September 30, 2011

GENEVA – Following a series of regional seminars and consultations, Asian and African Lutheran church leaders have pledged to improve and integrate their human resources and institutional capacities to respond to the challenge of doing mission in the 21st century.

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for Mission and Development (DMD) convened "Strategic Leadership Seminars/Consultations" in August, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and in Nairobi, Kenya, to enhance accompaniment programs.

Held under the theme, "Empowering Communion/Communities through Education and Training: Responsible Stewardship," the consultations were geared to help implement a key priority of the LWF Strategy 2012-2017 – assisting churches to grow in capacity for holistic mission while deepening relationships within the communion.

In 2010 an International Scholarship Program evaluation and a Global Consultation on Education and Training Impact and Strategy called for a strengthening of human resources and capacity development efforts, synergy in programs; and for developing a communion-wide policy.

In Kuala Lumpur, more than 30 Asian church leaders, theological educators, development/diakonia practitioners, women leaders, youth, human resources committee and disability network members, meeting 23-28 August, identified the need for leadership and management training.

"The church as an institution in the 21st century necessitates much wider capabilities than what we possess," the Asian leaders said in a message from the consultation.

"Our member churches are blessed with diverse, plentiful resources for human and institutional capacity development. However, systems to map these resources and network them, are inadequate," the participants added. "Newer initiatives are important for optimizing, sharing and exploring of the available resources with the churches and sub-regions."

The Asian forum expressed appreciation for the LWF's synergizing of human resources and capacity development programs, acknowledging that similar efforts must be made regionally to make mission efforts more effective. Delegates urged the LWF to provide planning and policy development tools that can be adapted locally.

Addressing the meeting, Ms Eun hae-Kwon, LWF vice-president for the Asian region, noted the importance of nurturing leaders in the churches, while improving governance and enhancing accountability, transparency and inclusion. Networking

At the Africa consultation, held 7-13 August, more than 40 participants from around the region agreed that human resources and capacity development should be integrated at all levels of the church.

"Theological institutions and centers' networking should be encouraged to promote critical needs assessment, priorities and opportunities," the African participants said in their message.

They recommended the formation of an "Eminent Leaders" forum to handle conflict management, resolution and transformation. They raised concern over the lack of well defined human resources processes in some churches, the lack of support mechanism within sub-regional offices and the dearth of strategic planning.

"We desire to employ human resources management in our churches and institutions to ensure constructive needs assessment to determine strategic opportunities and capacities in achieving measurable results," they said.

"Skills capacities are not fully tapped from the professional church membership due to the lack of defined systems and capacities in the churches," the participants added.

Mr Abebe Yohannes Saketa, secretary for Human Resources Development at DMD, cited important changes that have been made recently to realign the human resources and capacity development initiatives carried out in conjunction with the LWF member churches.

Various segments of education and training that were running with separate plans and priorities have been integrated including leadership development, theological education, diakonia/development capacity and empowerment of people with disabilities among others. A framework for a communion-wide policy on human resources and capacity development has been drafted.

"As a living and growing body, the communion needs to nurture its constituency and continually develop its capacity for proclamation, diakonia and advocacy work among the communities," Saketa concluded.

Similar consultations are planned for Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean regions in the course of 2012.

The full texts of the messages from the Africa and Asia consultations are available on the LWF Web site at: http://www.lwf-assembly2003.org/lwf-interspire/link.php?M=2227&N=512&L=108&F=T.

Lutheran World Information