Pentecost 4 (5)

Matthew 9:35–10:8 NIV84

35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” 1 He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. 5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

Our synod is promoting a ten year program known as 100 missions, 75 enhancements, 10 years

Dear Friend, Who would have thought? Just a few short years ago, WELS Home Missions was tossing around the idea to increase awareness of Home Missions among WELS members. That conversation blossomed into what we now know as 100 Missions in 10 Years, an initiative to plant 100 new home mission churches and enhance 75 existing ministries from 2023-2033. As the senior director of missions operations for WELS, I’m blessed to be involved in many of these ministry conversations. What’s different about this effort is the way in which it was so quickly embraced by our church body at our 2021 synod convention. Despite the known challenges, we move forward in faith. WELS members have already participated in a big way. We are grateful that people like you have prayed and made gifts. Fast forward to March 2023, and the first of the new 100 home missions were approved. From Boston, Mass., to Idaho Falls, Idaho, nine new mission starts were approved for funding along with six ministry enhancements (you can view these home mission starts and enhancements at wels100in10.net). That’s a significant first step in our continuing effort to establish more outposts for the gospel here in the United States. Those new starts, along with the 140-plus existing home mission churches, will be places where members can invite family and friends to hear the good news about Jesus! Praise God for his power and blessings! That’s a whole heap of new opportunities for people to share their faith, just like Pastor Carl Leyrer did with me back in 1981. I was looking for a church and was struggling with my relationship with God. Pastor Leyrer invited me to come in and talk with him, which eventually turned into an invitation to join him for worship, which turned into attending Bible Information Class, and finally led to me being confirmed as an adult on March 27, 1983. That’s the reason we have WELS congregations scattered around the U.S., and that’s why we need to keep looking for new locations to plant churches—to share God’s message of salvation with the lost, just like it was shared with me so many years ago. Please prayerfully consider giving a gift to support this ongoing effort. This is just the beginning; I can’t wait to see what God will do next—especially knowing that he is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). In Christ’s service, Mr. Sean Young Sr. Director of Missions Operations

Outreach minded WELS members and leaders recognize that even though the United States is perceived as a Christian nation, there is a growing number of people in our nation that are unchurched or who fail to participate in the church in which they claim membership. This new program would attempt to start up mission congregations in strategic areas so more of the map can be covered than is currently within reach of existing congregations. One of them is relatively close to home in Kronnenwetter.

I think this also serves as an encouragement for our existing congregations whether they be a new mission or over 100 years old to be more intentional in doing mission work in their own backyard. Does it not concern us that on paper our congregation is much larger than it is in reality? Look at the statistics. (See numbers for St. Paul and Grace). Although some of those people have moved on to other churches and not taken the initiative to clarify their membership, we all know that there are others who regard themselves as members here who seldom if ever participate in their congregation in any way.

One priority has to be ways that we can reintroduce our own members to the Gospel ministry that has been going on here for decades and which at one time they themselves had more involvement it.

A second priority should be to extend ourselves out of our own comfort zones and use the networks that we have to push the conversation about Jesus and how our congregation relies on him.

I recall how a fellow classmate of mine who was assigned to an outreach exploratory mission in 1986 to Everett, WA did this in a creative way. For the first year of an exploratory, the congregation does not worship on Sunday mornings but holds Bible classes during the week instead so they can concentrate on outreach. So Pastor Steve Soukup decided to join a local softball team that played it games on . . . Sunday mornings. Chances were that many of his team mates were not active members of Christian congregations. He used that opportunity to befriend them and introduce them to his best friend, Jesus.

I am not saying that all of you should join other Sunday morning activities but that you can use the groups you already belong to for this or even consider joining a new group not for the purpose of evangelism but with the understanding that it can be done. One of my fellow pickleball players has invited a good friend of hers to her church and he worship now with her and on Monday they invited me to a church activity they are having today.

Another priority which Jesus places first is to pray for workers in the harvest field.

Why?

The harvest is plentiful. In Jesus’ day Jesus saw their need for him to shepherd them with his word. He discovered this by actively going through all (not just some) of the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news, and healing every disease and sickness. When we get out of our religious comfort zone we see how much people today need Jesus whether it is inactive members, the neighbors whose name we don’t know, others in our groups, strangers we encounter.

Workers are few. The mission before Jesus was enormous. It would take only one person (himself) to save the world. But how many would it take to witness about him and to teach everything he had commanded them? He started with the TWELVE. In time that number would multiply into millions.

The Workers are Few.

When we think of workers, we may limit our number to called workers who are teachers, pastors, and missionaries. In our synod that number is relatively few. We seem to have a pastor shortage because of more pastors reaching retirement than new ones being assigned. How can our small synod open up 100 more congregations when one tenth of our existing congregations do not have resident pastor and that percentage of congregations would increase unless the number of existing congregations goes down.

Pray for more trained workers.

Be willing to be a worker. When Jesus commanded his disciples to pray for more workers, that pray was almost immediately answered twelve fold. Jesus was the worker who preached, taught, and healed. In the next chapter he gave them authority to do the same.

When we pray for more workers, may the Lord help us realize that we can be the answer to our own prayers as we use the connections we already have to share our faith in Jesus with those people. Amen.