a transcultural seminar spon-
sored by the Lutheran Council were held in May and October
1981. The seminar was made up of black, white, Native
American, Hispanic, and Asian caucuses, each of which has
spelled out goals for mission aimed at eliminating “perceptions
of anyone as a second-class Christian on the basis of back-
ground.”

The struggle of farm workers against unjust conditions has
continued to receive attention through the council’s repre-
sentation with 40 denominations and religious groups in the
National Farm Worker Ministry headquartered in Los
Angeles. The ministry has 35 full- and part-time staff members
involved in this struggle in Wisconsin, Michigan, IlIlinois,
North Carolina, Arizona, and other states and in assisting the
United Farm Workers union.

In the area of rural ministries help was given to revising the
guidelines for mission strategy for rural America of the Joint
Strategy and Action Committee, a multifaceted national ecu-

menical agency, and choosing issues to emphasize in the 1980s.
JSAC has a new Rural North American Task Force, a merger
of its Non-Metropolitan Task Force and the Non-Metropolitan
Issues Group related to the National Council of Churches.

Since the fall 1981 meeting of the Commission on Religion
in Appalachia, a Lutheran caucus has met simultaneously to
strengthen and support the area’s mission and ministry
concerns common to all Lutheran churches. The caucus has
sponsored production ofa filmstrip, “Appalachia: Nota Pretty
Picture,” which has trailers individualized for LCMS, ALC,
and LCA audiences.

The church body national mission executives responsible
for church development and the Lutheran Council executives
who staff the 21 regional planning consultations which meet
semiannually have prepared a plan offering the consultations
five options for the next five years. This action was taken
because of the decision by the ALC, LCA, and AELC to form
one new church body possibly by 1988. “During the next five
years a healthy balance between church body national strat-
egies and the planning developed in the regions should be
maintained to cultivate a sense of partnership among the
Lutheran churches,” the “transitional plan” document states.

Among special activities of the consultations, Region 6,
which comprises the state of Florida, has asked the division to
explore “the relationship of our nation to Haiti and its impli-
cation for solution of the problems which occasioned the
current refugee situation, giving proper attention to appro-
priate linkage to other entities in the process.” Also at the
request of Region 6 the division has published a Spanish-
English pamphlet giving ‘“‘A Look at Lutherans.” Regions 10
and 11 in Illinois have held two pilot workshops aimed at
helping church leaders to interpret and apply data from the
1980 census. Sensing that “peace education is an urgent need,”
Region 19, the Pacific Northwest, is seeking a staff person to
concentrate on this concern among Lutheran congregations.
Region 21 in Southern California has initiated plans for a
Lutheran ministry centered on the 1984 Summer Olympics in
Los Angeles. Start-up costs are being paid from funds left over
from the Lutheran Olympic Ministry at the 1980 Winter Games
in Lake Placid, N.Y. Lutheran Campus Ministry of Southern
California led by Daniel Hooper is playing a coordinating role.

At its 1981 convention the LCMS voted to terminate
funding of the DMM’s Indian Desk and the related National
Indian Lutheran Board effective in March 1982 and establish
its own channels for work among Native Americans. Having
previously judged the desk “effective, vital, and essential to
providing credibility to other ministries of the Lutheran
churches and . . . therefore among the highest program
priorities of the division,” the ALC, LCA, and AELC have
continued the previous level of services.

Following through on pioneering efforts by NILB to help
Indian tribes not recognized by the federal government to gain
such recognition, the Administration for Native Americans in
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has
granted the board $100,000 for this work. The money is being
used to recruit and train resource people to work with the tribal
groups and to continue to conduct workshops on the regula-
tions, petition preparation, and viability of federal status. Ina
related development, NILB helped establish an American
Indian Research and Resource Institute which opened at
Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania in January 1983. Frank
W. Potter III, former director of the Maryland Commission on
Indian Affairs, is the new institute's director.

A pilot NILB workshop intended to aid Lutheran clergy and
laity prepare for an encounter with another culture—spe-
cifically American Indian—was held in January 1982 at
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif. The
focus was on the internal value systems of the 30 participants;
their coping styles, individual strengths and weaknesses, and
how these skills and styles work for advantage or disad-
vantage with Indian people. The hope is to repeat the work-
shops at seminaries and colleges across the nation.

A recent special gift of $50,000 to NILB from the Lutheran
World Federation through its Commission on Church Coop-
eration was distributed to the following six organizations:
American Indian Scholarships, National Congress of Ameri-
can Indians, DNA People’s Legal Services, National Coalition