Stories of Faith
Stories of Faith in Action

How Mission Support Funds Ministry Across Our Church

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2021 Financial picture:
Where Does My Offering Go?

2021 Financial picture:
Where Does My Offering Go?

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How Your Offering becomes Mission Support

How Your Offering
Becomes Mission Support

Learn more

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Our Stories

All Places Together
The Rev. Colleen Hetrick has been a digital-first, progressive pastor in the ELCA for over nine years. Like many of us, Colleen felt her faith change during the pandemic. At that time Colleen was offering communion in parking lots, yards and other nonchurch spaces. “I was saying it in all places,” she says.
UP Wild Brings Worship Outdoors
Located in the town of Marquette in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, UP Wild Church is among the newest ministries in the growing movement of “wild” outdoor worship communities. The church holds its worship and prayer services outdoors and hosts nature walks, wilderness reflection and field trips to explore God’s creation amid the scenic beauty of the peninsula.
Lutheran Church of Rwanda Hopes New Seminary Can Support Growing Faith
The ongoing construction of Rwanda’s first Lutheran seminary is sparking excitement among church leaders, but with an important government deadline looming, that excitement has been coupled with anxiety.
A Kin*dom for Everyone
When Pepa Paniagua felt called to a job that didn’t exist, she set about creating it. What resulted was the “kin∙dom community,” a new approach to a term adopted nearly 40 years ago.
A Blessing for a Pastor
Yamilka Hernández Guzmán always loved education and had a talent for teaching. A psychologist in an oncology hospital in Cuba, she looked for answers to the daily struggle for life she witnessed. A patient suggested to her that knowing Jesus might help, and a friend who attended a nearby Lutheran church invited Hernández Guzman to join her at worship. Shortly thereafter, the congregation’s pastor asked Hernández Guzman to lend her teaching talents to a youth ministry.
A Ministry Sprung to Life
COVID-19 has meant many changes for many people: online school and worship, families balancing work with child care and, in too many instances, saying goodbye to loved ones.

How Mission Support Funds Ministry Across Our Church

Individuals and Families

Your Congregation

Your offering supports your congregation’s vital presence in your community. When your congregation votes to designate the percentage of your offerings it will share with your synod, your congregation is sharing Mission Support for ministries led by the wider church on your behalf.

Your Churchwide Organization

Your churchwide organization uses Mission Support dollars to lead and support ministry on behalf of the whole church. This includes starting and supporting new ELCA ministries, training leaders, sending missionaries and growing the Lutheran church around the world.

Your Synod

Your congregation’s Mission Support dollars are stewarded by your synod leaders to nurture and equip ELCA congregations and rostered ministers. Synods support area ministry partners (camps, colleges, seminaries and more) and build relationships with global-companion churches. Synods designate a portion of the Mission Support funds they receive from congregations to be shared with your churchwide organization for ministries across our church.

Individuals and Families

Your Congregation

Your offering supports your congregation’s vital presence in your community. When your congregation votes to designate the percentage of your offerings it will share with your synod, your congregation is sharing Mission Support for ministries led by the wider church on your behalf.

Your Churchwide Organization

Your churchwide organization uses Mission Support dollars to lead and support ministry on behalf of the whole church. This includes starting and supporting new ELCA ministries, training leaders, sending missionaries and growing the Lutheran church nationally and globally.

Your Synod

Your congregation’s Mission Support dollars are stewarded by your synod leaders to nurture and equip ELCA congregations and rostered ministers. Synods support area ministry partners (camps, colleges, seminaries and more) and build relationships with global-companion churches. Synods designate a portion of the Mission Support funds they receive from congregations to be shared with your churchwide organization for ministries across our church.

Where Does My Offering Go?

In 2021, through the generosity of ELCA members, $1.6 billion was shared in unrestricted offerings* to support God’s mission and ministry through the three expressions of the ELCA. Thank you for your support of the ministry we do together!

94.6% Congregations

$1.59 billion was stewarded by over 8,900 ELCA congregations and worshiping communities.

$90.8 million was shared by congregations with their synods as Mission Support.

3.0% Synods

$50.2 million in Mission Support was stewarded by the ELCA’s 65 synods.

2.4% Churchwide Organization

$40.6 million in Mission Support was stewarded by the ELCA churchwide organization.

*Unrestricted offerings do not include special offerings (e.g., congregational capital improvements or gifts to ministries such as Lutheran Disaster Response or ELCA World Hunger).

How Your Offering Becomes Mission Support

As Lutherans, we believe that Christ has freed us from sin and death, and even from ourselves, so that we can love and serve our neighbors. One way we turn our faith into action is by making a financial gift — an offering — to our congregation.

Each year, ELCA congregations pledge to send a portion of their offerings to fund ELCA ministries in their synods and beyond. We call these funds Mission Support.

Mission Support enables the ELCA’s more than 8,900 congregations and 65 synods to pool resources to love and serve our neighbors in ways that no individual or congregation can do alone. Mission Support is one way we are church together — it’s essential to who we are as the ELCA. Through Mission Support, we expand our participation in God’s life-changing work in our communities and around the world.