WELS Annual Report Summarizes God’s Blessings – Encouraging Word – March 2016

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WELS Annual Report Summarizes God’s Blessings

WELS Annual Report 2015 summarizes God’s amazing blessings on our church body across all areas of ministry in 2015. We thank our Lord and commend you for your prayers and Congregation Mission Offerings (CMO) that aid these worldwide gospel endeavors. Please consider sharing this report with others at your church so they know how God is blessing their partnership in Christ’s work. There are a variety of formats available online at wels.net/annualreport:

  • Order free copies of the annual report through Northwestern Publishing House. (Note that an annual report went out in late January with each giving statement to individuals who made direct gifts to WELS in 2015.)
  • Download a PowerPoint of the annual report for sharing this information with God’s people. Someone at your church may give the presentation or invite a WELS Christian giving counselor to do it. Find your local Christian giving counselors at wels.net/givingcounselors or call WELS Ministry of Christian Giving at 800-827-5482.
  • Share the link to the annual report page or online flipbook through your church’s e-newsletter or website.

If your congregation, moved by Christ’s love and the opportunities he gives us for gospel outreach, would like to further support these efforts, here are three ways to help:

  • Pray for the Lord’s blessing on our joint ministry efforts using the “Mission Prayers” in this newsletters.
  • Maintain and, Lord-willing, increase your Congregation Mission Offerings. Consider working incrementally toward (or beyond) a goal of 10 percent of offerings toward synodical ministry.

If you haven’t done so yet, hold a special “One in Christ” offering collection to help eliminate the synod’s $4.7 million debt by the end of June. This will place our synod in a better financial position to move forward in ministry. Thanks be to God, at this point we have received over $1.6 million in “One in Christ” gifts with just over a quarter of our congregations participating.

Congregation Mission Offerings Update – Encouraging Word – March 2016

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Congregation Mission Offerings Update

Congregation Mission Offerings (CMO) for calendar year 2015 ended the year 1.1 percent higher than 2014 gifts and 2.9 percent higher than subscriptions. Total CMO for the year was $21.5 million, an increase of $234,000 over the previous year. This is the highest CMO total in the synod’s history and the fourth consecutive year that congregations have exceeded their subscriptions. “We praise Jesus for providing such generous offerings through his people’s congregations!” says Kurt Lueneburg, director of the Ministry of Christian Giving.

Recently, 95 percent of WELS congregations reported their plans for 2016 CMO. While CMO subscriptions for 2016 show a decrease of 1.8 percent from 2015 actual receipts, no reductions in ministry are necessary because of the higher than anticipated offerings in 2015.

“We thank God for the high percentage of congregations that reported subscriptions for CMO for 2016,” says Lueneburg. “We are confident that Jesus will enable our churches to exceed their subscriptions for the fifth consecutive year.”

Lueneburg says that a stable—not declining—CMO makes it possible to maintain the present level of ministry as long as there are also many substantial special gifts from churches and individuals. While CMO has increased about 1 percent annually over the last ten years, that increase provides only one-third of the 3 percent annual increase in gifts needed for maintaining WELS’ present level of worldwide gospel outreach for Jesus. “We ask our heavenly Father to help us keep growing in the grace of giving for our local and global ministries,” he says. “This is an opportunity for each of us to dedicate to the Lord an increased level of financial support through our congregations and special gifts. To that end, God help us.”

Helpful Hint – Encouraging Word – March 2016

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Celebrate Gifts!

“Some of the best publicity [encouragement] for planned giving is . . . actual gifts! Share when gifts are received or endowment distributions made—how much is going to help which ministries. Share joyful testimonials of members who have made gifts. Hold and share coverage of a ‘thank you’ event for those remembering your congregation in their estate plans or with planned gifts. Mention in an after-service announcement the ministry goals that could be achieved through a certain amount of gifts (this may tie in particularly well to certain church year seasons, e.g. End Times). ‘The service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God’ (2 Corinthians 9:12).”

Congregational Planned Giving Program. Waukesha: WELS Ministry of Christian Giving, 2015. Page 9.

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Words of Wisdom – Encouraging Word – March 2016

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The Sacrifice of Christ Encourages Our Offerings

“Why will [the Corinthians] want to ‘excel in the grace of giving’ just as the Macedonians are doing? ‘For,’ says Paul, and then he gives the reason why the Corinthians will want to do this. They have personally experienced the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ . . . ‘For your sakes,’ says Paul, Christ, though he was in a continuous state of being rich from all eternity, became poor. Paul uses a form of the same word he had used to describe the abject poverty of the Macedonians (2 Corinthians 8:2). But it was a much deeper poverty than that. With these words all of Christ’s state of humiliation is projected before our eyes, culminating in his suffering and death. Its purpose? ‘So that you through his poverty might become rich.’ ‘We are rich, for he was poor. Is not this a wonder!’ Christ, who traded unparalleled riches for abject poverty so that we might become rich, is a wonderful example of giving for the Corinthians; but he is much more than that! He is first of all Savior. We love, because he first loved us. We give, in fact, we cannot help but give, because he gave first.”

David J. Valleskey. Laying the Foundation: The Scriptural Basis for Godly Giving. Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Essay File. Pages 6-7.

New Manual Helps Churches Promote Planned Giving – Encouraging Word – November 2015

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New Manual Helps Churches Promote Planned Giving

The Lord is the planned Giver. From eternity he planned the creation of this world, the gift of our lives, and—most importantly—the gift of his Son, Jesus the Christ. How loving, intentional, and beneficial God’s planned giving has been!

We thankfully respond to God’s grace by planning our offerings to him. Our weekly offering at worship is not the only opportunity we have for giving. We honor the Lord when planning for the transition of our accumulated wealth at life’s end. And there are a variety of other opportunities to support the Lord’s work now (while at the same time receiving tax benefits). The Bible encourages planned giving to care for family and to return a portion of our possessions to God.

There is much room for growth in the area of planned giving. Only 3 out of 10 Americans (Lutherans, too) have developed an orderly plan for the transfer of their estates. Of these, only one out of the three has remembered a charity/ministry in their plans. People of faith, for whom giving is an act of grateful stewardship, need to know the options available to them.

That is why WELS has developed a new congregational planned giving manual. The purpose of the manual is to help congregations jump-start a program of promoting planned giving opportunities to members. The manual also shares how to set up a planned giving committee for encouraging this work, and how to establish and administer an endowment fund.

Interested congregations can get started as soon as today using the “Quick Start” guide in Part I. Local WELS Christian giving counselors are available for assistance.