Blog

Welcoming the Struggling

You don’t know... Everyone has a story. You don’t know me until you know my story, and even then, you might not see my heart as Jesus sees it. You don’t know me even when you hear I have an addiction. Because you don’t know, you…
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Coming from Congregational Services in 2019

In 2018, Congregational Services coordinated the synod-wide C18 program, which had the ambitious goal of reaching one-million souls prior to or on Christmas Eve 2018. It was an outreach focus. In 2019, Congregational Services will roll out two…
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C18 - Our Christmas Efforts

Our Christmas Efforts: What Happened & What’s Next The goal of C18 When we began C18, we said our goal was “to reach” one-million souls prior to and on Christmas Eve. I realize “reach” is a nebulous term. That was intentional.…
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C18 - Worship Guest Follow-up

Worship Guest Follow-up: A Vital Part of Outreach Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were one-million guests at our WELS Christmas Eve services this year? Wouldn’t it be awful if we were not ready for them? One of the most important ways…
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C18 - The importance of the family altar

Imagine a 16-year-old WELS member. What are the chances that individual is still WELS when he’s 30? We have studied this multiple times in our church body’s history. My commission, Congregational Counseling, has churches who work with us…
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C18 - Advent family devotions

Clockwork. That’s how I describe my family’s devotional life growing up. Six days a week. We attended church on the “off” day. The devotion setting: The round wooden kitchen table brought the family together for every breakfast…
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C18 - Compassion at Christmas

Christmas is more than celebrating Jesus’ birthday. For centuries, Christians have realized that the Savior’s birth in Bethlehem deserves a response of praise. As a result, when we think of Christmas, we are moved to song and gift giving. Think…
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C18 - If we believe...

We believe and therefore speak. It is written: “I believed; therefore, I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak (2 Corinthians 4:13). Beyond being theological truth, what St. Paul shares…
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C18 Worship Planning

This week we share some C18 worship planning details. Advent worship plan Last summer a worship plan for the Sundays of Advent was posted for the sake of those who do longer range worship planning – and as an encouragement to others…
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