Summer 2000 MOSAIC
Race and Class in the ELCA

I. The Lost Mission
II. Bridging the Leadership Gap
III. Reshaping the Vision

I. The Lost Mission
Synopsis: When one of New Orleans' oldest Lutheran churches, Immanuel, closed its doors and turned its property over to Grace Lutheran, it left in its building a thriving ELCA-sponsored Hispanic mission. However, by that time the seeds of misunderstanding between Anglo Immanuel and Hispanic Holy Trinity had begun to produce bitter fruit. New misunderstandings between Holy Trinity and Grace led to disbanding the Hispanic mission when Grace sold the building to an independent non-denominational congregation. MOSAIC talked with a number of people who remember good intentions that went bad. Their testimony provides a witness to ministry pitfalls that have caused mission to stumble in the fallout from race and class differences at all levels of the ELCA.

II. Bridging the Leadership Gap
Synopsis: Saginaw, Michigan, could serve as a case study of American communities with racially mixed populations. It is a city divided by a river and by race. The west side is mostly white, and Trinity and St. John ELCA Lutheran congregations are on the east side. One serves in a mostly African American congregation. The other has been called to a mostly white congregation that is seeking to build bridges to its neighborhood. Both face challenges for ministries which, according to the ELCA director for African American ministries must receive "top heavy" support if the ELCA is to become a truly multicultural church.

III. Reshaping the Vision
Synopsis: The ELCA began with a vision that within a decade it could be a church that includes in its membership 10 percent people of color or whose primary language was not English. Twelve years later the figure is not 10, but 2.3 percent. MOSAIC turned to key ELCA administrators with the question, "What went wrong with the vision and what do we do now?" They provide some realistic looks at why we have failed, and how we can reshape the vision.

Complete Written Transcript