WELS Home Missions Report District Convention 2014

WELS Home Missions Report District Convention 2014 Board for Home Mission Spring Meeting The Board for Home Missions (BHM) and the BHM Executive Committee (EC) met April 2-4. The BHM EC worked through 17 requests for new starts / new ministries totaling $1.2M. They also looked at 51 mission program subsidy agreements (MPSA s) which totaled $3.9M. The BHM discussed and ratified the EC s recommendations. Of the 17 requests for new start / new ministries, 14 requests were prioritized to receive funding. Of the 14 ministries that were prioritized, funding was only authorized for two ( authorized for funding means the ministry is able to move forward with calling a missionary to begin serving at the new ministry). Those two locations are: 1) Goodyear AZ (south-west side of Phoenix); $76,900 2) Menasha WI (bilingual-hispanic); $48,500 Why were only two requests authorized for funding? There were two reasons. The BHM Administration wanted to fully understand the financial ramifications on its FY 14-15 budget. Also, the BHM Administration wanted to hear what would happen at the Synodical Council (SC) meeting on April 25. The news from the SC meeting encouraged the BHM to move forward, and the BHM Administration determined sufficient funds were available to authorize additional missions. On April 28, the BHM EC authorized the next four prioritized requests thanks to consistent and generous divisional fund gifts to Home Missions as well as financial support from the Joint Mission Council and WELS-Canada. Those locations are: 3) Watertown NY (90 miles north of Syracuse); $139,000 4) Maryville TN (30 miles from Knoxville); $60,000 5) Fulshear TX (south-west side of Houston); $115,000 6) Vancouver BC; $146,000 (USD) There are eight additional prioritized mission requests from the spring BHM meeting. The EC will wait until July 31, 2014, to determine if they can be authorized for funding. The funding is dependent upon the Congregational Mission Offering (CMO) commitments for this year. The Conference of Presidents (COP) is working with their circuit pastors to ask congregations to revisit their Congregational Mission Offering (CMO) commitment for this year. If the CMO commitments increase, the EC plans to authorize funding for as many as three additional prioritized missions. Conversely, if there is no CMO increase, the start of additional new missions will be delayed. We pray the Lord continue to bless our church body as we reach out with the gospel of Jesus Christ. WELS Home Missions Report Page 1

Together in partnership with Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (WLS), the EC prioritized 32 Vicar in Mission Settings (ViMS) requests. This program places vicars into missions or mission-minded congregations. The ViMS program continues to receive strong financial support from both the BHM ($315,000) and WLS ($250,000). The local congregations also contribute significantly toward the cost of the ViMS program (on averaged, between $10,000 and $38,000 per vicar). The EC prioritized requests from 32 congregations. Of the 32 requests, 22 were authorized for funding and presented to the COP for assignments from WLS. For the 2014-2015 school year there happen to be 32 vicars available for assignment. There will be ten vicars who will be assigned through other channels other than the ViMS program. Home Mission Training Home Missions has worked to provide annual training for the District Mission Boards (DMB s) since 2011. The DMB s are comprised of 2-3 pastors and 2-3 laymen, all serving as volunteers. The past two years the focus of the training has been on the implementation of Home Missions Strategic Ministry Plan. Two of the key elements of the plan call for each DMB to start at least one new mission a year and that missions work to be self-supporting after eight years of financial support. In addition to the annual training sessions, there will also be a special training session for DMB members and new DMB members July 28-29 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, at the WELS Center for Mission and Ministry (CMM), the synod s new headquarters. This special session is especially helpful and timely for the men who are elected as DMB members at the 2014 District Conventions. It serves as an orientation to acclimate into District Mission Board ministry. Mission Counselors As District Mission Boards support current missions and work to start new missions, the Mission Counselors (MC s) serve as a valuable support group. The MC s are pastors who serve full-time assisting DMB s, mission congregations, and mission pastors. They are especially able to spend more time with mission pastors who are new to home missions or who are starting a new mission. From their background and experience, they are able to give guidance and direction for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Currently there are three MC s: Pastor Mark Birkholz, Pastor Peter Kruschel, and Pastor Ed Schuppe. Also serving in this area with an emphasis on of Hispanic ministry is the Hispanic Ministry Consultant, Pastor Tim Flunker. Campus Ministry The majority of the information in the following paragraphs on campus ministry comes from Pastor Ken Brokmeier, Campus Ministry Committee (CMC) Chairman. The CMC is an eightmember committee of laymen and pastors that serves under the Board for Home Missions. The CMC exists to assist congregations in ministering to college students and other young adults with the Means of Grace so that they may grow in the faith, be trained for service in Christ s kingdom, and reach out to the lost of this world. The CMC administers a budget of nearly $406,800 and, in many ways, functions like a District Mission Board partnering with local or district advisory boards. WELS Home Missions Report Page 2

