Areas of Ministry
Adult Discipleship
Adult Discipleship assists congregations and called workers in helping individuals grow in their relationship with Jesus and become better equipped to use their unique gifts to bring Christ’s love and the gospel message into all their daily relationships and activities.
Campus Ministry
WELS Campus Ministry, a ministry of WELS Home Missions, provides resources, support, and encouragement to WELS congregations that serve college students around the United States and Canada. These congregations are vital in connecting college students with fellow Christians, strengthening their faith with the gospel message, and encouraging them to share that faith with other college students. The WELS Campus Ministry Committee currently provides about 30 campus ministries with financial support and assists hundreds of other congregations in their campus ministry outreach.
Christian Aid & Relief
Christian Aid and Relief provides disaster relief and humanitarian aid to people around the world who have been devastated by natural disasters and other tragedies. The committee also helps individuals with catastrophic medical and personal needs.
Christian Giving
WELS Ministry of Christian Giving encourages members to excel in the grace of giving and assists them in making planned gifts to support the gospel ministry of their congregations, synod, and WELS agencies.
Congregational Services
This group provides training, resources, and a unified team approach to identifying the needs of congregations and their leaders. The group works closely with Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and Martin Luther College to deliver continuing education to called workers. The group comprises Adult Discipleship, Congregational Counseling, Evangelism, Lutheran Schools, Special Ministries, Worship, and Youth and Family Ministry.
Congregational Counseling
The Congregational Counseling Commission was established by the Conference of Presidents to provide short-term assessment and advice to congregations seeking to identify ways to improve their ministry.
Evangelism
This commission assists congregations to seize opportunities the Lord provides to evangelize lost souls by developing and promoting evangelism resources and by promoting evangelism attitudes, structures, and programs consistent with Christian doctrine.
Home Missions
WELS Home Missions plants new churches and assists mission-minded congregations in the United States, Canada, and English-speaking West Indies. Home Missions currently supports 144 congregations with financial subsidy or district mission board/mission counselor assistance, with 29 of those being cross-cultural mission congregations. Home Missions also provides over 45 campus ministries with financial support, while assisting hundreds of other congregations that serve college students around the United States and Canada.
Inter-church Relations
The WELS Constitution charters the Commission on Inter-Church Relations (CICR) to “serve under the Conference of Presidents by representing the synod in doctrinal discussions with other church bodies who are, or are not, in fellowship with the synod in order to ‘extend and conserve the true doctrine and practice of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.’ ”
To carry out our calling, the CICR meets regularly with representatives from various sister churches in the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference for information sharing and mutual encouragement. The CICR also assists individuals and churches that are seeking to take confessional Lutheran stances.
The CICR maintains a Lutheran churches periodical reading list and visits several conventions to stay abreast of happenings in the Lutheran world.
Lutheran Schools
This commission guides and assists congregations in advancing the gospel of Jesus by providing resources, training, and personal assistance for starting and strengthening WELS schools.
Military Services
This committee provides spiritual services to WELS members and others who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. The committee carries out its mission through a ministry-by-mail program, a full-time civilian chaplain in Europe, and a national civilian chaplain and liaison to the military.
Ministerial Education
WELS Ministerial Education works to provide workers for the more than 1,200 churches and 750 schools in the synod. WELS provides this education through a system of four schools: two high-school-level preparatory schools, a college, and a seminary.
Multi-Language Publications
Multi-language Publications (MLP), an arm of WELS World Missions, has produced more than 2.9 million print items, audio and video resources, and online training resources in more than 52 languages to date. Through these resources MLP can assist and enhance outreach for all churches, especially in places where WELS does not have resident missionaries. The majority of MLP products are evangelism and Bible Study materials to be used by anyone who sees a need for ministering to others in Christ.
Special Ministries
Special Ministries offers spiritual and practical guidance and training to congregations and individuals as they share God’s love to those with special needs or in special circumstances.
World Missions
WELS World Missions conducts and encourages gospel outreach in 46 countries and is exploring outreach opportunities in 19 prospective new mission fields. World Missions brings the light of God’s Word to the world through evangelism efforts, church planting, training national workers for ministry, and providing religious materials in foreign languages through Multi-Language Productions (MLP). 47 world missionaries partner with over 500 national pastors to conduct outreach and train more than 400 students for service in Christ’s kingdom.
Worship
The commission assists congregations by encouraging worship that glorifies God and proclaims Christ’s love. It provides the following resources and training: a national worship conference, preaching resources, various publications like the Christian Worship hymnal, and worship enrichment workshops.
Youth and Family Ministry
This ministry encourages and assists congregations and parents as they nurture our future church leaders in the Word from birth through high school by providing resources, encouragement, and training.
Synod Administration
Communication Services
This group is responsible for clear and consistent communication of the synod’s mission to its members and nonmembers who are interested in learning more about WELS through vehicles like Forward in Christ magazine, WELS Connection videos, Together e-news, and this website.
Conference of Presidents
The Conference of Presidents, one of the two primary leadership groups in WELS, is responsible for encouraging and equipping WELS to carry out its mission of sharing Christ’s love with the world.
Financial Services
Financial Services prepares and provides accounting and financial information and services that support and serve WELS ministries. This is done by providing timely, accurate, and complete financial statements, reports, and analyses; providing effective and efficient financial services and operations.
Human Resources
Human Resources oversees the personnel functions for the WELS national office in Milwaukee. It also assists synod leaders, ministerial education schools, and congregations in addressing called worker care issues such as compensation, tax information, and relocation counseling.
Joint Mission Council
The Joint Mission Council (JMC) facilitates the mission work of WELS Joint Missions. The JMC is made up of called and lay member representatives from Home Missions, World Missions, and Ministerial Education (specifically Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary).
Synodical Council
This group is responsible for managing the activities of the synod that are determined by the synod in convention. These responsibilities include overseeing and evaluating all programs of ministry carried out by the synod and coordinating the execution of decisions made by the synod in convention.
Technology
The Technology office seeks to share Christ’s love by helping others make the best use of technology tools today. Technology provides a strong technical infrastructure; security and quality management for synodical data and information; tools and structure for the WELS website.
WELS Archives
The archives are the official repository for records of historical value created by and about WELS, its congregations and called workers, and related parasynodical organizations and institutions. Its mission is to offer a useful information service to WELS called workers and congregations.
OUR HISTORY
From Germany to Wisconsin, learn about the history of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.
OFFICIAL REPORTS
Get all the synod information you need through WELS’ official reports.