Twila Schock: For the first time ever, ELCA calls missionaries home

TACOMA
For the first time in its history, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America recently recalled a handful of its missionaries, due to budget cuts.
That somber news was delivered by he Rev. Twila Schock, ELCA director for global mission support, at a "Global Stories" event Nov. 13 at St. Mark's the The Narrows Lutheran Church.
The average annual $70,000 cost to support a missionary could not be sustained at a time when the ELCA's budget is shrinking, due to fallout fro the 2009 churchwide sexuality vote, she said.
The pullbacks come at a time when relationships between the ELCA and its companion churches are growing fast. The ELCA's relationship with its partners in Ethiopia, for instance, grew 475 percent in the past two decades, she said.
Today, the ELCA has 250 missionaries in 48 countries, 63 of them in Europe, where the ranks of practicing Christans are diminishing in some places. Even in Wittenberg, Germany, only 17 percent of its residents are practicing Christians.
"So we do have a calling to be in Europe," she said.
The method of missionary work has changed from imposing our culture on others in a "mission field" to "accompaniment," where missionaries work with companions to train leaders.
But even with the shift "it is always about the proclaiming of the gospel of Jesus Christ," she said.
To help, contact Schock at (800) 638-3522, Ext. 2657.
The "Global Stories" attended by about 45 people also featured presentations of recent vists to Namibia, El Salvador, South Africa, China and Palestine.
- RP