Young people respond to LWF Strategic Planning
March 8, 2011 in LWF
The Lutheran World Federation is in the middle of a process to determine its future. What is it exactly that the communion of Lutheran churches and its communion office should do? What are the priorities? How is the work measured?
This process of strategic planning is currently in full swing. The most important paper so far is the directions paper that summarizes the discussions until now (English, Spanish, French, German).
Young people (youth liaisons and young participants at the LWF assembly) are invited to contribute in a closed online consultation to the process after 1 April. At that point a draft strategy will be available.
But now - please have a look at the document, make your comments and ask comments in the comment section below.
am so much willing to register and participate in your youths events but unfortunately am not in either of your member churches. what are the alternatives you offer for such cases.
The work of LWF Youth is indeed directed to the member churches of the Lutheran World Federation. But the World Council of Churches is also having very interesting programs for young people (http://www.oikoumene.org/en/programmes/the-wcc-and-the-ecumenical-movement-in-the-21st-century/youth-in-the-ecumenical-movement.html)
It is important to engage the youth in such programs.
LWF should think of creating employment opportunities for young people regionally. There are some parts of the world where many youth are suffering due to lack of employment. Creation of employment should be included in the strategic planning of LWF
i will be much happy to link with lwf young people plans and strategies.it is a wider way to connect world youth to work for different problems.
Which are the different ecumenical organizations that are referred to in the renewal process?
Hi Sanna,
The Lutheran World Federation works with many different organizations that are ecumenical. The most important are (click on the link for more information):
- The World Council of Churches (The biggest and most important organization in the Ecumenical movement)
- ACT Alliance (Action of Churches together - that is a global alliance of churches and church-related agencies that work in the area of disaster relief and long-term development)
- The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance is also a membership organization of churches and church-related agencies working for specific advocacy issues, currently food and HIV)
- The Global Christian Forum is a way of connecting also with churches outside the World Council of Churches
- But there is also the World Alliance of YMCAs, the World YWCA, the World Student Christian Federation and quite a few more.
Please continue asking if you want more information!
This looks rather good, but there are some points I would like to mention.
1. Even though youth participation is mentioned several times in the document, but I am getting the feeling of young people being viewed as something that need to be present, but not necessarily someone that need to be heard. It would be very good to include a sentence about how young people may be an important resource for new ideas about how the church should be organized, how the theology should develop, and especially how the church should communicate. Merely youth presence will not change the church boards, the youth delegates need to be in the centre of things.
2. In building the communion, youth exchange and international youth camps would be of invaluable importance. By meeting and befriending young members of other lutheran churches, the communion is surely built, the awareness of the communion may be spread, and the possibilities of social media makes it possible to keep and even deepen the friendships and the awareness in the future. The starting point will, however, always have to be a physical meeting. I may be expensive, but in the long run, it might generate more income than the actual expenses altogether.
3. I find the mentioning of joint assemblies most worrying. I do very well see the arguments about money to save, and the importance of ecumenical contact. Even so, I fear that the Lutheran awareness in the Majority churches would suffer, and even more that the minority churches would miss the feeling of being a part of a large movement worldwide.
4. While mentioning renewal of working methods and communication, I would like to se a further emphasis on social media and other forms of web based communication. Internet has become an increasingly important part of peoples lives, and, considering the fact that this strategical document is supposed to last for as long as seven years, I think it should take into consideration a further development on the digital area. This would also be a field that the young church members might be an important an powerful resource for the churches, and thereby really worth mentioning. Elderly, (mainly) male bishops would probably benefit from the experience of having young communications advisors.
What could be the visible connection between diaconal issues and humanitarian activities within LWF Communion Office SP 2012-2017 and who will benefit more from these, Lutherans or others.
[...] already some discussion on an earlier draft (see here). It would be great if we could continue this [...]
The LWF is taking a very big step to address issues and challenges faced by its member churches and the entire world in the past, present and in future. Going through the whole processes, and the duration of the strategy, I think it’s ok to plan and achieve the set goals and objectives.
The Youths should not be only seen as members of the committees, but they should be allowed to carry out some duties directly based on individual field of studies and interest. Like in the area of Diakonia we should have more youths, Gender Justice, HIV/AIDS and Climate change. These are the areas the youths and other lay men and women will function very well.
Issues like ETS and Ablaze International are dying dead in many countries, because the greater numbers of the participants were full time pastors, and the whole event stopped at the national levels, because they don’t have time again to go down to the grassroots level to impart these knowledge.
What about the just concluded LWF Eleventh Assembly, how many Church leaders went back and organize train the trainer’s workshop in the issues of “Give Us Today Our Daily Bread”?
As a communion of churches, information at all levels must be the same, not only those that went to school or those that knows how to read and write, or only the church leaders alone will share in the vision of the communion, but grassroots members don’t really understands the vision and the mission of the communion. Therefore for us to really see the positive effect of STRATEGY, everyone in the communion most understands where LWF is heading to.
Continuity: this will help us as a global body (LWF) to achieve our aims and objectives, if we will allow at 70% - 80% of participants of this Godly project to work till 2017, especially the youths not minding how old they will be by then, rather what the communion will achieved for these five years.
My experience from Engage: LWF Global Training for Young Leaders 2008-2010 where youths around the world were engaging in many lofty projects shows me that, in LWF member churches where the youths were able to executes their individual projects successfully, such member churches cannot be the same. And as the youths were together during PAYC in Dresden and in LWF 11th General Assembly in Stuttgart 2010 reminded them that, they have a role to play in the church. And as they leaving the youths to another level in the church, they will be acquainted with what they communion wants, how to get it and finally where to go.
[...] had already a good conversation here and [...]
[...] It is not enough to invite a small group of the same leaders to meetings. There is an experience that processes stop at this level, “because they don’t have time again to go down to the grassroots level to impart this knowledge.” (cf. here) [...]
page 7, paragraph 3 “Respect for diversity” - the name of paragraph looks very good, but content does not. My impression from the meeting in Stuttgartd was that: it is that there is a “main line” formed mostly by western Europe, and this line pushing hard their theology as only right (or only best). And the content of this paragraph sounds to very much in this way: “we will value and seek to understand our differences in culture, history and context and the way these have shaped our theological understandings - to use then the culture, history and context for argue from all of this reasons that you have to fallow “main line” ” - and this is what I saw.
So it is not about “respect for diversity”, but about push one churches to the ways of others.
I’m not so good in writing in English (It took me about 35 minutes to formulate this paragraph) but I hope I could explain what do I worry about reading this Strategy .
[...] course of the Lutheran World Federation. Please find more insights on the conversation itself here, here and [...]