Providing for God's Mission in the 21st Century
Mission Support in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
As members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), we participate in God’s mission for the sake of the world.
A critical component to our participation in this mission is the financial gifts of the members of the ELCA. These offerings provide for the mission and ministries of the local congregation, as well as mission beyond the congregation.
We give offerings as a faithful response to God’s gracious presence in our lives. These offerings represent a portion of our income and financial resources. For many, the biblical understanding of a tithe, or 10% of one’s income, defines this giving. For some the percentage of giving may be lower, for others higher. Proportional giving is an important expression of Christian stewardship.
Mission support income is the lifeblood of the work that God does through
the ELCA.
Mission support is the portion of offerings that congregations share with synods and the churchwide organization for God’s mission beyond the local congregation.
These funds provide 80 percent of the resources to enable the ELCA to give priority to beginning new ministries and in accompanying existing congregations as growing centers for evangelical mission. These funds also provide the staff and resources for the development of new leaders, partnership with churches around the globe, alleviating poverty, work for justice and peace, and so much more.
Through mission support individuals and congregations provide the resources for the ELCA to support these major ministries and initiatives:
· ELCA World Hunger
· ELCA Disaster Relief
· ELCA seminaries and colleges
· ELCA and pan-Lutheran social ministry organizations
· ELCA campus and outdoor ministries
· ELCA Book of Faith
When members give designated gifts to these ministries, the gifts are in addition to what is provided through the undesignated gifts given through mission support.
The impact of an extended economic recession has affected the jobs and income of many, and total mission support income has declined. The ELCA also now faces the decision of some congregations to withhold or redirect mission support as an expression of their dissent from decisions made at the 2009 Churchwide Assembly. Together, this has caused significant impact on our shared mission as the ELCA.
From the time of its inception in 1988, the ELCA has been understood as one church in three interdependent expressions:
· Congregations
· Synods
· Churchwide organization
This interdependent relationship is consistent with how the mission and ministries of the ELCA are funded. As partners that share in the responsibility for carrying out God's mission, all three expressions share in the responsibility to develop, implement, and strengthen the financial support of this church. This support makes possible all that we do together as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The ELCA’s evangelical and missional witness in this time calls for more generous giving.
Congregations are encouraged to increase their mission support to at least 10% of their member giving. There are many congregations that already give this much or more and they are acknowledged as faithful steward leaders. New ministries and congregations in the ELCA are developed with the expectation that they will share at least 15% of their offerings for mission support. We understand that proportional giving is a faith practice of congregations, just as proportional giving is a faith practice of individuals.
Synods and the churchwide organization share the mission support resources given by members through congregations. The 2007 report of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Mission Funding, "Mission Flowing from God's Abudance," affirmed the principle established in the creation of the ELCA that synods would retain 45% of mission support from the congregations in the synod and share 55% with the churchwide organization for churchwide ministries. Synods that are at or above this percentage of sharing are gratefully acknowledged for their example in strengthening the ELCA capacity for mission.
As members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we do mission together through our financial giving. As Lutherans, we have a strong tradition of joining hands to do God’s work. We do God's work in ways that no individual, congregation, or synod can do alone. God’s mission through the ELCA continues. Our evangelical and missional witness as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is needed now more than ever.
To learn more, visit www.elca.org/missionsupport.