Faith In Action
opportunities to do the Lord's work in North America

Definition
WELS and ELS Christians of all ages who assist with outreach programs for mission and established congregations throughout the United States. This assistance can be offered individually or as a group of two or more people.

Click here to download a pdf version of the Faith In Action Outreach Guidelines. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat reader installed on your machine, download a free copy from Adobe's website.

Faith In Action Individual Application (.doc)
Faith In Action Exit Survey (.doc)
Faith in Action Team Request Form (.doc)
Faith In Action Team Report (.doc)
Faith In Action Lay Worker Guidelines (.pdf)

Team Types

Travel Canvass Witness (TCW)
College students from campus ministry programs and synodical schools.
ACTIVE during school breaks and vacations (1 - 10 weeks).

Youth in Service (YIS)
Teens assisting in outreach within a supervised environment.
ACTIVE during school breaks and vacations (1 - 2 weeks).

Member Ministry Assistance (MMA)
Lay men and women assisting congregations with outreach.
ACTIVE at any time of the year (1 week - 6 months)

Senior Burst Evangelism (SBE)
Adult lay men and women able to commit long term, assisting congregations with follow up, encourage congregational members, and do outreach.
ACTIVE at any time of the year (1 - 6 months)

PROVIDES BENEFITS TO:

Congregations
- by creating a caring, personal presence in the community representing Christ and the congregation positively,
- by identifying unchurched households in the neighborhood,
- by developing relationships with unchurched households,
- by providing encouragement and a loving example to young congregations in their ministry of outreach.

Lay Assistants
- by providing training for the Christian's personal life of witness,
- by experiencing a close bond of Christian fellowship with other team members,
- by broadening appreciation for cultural diversity that characterizes Christ's Church,
- by making new friends and enjoying a new corner of God's world.

How sites are chosen
The congregation develops a ministry plan for use of Faith In Action participants.

Requests for outreach teams are made by the individual congregation/mission and submitted to their district mission board.

All Faith In Action team requests must be submitted to district mission boards by the individual boards self-determined submission date. The district mission board will, in turn, prioritize and then submit team requests to the WKW office. All submissions will be for requests to be accomplished the following calendar year.

Congregations requesting student assistants will be notified by
- November 1 for winter outreach
- February 1 for spring outreach
- May 1 for summer outreach on the status of their request(s).

Assignments of Member Ministry Assistance teams are made throughout the year.

Variety of opportunities

Telephone Canvass
Telephone calls are made to people in the target area from either the home base or on-site. People contacted will learn about the church and be invited to a worship service or special event.

Street Canvass
Door-to-door contacts range from simple door hangers to extended questionnaires.

Follow-up
Personal witness calls will be made to households identified by telephone and families already part of the congregation's prospect list.

Creative Christian Outreach
This outreach includes but is not limited to a wide variety of activities ranging from special event services to sporting camps.

Summer VBS Assistance
This includes pre-canvass, vacation Bible school teaching and training, and post-VBS follow-up.

Mission Assistants
WELS members who temporarily fill and train members for various ministry roles such as bookkeeping, accounting, maintenance, teaching, evangelism organization.

Things to do

By pastor/congregation
-seek WELS Board for Home Missions approval of ministry plan
- identify expectations and goals
- plan and organize work in advance
- plan daily itinerary with team coordinator
- video/pictures introducing themselves and the area
- assist with on site transportation
- food & lodging for team

By outreach coordinator
- train member assistants
- establish program
- communicate program to assistants
- plan travel to site and back
- assist congregation with preparation
- facilitate plans on site
- build up/encourage workers when necessary

On site
- review expectations and goals
- review itinerary
- team coordinator facilitates plans
- provide additional training
- recap each day and pray together
- don't forget fellowship & fun

Costs involved

Established congregations - financial assistance to and from sites is available when needed.

Mission congregations - financial assistance is available from WELS Board for Home Missions' and WELS Kingdom Workers' grant programs.

Mission assistants - minimal costs are involved for those who volunteer as Faith In Action ministry assistants.

Current Lay Worker Mission Opportunities
Talent Form .doc or .pdf

For more information, contact Judy Eisenmann, Faith In Action Administrator.