A letter to ELCA schools and Early Childhood Centers

Leonard Schulze, Executive Director
ELCA Division for Higher Education and Schools

Dear Colleagues,

     Shortly after he became Presiding Bishop of the ELCA in the summer of 2001, Mark S. Hanson published a little volume called Faithful yet Changing: The Church in Challenging Times, in which he issued “an urgent call to mission marked by witnessing, worshiping, engaging, equipping, inviting, connecting, changing, and praying.”  He also initiated a comprehensive strategic planning process designed to clarify and unify the work of the churchwide organization in partnership with the other expressions, agencies, and institutions of the ELCA, with ecumenical partners, and with others who love the world and serve their neighbor.

     The first phase of this process bore fruit at the most recent meeting of the ELCA Church Council in April 2003, when a new vision statement, signature phrase, strategic directions, and foundational commitments were adopted.  If you haven’t familiarized yourself with this material, and pondered how to integrate it into your own life and ministry, I urge you to do so.  Details are available at http://www.elca.org/planning/

     Soon a series of “core teams” and “roundtables” will be clarifying specific goals and objectives related to each of the five major strategic directions for the churchwide organization.  All of this will be used explicitly in the near future as the basis for the hard decisions that need to be made regarding the wisest use of the diminishing financial resources that are available for the mission and work of all units of the churchwide organization, including the Division for Higher Education and Schools.

     Anticipating the need for effective strategic planning, the DHES staff and board had already reached a similar stage of clarity for our own work at the March 2003 meeting of our board.  We are now working under the guidance of the following:

Mission Statement:  The mission of DHES is to provide leadership in defining, supporting, and advocating for the interactive ministry of the church in education and education I the church.

Vision statement:  DHES nurtures grace-filled communities of faith and learning that inspire service to God, church, and the world.

Core Values:  Truth, Intellect, Individuality, Vocation, Community, Inclusivity, and Freedom.

     We also established a number of “strategic directions” against which we will measure the relevance and effectiveness of everything we are currently doing or are considering.  One of the most important of these strategic directions with regard to the DHES partnership with ELEA is:  Assist and affirm the schools, early childhood centers, colleges, universities, and campus ministries of the ELCA as they discover and fulfill their vocation in Jesus Christ by providing resources in faith formation and leadership development.

     As we define the ways in which DHES will “assist and affirm,” and develop the specific resources that are needed in faith formation and leadership development, we are committed to strategic collaboration with ELEA.  Some specific examples of recent collaboration include the following.

1.         An inclusive needs assessment that seeks to identify objectively the most important ways DHES and ELEA are called to serve schools and early childhood education centers during the next 3-5 years, and to clarify which things can best be done by DHES, and which by ELEA.

2.         Joint work on reshaping ELEA accreditation so as to make it more outcomes-based, and therefore more readily accepted by individual state boards and agencies of education.

3.         Clarification of the identities of both ELEA and DHES, and strengthening of our partnership.  Dues-paying members of ELEA deserve to know what additional benefits they receive in return for their financial commitment to the association.  DHES, on the other hand, is called to serve all of the more than 2,000 schools and early childhood education centers of the ELCA, because our funding comes from benevolence monies collected from over 5,000,000 members and over 10,500 congregations.

     One early result of our mutual attention to these questions is that two publications now have a clearer profile:  Views and Vision is an ELEA publication, anchored in the community of dues-paying members.  Follow Jesus in the World (the 2003-2004 edition of the devotional guide), on the other hand, is now a DHES publication designed to serve both ELEA members all others who work in and with Lutheran schools and early childhood education centers.

     We continue to cherish your counsel and your candor.  Let us know what you think, what you would like to see more of or less of, what we can all do together to strengthen the interactive ministry of the church in education and education in the church.  As you send us your suggestions, it would make my day if you could add a paragraph that addresses the perennial Lutheran question:  “What does this mean?”  Our answers to that question, in prayerful community, will be our best guide to remaining “Faithful yet Changing.”

Yours in Christ,

Leonard G. Schulze
Executive Director, DHES

Leonard Schulze serves as the Executive Director of the ELCA’s Division for Higher Education and Schools, and may be reached by email at Leonard_schulze@elca.org

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