Lutheran Men in Mission Explores Young Men's Ministry

Chicago (ELCA)-FI — Lutheran Men in Mission (LMM), the men's ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), is completing a five-step plan that it initiated more than a year ago. LMM is holding its first Young Men's Leadership Summit here Oct. 10-12 to devise a strategy to reach young men for Christ.

"I'm convinced there is nothing more important that the church could be doing right now. If we don't catch these guys now, we're not going to get them," said Douglas Haugen, LMM director.

"It used to be said that kids get confirmed and they leave the church for a while, but they come back. But they're not coming back anymore, and, if they are, it's not necessarily to the church they grew up in," Haugen said.

The five-step plan was to call a seminary intern to work with LMM while serving a parish; develop a workshop for ELCA seminaries on male spirituality; conduct extensive, qualitative research with men aged 18 to 34; gather a group of young men to develop strategic directions for young men's ministry; and empower that group to implement their strategies.

LMM called Sean L. Forde, a student at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., and a member of Advent Lutheran Church, Boca Raton, Fla. Earning a master's degree usually requires a bachelor's degree and four years of seminary education, including a parish internship during the third year. Forde is serving his internship year with LMM and Zion Lutheran Church, Anoka, Minn.

"Sean has been at the very center of all that we are doing with young men's ministry," Haugen said. Forde developed and conducted a one-day seminar on male spirituality at Luther Seminary. "We hope to replicate that at other seminaries," Haugen said.

"Our goal is to connect young men to Jesus Christ," Forde said. "By God's grace, we will achieve this goal by listening to young men and empowering them to develop resources and programs for local congregations that include outreach, small-group Bible study, and regional and national young men's gatherings," he said.

"Listening" involved one-hour interviews with 96 young men across the United States. The interviews were recorded and, in some cases, videotaped.

"What was most significant was how willing they were to share things about themselves. They were truly open to us," said the Rev. Paul G. Hill, director, Center for Youth Ministries, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa. Hill conducted many of the interviews.

"They seemed delighted that anyone would take enough interest in them that they would sit down and listen to them. This tells me that sincere and honest listening is a tremendous gift to give to these men," Hill said.

"Mostly the research has confirmed how thirsty these young men are to deeply connect their real lives with their spirituality or faith and how thoroughly disconnected they are from the institutional church and its traditional practices," said the Rev. Roland D. Martinson, Basson-Olson Professor of Children, Youth and Family Ministry, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.

"Our hopes are that this project will give voice to these young men's real 'faith world' and provide a channel whereby they can speak to the church about new possibilities for speaking more directly and effectively to their spiritual hunger," Martinson said.

Martinson directed the interview project, and he plans to present the research results during an LMM event, "Building Bridges: Dreamers and Visionaries," Oct. 25 at Zion Lutheran Church, Anoka. The event is to include a 90-minute Webcast from http://www.elca.org/lmm/ on the ELCA Web site.

Forde and Martinson are leading the Oct. 10-12 summit. Twenty young men, most of who were interviewed in the research project, were invited to hear the research results, discuss what challenges they see the church facing, develop some strategic directions the ELCA and LMM can take to address those challenges, and name a smaller group of young men to act as a Young Men's Council. The council will help implement the strategies and plan a young men's gathering next summer.

"It is an exciting time for men's ministry," Forde said. "My hope is that we align ourselves with what God is already doing in the hearts and lives of men across North America," he said.

"What we are seeing is the critical importance of adult men to these young men," Haugen said. "These young men are telling us that it is important for middle- and older-aged men simply to pay attention to them, befriend them and, yes, even invite them and keep inviting them even though they don't always respond," he said. "Two or three significant men in their lives can help them become well-grounded Christian guys."

The Young Men's Leadership Summit and the Building Bridges event were funded by a grant from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a fraternal benefit society based in Minneapolis.