Presented By

What every church leader should know

Combating Urban Myths

Shaun Luehring, Principal

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Atonement - Milwaukee

Founded as outreach to birth a church in 1929 and entered the MPCP in 2001.

300 Students (scholars) About 37 FTE staff ¼ of the student body are members of Atonement

Lutheran Church. Plan to grow our campus to serve 626 scholars. 92% African American 84% are below the poverty line

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Background - MKE

Milwaukee is a mess spiritually, socially, and educationally.

½ of MKE don’t regularly worship any god (God). MKE is rated the worst place to grow up for African

Americans. 50% unemployment rate 50% graduation rate from high school Highest national incarceration rate of African

Americans

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Convictions . . . Assumptions

Schools: Excellence spiritually and academically

Our work is a matter of life and death. All children are capable and redeemed. Our enemy is powerful and active. God’s Grace through the GOSPEL is the

answer. (2 Peter 3)

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Urban Myths

Spiritual:► Less WELS -- Compromise beliefs -- Not Lutheran► Unruly, impossible children - they don’t care► Too Academically Focused► Take the parent’s job► We accept money from…Educational:► Exhausting, unrealistic goals/expectations for teachers – less autonomy► Stifling structure/procedures► We coddle children and take over the parent’s job► Too much testing/data ► what else?

Defining Question

Who is worthy of a Lutheran education?

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Is it the academic achievement (or developmental level) that makes them worthy or unworthy?

1) Those with ‘special’ needs – Better served elsewhere?

2) Those expelled for low academic performance?

ALEX

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Is it behavior that makes you worthy or unworthy?

1) Which sins aren’t tolerated?2) Most egregious? What are

they theologically?3) Will they dangerously

spread?4) Is it for repeated behaviors?5) Lack of repentance? For

how long? “Marquan”

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Is it membership?

1) We don’t require that of the BIC? Why not?

2) Is our model of “for our own” still relevant, Biblical?

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Is it your pedigree?

1) What’s your last name?

2) Is it German?

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What it is just Agreement?

1) How would things look differently if we agreed that CE was for everyone?

2) What if we just kept serving people for as long as they wanted us to?

3) What if they accepted the ground rules?

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Is this our Synod’s “Jonah moment?”

Why is the premier program for publically funded ‘private’ choice schooling (vouchers) in

MKE?

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Top 8 80/80 Schools in MKE

#1 Franklin School (MPS)

#2 Atonement Lutheran School (WELS)

#3 St. Marcus Lutheran School (WELS)

#4 Holmes Elementary School (MPS)

#5 Cass Street School (MPS)

#6 Siloah Lutheran School (WELS)

#7 Garden Homes Lutheran School (WELS)

#8 Northwest Lutheran School (LCMS)

600 - 2000

My last questions…

What would it look like if MKE was known not for chaos, but for God’s grace?

Is God calling us to do it? Is he pushing us? Is he “relenting” from planned destruction?willing and complete access

Your Turn – Questions?

Day to Day? Scholars?

Calling Teachers?

Teacher Training?

Religious classes?

Funding?

Church/School Relationship?

Expulsions?

Choice “rules?”

What are the biggest challenges you see in urban church work?

Timothy Keller

Contextualization is not – as often argued – ‘giving people what they want to hear.’ Rather, it is giving people the Bible’s answers, which they may not at all want to hear,

to questions about life that people in their particular time and place are asking,

in language and forms they can comprehend, and through appeals and arguments with force they can feel, even if they reject them.

Selected verses of Psalm 83

God, do not remain silent;

Do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God.

With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you.

Make them like tumbleweed, my God.

May they perish in disgrace.

Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord – that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

2 Peter 3:9 – God’s ‘kindness’

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.

Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. There is such a thing as being too late. …Life often leaves us standing . . . With a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood – it ebbs.

We may cry out . . . But time is adamant in every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “too late.”

Micah 6:8

What does the Lord require of you?

To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.