Year of Jubilee offering Q&A
From the office of President Mark Schroeder
Last week, the Conference of Presidents held its regular fall meetings in Milwaukee. Among the items on the agenda was the Year of Jubilee thank offering. The presidents are encouraging all congregations within their districts to participate during November and December, the months designated for the celebration. Many people, including some congregational leaders, still have questions about the offering. Here are answers to some of those common questions:
What is the Year of Jubilee offering?
The offering was authorized by the 2007 synod convention as a way to address our synod's $22.4 million debt. Every congregation and individual is being encouraged to participate in this offering.
How did the debt come about?
Most of the $22.4 million debt is capital debt that has been incurred as a result of various building and improvement projects over the last 12 years:
- building projects at synod schools during the amalgamation of Dr. Martin Luther College and Northwestern College in 1995;
- heating plant at Martin Luther College;
- science wing at Michigan Lutheran Seminary; and
- dormitory addition at Luther Prep.
About one-third of the debt is the result of expenditures exceeding support in the 2001-03 biennium.
Most of the $22.4 million was borrowed internally (from various synodical funds) and was being repaid in a variety of ways and at different interest rates. In the fall of 2007, the debts were all combined into a single synodical debt. This debt has a single interest rate and is to be fully repaid in ten years. The combining of all these into a single debt enables us to present a clear picture of the debt, and it also enables us to reduce the annual payments required.
Why is it important for us to reduce or eliminate this debt? How will this help?
There is nothing inherently wrong with borrowing or with debt. But the fact is that each year $2.7 million is budgeted for the repayment of this debt. The convention believed that this money would be better used if it were spent on opening missions and operating our ministerial education schools. If we can eliminate or significantly reduce the debt, dollars will be available to carry out ministry rather than making debt payments.
What is the timeline on the offering?
The offering will take place during November and December of this year, but congregations will have the ability to be flexible in how they carry it out. Some congregations are conducting the offering over four Sundays; others are having a single special celebration. Other congregations will start the offering this fall and continue to encourage and gather gifts over the next six months. The offering itself will end at the time of the synod convention in July 2009.
How will the gifts be gathered?
Congregations have been furnished with offering envelopes for every member. These can be gathered by the congregation and submitted to the synod. Individuals may also send their offerings directly to the synod or give a gift online. To access Year of Jubliee resources online, go to: www.wels.net/jubileeworship
How will this offering benefit our shared mission as a synod?
We pray that the elimination or reduction of this debt will enable those dollars now being used for debt service to be used to expand our efforts to proclaim the saving good news of Jesus Christ to the world. For every $100,000 saved, a new home mission can be established. Additional funds would enable our world missions efforts to be maintained and expanded. Additional funds would help to stabilize the funding of our ministerial education schools and to keep tuition costs from rising. In short, the less we have to dedicate to repaying our debt, the more we will have available to carry out our shared mission.
Why should I participate in this offering?
Our purpose and motivation in this offering is not simply to be free of debt. Our purpose is to unite in the faith and joy that God has given us in Christ, walking and working together to proclaim the gospel to more and more people. We gather this offering as a means of expressing our thanks to a God who has given sinners like us every reason to be joyful. We trust that God will bless these efforts conducted in his name and for his glory.
Serving in Christ,
Mark Schroeder
Filed Under: Christian Giving, donation, Finance, gift, jubilee, Year of Jubilee
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Compiled by WELS Communication Services
New BME administrator called
On Oct. 10, the Board for Ministerial Education (BME) called Rev. Paul Prange, president of Michigan Lutheran Seminary, Saginaw, to be the new BME administrator. Prange was called after the previous administrator, Rev. Peter Kruschel, took a call June 26 to be the mission counselor in the Pacific Northwest and Southwest.
"I was humbled by the confidence that my brothers on the BME were showing in me when they gave me this opportunity to deliberate," Prange says. "I ask for their prayers and their counsel."
Prange has served as tutor, professor, and president at Michigan Lutheran Seminary—one of the synod's two preparatory schools—and superintendent at East Fork Lutheran High School, Whiteriver, Ariz. He also served as pastor at Risen Savior, Austin, Tex., and St. Martin, Roscommon, Mich.
During his 14 years as MLS president, Prange has seen the Board for Ministerial Education in action. "I've thought about ways to improve its work," he says. "At the same time, I love my work at Michigan Lutheran Seminary and have no desire to leave."
Prange says he plans to consult with those involved in the work of the Board for Ministerial Education as well as Michigan Lutheran Seminary, and ask how he might meet the needs of each. "I would appreciate the prayers of every member of the synod," he adds.
Filed Under: BME, Ministerial Education
Seminary enrollment declines
Official enrollment for the 2008-09 school year at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, is 165 men—down 10 from last year's 175 students. According to President Paul Wendland, the seminary expected this decline.
"We knew already four years ago, even as we were looking at our high-water mark of 191 students, that we were going to be declining," says Wendland. Looking at the numbers at both the seminary and Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn., Wendland says the seminary projects that enrollment will continue to decline for the next four years and then stabilize. "So that means smaller classes and fewer pastors will be graduating," he says.
