Faith-based leader

Christian Century, May 2, 2001 by John Dart

LUTHERAN SERVICES in America, newly recognized as a behemoth nonprofit organization spending $6.5 billion yearly in social services and health care, also has new leadership just as "faith-based" groups in general are catching the public eye.

Only last fall, LSA was declared the largest nonprofit organization in the country by the Non-Profit Times, which counts those organizations that raise at least 10 percent of their revenue from the public. LSA moved above the YMCA in the publication's annual survey, with the Salvation Army in third place.

On May 1, founding president and CEO Joanne Negstad gives way to Jill Schumann, the no. 2 executive at the Lutheran Services in America headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota. Negstad, 65, will soon return "home" to South Dakota to serve as the Lutheran Social Services director in that state. "I call this my rehirement," she said, "I'm not ready for retirement."

Negstad served as president of the Association of Lutheran Social Ministry Organizations, which became LSA in 1997. The LSA is an alliance of the 5.15-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the 2.6million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and their nearly 300 social ministry organizations serving more than 3 million people.

Negstad was quick to note in an interview that LSA would not be rated the largest nonprofit organization if the U.S. Catholic Church were to combine its Catholic Charities social services with the large Catholic hospital systems. "In our Lutheran world, we have all that under one umbrella, including about ten hospital complexes," she said. "We are fond of saying that Lutheran and Catholic systems are the largest in the country."

The LSA has not taken a position for or against President Bush's plan to allow religiously linked organizations to compete more effectively against secular groups for social service funds under the guidance of the Faith-Based and Community Office. "We still do not know what kind of shape it will take" in Congress, said Negstad, alluding to different House and Senate bills that reflect divided opinions in religious circles.

Like Catholic Charities, however, Lutheran Services in America will have an advantage of experience under federal Charitable Choice legislation passed in 1996. "If you don't count our hospitals, 50 percent of the money we spend is government money," Negstad said. If new opportunities do open up, "we are going to encourage small religious communities, such as groups of congregations, to become partners with us," she said, citing a successful program in Texas in which young women from churches "coached" young mothers on their first jobs upon leaving welfare rolls.

Nearly half of LSA projects and services have waiting lists, according to the organization's survey released in the winter. "We see it in the care of the elderly," Negstad said. "The funding hasn't always kept up with the need for care in the homes of older people."

As Negstad prepared to leave the LSA's top position, the 18-member board conducted a national search for a successor. But in late March the board chose Schumann, 47, director of member services for the last 18 months. She "really functioned as my internal operations officer," said Negstad, who lauded Schumann as "a visionary with excellent business and planning skills." Prior to coming to LSA, Schumann served in leadership posts in health and service organizations.

Speaking to the LSA annual conference, held April 4-7 in St. Louis, Schumann said, "We learn what it means to be `Lutherans in service' from scripture and from each other." Social ministry organizations are "not just faith-based organizations but faith-full organizations ... full to overflowing."