Time and circumstances have changed WELS mission work among the Apache people of Arizona, the oldest of all WELS mission fields. Ten years ago, 25 missionaries and teachers ministered to Apaches on two reservations. Today, there are 15 workers. Subsidy from WELS has been reduced to one-fifth of what it was ten years ago. The high school has closed, programs have been cut back, and many buildings remain old and run-down.

But positive things are happening. "We've come a long way in ten years," says Missionary Dan Rautenberg. "We have church councils who can discipline each other. Our offerings are up hundreds of percents. Spiritually mature Apaches teach in our schools, preach from our pulpits, and even bring God's Word to other tribes. God has really been blessing us.”

In order to continue this 115-year-old ministry despite financial difficulties, "we have to look at different models to get things done," says Rautenberg. "We have to continue to find the doors that God is opening."

Many of these doors involve getting more Native Americans involved in ministry—either as called workers or lay leaders. "We can't do everything that we'd like to do," says Rautenberg. "But we need to get in there, see who the Lord has chosen, raise them up, and then let them take care of their church, their way."

The Apache Christian Training School (ACTS) is where these leaders are trained. Started 11 years ago mainly to train future called workers, the program now concentrates on getting congregation members—and even people from the community—more into God's Word. As people progress through the classes, they learn how to put their faith into action through congregational service—doing things like teaching Sunday school, serving as elders, or visiting fellow Christians. "If we can't pay one person to do everything, we need to get everybody to do something," says Rautenberg, the director of the ACTS program.

More than 60 men and women are taking classes through the school. Many are in the first level, preparing to be congregational lay leaders. Seven men are taking more specific, upper-level courses to become evangelists or pastors. "I'm teaching everything from Bible basics to beginning Greek," says Rautenberg. "But in the end it's doing whatever people need. If God puts the desire in them to do something more, then it's my job to work out a plan with them and get them going."

Raising up Apache lay leaders offers many benefits. "It's hard to even describe how many barriers go down when a Native American goes to another Native American," says Rautenberg. It also will help the five parish pastors maintain personal contact with the more than three thousand members and countless prospects in the mission field.