This is my 15th and final Facets column written for Lutheran Partners. My retirement and new role as Professor Emeritus at California Lutheran University will occasion a change in authorship for this column directed to rostered lay ministers whose calling is to teach and lead ELCA early-childhood and elementary-school programs. My new role as one of the twin tenders for twin granddaughters whose parents are Minnesota pastors is renewing another whole set of skills.

In this final column, I include a brief look at topics addressed during that 15-year span and make a proposal for the future. The focus of these Fall back-to-school columns has been on the full-time educational ministry of congregations with early-childhood programs and elementary schools. Central to that attention has been the personnel serving in those ministries. The topics presented remain central to the mission of childhood centers and schools. This column provides me one more opportunity to seek support for two ideas: ELCA responsibility and support for preparation of teachers and leaders in our schools, and the effective use of such schools as instruments of evangelism for the church.

In addition to a brief synopsis of past articles, I look at numerical data of schools during that time, their personnel, and especially associates in ministry. I conclude the column with a recommendation for the study of personnel issues.

Topics Discussed
I clustered topics in previous columns around three broad areas: evangelism, current issues, and staffing.

Evangelism: One repeated emphasis was the encouragement for congregations to intentionally use Lutheran day schools and early-childhood centers for evangelism efforts. Congregations with school programs lead in growth statistics among ELCA churches when they include intentional outreach among their reasons for conducting a school. Schools become a “side door” for entrance into church for parents unfamiliar with Christianity or regular worship experiences. Classrooms operating under the cross provide the experience of God’s love to children who in turn communicate that love to their parents.

Current Issues: A second emphasis was to identify some current issues in American public education and how they can be addressed in church schools. Standards-based academics and multicultural education are two specific examples where church schools provide strong academic offerings.

Staffing: The third broad area addressed over several years had to do with teachers in Lutheran schools and centers. Articles discussed survey results that described the teaching and administrative members of school ministries. The background, preparation, recruitment, and support of school leaders and teachers are central to the effectiveness of the church’s schools.

Roster Statistics
Recent data concerning Associates in Ministry (AIMs) are instructive. A complete report and analysis of the numbers of AIMs rostered in the ELCA during the years of my column cannot be provided owing to limited record-keeping resources at the beginning of that time period and changes in lay roster categories during the 1990s.

Data before 1996 were not available. From 1996 to the present, the number of AIMs on the roster ranged from a low of 1,061 in 2002 to a high of 1,146 in 1996. Between 2002 and 2005, the total number of AIMs increased by 30 individuals, from 1,061 in 2002 to 1,091 in 2005.

Currently there are 613 active AIMs. Other AIMs consist of 371 retired, 101 on leave from call, and 6 on long-term disability. This totals 1,091 AIMs as of spring 2005. The number of new AIMs commissioned by the ELCA each year during that 15-year period ranged from 23 to 43, with the average being 31. No trend line over time was evident for new AIMs. Based on job title information provided by individual synods, apparently only 40 of the 613 active AIMs hold teaching or administrative responsibilities in schools. Most serve in other types of ministry.

Number of Schools
The Division for Higher Education and Schools reports that about 600 schools and early childhood centers existed in the late 1980s, but acknowledges that as an incomplete figure since limited efforts to count such programs were in place. By 1995-6 that number reached over 1,400 as a question about such programs was added to the annual parochial report that congregations submitted. In the 2004-5 school year, the number of school programs was approximately 1,900 with 275 elementary schools and 1,600 preschools. The number of schools continues to grow as their value to congregations becomes more widely known.

A comparison between the number of AIMs working in schools and the number of schools shows a significant deficit of theologically prepared rostered teachers and leaders. What is the church doing to address this issue? No similar increase in the number of AIMs consistent with the growth in the number of schools is reported in the data.

Two of the past articles provided specific information about school personnel. In the survey of elementary teachers reported in 1995, 15 percent of the respondents indicated they were AIMs. Three-fourths of all the teachers in these Lutheran elementary schools indicated they were Lutheran, although on the West Coast only one of four was Lutheran. In 2004 only three percent of the early-child-hood educators in Minnesota congregations identified themselves as AIMs and 60 percent as Lutheran.

Although education programs for AIMs are available at our seminaries, ELCA seminaries presently are not places with accredited teacher-education programs. Some of the ELCA-related colleges and universities also have programs leading to AIM candidacy and presumably have approved teacher-education programs. At the time of this writing a listing of such schools was not readily available from the Division for Ministry. A Web-based search of the 28 schools could not determine which schools offer AIM programs, perhaps a statement of the minimal attention such programs receive. Another opportunity for the preparation of AIMs may be the SELECT video-based program located at Trinity Seminary. Efforts to recruit future teachers into these programs are unknown to the author.

Proposal for Future
AIMs and educational leaders and teachers in congregational early childhood and elementary school programs need to be forceful spokespersons for the preparation of the teachers who will someday replace them or work beside them. Teachers need to add another responsibility to their list of tasks and implore our church colleges to offer such programs, support them in those efforts, and identify people to enroll in them. The growing number of schools and centers requires more theologically prepared teachers for this ministry. Teachers and leaders working without accreditation need to be active in seeking such programs. Congregations need to be active in supporting and requiring such efforts.

We need to recruit young people and second-career people into the teaching ministry of the church. The geographically localized nature of these careers suggests that regional preparation programs need to be established rather than a single national center. However, a national policy supporting regional efforts is vitally necessary.

Cluster programs existing among the seminaries may need to be expanded to include partnership programs with some ELCA colleges: seminaries providing theological instruction and a congregational ministry orientation, colleges providing pedagogical preparation. AIM or some alternative certification program for teachers could be a joint venture in regional areas of the country. Involvement of the Evangelical Lutheran Education Association [ELEA] would provide the perspective of schools seeking qualified teachers and leaders.

The establishment of a task force to study the opportunities and options for cooperative recruitment and preparation of teachers, and for the in-service and certification of current teachers, seems to be a necessary next step. Data indicate the need. The challenge is to find the will and commitment to make this a priority. The Division for Ministry and the Division for Higher Education and Schools are urged to accept the responsibility for developing teachers for our schools. A task force that includes representatives from seminaries, colleges, synods, and the ELEA could conduct a feasibility study for programs for church-prepared educators and leaders. In the years ahead hopefully the writers of this column will be able to report and support progress in this effort.

James Mahler is Professor Emeritus at California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, and on leave from call as an associate in ministry. His current residence is Willmar, Minnesota. Lutheran Partners thanks Jim for his years of providing insight and support of our church-related schools and their staff members. We wish him God’s blessings and peace in the years ahead.