CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Sitting upright at the first desk facing the podium, the trio resembled students -- unmarked by a collective decade of parish ministries.  Mentors, each with decades of experience, leaned back from the desk near the windows, each moment learning new things from speakers and from their younger counterparts.
     Twenty-five pastors of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) accepted an invitation to come together here for a consultation.  They are white pastors serving congregations in multicultural settings in Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland Heights and Columbus, Ohio, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Oakland and Riverside, Calif.
     White pastors serve 100 of the 246 ELCA congregations where at least 20 percent of the members consider themselves to be of African descent, said the Rev. Julius Carroll IV, director for African American ministries, ELCA Multicultural Ministries.
     "I found the consultation to be a wonderful support for white urban pastors in multicultural settings.  I appreciated the give and take of leaders who face similar challenges and opportunities," said the Rev. David A. Roschke, Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church, Houston.
     One pastor said he's gone a long time feeling unappreciated by the larger church.  "This is the first time in 11 years I have felt and believed that my contributions to the life and ministry of this Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and to its African American expression have been honored," said the Rev. Jeffrey M. Iacobazzi, First Trinity Lutheran Church, Indianapolis.
     "Speaker after speaker, executive after executive, professional after professional in this organization thanked us as white pastors," Iacobazzi said.  "I was really glad to be thanked by wholly dedicated faith-filled ministers," he said.  "It was worth the price of admission."
     "The consultation provided valuable time to sit at the feet of outstanding African descent theologians, lay leaders and practitioners of ministry in this church.  We were affirmed in our call to multicultural congregations and communities and refreshed by the opportunity to network with others," said the Rev. William J. Gohl Jr., Epiphany Lutheran Church, Baltimore.
     "I was encouraged by the experiences of seasoned pastors serving in African descent congregations, as well as by the resources our African descent sisters and brothers commended to us for study and immersion," said the Rev. Arwyn A.P. Gohl, Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church, Baltimore.  "As an urban pastor fresh from our seminary at Gettysburg, I felt empowered and revived for ministry," she said.
     Iacobazzi contrasted the help he received preparing for his ministry to that of a missionary who would get months of intensive training before being transplanted into an unfamiliar culture.  "We got none of that.  We had to figure all of that out on our own.  It was often an isolating and lonely experience," he said.  "It felt to me like that was going unnoticed."
     "Multicultural ministry is difficult, and it was affirming to know that the ELCA understands something of the difficulties of multicultural ministry," Roschke said.  "The ELCA has a long way to go in becoming more multicultural, but little by little we move forward," he said.
     In 1987 the ELCA's constituting convention adopted the goal "that within 10 years of its establishment its membership shall include at least 10 percent people of color and/or primarily language other than English."  At that point, about 2 percent of the ELCA's members were people of color.  Twenty years later, the church claims approximately 3.1 percent of its members are people of color.

BALTIMORE
     The Rev. T. Gregory Knepp is the pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Baltimore.  St. John was founded the same day in 1908 as, and across town from, Epiphany Lutheran Church, where his longtime friend Bill Gohl is pastor.
     In 2006, Arwyn married Bill Gohl and graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg.  Knepp urged the Gohls to "come back to the city," Bill Gohl said.  The Gohls had done their seminary internships in the Baltimore area -- Bill's at Epiphany.
     Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church is Arwyn Gohl's first call out of seminary.  Epiphany is about two miles away.  "We both love it here, and we intend to be here for a very long time," she said.
     "Gregg is a model of commitment to community, longevity and persistence," Bill Gohl said.  The three pastors are building on their friendship to strengthen the three Baltimore congregations.
     Jerusalem is a 165-year-old congregation founded by and for German immigrants.  Members are now "a healthy mix of Anglo, African American and African immigrant Christians sharing blended worship and substantial commitments to outreach, evangelism and social ministry in its neighborhood," Bill Gohl said.
     The congregation at St. John, "like its surrounding neighborhood, is 98 percent people of African descent, including African American and African Caribbean members," Knepp said.
     Epiphany is the ELCA's second-largest worshiping community in Baltimore.  It's an Anglo congregation in a community that is attracting residents of African descent.
     Bill Gohl said Knepp and he are working to help Epiphany and St. John support each other in mission.  "Epiphany can share financial resources, and St. John's can help disciple us for intentional multicultural ministry in an African descent context," he said.
     "Considering the common history of the two congregations, St. John's and Epiphany have established a 'sister congregation relationship,' which we hope may help Epiphany make the transition to become a more multicultural congregation," Knepp said.
     The two congregations are planning to celebrate their centennials together in 2008.  The Gohls and Knepp said the ELCA consultation inspired them to make the celebration "a multi-congregational revival for Lutheran churches in Baltimore."
     They've invited the Rev. Kathryn I. Love, assistant director for evangelism and director for prayer and renewal, ELCA Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission, to serve as evangelist for the event.  She spoke about evangelism among people of African descent at the consultation and led a discussion of evangelism best practices.
     As a result of the consultation, Arwyn Gohl said she's taken part in a multicultural worship project through the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Grand Rapids, Mich., and the ELCA Delaware-Maryland Synod.  She said she's become more convinced that multicultural worship "is necessary for Jerusalem to be rooted in the community."
     The Rev. James M. Capers, Lamb of God Lutheran Church, Indianapolis, and the Rev. Lamont Wells, Lutheran Church of the Atonement, Atlanta, led a day of workshops on worship and preaching in the African American context during the consultation.

