|
St.
Paul Lutheran Church of Wichita, Kan., is a congregation on
a mission. The mission has two edges. The first edge is evangelical:
Making Disciples. This edge is in conformance with Jesus’
Great Commission to “…make disciples of all nations…”
The power of the gospel alone will save people who are living
increasingly away from the Presence of the Holy One. Disciple-making
includes the ministries of worship, of Sunday School confirmation,
a mid-week youth program called Faith-Weaver Friends, Vacation
Bible School and Kids Kingdom Early Childhood Education.
The second edge of
St. Paul’s mission is making peace: “Making Disciples
to Make Peace.” The peacemaking ministries of St. Paul’s
move the congregation outside the walls of the church and into
the community. Peacemaking means a Community Breakfast, which
serves up to 200 neighbors (many of whom are homeless) each
Saturday. The breakfast was started a little over ten years
ago. Although most breakfasts are held at St. Paul’s,
responsibility for planning, cooking, and serving the breakfast
rotates between several churches in the region including St.
Paul’s. The breakfast is offered each Saturday to help
our community neighbors in need. Making peace also includes
operating English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes
Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. – noon and hosting
GoZones!, an after school program for neighborhood kids. A distinctive
peacemaking ministry is the Gift of Marriage Program which offers
the use of the congregational facilities for couples to join
their lives in God’s Presence. The only “cost”
for the gift of marriage is three pre-marital sessions with
the pastor who is marrying the couple. Making peace means serving
on community coalitions and boards such as the Wichita CORE
project in which St. Paul’s has been active for a number
of years. Through our involvement, we strive to advocate for
change in the social service world, especially related to those
with whom we work: our breakfast neighbors, our GoZones! kids,
and our ESOL neighbors.
St. Paul’s
is a small congregation and has averaged around 70 worshipers
each Sunday for the past few years. For this reason, in order
to accomplish the peacemaking mission our Lord has called us
to do, we have needed to build partnerships. The community breakfast
has numerous partner congregations including Reformation Lutheran
of Wichita, Gloria Dei Lutheran of Wichita, Christ Lutheran
of Wichita, Good Shepherd Lutheran of Wichita, Fairview Christian
Church, Wichita, and Emmanuel Lutheran of Hutchinson. St. Paul
has also entered into partnership with the ELCA Division of
Outreach through an Outreach Grant, the Mission Investment Fund
(MIF), Atonement Lutheran in Overland Park, Kan., and most recently
St. Paul’s has formed a partnership with Metro Lutheran
Ministries in Kansas City, Mo. The MIF provided a grant for
infrastructure improvement, helping us to become more energy
efficient to operate our various outreach ministries, while
the partnership with the Division of Evangelical Outreach and
Congregational Mission (EOCM) helped our youth ministries and
English as a Second Language Ministry.
Partnerships help
to accomplish the mission and build mutual relationships of
great joy and service. The partnerships for mission are formed
due to the fact that St. Paul’s is located in the central
city of Wichita, Kan. It is what Loren Mead calls an outpost
for mission. Along with a central city location, St. Paul’s
also has a very large facility which lends itself well to doing
ministry.
In the
past year St. Paul’s has been involved in a process called
the “New Way Forward.” The process began with an
extended discussion during the summer of 2007. This discussion
yielded a strong consensus on what are called the four hallmarks
of St. Paul’s. These hallmarks are: (rank order) Gospel
– Outreach – Partnership – and Sharing. We
look forward to where God is leading us in mission and ministry
on behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Thank you
to the Central States Synod, the Mission
Investment Fund, and the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America for their support of St. Paul’s
ministry.
Submitted by:
Rev. Dave Fulton
St. Paul Lutheran Church
Wichita, Kan.
August 26, 2008
“To
him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish
abundantly far more than all we ask or imagine, to him be glory.”
Ephesians 3:20-21 (NRSV)
|
