Stewardship
Invitation to include mission support in your congregation's budget
We believe Christ has freed us from sin, death, and even from ourselves, so we can love and serve our neighbors. One way we turn our faith into action is through stewardship – caring for and sharing the gifts we have been given, including our financial resources. By generous giving, we discover JOY in Christ, AND we serve our neighbors.
As congregations invite their members and participants to make financial gifts, offerings to support the congregation's ministry and other organizations, the Central States Synod invites congregations to share a portion of the offerings they receive to support the ministry we do together as the church. We share 50% of the mission support received from congregations with the whole church. Mission Support enables the ELCA's more than 8,900 congregations and 65 synods to pool resources to love and serve our neighbors in ways no individual or congregation can do alone. Mission Support is one way we are church together; it is essential to who we are as the ELCA. Through Mission Support, we expand our participation in God's life-changing work in our communities and around the world.
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Each year as you prepare your annual congregation's budget, we encourage you to include how much (either a proportion of regular giving or a set amount) in that budget. When you fill out your annual reports to the ELCA, there is a line to indicate how much you intend to give.
How do these gifts make a difference?
You can find stories about our work together in “Stories of Faith in Action” at ELCA.org/SOFIA.
You can also learn more about the ministries, programs, and missions of the Central States Synod at css-elca.org/walking-together.
Each fiscal quarter, the synod highlights one of the ministries that are possible with the help of mission support. View past Newsletters here.
We are here to help you nurture your congregations’ generosity and engage them in growing their financial giving, even as we invite our congregations to grow in their financial giving of mission support to the synod. You will find stories of the ministry we do together in our e-newsletters.
You can also contact one of our DEMs – Rev. Donna Simon or Rev. Aimee Appell
We can connect you with a stewardship coach – contact Rev. Dave Whetter
There are a number of excellent resources on the ELCA stewardship website.
And we invite YOU to share stories of generosity in your context so that they can witness to the joy of being faithful and generous stewards! - send your stories to communications@css-elca.org.
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