Impact of ELCA redesign on West Africa

Friends have asked me how the changes  at the ELCA churchwide offices in October have affected my work.

First of all, I’m thankful I still have a job.  Many friends and fellow missionaries in the ELCA have lost theirs.   Already last November 2009, Global Mission lost 6 Chicago based positions including one of the Africa Area Directors and one of the Africa Area Administrative Assistants.   Since then, the two remaining Africa Area Directors and two remaining Administrative Assistants have given extra efforts to cover for the vacant posts.  During this latest round of cuts, four more Global Mission Chicago based positions were eliminated including one more of the Africa Area Secretaries.  We just said goodbye to Sharon Robinson, who had worked directly with West Africa for many years.   With three people doing what, one year ago, 6 people were doing, what gets done is what has to get done.  Global Mission assigned another staff member to the Africa Team at 50%, but the loss of positions means that work assignments are still being shifted around.

The ELCA’s engagement in God’s mission around the world depends on offerings from its 4. 6 million members.   If the members of the 10,000+  congregations don’t send offerings for the mission of the churchwide organization, then the ELCA’s engagement will decrease financially and transform into a different type of engagement.  The numbers, shared by the ELCA News Service, show that support for activities of the churchwide organization has dropped 50% since the start of the ELCA in 1988, and from 65  million to 48 million between 2008 and 2011.

This is a sign that ELCA members and congregations, in a time of economic hardship,  are choosing to give their offerings to mission work in their own local areas and through their own congregations.    I wish ELCA members would have a more global self-understanding.   Another explanation is that more congregations are becoming directly involved with mission around the world, making commitments to these activities but committing less to the ELCA’s churchwide agency for global mission.   Alternatively, some say the severe drop of 8 million dollars this past year is the result of people withholding offerings  because of their disagreement with decisions made by the delegates to the 2009 ELCA Assembly.   If this is true, then it is an example of how the poorest people get hurt when people use money for political goals.

Since I began work as an ELCA regional representative in the spring of 2009, our grants for ministry in West Africa, as in other parts of the globe, have decreased; in fact, there have been annual decreases since 2001.   In late 2009, our program grants to companion churches and organizations in West Africa saw a 7% cut which meant that in some cases, 4th quarter funds were not sent, and consequently programs of local organizations came to a stop.   In 2010, budgets were set at roughly 10% below the 2009 figures and in June of 2010, another 5 % underspend order was given.  At this point, planning for the 2011 budget is still in the air and we are working with two scenarios: one, that we stay at about 2010 levels; second, that we reduce 2009 figures by 15% again.  Like at the end of 2009, 2010 4th quarter funds are not being sent to companion chruches until the counting is finished at the end of the fiscal year at the end of January.

The impact on the churches in West Africa is pretty severe when funds don’t come or don’t come in time.  Imagine:  People who are involved with companion church programs depend on their program budget for their salaries, so if the ELCA money doesn’t come, most workers in programs supported by the ELCA will go without salary.  Remember this is not a place where people have bank accounts with reserve funds.  People without salaries will begin to live on credit, creating a debt that will be difficult to pay.   Church groups, like women’s groups or youth groups, will cancel meetings and planned events.  Bible schools will close, and students will go home.  Cars won’t be repaired, so visitations and monitoring will decrease.   A list of likely consequences, based on experience, could go on.

In conversations here about these financial difficulties,  I see the ELCA’s relationship with churches in West Africa is transforming.    Many churches here are beginning income generating activities (from real estate ventures, to agricultural projects to selling merchandise) in order to keep their church ministries going.   The need for better organizational priority setting and decision-making  is creating process and building organizational capacity .   The perception that the ELCA and other churches in the West are on the decline even as the African churches grow in membership every day is making Lutherans in Africa realize they need to pray for Christians in the West.   For the last 20 years, people have used a metaphor of mother and child to explain the need for the African churches to be weaned from dependency.  Suddenly, the metaphor is changing to children who are now mature enough to care for their elderly parents.

Because we are a church catholic, churches in the West and churches in West Africa – in this case the ELCA and its companions – will go on relating.  That relationship is changing, and I don’t see what it all might mean.  If the members of the ELCA embrace their global reality, they can still help the mission and Christian witness in West Africa.   It’s really a question of what we choose to do with our resources, even in economically difficult times.