The CMC helps to oversee a full-time campus ministry at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Financial support is also given for part-time campus ministries in Minneapolis, MN; Mankato, MN; Brookings, SD, East Lansing, MI; Oshkosh, WI; Houghton, MI; La Crosse, WI; and Milwaukee, WI. Of the part-time campus ministries, the WELS owns, and the CMC maintains, facilities in Brookings, SD; Mankato, MN; Oshkosh, WI; Milwaukee, WI; and La Crosse, WI. In addition, there are over 25 other smaller campus ministries that receive funding from the CMC. The number of WELS campus ministries that are doing mission work among International students continues to grow each year. The vast majority of WELS high school graduates will not attend Bethany Lutheran College, Wisconsin Lutheran College, or Martin Luther College. Instead they will enroll in some other institution of higher learning. To help serve the spiritual needs of those students the CMC has identified over 350 pastors as campus ministry contacts (cf. WELS yearbook). The CMC strives to maintain an updated database of college students. There are typically about 6,500 names in that database. It is imperative for each congregation to regularly submit new names and update the students on that list. For that reason, a list of student names from each congregation is mailed to all WELS/ELS congregations twice a year. Please consider finding someone in your congregation to contact all the college age students in your congregation each year to find out their educational plans for the fall. Contact information for college students can be sent to Karen Marshall (WELS CMC Secretary) cm@wels.net or (414) 256-3279 or fax to 262-522-2800 or mail: N16W23377 Stone Ridge Dr., Waukesha, WI 35188. Or, visit the Campus Ministry website at: www.wels.net/campus-ministry. While college students are away at school we encourage local congregation to continue regular contact with them. Please consider sending your college students your congregational newsletters, a care package and/or weekly worship information. Arrangements can also be made through the CMC to send students the Meditations devotional booklet and Forward in Christ magazine during the school year for free. Six times each year Forward in Christ features a column called Campus Cornerstone which is geared for college students. Joint Mission Council The Joint Mission Council (JMC) is comprised of the Home and World Mission Administrators and Chairmen, plus a layman from World and Home Missions, along with the Director of Mission Operations. The JMC s role is to function where missions in Home and World overlap. Home Missions continues to serve more cultures. Approximately 30% of the home mission budget goes to support ministry to Koreans, Sudanese, Hmong, Hispanic, Vietnamese, Navajo, Chinese, and other cultures. Here are some of the special ministry conferences in the past few months: A Hmong / Asian Conference at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Oct. 9 / 10. A Hispanic Conference at Doral FL, Feb. 10-12. A Sudanese Conference at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Feb. 26 & 27 WELS Home Missions Report Page 3

International students from around the world continue to increase in the USA. Some students come already during grade school and more are coming for high school and staying through college. After their education, the majority return home. We want to continue to serve them with the gospel, but we also want them to be ambassadors for the gospel. And, in mission fields (whether abroad or in the USA), there are people of culture who travel to be with family and friends. Again, while we would like to continue to serve them, we often lose contact with them. As a church body, we do not have a formal plan for how address these opportunities. Since the summer of 2013 the JMC has been studying how it could best serve the church body and all the contacts we have with those from so many cultures. More and more in this mobile and moving world, souls we serve in our country return to their own country, and souls we serve in World mission settings, relocate to the USA. We see some real opportunities to not only continue to support these brothers and sisters in Christ who travel across the globe, but also the opportunity to use them as they travel to tell others about Jesus Christ. To assist the WELS in its endeavors to reach more souls in cultural settings, the JMC called Rev. Paul Prange, administrator of the Board for Ministerial Education (BME) for one year to study this issue and devise a ministry plan. With the blessing of the BME, Pastor Prange accepted the Call and began serving the JMC on April 1, 2014. As a plan develops, Pastor Prange will run those plans past both the World and Home Mission Boards. We pray the Lord s blessings on this huge undertaking. The JMC also supports a Muslim Outreach Consultant in North America, Rev. Pieter Reid. Pastor Reid is working to help congregations be aware of opportunities to reach out to their Muslim neighbors. He is also taking steps to work directly with 2 to 3 congregations on doing outreach ministry to Muslims. Home Mission Partners Home Missions is very appreciative for the support received from CMO, as well as the many special Individual Mission Offerings (IMO) that are given to Home Missions. In addition to these resources, Home Missions has a number of partners who assist in moving missions forward. Church Extension Fund The Church Extension Fund (CEF) is a non-profit lending agency that assists missions in buying land and building / buying its worship facility. The CEF works with qualifying mission congregations and offers low interest loans and matching grants that are able to significantly reduce the amount of debt and interest a congregation pays. Financial support from CEF comes in a unique way CEF does not receive any funding from the WELS. Funds are generated through the combined effort of careful loan service management as well as investments and gifts from individuals and congregations made with the CEF. To learn more about how you can invest in CEF and be involved in this exciting and unique way to support the expansion of new missions, please contact CEF in person or online 1-866-511-7793 or www.cef.wels.net. WELS Home Missions Report Page 4

