Mission Support
Your Generosity at Work Across the Church
Mission Support — the portion of offerings that ELCA congregations share with synods and the churchwide organization — unites us in this vital, life-giving work that empowers us to Cultivate Life-Giving Relationships Rooted in God’s Love.
Mission Support Resources
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2024 Mission Support Planning Worksheet
As we look ahead to the year before us, we ask that you share your congregation’s budgeted 2024 mission support intention with the synod office.
When you generously share your offerings with the wider church through your Mission Support dollars, opportunities are cultivated that change lives and further the work of the church.
In order to plan for the year ahead, we ask that you please fill out and return the enclosed Mission Support intention sheet and return it to the synod office, by February 29 or earlier.
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Stories of Faith in Action
The publication Stories of Faith in Action and the resources that go along with it are designed to share how important your weekly offering in your congregation is in sustaining and growing God’s mission. The portion of your offerings that support the ELCA’s synodical and churchwide ministries is called Mission Support. The publication and resources found here help explain and answer questions about Mission Support and tell the story of those gifts in action.
You can also check out more stories of faith in action at https://www.livinglutheran.org/sofia/
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Where Does My Offering Go?
ELCA members in more than 9,300 congregations in the United States and Caribbean give approx. $1.75 billion in regular in their regular offering to support ELCA ministries in their local communities and worldwide. When members give through their congregations, a percentage of that money is then shared with the the local synod and the national churchwide organization.
This unrestricted giving, called “Mission Support,” gives us both the foundation and the fuel to do God’s work in the world and a portion of the gifts circle back to support ministries in synods and local congregations.
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Synod Mission Support Booklet
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How Churchwide Uses Mission Support
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What We Do Together
As part of the La Crosse Area Synod, you are a vital part of our work to cultivate powerful relationships that help people to know the love of Jesus and the work of God in our lives and world.
When you generously share your offerings with the wider church through your Mission Support dollars, opportunities are cultivated that change lives and further the work of the church.
Below is a testimony from recently ordained Pastor Emma Grinde of the life-giving support she received through our synod as she discerned her way toward seminary and returned to serve as an ordained pastor here in this synod.
It was the summer of 2013 when I moved into the La Crosse Area Synod. I'd just graduated from college and was moving from Iowa to Viroqua for my first full time job. The pastor and people at Immanuel Lutheran in Viroqua welcomed me before I even moved to town. I was struggling to find a place to live when the pastor at the time, Kathy Ingbritsen, emailed me newspaper clippings of apartments for rent after I had called her out-of-the-blue with a request for help. When one of those apartments worked out and I moved to Viroqua, it was members of Immanuel who showed up to help me move in, even though I was a stranger.
Those same church members welcomed me into teaching confirmation, reading scripture during worship, and music ministry. I started getting connected in the synod and joined the Church in Society Committee, participated in Synod events, and even began taking Lay School of Theology classes. Through my experiences in the congregation and synod, I started to understand an unfolding call to become a pastor. People of Immanuel Lutheran and the La Crosse Area Synod, you raised me up as a leader in your midst and it has been a joy to return to the synod this summer as the pastor at Mindoro and Lewis Valley Lutheran Churches.
Your Mission Support dollars helped to cultivate a calling in Pastor Emma and others who have felt the call to leadership in the church. Through scholarships, discernment conversations during candidacy, engagement in the synod’s School of Theology, and support of ELCA seminaries, your financial generosity spreads across the church in ways that make a difference.
Mission Support makes developing collaborative ministries, building relationships with our Native American neighbors, engaging in interfaith partnerships, nurturing children’s ministries, engaging in congregational vitality work, engaging with young adults through LuMin campus ministries, and expanding relationships with our companion synod partners in Peru and the Czech Republic, among other ministries, possible. Keep your eyes open as those stories are shared!
Your generosity makes a difference across our communities and throughout God’s church. Thanks be to God for your generosity!
