Thy Kingdom Come

Every Sunday in the Lord's Prayer we ask God to let “thy kingdom come.” With this petition we are asking for God’s Kingdom to grow numerically here on earth and spiritually within our hearts. Now we are actually seeing your prayers being answered as God's kingdom is growing at WLS and Epiphany. 

We have seen tremendous growth at Epiphany the past few years and especially this year. We have had 17 WELS members transfer their membership to Epiphany, 5 youth confirmations, 8 adult confirmations, 5 professions of faith, and 8 child and adult baptisms. We now have 349 confirmed members and 475 baptized souls at Epiphany. Plus, we have 171 students at Wisconsin Lutheran School. 78 of those are from Epiphany!

In our church and school we have seen tremendous blessings: Membership has increased; Communion attendance is up; school attendance is up; school finances have stabilized with the aid of Choice dollars; harmonious faculty; faithful pastors and leaders; etc.  

But with these blessings come challenges: If all of our members worshiped every Sunday (as God expects them to) our church would be full; many of the WLS classrooms are already full; church finances are tight; with the increase of students, we need more administrative help; with the increase of members, we are looking at pastoral assistance; School Choice has unlimited enrollment for the upcoming school year; etc.

These blessings and challenges present some exciting opportunities for us: We can reach even more children with the Gospel with the expansion of School Choice; we are looking at renting the Landmark Title Building on Grand Ave to increase space at the Middle School as a short term solution; we are examining the purchase of the 20 acres of the old Taylor Ave Boys Home property for building a one-campus school; we are studying the possibility of adding a vice principal to WLS and a retired pastor at Epiphany to help with shut-in visits, evangelism calls, etc.

Some questions are already being asked about these expansion plans, so here are a few answers:

• The cost to educate a child at WLS is $6400. A member pays only $1136 for the first child, $877 for the second child and $748 for the third child. Where does the rest of the money for education come from? It comes from church offerings. However, the reality is that our members have not made a strong commitment this past year to be in worship on a regular basis. That means that offerings are down. Our weekly worship attendance is 216 – less than 50% of our baptized souls.
• Both Epiphany and First Evan cut a total of $100,000 from their support of WLS this past year.
• There are some who are questioning the wisdom of being involved in School Choice. However, without those Choice dollars, we would not be talking expansion. Like so many of our other WLS grade schools, we would most likely be making the tough decisions about cutting staff, significantly increasing tuition, etc. 
• School Choice has allowed us to maintain the level of one teacher per grade, principal, school secretary, school janitors, etc., that we have grown accustomed to having. Choice dollars also allowed us this past year to raise the salaries of all of our teachers to where the Synod advises us to be. The combination of church offerings, school tuition and Choice dollars is allowing us to even consider expansion instead of contraction.
• Some may be concerned about School Choice filling up our classrooms. However, our largest class at WLS is the 7th grade class with 25 students. Only 2 of those are Choice and 2 are non-member. The rest are all members of Epiphany and First Evan. Our smallest class is 3rd grade. Without School Choice, there would only be 6 member children in that class. And then it would probably have been combined with another class. Smaller class sizes also mean more resources to sustain them.
• Limiting classroom sizes may sound nice, but the reality is that we are Lutheran School. We want as many children as possible to be surrounded all day long with God’s Word and Christian teachers who will guide these young people in their decision-making.
• We have 65 Choice students this year at WLS. 33 of those are member children. 32 are non-member. Not only is School Choice allowing us to reach more and different children with the saving Gospel, but it also is allowing many of our members to send their children to WLS, who might not have been able to afford it before. And we pray that a portion of the money they are saving on tuition is being given back to the Lord in their offerings for more expansion of the Lord’s Kingdom.
• All members, whether they have children in our school or not, are encouraged to walk through the classrooms at both the lower and middle schools. Children today do not learn the same way many of us did years ago – sitting in the same desk for every class. Our teachers like to have various areas in their classrooms to increase and develop a healthy learning environment. Only a few of our classrooms afford that kind of maneuverability.

God is presenting us with some fantastic blessings, challenges and opportunities at Epiphany and WLS! Now we need to decide what action we are going to take as a congregation on these blessings, challenges and opportunities that the Lord of the Church is putting before us.

“This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one’” (Matthew 6:9-13).