Tag Archive for: Together06032025

Teachers, staff ministers, vicars, and pastors assigned

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May is assignment month in our synod. Itā€™s a joyful time and an event to celebrate the assignment of called workers.

The Assignment Committee, composed of the Conference of Presidents, assisted by advisors from the ministerial education schools and administrators of the synodā€™s areas of ministry, met May 14 and 15 to assign teacher and staff ministry candidates from Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minn. The Assignment Committee carefully considered all requests for candidates and prayerfully matched those requests with the skills and training of the graduates. One hundred fifteen teacher candidates and four staff ministry candidates were assigned. Dozens of requests for candidates were not able to be filled, and many teaching vacancies remain. The Commission on Lutheran Schools continues to work directly with those schools that have vacancies.

The next week the Assignment Committee met at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, Wis. There the committee assigned 37 vicar candidates and assigned or re-assigned 29 pastor candidates. As was the case for teachers, many requests for candidates were not able to be filled, and the pastoral vacancy rate remains higher than we would want it to be.

View the complete list of Martin Luther College assignments and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary assignments online.

Despite the limited number of candidates, the assignment of these workers is a reminder of what a great blessing our ministerial education system is. It provides faithful and well-trained workers who will soon go into the harvest fields where God the Holy Spirit is sending them. Please remember these called workers in your prayers, and ask God to send more workers into his harvest field.

Serving with you in Christ,
WELS President Mark Schroeder

 

 

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WELS Christian Aid and Relief provides care through humanitarian aid grants

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To help carry out its ministry of compassion, WELS Christian Aid and Relief announced that it has approved $426,357 to support humanitarian aid projects in WELS mission fields throughout the United States and worldwide for fiscal year 2025-26.

ā€œThese grants are huge for our missions,ā€ shares Rev. Dan Sims, director of WELS Christian Aid and Relief. ā€œThey provide an opportunity to show compassion to those who are struggling and lead to many conversations about our compassionate Savior.ā€

The humanitarian aid projects supported by the grants take many forms, including health care for the sick and dying, borehole drilling to provide clean drinking water, food and warm clothing, school supplies for underprivileged kids, assistance for legal immigrants, scholarships for poor students, mosquito nets, and vocational training.

Amazing Grace, Amarillo, Texas, plans to use grant funds in multiple waysā€”providing school supplies to kids in need, delivering meals door to door in community neighborhoods, and helping feed those who are homeless.

Hans Thomford, pastor at Amazing Grace, says, ā€œThese grants help us to love our community and put ourselves and our new mission around even more people in need of Jesusā€™ love and forgiveness! The compassion net can really go a great distance with these funds.ā€

View a complete list of the humanitarian aid projectsĀ supported by WELS Christian Aid and Relief through your offerings.

To learn more about the work of WELS Christian Aid and Relief or to support its ministry, visit wels.net/relief.

 

 

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Taste of Missions 2025: Celebrating the gospel, sending new missionaries

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On Sat., June 14, WELS members are invited to gather at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, Wis., for Taste of Missions 2025ā€”a day to celebrate the spread of the gospel and the people called to share it.

At the center of the event is the 11:00 a.m. commissioning worship service, where five new missionaries will be formally sent out to serve in home and world mission fields. Itā€™s a powerful hour of praise and purpose that sets the tone for the entire day.

ā€œThis service is the highlight of the event,ā€ says Rev. Mark Gabb, administrator for WELS Home Missions. ā€œItā€™s a moment for all of us to gather, give thanks, and ask for Godā€™s blessing as these new missionaries begin their work.ā€

The men being commissioned at Taste of Missions this year are:

  • Mr. James Brandt, Asia-Oceania Team leader, Chiang Mai, Thailand
  • Rev. Jacob Borgwardt, Crossroads, Chicago, Ill.
  • Rev. Jacob Bitter, Pan de Vida, Garden Grove, Calif.
  • Rev. Ethan Schultz, Lamb of God, Williston, N.D.
  • Rev. Phillip Valdez, Abiding Savior, Killeen, Texas

After the service, attendees can enjoy ethnic cuisine from food trucks, live music from Latin American trio Elemencia, and fellowship with missionaries and mission supporters. Displays and activities for all agesā€”including a mission passport for kids and a high school poster contestā€”make this event an engaging experience for the whole family.

Afternoon presentations offer insights into mission fields around the world, including updates from Home and World Missions leaders and ā€œMoments with Missionariesā€ sessions. A live Q&A with the newly commissioned missionaries gives attendees the opportunity to hear directly from those stepping into new fields of service.

The entire event, including the commissioning service and afternoon presentations, will be livestreamed for those unable to attend in person.

General registration is $15 per person and includes food tickets. Children 13 and under attend for free. The worship service itself is free and open to all, with no registration required to attend.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to support mission work through the Taste of Missions offering. Two special projects this year include musical assistance grants for home mission congregations and theological education workshops for Nuer Sudanese leaders in Ethiopia. WELS Missions hopes to raise $20,000 in support of these efforts.

ā€œTaste of Missions is a time to celebrate what God is doing through his church,ā€ says Rev. Larry Schlomer, administrator for WELS World Missions. ā€œItā€™s a reminder that we are united in this workā€”and that each of us has a role to play in reaching the world with the gospel.ā€

Join the celebration. Send off the missionaries. Be part of the mission.

Visit tasteofmissions.com for full event details, to register, or to access the livestream.

 

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Looking at recent 175th anniversary events

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Last week, WELS Historical Institute hosted two events to commemorate the 175th anniversary of WELS.

On Wed., May 28, 2025, WELS Historical Institute hosted the WELSĀ 175thĀ anniversary dinner at Salem, Milwaukee, Wis., in celebration of the founding of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The original constitution for WELS was adopted on May 26, 1850. That adoption took place at the first synod convention, which was held in a small log cabin church at Salem Lutheran Church in Granville. WELS President Mark Schroeder and former President Karl Gurgel greeted the attendees. Prof. Joel Otto, chairman of WELS Historical Institute, gave the main address highlighting the blessings of Godā€™s grace to WELS through the years.

Then, on Sat., May 31, Rev. Jeremiah Gumm led a tour of the historic Union Cemetery. Union Cemetery was originally founded as St. Johannes Lutheran Cemetery in 1851 by St. John’s Lutheran Church (8th and Vliet) in Milwaukee. In 1865, it merged with the cemeteries of Grace (WELS) and Trinity (LCMS) of downtown Milwaukee. During the tour, Gumm shared the rich history of many early WELS founders and leaders interred there, including Rev. Johannes Muehlhaeuser, who helped select and purchase the grounds, as well as Rev. Johann Bading, Dr. Adolf Hoenecke, and Prof. John Schaller.

 

 

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Together Video – June 3, 2025

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Crossroads in Chicago, Ill., experienced a long pastoral vacancy, which ended on Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary’s call day when a graduating pastor was assigned to the church. Hear from members of the church as they share their hope about the future of the congregation’s ministry and from Jacob Borgwardt, the graduate who will be starting his full-time ministry there.

 

 

 

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