CEF Grants
The Board for Home Missions (BHM) Executive Committee has selected six mission congregations from a list of 20 requests to receive part of a $1 million grant to help with purchasing land or constructing a worship facility. The BHM received this one-time grant from the WELS Church Extension Fund in February.
The congregations include Peace in Jesus Vietnamese, Boise, Idaho; Spirit of Life, Caledonia, Mich.; Christ, Denver, Colo.; Amazing Love, New Lenox, Ill.; and Trinity, Woodbridge, Va. All these congregations currently worship in either a storefront or a rented facility.
“This gift helps these churches get to a point in their ministry more quickly than if they had to raise all the funds themselves,” says Rev. Keith Free, BHM administrator.
The recently approved mission in Moncks Corner, S.C., will receive assistance with the purchase of land and payments on the construction of a worship facility. “Moncks Corner is a mission church that will have land and a worship facility much sooner than the typical mission,” Free says. “While we know only the Holy Spirit builds the Church, we give thanks this new mission will have the opportunity almost from the get go to share the name of Jesus Christ from its own church rather than from a storefront.”
For more information on how you can be a part of the ministry of WELS Church Extension Fund, go to its Web site: www.cef.wels.net.
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GJ - I always smell a skunk when a WELSian starts with "while we know...." That is a good indication that the opposite thought will be expressed. Free is sufficiently ambiguous to keep us from discerning what he really meant.
It would be Biblical, Lutheran, and confessional to say, "Only the Word builds the church." I do not think there is room to say that the Word is enhanced by money and a building from the get-go.
WELS has been baptizing the Church Growth Movement for 34+ years by adding "through the Holy Spirit" or "the Holy Spirit in the Word." The main emphasis is the core thought, which is - "These congregations will grow faster by having buildings."
Given the brick and mortar spree funded by Schwan, the ELS and WELS should be bursting with new members at this point. In fact, the multiple-millions spent on congregational buildings, urged by Church and Change, pimped by Cornerstone, should have done the same for those parishes. In fact, they are choking on their debt.
