I had met Jay earlier that year in the fall when he came to a Bible study on the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater campus. He was a charismatic, funny, frustratingly intelligent young man with many questions. Hard questions. Questions that took time, energy, nuance, and well . . . time. Jay was a Christian sponge, soaking up every drop of truth he could. He hadn’t grown up Christian. His parents were immigrants from India and practiced a nominal, cultural Hinduism. In God’s Word, he found answers to the biggest questions of life—answers that were not to be found in the worldview of his upbringing.

These answers, however, came with a cost. According to Jay, Baptism was off the table—his family would view this as an unforgivable betrayal of their culture and possibly disown him. Even without being baptized, consistent contact with God’s Word confronted Jay with a sobering truth: Jesus will not share worship with another. Jay knew he could no longer worship with his parents, brother, and grandfather. Even going through the motions would be dishonest. So he didn’t. This caused a rift between him and his family, including his grandfather, a man whom Jay deeply loved and respected.

A few months into the school year, Jay stayed after Bible study to ask questions like normal, but this question was different. This question wasn’t about the difference between Catholic and Lutheran concepts of salvation or the Bible’s teaching on the purpose of secular government. With enough theological training, these questions can be answered well. This question, however, was far more difficult:

“Is it really worth it, Pastor?”

How ironic that Jay’s most devastating question was the only one that could be answered with a single word. “Yes.” After some shared tears, a woefully ineloquent stammering from me, and an embrace between brothers, Jay walked back to his dorm that night. And he came back. He learned over time that he was not alone in his pain. Many Christians before him had met searing rejection and opposition of their closest loved ones for the sake of Christ. During months of meetings, questions, and searching, the Holy Spirit was enlightening him. Jay was baptized into the great family of believers.

His story isn’t over. Not by a long shot! He admits he has much to learn and much to unlearn. He continues to pay the price of discipleship. He continues to grow in the Word and often brings his friends along for the ride. He is a Christian: chosen and destined for glory. On the Last Day he will have many painful sacrifices to lay at Jesus’ feet. In that final, precious moment, when the Lord proclaims, “Well done,” Jay will rediscover what he’s known all along.

He really is worth it.

Written by Samuel Schulz, pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Whitewater, Wis.

There tends to be so much focus on the “launch service” when you’re starting a brand-new church. Over the past 15 months, it felt like I was constantly pointing people forward to September 28, 2025. When planting a church, the outreach and preparation leading up to that big Sunday is a key focus of ministry. So, how do you invite people to a church plant’s launch service? What does outreach leading up to launch look like?

We at Living Stone Lutheran Church in Conway, Ark., decided to take a scattershot approach. As we continually learned more about our new community, we sought to find creative and effective ways to form relationships and connections with new faces. Although a new name, brand, logo, and new website are a huge part of marketing for a new congregation, our marketing consultant (Grace Ungemach with Lutheran.marketing) helped us figure out some great ways to carry out these pre-launch outreach efforts. When we met with Grace to figure out our pre-launch strategy, she walked us through a marketing model called the “buyer’s journey.” The conclusion we came to wasn’t all that novel. The best way for people to learn about a brand-new church in town is to have genuine conversations with us. The best way for someone to want to come check out Living Stone for worship is to interact with those people long before our launch ever came to be.

So, we came up with a number of outreach strategies. Of course, personal connections and friendships formed in the community have been the best ways to show Christ’s love. Still, on a corporate level, we came up with a few ideas. First, we held Food Truck Night three nights this summer. The goal of Food Truck Night was to make connections and introduce Living Stone to our community. Food Truck Night was an outdoor gathering with three food trucks, a bounce house, live music, yard games, and lots of fellowship! We were blessed with an average of more than 100 in attendance for each Food Truck Night. We were also able to hold a school supply giveaway to serve families in our community in late July. In August, we put up booths at various community events, such as a popular market that a local coffee shop created and a community outreach event at freshman welcome week at the University of Central Arkansas. In August and September, we were blessed to canvass hundreds of homes. We also held a three-week paper bag food drive that allowed us to connect with our neighbors and show love to those struggling with food insecurity in our county. Finally, we sent more than 9,000 postcards through a mass mailer and ran multiple Instagram and Facebook ads. All these efforts joined together to form our pre-launch outreach. Much of it seemed like throwing paint at a wall. Plenty of times, I found myself asking, “Is this effort worth it? Will this be fruitful?”

This past Sunday, September 28, 2025, Living Stone finally held its official launch worship service! The Lord blessed us with 96 souls in attendance. It was wonderful to have so many people there to encourage us, celebrate that big day, and most importantly, hear the gospel of forgiveness of sins through Jesus! As I looked out at the group of people in front of me, I thanked God that the faces I saw came from all sorts of avenues. Some came from our mass mailer. Some came from our food drive. Some we had seen again and again through our Food Truck Nights and personal contacts. Some saw our ads online, and some just came because they were friends and family of our members.

I think there’s a better analogy for our pre-launch outreach efforts besides “throwing paint at the wall.” We were sowing seed. We scattered and sowed that seed and let the Lord Jesus take care of the rest.

Written by C.J. Fury, home missionary at Living Stone Lutheran Church in Conway, Ark.