CBO Director

Rev. Susan Engh has been the ELCA’s Director for Congregation-based Organizing (CBO) since October 1, 2007. Prior to taking this position, she was a full-time organizer for 4 years with ISAIAH, a Gamaliel Foundation affiliate operating in the Twin Cities and St. Cloud regions of Minnesota. Before that she served for 16 years as a parish pastor in two Minneapolis Area Synod congregations, the first in the inner-city and the second in suburban Excelsior. As a parish pastor, Rev. Engh was active in ISAIAH, as a leader of its Clergy and Religious Leaders Caucus. She also headed up an initiative in her synod to bring a significant number of Lutheran congregations into organizing through ISAIAH.

Rev. Engh’s top priority as Director for CBO is to get more and more ELCA congregations involved in organizing, especially through the vehicles of local CBO organizations affiliated with one of the major national or regional organizing networks. Since her arrival in 2007, she has attended to this priority mainly by coordinating 3-day organizing primer events called “Vital Congregations – Just Communities” in 18 ELCA synods around the country.

Along with her Congregation-based Organizing advisory Team (CBOT), Rev. Engh pursues the goal of increasing ELCA leaders’ and congregations’ involvement in organizing by engaging several key initiatives, including strategies aimed at ELCA seminaries, First Call Theological Education (FCTE), ecumenical and inter-faith relations, and international organizing.