Walking Together

This month, congregations across our synod will be taking part in our annual Walking Together celebration and special offering, which highlights the work we are able to accomplish, through God's grace, as a church body.

Walking Together implies a double blessing. Walking together as a synod, we are able to accomplish things we could never do as individual congregations. Walking together as a synod, we preach one message—our sin and God's grace.

Just one example of that double blessing is taking place in relatively new territory for our synod—the streets of New York City. Our mission there, Sure Foundation, serves as the focus of this year's celebration. Your mission offerings helped train the two faithful missionaries who are serving there. Your offerings are now paying their salaries. Your support of our Church Extension Fund helped finance a new worship facility that puts the congregation in a better position to reach out with the gospel.

The blessing of our single message is also evident through Sure Foundation. Just ask Liszette Reyes and Antonio Rodriguez, two members who were drawn to the congregation and our WELS fellowship by the clarity of the Word being preached—the unmistakable message of law and gospel. Both women readily share how they weren't hearing that message anywhere else in the borough of Queens.

We encourage all congregations to make use of the special Walking Together DVD, which doubles as September's WELS Connection. It shares the story of these two women and our overall mission effort through Sure Foundation. As in all stories about the gospel at work, the narrative isn't what we're doing but what God is doing through us.

Our Ministry of Christian Giving has also produced a variety of worship and Bible class materials for a Walking Together Sunday. Pastors, you'll find those Walking Together resources on Connect, the synod's Intranet for called workers and congregational leaders. We pray individuals and congregations across the synod will consider a Walking Together offering in thankfulness to a gracious God who is using this church body we call WELS for his purposes.

Serving in Christ,
Mark Schroeder
President