Transforming Church

David Raymond

David Raymond moved to Minneapolis in 1971 after earning an M.A. in American Studies at the University of Iowa. For a number of years he worked in the fields of housing management, finance, and real estate development for governmental agencies and private companies. Much of this work was in the area of housing for low and moderate-income people. Raymond currently owns and operates a human services business located in downtown Minneapolis. He sometimes serves as a consultant to small businesses in the areas of business plans, feasibility studies, and financial management. He and his wife Barbara live in south Minneapolis where they are members of Bethlehem Lutheran Church.

In 1999 Pastor Donald Rudrud invited Raymond to join the Urban Planning Consultants, a panel of clergy and lay people who were trained by the Minneapolis Area Synod of the ELCA to work with city congregations. HeHe11 He served was a consultant with this group until it disbanded in 2002. Since then Raymond and has continued to work with congregations on an independent basis, often as a partner with other consultants. This work is carried out by ChurchFuture.com.

Raymond has served as a coach/consultant to 17 congregations that have contemplated some form of collaboration. He has guided four significant consolidations that involved a total of 12 congregations. He recently formed a web site, www.churchcollaboration.com, to share his expertise and experience with others. He is a trainer in an effort by the Florida-Bahamas Synod of the ELCA called “Together in Mission” to develop a pool of 45 pastors and lay leaders who can serve as coaches for congregational redevelopment and collaboration throughout Florida.

Raymond has co-led workshops at Minneapolis Area Synod seminars and Synod Assemblies on three topics: Worship for Evangelism, High Performance Congregations, and Multiracial Churches. He serves as an Annotator for the Alban Institute, and chaired the synod's effort to train congregations to use demographic information from Precept. He is an ELCA-trained coach in Natural Church Development. In 2002 and 2005 he represented the Minneapolis Area Synod at the ELCA’s national Evangelism Leaders Network. He can be contacted at 612-823-0526 or dave@churchfuture.com.