“Calling” is one of the four priorities outlined in the synod’s “Christ through us” long-range strategic plan (along with “Culture,” “Congregations,” and “Commission”).

For our synod to carry out its mission faithfully, we need an adequate number of well-trained pastors, teachers, and staff ministers to teach and proclaim God’s Word in our congregations, schools, and mission fields. That need has become more acute in recent years as we are experiencing a significant shortfall in the number of called workers available to serve.

So it comes as no surprise that “Calling” has been identified as one of the priorities of our synod as we plan for the future.

The “Calling” priority has five main components. With God’s help, we will:

1. Expand pathways to ministry. Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn., and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, Wis., will be examining how we can provide new ways for future pastors, teachers, and staff ministers to enter ministry. Some of those things are already being done. At Martin Luther College, we are already attempting to recruit WELS members who are serving in public schools. Such people already have a teaching degree; MLC provides the instruction needed to become ministry certified in WELS. Other WELS people may have degrees in other fields. We will develop ways to provide them with the educational skills needed to teach, along with the instruction needed to become ministry certified.
2. Innovative recruitment efforts. We will be looking at ways to improve and expand our efforts to recruit traditional students for entry into Martin Luther College. Those efforts will likely expand the current practice of school recruiters meeting with high school students by specifically working with current called workers and congregations to expand recruitment efforts.
3. Ensure ministerial education stability. We will look for ways to ensure that our synodical schools remain on a firm financial foundation and to enlist our members in working toward that goal.
4. Establish a sustainable strategy for called worker development. We will look at how best to deploy the workers that we have now, exercising the best stewardship in how and where we use them.
5. Support called worker well-being. Having spiritually and physically healthy called workers ensures that they will be able to cope with the challenges and pressures of ministry, thus reducing the number of called worker resignations. We will find ways to help congregations provide the best support and encouragement possible.

Of course, we can make our plans. But in the end, it is only with God’s blessing that these plans will bear fruit.

Serving with you in Christ,
WELS President Mark Schroeder

On Oct. 20, Mrs. Mary Heckendorf, Mr. Samuel McKenna, and Rev. Mark Schroeder were installed as ministry recruitment counselors during chapel at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, Wis.

The ministry recruitment counselors will work alongside pastors, teachers, staff ministers, parents, and lay leaders to help them actively recognize gifts in others, share information about ministerial education, and keep gospel ministry top of mind for WELS youth. This initiative aligns with the “Calling” priority of the long-range strategic plan, which focuses on producing more workers for a growing harvest.

Each ministry recruitment counselor has a unique background that will help shape his or her efforts. Heckendorf has served as both a WELS and public school teacher. McKenna is retired from the military and was a recruiter for the Marines and the National Guard. Schroeder most recently served as pastor at Peace, Gilbert, Ariz., and has also taught at Michigan Lutheran Seminary, Saginaw, Mich., and Luther Preparatory School, Watertown, Wis.

Their efforts are critical as WELS faces declining birth rates. “2024 was the fifth year in a row that we have more deaths than births in our synod,” notes McKenna. “So it’s important that we find different places and new ways to encourage people to be called workers—pastors, teachers, staff ministers, and missionaries.” Hear more from the counselors about the importance of these positions.

Charlie Vannieuwenhoven, who will begin serving as administrator of WELS Board for Ministerial Education in January, will help guide the efforts of the ministry recruitment counselors.

“Working to increase our recruitment efforts will be an immediate focus,” says Vannieuwenhoven. “The ministry recruitment counselors will play a big role in these efforts. Working with them to help understand their role and see how they can best go about their work will be one of my first priorities.”

Learn more about the ministry recruitment counselors.

Learn more about Charlie Vannieuwenhoven, new administrator of WELS Board for Ministerial Education.

The Conference of Presidents (COP) met Oct. 7–9 at the Center for Mission and Ministry (CMM) in Waukesha, Wis., to discuss the following areas:

• Pastoral vacancies: The tally of pastoral vacancies includes 148 parish vacancies and 162 total vacancies for pastor-trained men. This represents a vacancy rate of just under 12 percent. The ideal vacancy rate is 6 to 8 percent. Larger classes from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in the coming years will provide some relief for the shortage, but recruitment of candidates for the pastoral ministry needs to be emphasized in our congregations.
• Theology curriculum: The COP provided guidance to the team that is developing the new K-12 theology curriculum (replacing Christ-Light), noting that the materials should be available in multiple translations (New International Version and Evangelical Heritage Version) like the Small Catechism is.
• Assignments: The Assignment Committee will meet via teleconference on Dec. 15 to assign mid-year graduates from Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn. The COP resolved that it would no longer assign tutors at the synodical schools (Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Martin Luther College, Luther Preparatory School, and Michigan Lutheran Seminary) for a third year, unless exceptional circumstances require it.
• Retirement advice: The COP will be developing written advice for called workers who are nearing retirement. Ideally, the district president will meet with these workers to help them prepare for retirement.
• WELS 175th anniversary: The COP is encouraging all WELS congregations to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the synod this fall. Worship materials are available in The Foundation, a worship resource provided by Congregational Services.
• Calls: Michael Ewart, pastor at St. Peter, Appleton, Wis., was called to serve as a Christian giving counselor in the Northern Wisconsin District.
• Congregation Mission Offerings: Congregation Mission Offerings continue to be strong. The COP is thankful to congregations and members for their generous support.

