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New Ablaze! Grants Move People from Training to the Mission Field
 
By Jackie Bussert
February 2010

The School for Missionaries in Aurora is preparing workers for new Hispanic sites in Northern Illinois.
How do you determine which outreach plan will or will not get funding from the district – when all show such promise for reaching new people in the community with the love of Jesus Christ? That's the tough question the district is facing twice each year when it considers applications for Northern Illinois District LCMS Ablaze! Mission Outpost Grants.

This latest round of grants, awarded January 25, 2010, proved to be no exception as evaluators reviewed eight projects that would put flesh on the district strategy of New Starts…New Believers.

Two were ultimately approved for funding by the Board of Directors – one will provide next year's vicar to lead outreach at Risen Savior Lutheran Mission in Winnebago, Illinois, a position shared with nearby St. John Lutheran Church in Pecatonica. The other grant will fund start-up costs for new Hispanic ministry sites utilizing graduates of the School for Missionaries at Iglesia Luterana San Pablo in Aurora, Illinois.

With only $260,000 in available dollars to split between two application rounds in 2010, the grant pool for this budget year is significantly below the more than $600,000 that has been allocated for grants in each of the past three years. That's because those years drew on NID unrestricted assets to jumpstart an investment in new missions.

New Starts…New Believers is proving its worth. New starts include both new church plants and new ways of reaching people a congregation has previously not been able to impact. To realistically sustain the New Starts…New Believers strategy, the source of the grant pool is being switched from unrestricted assets to renewable sources – the ongoing congregational support for the district, coupled with the raising up of new, generous, individual givers.

San Pablo's School for Missionaries expects to have 10 students ready to launch into ministry this year. Each of them could work at far-flung district congregations to connect with Spanish speaking people in the community and lead Bible studies as multi-site extensions of San Pablo.

The directors authorized packaging $130,000 from the Ablaze! Grant pool with $15,000 from Fan into Flame receipts and $35,000 in new donations to award $30,000 of the grant request for staffing the Winnebago mission and $150,000 of the request for Hispanic start-ups. That will fund about three start-ups in 2010.