The ELCA Building Resilient Communities (BRC) team invites nominations of adult leaders, ages 18-and-older, to participate in the inaugural Building Resilient Leadership (BRL) cohort.

Over twelve months, BRL participants will grow their public leadership skills while they develop a justice-oriented project in their community, build relationships with a peer mentoring group, and participate in community-organizing skills workshops.

BRL seeks to work with leaders who already demonstrate leadership in their communities on an everyday basis and seek to further develop their ability to accompany their community as it continues to flourish.

If there are any adult leaders in your life who you think would be a good fit for this program, please send them the link to this page. If they indicate a desire and capacity to apply, please nominate them using this form.

Nominations will be accepted through June 2^nd. Nominees will then be asked to officially apply, with a due date of July 7^th for that application.

Who is the Building Resilient Communities team?

ELCA adult leaders, shown here at the 2024 ELCA World Hunger Leadership Gathering in Houston, TX.

BRC is the office of the ELCA that represents the three direct service, intersectional justice ministries of the church: ELCA World Hunger, AMMPARO, and Lutheran Disaster Response. We meet human need and enhance human dignity, work to overturn oppression and injustice, and engage members and constituents collaboratively toward the flourishing of human community.

Program Highlights

• Participants will create a project in, with, and for their community. BRL’s goal is to support leaders whose work throughout the program prioritize the stories of their community, is open to people from any identity or background, and increases their community’s power. The project might be a single event or seek to have longevity beyond the 12-month program. Some potential projects might be (but are not limited to):
  • Community-based mutual aid groups
  • Local community spaces (physical or virtual)
  • Safe spaces for marginalized people in a community (physical or virtual)
  • Regular resiliency training for community members
  • Local advocacy dedicated to building power for marginalized members of a community
  • First steps toward creation of local food-hub
  • Most importantly: participants do not need to have a project in mind before they start the BRL program.
• Peer mentoring. In peer mentoring sessions participants will develop their project relationally, alongside other BRL leaders and an assigned mentor. Through reflection and open discussion, colleagues will hold one another accountable for the growth of their project and their leadership skills.
• Participants will attend a monthly workshop series that will inform the growth of their project. Each workshop will feature experts from the ELCA ecosystem, focusing on different aspects of leadership development and community organizing.

BRL leaders benefit from the following:

• Up to $1,000 in seed money to develop a community project.
• Connection to the national, intergenerational network of ELCA justice ministries: ELCA World Hunger, Lutheran Disaster Response, and AMMPARO.
• Tangible, transferrable skills for leadership in career, volunteering, and recreation.
• Deepened relationships with people in their communities.
• New connections with peers passionate about many of the same justice issues as themselves.
• A prestigious addition to their resume.
• The opportunity to shape a growing leadership development program from the ground-up, through participation in this inaugural cohort.

Participants’ Time Commitment:

• Participation at a two-day, in-person orientation at the ELCA World Hunger Leadership Gathering in Columbus, Ohio in September.
• 5 hours/month to attend and prepare for workshops and peer mentoring sessions.
• Any time spent on their community-based justice project. This is up to the participant and depends on the extent of the project. Intensive work on projects will begin around November and continue into the following summer.
• A final celebration and presentation of projects in August.

If you would like to nominate any adults in your life, please do the following:

• First, let them know! When you do be sure to acknowledge and celebrate their leadership. Then, make sure the program is something they can commit to. Their participation in all elements of this program is required. Feel free to send the potential candidate the link to this page. They should also know there is a brief application process for nominees.
• Once you have confirmation that one or more leaders in your life are interested and able to apply, please fill out this form.
• Self-nominations are also welcome.

Questions?

Email Peter McLellan (ELCA Program Director, Hunger Education) at peter.mclellan@elca.org.

This is a re-post of an article by Rev. Sarah Stadler, originally published in the Northeast Minnesota Synod Enews, covering the the March 7th – 8th gathering of hunger leaders from across Region 3. 

On March 7-8, 2025, over 20 people from across Region 3 of the ELCA – Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota – gathered at Camp Onomia for a Hunger & Justice Leaders Retreat under the theme Making All Things New.  The group built relationships, discerned how God is calling hunger and justice leaders to better work together in our region to end hunger, and learned how various justice issues impact hunger.  We were led in Bible study by Dr. Jimmy Hoke and in our discernment process by Rev. Barbara Lund, a Senior Director in the Service & Justice Home Area of the ELCA.  We were led in worship by Peter & Vicki Schmidt and Sarah Stadler; Peter and Sarah are pastors serving in the Northeastern Minnesota Synod.  The retreat was largely funded through an ELCA World Hunger grant.