This was the first in-person meeting of the Conference of Presidents since the synod convention this summer, where delegates elected three men to serve in the synod presidium: Joel Voss as first vice president, John Bortulin as second vice president, and Tyler Peil as recording secretary. The first and second vice president serve as voting members of the Conference of Presidents and as advisors to the Synodical Council. The recording secretary serves as an advisory member of the Conference of Presidents. All three of these synod offices are part time.

As part of the meeting, Peil was installed into his new role as recording secretary at the CMM’s weekly chapel service. Voss and Bortulin had been installed during the closing service at the synod convention.

Read more about the new synodical officers and learn more about the COP.

The synod’s recently adopted long-range strategic plan, entitled “Christ through us,” establishes four main priorities for the next ten years. Those priorities are

• cultivating a gospel-driven culture,
• strengthening WELS’ backbone in congregations,
• bringing Christ to the nations as our commission, and
• living up to our calling to produce workers for a growing harvest field.

In this issue of Together, we focus on the second priority: strengthening WELS’ backbone in congregations.

Your congregation is a part of the vital foundation that supports our shared gospel ministry efforts. WELS congregations are where the light and truth of God’s saving gospel is proclaimed to members and where God’s truth is shared with people in the community. And, just as important, through their mission offerings, congregations support the proclamation of the gospel around the world and in newly planted congregations in the United States and Canada. Congregations are also places where members identify and encourage young people to consider preparing for a lifetime of service in the public ministry.

For all these things to happen, we need to encourage WELS members to be actively and personally engaged in the life and work of their congregation. Our goal is to better equip all members to embrace their God-given role in Christ’s mission. Members will be encouraged to view their friends and neighbors as their personal mission field and their homes as places where children are led by parents to know and serve their Savior. To succeed in equipping our lay members to carry out these tasks, we intend to provide congregations with the necessary resources to enable all members to serve their Savior and his mission joyfully and confidently according to their gifts and talents.

Beyond encouraging WELS members in our congregations, our goal is to continue to help congregations enhance their ministry efforts. That can happen in a number of ways. Maybe a congregation in a changing setting can adjust its ministry plans to reach people more effectively. Perhaps a congregation can re-evaluate the mission and sustainability of its elementary schools and early childhood ministries. Some congregations will explore collaboration or even merger with other congregations to expand efforts to reach more people with the gospel.

And, of course, when we talk about congregations, we also refer to the new home mission congregations that God will enable us to plant. One of the key strategic elements of our mission planting will be to prioritize starting new congregations—outposts for gospel proclamation—in places where our confessional Lutheran voice is not yet present. Read more about the seven new home missions that were recently approved.

But mission efforts really begin in the home as the first mission field. We recognize that the high school and college years are when many of our young members are tempted to drift away from congregational life and worship. The more that parents lay a firm foundation of faith in the home, the more our young adults will stay connected to the Savior, to worship, and to their congregations.

It all starts in the home with faithful, God-fearing parents. It continues in the congregation as the gospel works in people to strengthen their faith. And then, as we work together to take the saving message to more people in new places, God will work through us to build his church.

The “Christ through us” plan depends on all of us. We encourage you to read more about the plan—and how you can be part of it—at christthroughus.net.

Serving with you in Christ,
WELS President Mark Schroeder

The delegates to the convention in July adopted a new long-range strategic plan entitled “Christ through us.” This plan outlines the priorities of what we as a synod and as congregations have adopted for the next ten years. This plan was adopted not as a “top down” directive of what the synod will do and how we will conduct our ministry. Rather, it is an outline of the prayerful priorities and goals we have as we work together to carry out the mission that God has entrusted to us.

The title of the plan, “Christ through us,” emphasizes the focus and center of this plan, which is completely on Christ and on what he has done for us and for a world of sinners. But it also emphasizes the truth that God in his grace has chosen to work through us, his people and his ambassadors. The plan, which you will hear more about in the coming months, has four basic components: culture, congregations, commission, and calling.

• When addressing culture, the plan stresses the importance of developing a culture in our congregations in which all our members recognize that they are Christ’s ambassadors, each with the personal privilege and responsibility of communicating the message of Christ to the people they know. It will guide us as we work to make our congregations places where people are welcomed and participate in the life and work of the congregation.
• When addressing congregations, we will work to engage all members in the mission and ministry of the church. We will provide support and resources for ministry enhancement efforts in congregations. We will work to expand the synod’s gospel outreach through strategic church planting. We will elevate the home as the first mission field and provide sound Lutheran resources in discipleship, worship, outreach, and planning.
• When addressing commission, we will foster international ministry partnerships to expand the gospel’s reach. We will equip a global missionary force, not only by sending WELS missionaries but also by training pastors and evangelists from global sister churches and establishing confessional Lutheran seminaries in key global locations. We will foster robust mission collaboration with church bodies in full doctrinal fellowship with WELS. We will expand multi-language mission efforts and explore mission work in high-risk and unreached areas.
• When addressing calling, we will address the shortage of called workers by carefully expanding pathways into gospel ministry. We will establish innovative recruitment efforts for future called workers. We will maintain the long-term stability of our ministerial education schools. We will adopt a strategy for the professional development of called workers and will support their spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being.

The “Christ through us” plan depends on all of us. We encourage you to read more about the plan at christthroughus.net.

Serving with you in Christ,
WELS President Mark Schroeder