Your mission support to the Minneapolis Area Synod supports projects, leaders, and churches around the synod. Thank you for your contributions!

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As part of the ELCA, we hold that our faith in a loving God frees us to be generous and to boldly participate in God’s work in the world. Mission Support — the portion of offerings that ELCA congregations share with synods and the churchwide organization — unites us in this vital, life-giving work. Your generous mission support brings congregations together so that we can live out God’s call to love our neighbor.

Mission Support provides 80 percent of the resources to enable the ELCA to begin new ministries and accompany 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, working for justice, and so much more.

The ELCA’s evangelical and missional witness invites and encourages generous giving through decisions and actions. God’s work of restoring and reconciling communities throughout the world continues because of your generous Mission Support.

Thank you!

We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; 2 for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, 4 begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints— 5 and this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us, 6 so that we might urge Titus that, as he had already made a beginning, so he should also complete this generous undertaking among you. 7 Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.

8 I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. 9 For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. 10 And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something— 11 now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means. 12 For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have. 13 I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between 14 your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. 15 As it is written,

“The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.”

2 Corinthians 8

Resources

  • 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 publication and resources found here help explain and answer questions about Mission Support and tell the story of those gifts in action.
  • Where Does My Offering Go?

Reflections

I feel so fortunate to have studied at Augsburg University. Through this past year of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been keenly aware of how important it is to connect to one another and find spaces to belong. One of those spaces for me was Augsburg’s Interfaith Scholars which focuses on reading text and reflecting on it. The last piece we read as a cohort was a story titled “Why I Make Sam Go to Church” from Anne Lamott’s book, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith.  

In this essay LaMott not only explains why she brings Sam to church, but also how her journey of self-discovery is intertwined with Sam’s experience. She summarizes why she makes Sam go to church: “The main reason is that I want to give him what I found in the world. … a path and a light to see by. Most of the people who have what I want, … — purpose, heart, balance, gratitude, joy – -are people with a deep sense of spirituality…They follow a brighter light than the glimmer of their own candle; they are part of something beautiful.” 

I feel as though I was part of something beautiful at Augsburg. My involvement in Augsburg’s Campus Ministry started about three months into my first semester. I found an instant connection to others, a sense of belonging, a home, which is my part of something beautiful.  

We worshipped and served alongside one another. We became family. My responsibility in this family of believers changed over time as I stepped into a student leadership role as a deacon. I served as a deacon in my sophomore year with three juniors who would not be returning the following year as leaders. The next faithful step was to enter the role of president, as the only returning student leader. It took some time to adjust into the new responsibility. Thankfully we’re allowed to make mistakes, as I know I made plenty!  

Through my entire journey, I have truly found this sense of being a part of something beautiful. We lean on each other to find purpose, heart, balance, gratitude, joy, and so much more. I truly don’t know where I’d be without my Campus Ministry family.  

 

Campus ministry is one of the many ways your mission support changes lives. Fifty cents of every dollar the synod office receives in mission support is shared with the ELCA Churchwide Organization. The ELCA has a presence at more than 180 state and private colleges and universities with cooperating congregations in campus ministry at an additional 400 campuses nationwide. You can learn more about ELCA campus ministry at LuMinELCA.org. 

Ian Heseltine is a member of the Minneapolis Area Synod Mission Table and recent alum of Augsburg University. 

Stewarding a garden is not a once-a-year action, it is not even a once-a-month or once-a-week action. In order to properly nurture a garden you have to water it regularly, set aside time to pull out weeds, keep your tools clean, prune damaged limbs, clear your garden of leaves, dead plants, and other debris, the list goes on. Stewarding a garden requires series of intentional, on-going acts of love and care in order to help new life flourish.  

When it comes to stewardship in the context of congregational involvement and generosity, the lens used in this garden analogy can be a helpful way to contextualize the call to steward our own communities. Emilie Bouvier, director of organizing for the Minneapolis Area Synod, notes the importance of expanding our idea about what stewardship means. She says, “It is tending, but it is also focused action and broader commitments. It helps us think about the bigger picture of what generosity and financial resources look like for our collective work.” 

Minneapolis Area Synod Bishop Ann Svennungsen’s first term election in 2012 was historic not only because it marked the first election of a woman as Bishop in any of the ELCA’s six Minnesota Synods, but also because of her unique vision for a synod deeply engaged in fostering just and healthy neighborhoods. In 2015, after some initial discussion and trialing of what it might look like for the synod to engage in the work it takes to build life-giving Christian communities, the synod’s organizing department was formed.  

“Christian congregations seek ways to live out God’s call to do justice in the world,” Bishop Ann explains. “We believe strongly in Micah’s words to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. We have good faith practices to help us walk humbly with God and to show compassion and love mercy. We struggle some with developing strong faith practices to help us to do justice and to build just and healthy neighborhoods. Congregational organizing helps people develop pragmatic skills that offer us a chance to be incarnational in our communities and work for real change on specific issues.” 

Meghan Olsen Biebighauser, congregational organizer for economic justice says, “Economic justice is essential for the synod to be working on because Jesus was constantly talking about the economic lives of communities and individuals. Jesus has lots to say about wealth and redistribution of resources. It’s liberating and difficult.”  

The synod’s organizing department is funded almost entirely through foundational grants, awards from governmental agencies like watershed districts, and special congregational gifts. This funding stream allows the organizers to be present in the public square and to build deeper networks with community organizations and philanthropic institutions in ways we would not otherwise be able to.  

Brenda Blackhawk, congregational organizer for racial justice, expands on the idea of stewardship as more than just giving financially. “Stewardship is more than just supporting financially, of course. Doing the work is another way that we contribute to creating God’s kin-dom on earth.” In the same way that successfully stewarding a garden is a combination of many steps, Blackhawk continues by saying, “Doing the work can look like taking the time and energy to learn and grow, then speaking up publicly for justice.”

Written by Kayla Zopfi