One of the synod committees in the Northeastern Minnesota Synod is the Hunger, Justice, and Rural Life Committee.  Though the committee has been active in the synod – for instance, we organized last summer’s Bike For Justice ride – we had felt a bit lost in terms of our purpose.  Also, we wished to connect with other hunger leaders from our region.  In the not-too-distant past, hunger leaders from Region 3 had gathered annually to encourage one another and learn.  We wondered if it was time to reinvigorate that ministry.  In reaching out, we were delighted to discover that nearly all of the synods in Region 3 were interested and able to participate!  Participants included synod staff, including Minnesota’s Lutheran advocacy director, parish pastors, synod hunger committee members, WELCA leaders, lay people active in hunger ministries, and others who were simply drawn by the Spirit of God to participate.

By the end of our time together, we had identified five areas of action to which we feel called: (1) Worship, (2) Giving, (3) Networking in our local communities, (4) Building Community among hunger and justice leaders, and (5) Education.  Within each of these areas, we clarified specific goals.  In returning to our home synods, we will now discern which specific goals each synod’s committee will tackle – with the hope that, once a resource or strategy is created, it will be shared and used throughout the region.  Moving forward, we are also utilizing a platform to keep in touch so that we can encourage one another and continue to build community.

Hunger and injustice are pervasive, and this time in our life together feels particularly challenging.  Still, God is among us making all things new!  That hope is ever before us.  If you are interested in being part of the Hunger, Justice, and Rural Life team, please email Sarah Stadler at sarahleestadler@gmail.com.

This is a guest post from Rev. Elazar Atticus Schoch Zavaletta of Good Trouble Church in Baltimore, Maryland.

Pastor Elazar and the Good Trouble Church Community

The mainstream expression of many ELCA Lutheran Churches is defined by being a white, middle-class witness to Christ.  With hearts open to and appreciative of the saving grace of God through Christ, and often with generosity in serving the Lord locally and globally, nevertheless, few Lutheran churches truly know or understand the struggle of other peoples as they navigate a society defined by white supremacy and systemic oppression. Many of those on the margins of our churches struggle daily with homelessness, poverty, racism, and frustrating battles with bureaucracies to achieve the medical, financial and housing assistance they need to live and thrive.

Good Trouble Church, an ELCA congregation in Baltimore, Md, lives deeply and personally in that world of struggle.  Led by its pastor, The Rev. Elazar Zavaletta, and by numerous empowered members and community folks, most who personally understand the struggle for survival in urban Baltimore, Good Trouble has become a “A Way Out of No Way.”  It has become a safe home where friendship, non-judgmental caring and acceptance, trusted resources and hope can be found.

Good Trouble’s leaders, while understanding firsthand the exploitation, trauma and uncaring reality of those experiencing poverty, address together the systemic issues that purport to block them from health, safety and hope for the future.  Their work includes (1) Resilience based organizing- directly impacted leaders engaging in their own style of gospel-centered resilience-based organizing – naturally calling into question the powers that be through the way they organize their community and change their neighborhood – living into the world as it should be; (2) A Farm to Stoop Free Market- where fresh farm foods, meals, and clothing are distributed in a joyful time of community connection and mutual aid, along with social service agencies can meet people in a trusted arena, such as health clinics, etc; (3) Family Life- community creating a rich liturgy, inspired through Afro-Indigenous wisdom and symbol and inspiring a unique “theology of the block”; (4) Leadership and Liberation Workshops utilizing problem-posing pedagogy; (5) Social Work Support and Drop-In assistance; (6) Safe space housing for a few persons via its harm reduction-based Red Shed Village; (7) Good Trouble Guardians – who develop local leadership to help to de-escalate conflicts, keep people safer while avoiding police intervention, provide overdose response and connect persons to resources, etc.

Good Trouble Church is supported financially by its own funds, grants from the ELCA World Hunger, Lutheran churches in the Delaware-Maryland Synod, among others.  There are numerous community and city partners that share the same vision as Good Trouble to work toward love and liberation those who have been made most vulnerable and face food and housing insecurity.

Good Trouble Church–love and freedom, leadership and liberation, community care and sacred ceremony–God showing A Way Out of No Way!

No, the Lord has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God. (Micah 6:8)