For six of the past seven years, Foundation Lutheran Church has been holding a soccer camp each summer on the school grounds where we hold our worship services. Soccer camps are not new. Soccer camps as outreach opportunities are not new.

Our goals are much bigger than soccer. This year, we hit our camp capacity of 60 kids, had over 30 (all local) volunteers, had three days of great weather, filled 1500+ water balloons, and so much more. Our camp teaches soccer skills, but also basic athletic movements, teamwork, sportsmanship, and – most importantly – Jesus. We want every kid to leave every day with the simple truth that God loves them and Jesus saved them.

After six years, we have parents who sign their kids up as soon as registration opens. We have excited and eager kids for our camp. But we don’t want the opportunity with those families to end when camp ends, especially since on average 25% of the families that come don’t have a church home. We want to get to know them and share with them the Good News of a Savior who loves them. That’s why we bribe them with ice cream!

Our last camp session ends on Wednesday morning, but we invite all of the parents to come back with their kids that evening. The kids showcase some skills they learned, play a couple of short games, and then head into the school gym for ice cream. We show our soccer camp video with highlights from the week and encourage parents to watch it and share it from our YouTube page (@foundationlutheranchurch). We sing a song for the parents that we learned at camp. And – most importantly – we share the reason for all that we do: Jesus. We want the parents to hear the Good News that their kids heard that week. We want them to know that God loves them, that Jesus saved them, that there is no baggage too heavy for their Savior to shoulder and no pit he can’t rescue them from. We want to send the kids home singing a song about God’s love for them. We invite them to come back any Sunday.

This year, over 150 kids, parents, grandparents and siblings packed the gym for our “closing ceremony” and ice cream. More than 20 Foundation members came to serve ice cream, mingle with the families, get to know them, and invite them to learn more about Jesus with us. We don’t want the opportunity to end just because soccer camp ended.

Last year, one family came to worship the following Sunday. A few weeks later, the mom invited a friend to come with her. Two months later, they both went through classes to become members. From this one connection, three girls were baptized. God-willing, two of those girls will start Confirmation classes this fall to continue to grow in faith.

That is why we mingle and meet, why we intentionalize inviting these families for a next step.

Because this is about a lot more than soccer.

Written by Rev. Steven Prahl, home missionary at Foundation Lutheran Church in Peyton, Colo.

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As a new mission start, you ought to be focused on outreach, right? Yes, but there’s more to it than that.

In our first few years as a mission, we focused heavily on outreach. We held kids’ events, we organized other events, we piggy-backed off of community events, we canvassed, and I went to just about every community networking event that I could find. And this was good. It was extremely beneficial because we met a lot of people and had opportunities to invite someone to come hear the gospel and even opportunities to share the gospel then and there.

Before I write the rest of this, I want to say that we will continue to keep doing this outreach. It is important.

But, outreach is not the only thing that a mission church should be paying attention too and, as we would come to find out, our in-reach directly impacted our outreach.

Between 2020-2022, Sure Foundation grew relatively fast. Adding roughly 50 people within those years that came from a variety of backgrounds. Some of these additions were WELS transfers (people moving to South Dakota from other places of the country); some of these additions were adult confirmands; and a few of these additions were new births.

This was an amazing blessing and exciting times, especially for a new church. However, there was a struggle that came along with this growth. The core group of people that started this church, that had gotten to know each other really well, didn’t have the same sort of friendships with this mass of new people that had come into the church. What were we to do?

Well, we continued to do outreach, but we started to make a focused effort on in-reach. Lots of fellowship opportunities were offered – many, many potlucks. New members were slowly integrated into volunteering efforts. And do you know what happened? Relationships began to form. People knew each other’s’ names. They had shared experiences and familiarity with each other. The overall vibe (to use young person’s slang) of the congregation improved and prospects/visitors could feel this.

Here’s an example. . . Bob and Virginia started visiting worship sometime in the spring of 2023. Later that Fall, they took our Faith Builders Class and became members. At one point I asked them, what was it about Sure Foundation that they valued? They responded quickly saying two things: 1) they know that what they are receiving on Sundays is the Word of God and they didn’t have to doubt that, and 2) they felt like they were welcomed into a family, that people of this church genuinely enjoyed being together.

That warms a pastor’s heart, but it’s one thing to say that, it’s another thing altogether to mean it. Bob and Virginia meant it. They invited their family to come too. They loved their church and they couldn’t imagine not inviting their loved ones to come and hear the Word of God and experience the fellowship of a body of believers. Their invite led to two teenagers being baptized and two adults being confirmed. Praise be to God!

Their story has taught me something and that is that outreach is important, friendship evangelism is crucial, and also, that the love expressed in fellowship within a congregation has a bigger impact than you may ever realize.

Written by Rev. Craig Wilke, home missionary at Sure Foundation Lutheran Church in Brandon, S.D.

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