The Board for Home Missions has approved funding for seven locations, including four new home mission starts and three existing mission congregations.

New home mission plants include:

Waco, Texas: The Heart of Texas mission core group has been meeting regularly since March 2020. They are active in the community and participate in family-friendly activities around town while representing their new church plant. This mission is being supported by Trinity in nearby Temple.

Durham, N.C.: Gethsemane, Raleigh, N.C., is launching a second site in nearby Durham. The three universities in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill are creating jobs and drawing a diverse group of young professionals and families to the area. Studies show that 75 percent of people in the area do not know their Savior.

Parrish, Fla.: Risen Savior, Lakewood Ranch, Fla., a home mission church that recently became self-supporting, as well as Ascension, Sarasota, Fla., are starting this new mission plant. Parrish is located in a growing area; 20,000 to 30,000 homes are expected to be built there in the next 10 years. This new mission will be reaching out with the gospel to a community that is 85 percent unchurched.

Dickinson, N.D.: A committed core group has been meeting regularly for livestreamed worship and monthly gatherings since 2012, served by pastors from Redeemer, Mandan, and Our Saviour’s, Bismarck, N.D. Those two congregations, as well as Salem, Circle, Mont., will be supporting this new mission start named Amazing Grace.

Home Missions is also providing financial support to three existing ministries:

Hutto, Texas: Located north of Austin, Christ the Rock has been an unsubsidized mission since 2016. It recently started worshiping in a new facility and is aggressively serving its community.

Summerlin, Nev.: Summerlin Lutheran Church owns a large facility in a growing master-planned community on the west side of Las Vegas. Three years of Home Missions financial support will allow the congregation to call a pastor and partner in outreach with nearby home mission congregation Shepherd of the Hills, whose pastor has been serving as Summerlin’s vacancy pastor.

Willoughby, Ohio: King of Kings in the suburbs of Cleveland is one of only two WELS churches in northeast Ohio. It will be calling a new pastor to reach out to young professionals and families who have moved from downtown Cleveland to the suburbs.

Learn more at wels.net/missions.

Volume 108, Number 6
Issue: June 2021