ELCA Global Mission Budget and Priorities

ELCA support for global mission in 2008: $30 million

Budget and programming priorities

$9 million supports 265 missionaries in 48 countries The ELCA invests in missionaries no matter whether they serve six years or two years or six months, recruiting skilled people with gifts that match assignments, preparing them for cross-cultural ministry, and caring for their wellbeing on the ground. Learn more about the changing role of the missionary.	Carsten Burnside (right), teacher at the Evanjelicke Gymnazium in Tisovec, Slovakia, and a young friend.
$14 million alleviates poverty and meets human need through long-term sustainable development In collaboration with companion Lutheran churches, the Lutheran World Federation and Lutheran World Relief, and Church World Service, the ELCA funds companions and communities as they seek to break the cycles of poverty and respond to human need.	Clean, safe water is an emphasis in Uganda.
$5 million supports the ministries of companion churches and organizations Direct grants to companion Lutheran churches help them develop and improve key programs and ministries, including evangelism, education, health, agriculture, peace-building, lay and ordained leadership development and other social and holistic ministry and development programs. A special focus is equipping emerging or re-emerging communities of faith and churches in crisis, from Rwanda to Palestine to China.	Kindergarten graduation at the Lutheran School of Beit Sahour, a campus of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.
$1 million develops and educates leaders for companion Lutheran churches Scholarships and post-graduate learning opportunities for global church leaders means that companion churches can build up their leadership base with scholars who teach at seminaries, leaders with particular skills in guiding the church, and experts in health care, library science, development, finance, and other specialized areas.	Tshenolo Madigele Moenga, from Botswana, is studying pastoral theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.
$1 million helps ELCA members receive the gifts of the global church through formational events, resources and the Companion Synods Program By living out our fatih together with our global companions, and by recognizing and receiving one another's gifts, we strengthen our ability to proclaim and serve more effectively in North America.	ELCA missionaries Mytch (left) and Louis (right) Dorvilier, regional representatives for West Africa, visit a sponsoring congregation with their children.

International disaster funds meet immediate needs and make a long-term difference
While your generous contributions to the International Disaster Response fund are received and distributed outside the ELCA Global Mission budget, they are a significant way the ELCA responds to the world. Between February 1, 2007, and February 1, 2008, $2.52 million were distributed to 21 countries. 
 

Thank you for your generosity!

Mission support dollars -- your weekly, unrestricted offerings to your congregation -- are used to help build companion churches by supporting evangelism, Christian education, theological training and other ministries that increase their capacity to proclaim and serve.

Your ELCA World Hunger Appeal contributions are used to support trusted partners such as Lutheran World Federation, Lutheran World Relief, Church World, Service, and companion churches as they respond to human need through primary health care, basic education, income generation, HIV/AIDS prevention and response and other critical programs.