Covenant News

Efforts Continue to Expand Ethnic Participation

ROSEMONT, IL (February 2, 2005) - Good progress in the effort to expand ethnic participation in all areas of ministry within the Evangelical Covenant Church was reflected in the first annual "report card" delivered to more than 60 participants during Tuesday's Ethnic Roundtable, conducted during the Midwinter Pastors Conference at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare conference center.

"Some efforts that are under the leadership of single ministry departments are moving more quickly than those requiring discussions involving a larger number of entities that requires more time," noted Gary Walter, representing Church Growth and Evangelism, who was a co-presenter with Harold Spooner of Covenant Ministries of Benevolence. More complex issues often require constitutional and other changes that require more extensive time to evaluate and implement, the pair advised participants.

The room burst into applause as Walter announced that, for the first time in its history, the Covenant passed the 20 percent mark in terms of the number of ethnic and multi-ethnic churches that make up the membership of the denomination. Experts consider the 20 percent mark as a threshold in the pursuit of multi-ethnic and multi-cultural diversity.

The Ethnic Roundtable was launched at last year's Midwinter conference with Randy Furushima of the Covenant Church in Alea, Hawaii, as the facilitator. He also facilitated this year's gathering, encouraging participants to share the progress the Covenant is making with other colleagues in ministry.

The game plan for expanding ethnic participation within the Covenant came out of the first meeting and has been used as a guide for all Covenant departments, offices and ministries as they shape individual ministry goals in their respective areas. The purpose of Tuesday's meeting was to report on progress made in achieving specific goals, which are grouped into the five categories of Population, Participation, Power, Pace-Setting and Purposeful Narrative.

Progress notes on a representative sample of the individual goals follow, grouped by category.

Population

• Implement a multicultural task force in every conference: This has been completed in the East Coast, Central and Pacific Southwest conferences; there is progress in other conferences.
• Continue the priority on ethnic and multiethnic church planting: Nearly 50 percent of all church plants are ethnic, bringing the total of all ECC ethnic congregations to 20.5 percent.
• New video and/or DVED for ethnic groups on "Why Consider the ECC": A commitment for the project has been secured.

Participation

• Adopt new and culturally tailored models for theological education, including Covenant External Orientation Program: The "Character of the Covenant" CEOP class has been redesigned with diversity as a central focus; a new Korean language model has been added for orientation; and new immigrant and indigenous models for credentialing are under development with an African American credentialing task force already at work.
• Create a denominational office in ethnic diversity and inclusion, headed by an executive minister: Exploration has been initiated to include the Council of Administrators and the ECC Executive Board.
• Expand all leadership infrastructures to include more representation of ethnic groups: Commissions are now under the same representation guidelines as boards; this area requires extensive investigation and coordination across the entire ECC system.

Power

• Develop a national strategy for recruiting, training and mentoring of present and future ethnic leaders, including clear leadership tracks: Exploration has been initiated; this area requires extensive investigation and coordination across the ECC system; Jerome Nelson was called as superintendent of the Central Conference and Aleese Moore-Orbih was called to lead the Assistance to Victims of Abuse program that is part of Women Ministries of the ECC; and Debbie Griffith was called by the Central Conference in the area of congregational development; and all existing personnel searches also include candidates from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
• Continue CHET funding: A line of credit has been established with National Covenant Properties; under asset management by the ECC, the original endowment of $1 million has grown to $1.6 million, increasing the draw-down funds that are available; and annual support now will include automatic annual percentage adjustments.
• Greater representation of persons of color on all planning teams for major Covenant events: A policy statement is under development by the Council of Administrators to be presented at an Annual Meeting and Midwinter; FEAST, CHIC and Triennial already have strong representation; new translation equipment has been purchased and utilized for major events; and there is aggressive fundraising for scholarships to major events.

Pace-Setting

• Young leader development programs: Exploration has been initiated; this area requires extensive investigation and coordination across the ECC system.
• Be intentional about ethnic persons teaching in seminaries, CEOP and mission fields: There have been multiple additions to the teaching teams at CEOP; and an African American adjunct professor is teaching all evangelism courses this academic year.
• World Mission "think tank" for ethnic churches with World Mission staff to discuss partnership ideas: Exploration has been initiated by the Church Relations group of World Mission.

Purposeful Narrative

• Commission new historians and update the Covenant history class outline, including a multicultural history of the Covenant: The Covenant History Commission is being reconstituted with ECC ethnic histories a clear priority, and with strong ethnic representation.
• Establish an ethnically diverse advisory group to evaluate whether Covenant publications and materials and programs tell all of our stories: Covenant Communications is in its second year of internal reviews to guarantee a breadth of voices, images and issues with the Ethnic Commission serving as an advisory group.
• Video and interviews about ethnic experiences: This area is included in other related projects being pursued.

"We have made significant progress," ECC President Glenn Palmberg said in addressing the group (lower photo). "Sometimes one has to step back to see the progress that has been made, because it has been gradual," he added.

In his closing remarks, Furushima asked participants to commit to do three things: to SHARE what is happening as an outgrowth of the Ethnic Roundtable agenda and projects, to ENGAGE personally and become involved in all areas of ministry within the Covenant, and to INVITE others, especially ethnic representatives, to become involved in the process. "We do not want this to become a closed process," he cautioned the group. "We must continue to enlarge the table of discussion and involvement – all need to be part of the conversation."

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