About the Campaign
The Planting Hope Campaign expresses our confidence that God is at work in the 110 congregations and mission starts of the synod and God is at work in the East Metro of the Twin Cities, the territory served by the Saint Paul Area Synod. This three-year campaign offers an opportunity to contribute to the collective involvement of 120,000 Lutherans of this synod in four activity areas.
They include:
> Invite neighbors into life in Christ;
> Renew the congregations of the synod;
> Raise up the next generations of leaders;
> Invest in a transformative project on the East Side of St. Paul with Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota.
Goal 1: Invite Neighbors into Life in Christ - $150,000
The first activity area challenges every church member to deepen their faith through daily faith practices and every congregation to be an inviting church. This involves more than inviting others to worship services. It encourages the creation of initiatives for adult faith formation, speaking about faith in daily life, telling others the stories of God’s grace today, and preparing adults and children for baptism. Through the campaign every congregation is challenged to set local, lead metrics by which they will gauge their progress in becoming a more inviting church.
$150,000 raised for this activity area will fund $110,000 in congregational grants and provide $40,000 for training lay and rostered leaders. The impact goal over a five-year period is to engage 10,000 adults in a process of deepening faith in Jesus Christ including preparation for baptism as new Christians.
Goal 2: Renew the Congregations of the Synod - $700,000
Congregations, large and small, call individual Christians to be church together with others and provide a center for worship, service, learning and shared life in Christ. Every congregation is a mission outpost, discovering ways to revitalize mission and share God’s good news in a time of increased secularization and indifference to faith life. $700,000 raised for this area will provide $125,000 annually for five years to support the work of current mission starts and intentional redevelopment of congregations and $75,000 over that period to provide stewardship and vitality training in 10 congregations per year.
The measurable impact goal for this activity area is to strengthen five to seven mission starts and ethnic specific congregations, lead two more redevelopment congregations through an intense program of renewal, and to engage 300-400 individuals in 50-60 congregations in the process of congregational vitality and stewardship education. Overall, hundreds of thousands of neighbors in the East Metro will benefit from congregations that are stronger, eager to share God’s grace, and firmly planted to serve others in their specific context.
Goal 3: Raise Up the Next Generations of Leaders - $700,000
With the changing demographics of the East Metro, we anticipate that more and more of the leaders needed in this synod will be persons of color, whose sense of vocation needs to be honed from early in their life. In each of the initiatives described below, priority will be given to participants from communities of color. $700,000 raised in this area will fund three distinct projects: 1) Paid Internships, 2) Learning and Travel 3) Debt-reduction Fund for the Synod’s Pastors and Deacons.
The impact goal for the $700,000 in this activity area is 40 young adults with deepened vocational formation through the paid internship initiative, 40 young adults having a transformative experience through mission focused travel experiences, and 25 rostered ministers and their households released from a portion of their seminary education debt burden over a five-year period.
Goal 4: Invest in a Transformative Project on the East Side of St. Paul with Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota - $1,000,000
While the synod covers Chisago, Ramsey, Washington, Dakota and a part of Anoka counties, some of the most challenging economic realities are concentrated on the East Side of St. Paul. This historic neighborhood has long provided a home to the most recent immigrants and includes seven ELCA congregations, as well as a wealth of community-based initiatives and local non-profits.
$1,000,000 will be raised as a significant investment in a transformative community project in partnership with Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota. This collaboration will provide new and critically important services to children and families living on the East Side of St. Paul, an area known to have a high concentration of families and vulnerable populations facing economic disparities.