In September of 2013, the CEF Board of Directors made a special $1.3M gift to Home Missions. Six missions received support to buy land or build/buy a worship facility. The locations are: Shepherd of the Hills, Las Vegas Grace Hmong, Kansas City KS (working to buy the facility where they currently worship) Morristown TN (have made an offer on a piece of land) Sparks NV (have bought land and are in the early stages of the building process) St. Lucia (finish the building of their church waiting to proceed) Pflugerville TX (bought land with no infrastructure in process with land development) The special $1.3M gift was partially in response to favorable results from a special $1.0M gift in February 2011. Thanks to that gift, six missions were authorized to receive funding for new worship facilities. Four of the six locations have already dedicated and are using their facilities: Peace in Jesus, Boise ID (Sept. 30, 2012) Amazing Love, Frankfurt IL (had been New Lenox May 19, 2013) Trinity, Woodbridge VA (Jan 27, 2013) Spirit of Life Caledonia MI (March 23, 2014). Note: Beautiful Savior in Moncks Corner, SC, bought land in 2012 but has dealt with construction setbacks (fall 2014). Christ Lutheran in Denver, CO, is remodeling their current worship facility / ministry center. That project will be finished in the near future. With twelve missions blessed by the additional grant monies from CEF, Home Missions is tracking those missions and comparing them with the other missions which started around the time when these missions did. While there are many variables which won t make for equal comparisons, it will be good to watch the general trends to see if the extra grant money helped these missions to reach self-support sooner. Home Missions thanks CEF for these special gifts. If you would like to know more about CEF or invest in CEF to help support Home Missions, please go to: cef.wels.net Kingdom Workers This agency supports missions through the coordination and support of lay volunteers. Builders for Christ (BFC) uses members skilled in construction to ministry facilities for existing and new congregations. The long-time director, Mr. Dale Mueller, recently retired. On February 23, Mr. John Lautz was installed as the new director. Faith In Action (FIA) works with individuals and congregations in the area of worship, Bible teaching, community outreach and evangelism. Volunteers of all ages serve missions throughout North America and across the globe. The Lutheran Health Alliance (LHA) works with members to serve and care for families and people through community health ministry and long-term development support, developing leadership and outreach opportunities. On January 9-10, 2015, Kingdom Workers, together with other WELS ministries, is sponsoring a Global Leadership Summit Tools for Tomorrow s Mission in Scottsdale AZ. To learn more, go to the Kingdom Worker web-site: www.kingdomworkers.com. WELS Home Missions Report Page 5

Lutheran Women s Missionary Society This ministry supports both Home and World missions. There are two primary ways in which Lutheran Women s Missionary Society (LWMS) supports missions. LWMS coordinates volunteers to connect with our mission pastors, wives and families. They offer prayer support, send letters of encouragement, and provide care packages. Our missionaries and families very much appreciative this active support. At mission rallies in the spring and fall, and the LWMS National Convention, the LWMS raises funds to support special projects typically not covered by missions budgets. Also, every other year, Home Missions receives the KIDS c.a.r.e. gift. In the summer of 2013 this gift was $55,000.00 designated for VBS and Sport Camps held this summer. There are 16 missions receiving between $1,000 and $5,000 to support their programs. The next LWMS Convention is June 26-29, 2014, in Dallas Texas. To learn more about this ministry go to: www.lwms.org. Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary We are thankful for the faithful ministry which takes place at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (WLS). Home Missions partner with WLS in several ways. The Vicar in Mission Settings program (detailed earlier in this report). The Summer Student Assistant program (also known as the summer vicar program). This program is for students in their first and second year at WLS. During the summer they can serve at a congregation involved in mission work. The students receive practical ministry experience and the congregation receives helpful ministry assistance. Home Missions provides locations and some financial support for congregations which participate. WLS coordination the program and assists with placing the students. The Pastor Study Institute program brings the WLS curriculum to ethnic students where they live, rather than requiring the student and his family to uproot from their familiar surroundings. Using local pastors as well as seminary professors, ethnic students (Hispanic, Laotian, Sudanese, Hmong, Korean and other cultures) are trained for pastoral ministry. Mission and Ministry is a three day event at WLS. Home Missions are featured on one day, World Missions are featured on another day, and congregational ministry is featured on one day. Each of the areas of ministry works together with a seminary student to put together the workshops that are featured on the corresponding days. Mission Promotions/Presentations If you would like information to use for mission presentations about either Home or World missions, email: missionspromotions@wels.net. Schools that are focusing on a specific mission field can gather resources to show children the mission field to children and explain the work to them. You can also arrange for a mission Festival speaker, special service, Bible study, LWMS rally, or other event, or learn more about WELS missions for yourself at: ww.wels.net/missions. WELS Home Missions Report Page 6