Building Bridges

Kristin Aasmundstad Walsh

Today, Pruitt is a sophomore studying Spanish and communications at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., and is the inaugural student in the Bridges Scholarship and Mentoring Program, a partnership between Carthage College and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) designed to help people of color develop the leadership skills needed for ministry. The program was begun in 2000 to identify, prepare, and support candidates of color committed to ordained ministry in order to increase their numbers in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The program provides scholarship assistance, mentoring and courses that will prepare candidates to succeed in seminary, and ultimately, in the ordained ministry positions of the ELCA.

The Bridges program addresses the lingering low numbers of people of color both in the pew and behind the pulpit in the ELCA. Just 2.5 percent of the ELCA's baptized members are people of color and, similarly, 2.5 percent of the ELCAÕs ordained ministers are. But the church has been making concerted efforts to increase those numbers, and has found small success over the past four years, according to Rev. Gregory Villalon, director of ethnic leadership development for the ELCA. This success has been chiefly seen at the seminaries.

"There has been a marked increase in the past four years in the number of people of color preparing for ordination," says Villalon. Twelve percent of current candidates for ordination at seminaries are people of color. This includes people in the master of divinity program as well as the Theological Education for Emerging Ministry (TEEM) program, an alternative route to ministry that was developed to help increase the size of minority congregations and ministers in the ELCA. Indeed, much of the increase in the percentage of minority candidates for ordination has come through that program. Programs such as TEEM and the seminary's new Bridges program are key to increasing these numbers.

"Programs like Bridges and a similar program in Philadelphia have been a stimulus within the communities," says Villalon. "Even though the number of scholarships is limited, I think the stimulus is significant and extends to the other schools, to motivate them as well."

Villalon acknowledges that seminaries in urban areas such as Chicago and Philadelphia are uniquely situated to increase their minority enrollments, partially due to their diverse faculty. "LSTC is one of the seminaries with the largest number of people of color on faculty, and that is an attraction," he notes.

Lutheran School of Theology President James Kenneth Echols crafted and initiated the Bridges program and feels the church cannot ignore the call to reach out to people of all backgrounds. "In a diverse culture and society, denominations and churches are called to embody God's love for all by reaching out to all," says Echols. "If denominations and churches are faithful, their memberships and congregations will become increasingly diverse, and their religious leaders will reflect this diversity."

For Pruitt, the scholarship was the impetus she had been looking for to begin studies that would lead to ordination. The road from her pre-med days at Gustavus to pursuing a career in ministry at Carthage and LSTC is a winding one. It was Pruitt's dormitory resident assistant in her sophomore year at Gustavus who challenged her beliefs and ultimately created a turning point in her life. The R.A. was a Christian of a different denomination, and told Pruitt she was going to hell for her beliefs, causing Pruitt to question her Lutheran beliefs. But it was the questioning that made her faith even stronger.

"That very evening I had a dream that things would work out fine and that I would be helping people," recalls Pruitt. "I didnÕt know in what capacity, but I knew I was telling someone about the Gospel and they were in tears and I couldn't tell you why. It could have been myself. There wasn't a face. I just knew that to spread the Gospel was my commission, not only in my daily living but in my career. I just didn't know how."

Pruitt started taking religion classes and discovered what seemed like an insatiable hunger for knowledge. "I wanted to know more," she says. "It was like I couldn't learn enough. I canÕt tell you how I knew [I was on the right path], I just knew. And as it started to unfold, it became more obvious."

But her studies were derailed by other interests. "The spirit of God was competing with the spirit of youth," as Pruitt puts it. So she dropped out of Gustavus and went to work, holding various jobs over the next six years. "I think God used that time to help me mature a bit, to get stabilized, to see the world through different eyes and to experience various cultures, people, and situations."

Eventually, though, the time seemed right again to continue her pursuit of an education preparing her for ministry, and she began praying for guidance in her next step. In September of 2000 she spoke with President Echols when he was guest preaching at Bethel. She learned of the fledgling Bridges Scholarship and Mentoring Program and began the application process in December. In February she was admitted to the program and by that spring she had started classes at Carthage College.

In addition to the classes required for her Spanish and communications majors at Carthage, Pruitt is also taking all the religion and early childhood education courses she can cram into her schedule. When not engrossed in her studies, she sings in the campus gospel choir, The Gospel Messengers (with whom she traveled to Tanzania in January), and is also involved with the Black Student Union and a Bible study group as well as work study. A non-traditional student who "is closer to 30 than I am to 25," Pruitt has been endearingly coined "Granny" by her largely under-20-year-old dormmates. She has become known as a source for all of the answers, from how to get out stains to how to recover from a break-up, a skill that has earned her the reverent title of "Mama Oracle."

"I find myself in the position of being the mentor more and more," says Pruitt, someone who credits her own many mentors as essential to her spiritual growth and personal development. "I find that I'm little replicas of the people that have been what theyÕve been to me in the past."

Pruitt says she would love to serve in an African-American community since "these are the people I know most and know best, theyÕre who IÕve lived with and loved all my life. But I would be comfortable anywhere. It's more important to serve where I'm needed."

The congregation in which she grew up, Bethel, had a Caucasian pastor until just recently, and the primarily African-American congregation embraced him as their pastor and he embraced them as his congregation. "It's the heart of God thatÕs alive in the congregation, so we don't worry about color," says Pruitt. "If you walk in those doors and youÕre blue with polka dots, if you're ready to put your faith into action, you become part of the family.

"I think differences are necessary," Pruitt adds. "If everyone were the same, what would be the point? I think culturally everybody has different gifts, and no one culture has the monopoly on faith. It requires input from everyone, no matter what your race. I think this program encourages that."

When asked if she thinks the ELCA is doing enough to increase diversity in its ranks, she answers from her personal experience. "I'm just starting to get into the worldwide aspects of the ELCA, so I canÕt answer that. But from what I've seen, the people who have embraced me, they're certainly putting out an effort." Ê

The first recipient of the Bridges Scholarship, Rhonda Pruitt plans to graduate from Carthage in the spring of 2004 and will enter the master of divinity program at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in the fall of 2004.

The Bridge's program's second recipient, Emmanuel Jackson, is a freshman majoring in international political economics at Carthage College. Originally from Liberia, Jackson immigrated to this country from Nigeria just over a year ago with his mother and six brothers and sisters as part of the political asylum program.

His father, a Lutheran minister, was killed in 1994 in the Liberian civil war that has been raging for the past 13 years, and he and his family have been political refugees ever since.

Jackson was encouraged to apply for the Bridges Scholarship by a family friend and pastor on the South Side of Chicago who knew Jackson had a desire for ministry. After graduating from high school, he completed two years of Biblical study at a theological school in Ghana.

When asked why he wants to become a pastor, Jackson answered simply, "I love people and I want to serve, to be a witness of Christ. I have a heart to serve the Lord in any way he wants me to serve."