According to Wendland, the declining numbers are cause for concern even though WELS has a low percentage of pastoral vacancies (unfilled calls). "When you're talking about the vacancy rate, you're talking about maintaining the status quo," he says. "You're not talking about increasing any ministry. So when you see these declining numbers, you have to be concerned not only about having sufficient numbers of pastors to fill our pulpits; you also have to be concerned about whether we can be as aggressive as we want to be in growing congregational ministries and in expanding our home and world missions."
Although traditional student enrollment is down, Wendland says the seminary continues to experience growth in its Pastoral Studies Institute for non-traditional students. Eight are enrolled in the Cristo Palabra de Vida Latino training program and twenty in the Asian seminary satellite program. There are also three second career men enrolled, and two others are receiving theological training for their involvement in specialized ministries. "It's an encouraging and welcome blessing from our God," says Wendland.
For more updates from the seminary and the other WELS worker training schools, read the Four Schools report online: www.wels.net/jump/fourschools
Filed Under: BME, enrollment, Ministerial Education, Seminary, WLS
New Parish Assistance consultant
For the first time since August 2006, WELS Parish Assistance—which offers fee-based consulting services to help congregations analyze and improve their ministries—has three full-time consultants. Rev. Paul Kelm, who previously served as a Parish Assistance consultant from January 1998 to August 2004, accepted a call Oct. 14 to be the third consultant, a position that had been vacant for more than two years.
"We are just elated," says Rev. Bruce Becker, administrator for WELS Parish Services, the board that oversees the Parish Assistance program. "We will now be in a position to start accepting the requests for services from the congregations that have been waiting."
Becker says he's looking forward to working again with Kelm, who will be starting his consulting duties Nov. 1. "Paul has always been a fantastic consultant," says Becker. "He's also just come out of four years of parish ministry, which brought him back up to the realities of life in the parish—and that will only enhance his ability to serve as a consultant."
In addition to his previous experience as a Parish Assistance consultant, Kelm has also served as pastor at St. Mark, De Pere/Green Bay, Wis., and Faith, Pittsfield, Mass.; campus pastor, professor, and dean of students at Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee; administrator of WELS' Commissions on Evangelism and Adult Discipleship; project director of Spiritual Renewal, Milwaukee; campus pastor at Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel, Madison; and tutor at the former Dr. Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn.
"This call is something that I think matches my gifts and my personality," says Kelm. "And my years here at St. Mark, in a large parish, have helped to shape some of the ways in which I can help congregations as well. I did enjoy [serving as a consultant] and expect to again."
For more information about WELS Parish Assistance, visit www.wels.net/pa
Filed Under: Parish Assistance
Financial course for today’s economy
For the first time, a comprehensive personal financial course combining a spiritual focus with practical application is available for WELS members. Rev. Dave Kehl, co-author of the Heart in Focus course, says it is especially relevant given the country's current economic crisis.
"The recent stock market activity has made the urgency for this even greater," says Kehl, administrator of Adult Discipleship. "Individuals are saying, 'We need to know real, practical ways that we can deal with our finances.' "
This course is part of Adult Discipleship's Faith Focused Finances program, which was developed at the urging of the Synodical Council and Conference of Presidents to promote Christian stewardship on both the personal and congregational level. Resources include financial seminars for called workers and schools of stewardship for congregational leaders. Other interested lay people can participate—either individually or in small groups—through the Heart in Focus course, available for purchase through NPH.
Approximately 15 schools of stewardship and called worker seminars have been held over the past two years; Kehl says they are raising awareness of what it means to be stewards today and he hopes the Heart in Focus course will do the same.
"Our financial lives are oftentimes one of the bigger obstacles to our spiritual growth and our Christian living," says Kehl. "The bottom line is we want to help individuals grow in their faith—and I'm confident that is going to have a positive impact on what we do as a synod."
For more information about Faith Focused Finances—as well as details about leader training and workbooks available for the Heart in Focus course—visit www.wels.net/jump/faithfinance
Filed Under: adult discipleship, Faith Focused Finances, finances
First quarter budget figures in
Budget numbers from the first quarter of the synod's 2008-09 fiscal year are in—they show support of $8.4 million, which is $700,000 less than expenses of $9.1 million.
Results through September continue to point to a significant deficit for the fiscal year. The deficit was created when the convention added $2 million for Ministerial Education and $600,000 for World Missions to the budget proposed by the Synodical Council. While the buffer fund created by the fiscal year 2007-08 surplus should be more than adequate to fund the shortfall, Mr. Todd Poppe, WELS chief financial officer, points out that the ministries it is funding are ongoing and the buffer fund is one-time funding.
In his monthly Executive Summary, prepared for the Conference of Presidents and Synodical Council, Poppe says, "This use of one-time funding for ongoing ministries also enlarges the forecasted funding gaps for the next biennium and beyond."
One encouraging note in the report is that Congregation Mission Offerings, given by congregations for the collective ministry of synod, were up nearly $200,000 or 13.6 percent over the same month in 2007. The September increase partially reversed the downturn experienced for the months of June, July, and August.
Spotlight on Streams: parenting podcasts
Parents Crosslink, a parenting publication aimed at strengthening and encouraging Christian parents for the challenges of raising children in a secular world, now has podcasts available for download. Recent topics include parenting in the political season and tired teens. Listen to them on Streams.
Filed Under: Parents Crosslink, Podcast, Streams
