Walking Together

The word “Synod” means “Walking Together.” This special worship service celebrates our unity under God’s grace as revealed in his Word. But this year the service will also look ahead at what we pray can be done as a part of our Synod’s long-range plan. The theme of the service is Romans 15:4-6: “May the God who gives endurace and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We celebrate the unite we enjoy as part of the Wisconsin Synod. Think about some of the blessings we enjoy as part of the WELS that we would never be able to accomplish as a stand-alone congregation.

World Missions

·         Sponsors 37 missions in 23 mission fields

·         Operates 6 regional seminaries and 10 Bible institute programs

·         Mentors and assists 147 national pastors, 11 student pastors, 6 vicars and 200 evangelists

·         Ministers through called leadership to almost 85,000 souls

 

Home Missions

·         Has authorized the opening of 6 new missions since March 2011

·         Distributed a special $1 million gift from the Church Extension Fund to 6 mission churches to help accelerate the churches’ purchasing of land or the building/purchasing of worship facilities

·         Subsidizes 70 ministries including cross cultural ministries to the Hispanic, Hmong, Navajo, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Sudanese

 

Ministerial Education

·         Provides training for the ministry to well over 1,000 young people every year from high school through the postgraduate seminary program

·         Offers special programs for students who cannot attend school full-time

·         Provides continuing education programs for pastors, teachers, staff ministers and missionaries who are already serving people with the gospel

On November 11, we will celebrate our unity in the Synod by having the Lakeside Lutheran High School sing in both worship services. We will then do a one-day Bible study on the ministry and missions of the WELS and watch a special Walking Together video. Finally, we will celebrate Walking Together by sitting together at noon for a potluck meal. Please bring enough food to feed the Lakeside choir and their family before they go to Shoreland for the Choral Fest at 2:00 pm.

At our Epiphany voters meeting in July, we discussed increasing our congregation’s support of the Wisconsin Synod in our yearly budget. After some great discussion, it was decided to work at increasing our congregational support of the WELS by about ½% every year. However, it was also proposed to encourage our members to give directly to the support of the WELS in Epiphany’s name. You are able to do that anytime, but we are especially encouraging you to do that on November 11 with our Walking Together Sunday.

Please read the Walking Together brochure in your church mailbox. It doubles as an offering envelope. Place your offering in the special envelope and place it into the offering plate anytime this month, making checks payable to Epiphany Lutheran Church. At the end of the month, we will send a check for the total amount to the WELS.

Enjoying walking together with you,

Pastor Michael Zarling