INDIANAPOLIS
     Iacobazzi describes First Trinity Lutheran Church as a small, "borderline self-sufficient" congregation that is a 50-50 mix of people of African and European descent.  He's been its pastor for 11 years.
     The congregation was founded in 1868.  In the 1970s African Americans moved into the neighborhood around First Lutheran, and the congregation gained a reputation of being a safe and welcoming place for biracial married couples, Iacobazzi said.
     Many members of the congregation drive in from nearby neighborhoods for worship.  Neighborhoods to the north are integrated, he noted.
     Church membership "tilts toward older," Iacobazzi said.  "The neighborhood itself has a lot more young people than our congregation does.  We've made longstanding overtures to do ministerial programs with the parents for their children, and that's been a good thing for us," he said.
     Iacobazzi is especially proud of a "rites of passage" program First Lutheran offered teenage girls in the neighborhood -- three hours each Saturday for 16 weeks, culminating in Sunday worship.
     "We were able to bring in a black female intern, and that was a good experience for us as a congregation to experience black leadership in the pulpit," Iacobazzi said.  It was good to show the teenage girls "that our congregation and our denomination honor the anointing that women have for public professional ministry," he said.
     "No matter what it is that's going on in our building, we're really trying to make statement after statement that this building and certainly the people who continue to worship here are assets and resources in this community," Iacobazzi said.
     Many of First Lutheran's programs are possible because of a "mission partnership" with a suburban congregation -- Christ Lutheran Church, Zionsville, Ind.  When Christ Lutheran called the Rev. Steven E. Albertin to be its pastor in 1998, the members wanted "a pastor who is willing to put us in regular relationship with a community of people who are different from us," Iacobazzi said.
     The relationship between the two congregations has been informal and "phenomenal," Iacobazzi said.  Designed to be "a two-way street," there have been pulpit exchanges and joint men's retreats.  Volunteers from Christ Lutheran help with the Bible study at First Lutheran.
     First Lutheran is working with a retired volunteer from Christ Lutheran to launch an urban 4-H program that would recapture the interests of middle-school students who have "outgrown" Bible study, Iacobazzi said.
     First Lutheran's growing interest in engaging its young neighbors drew Iacobazzi into a talk that the Rev. Stephen G. Ray gave at the consultation.  Ray is a pastor of the United Church of Christ and serves as associate professor of African American studies and director of the Urban Theological Institute at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, an ELCA seminary.
     Ray talked about "creolization" -- the impact of the African American culture on the United States.  Iacobazzi said he was especially interested in what Ray had to say about the hip-hop generation and its influence on younger generations.  Older generations have to work hard to see the good in that influence, Iacobazzi said, but it's there -- including concrete messages about the good news of Jesus Christ.
     Iacobazzi bought two books that Ray recommended -- "Good Hair" by Benilde Little and "Jesus and the Disinherited" by Howard Thurman -- and retrieved from his files his copy of another Ray recommendation -- "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
     A member of the congregations' mission partnership planning team suggested a "book club" may be a conversation starter for the two congregations, and the "Letter" could "help us explore, capitalize and celebrate our racial and ethnic diversities," Iacobazzi said.
     Three women from the neighborhood are talking about starting their own book club, meeting at First Lutheran, and they want Iacobazzi as a member.
     Iacobazzi said he had just about given up on keeping the adults at First Lutheran interested in Bible study, until he heard Valora Starr lead the consultation's Bible study.  Starr is an associate for programs of Women of the ELCA, the church body's women's organization.
     "Since returning to Indy I've offered a one-hour adult Bible study on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings," Iacobazzi said.  "There's no pressure on participants to attend every week," he said, but they do come back, sometimes with friends.

HOUSTON
     Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church has been in southwest Houston since 1955.  "We were on the edge of Houston 50 years ago; now the city goes out way beyond us," Roschke said.  He began his ministry at Salem in 1982.
     The congregation is 21 percent people of color and reflects the European, African, Latino and Asian diversity of Houston, Roschke said.  The church sits in a largely Jewish neighborhood.
     Many of Salem's members are connected with the Medical Center in Houston -- the complex of hospitals, medical schools and research labs that are together Houston's largest employer, Roschke said.
     "Our congregation has tried to be welcoming, and we certainly are more reflective of our community today than 25 years ago," he said.  "That is always a challenging venture."
     The Rev. M. Wyvetta Bullock, executive for leadership development, ELCA Office of the Presiding Bishop, talked and led a workshop, "Stating the Case for Identifying and Nurturing African American Leadership," during the consultation.
     "For me, leadership development is critical," Roschke said.  "Congregations need to lift up leadership and consider the development of new leaders as part of their mission," he said.
     "In my experience, when we have the choice, most people tend to associate with or at least gravitate toward people who are like ourselves.  To reach out to someone different from me is difficult and often needs to be more deliberate and intentional," Roschke said.
     "I find it a never-ending leadership challenge to encourage as well as model such reaching out across culture and ethnicity.  It makes multicultural ministry difficult," Roschke said.  "Yet, as we become partners in ministry with persons who are different (from ourselves), our lives and the church are enriched."