Where Needed Most
Today our world needs God’s reconciling grace as never before.
The ELCA churchwide organization supports and sustains the people, congregations, synods and ministries working around the world to realize the hope-filled future God promises.
When you give to the churchwide organization, you support the powerful ways we work together around the world — supporting leaders, inspiring young people, fueling ministries and championing global mission.
Guided by the Holy Spirit, we accomplish together what none of us could do alone.
When you give to ELCA Where Needed Most
You support the calling of clergy and lay leaders from Tanzania to Texas to serve congregations across the country and ministries around the world. Your gifts:
- Sustain and enhance how we call, support and place ministry leaders.
- Support all seven ELCA seminaries and all 26 Lutheran colleges and universities.
- Improve the resources we offer new leaders during their critical first three years.
- Launch new initiatives to open more opportunities to leadership and training.
You inspire and develop young people as they grow in faith, leadership and service. Your gifts:
- Support all ELCA campus ministries at colleges and universities across the country.
- Engage young adults (18-35) through a wide range of young-adult ministries, communities, gatherings and discernment experiences.
- Fund Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) volunteers on transformational, yearlong journeys of service and accompaniment with our global partners.
- Provide for youth and young-adult programs that benefit every congregation whether or not it can offer them independently.
You fuel ministries that deepen spiritual growth and broaden the ELCA community. Your gifts:
- Support the creation and development of new congregations and worshiping communities that bring the welcome of ELCA worship to new places and people, especially those historically marginalized.
- Launch and sustain new outreach ministries and evangelism initiatives that share the love of Christ and the gospel with our communities and world.
- Fund grants that enable congregations to enhance their vitality and growth.
- Sustain a nationwide team that connects congregations to ELCA resources and opportunities.
You champion global mission by enabling us to walk alongside local leaders in 40 countries around the world to spread the gospel. Your gifts:
- Support the work of 100 ELCA missionaries working in deep collaboration with companion churches, local leaders and partner organizations around the world.
- Sustain our commitments to walk alongside communities through their journeys of healing, progress and spiritual growth.
- Elevate the global Lutheran voice and perspective in major ecumenical conversations.
Learn more
You support the calling of clergy and lay leaders from Tanzania to Texas to serve congregations across the country and ministries around the world.
You inspire and develop young people as they grow in faith, leadership and service.
You fuel ministries that deepen spiritual growth and broaden the ELCA community.
You champion global mission by enabling us to walk alongside local leaders in 40 countries around the world to spread the gospel.
FAQs
How is an unrestricted gift to the churchwide organization different from a designated gift to a specific initiative or missionary?
While designated gifts are vital to the growth and sustainability of various ministry areas, your unrestricted gift to the ELCA churchwide organization collectively supports the powerful ways we work together to build a hope-filled future. That includes supporting the calling of clergy and lay leaders, inspiring and developing young people, and fueling ministries and mission work around the world. When you give to the churchwide organization, your gift lifts up all of these efforts at home and around the world.
Doesn't my Sunday giving support the churchwide organization?
Thank you for your faithful support of your congregation! Most of your congregational offering stays with your congregation to support vital ministry. A portion is shared by congregations with their synod as Mission Support. The synod uses Mission Support to help fund both synod and churchwide ministry. In this way, Mission Support provides the foundation for the ministry we do together as a connected church. Building on that foundation, your gift to the churchwide organization directly enables more of the ministry we do together — calling clergy and lay leaders, inspiring and developing young people, and fueling ministries and mission work around the world.
Why does the churchwide organization need my support?
The ELCA’s local and global ministries — built and strengthened through the churchwide organization — depend on unrestricted support from generous people like you. While the financial foundation of our work comes from Mission Support, 18% of the churchwide organization’s work depends on direct gifts — both streams of support are vital to the sustainability of our church’s ministries. Your gifts reinforce our mission, giving us the ability to share God’s love with more people even as circumstances shift.
