Ministry for the Here and Now

Updates on sustainability from St. Luke's Council

Dear St. Luke’s,

We must always give thanks to God for you, siblings, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. (2 Thess 1:3)

Council has spent much of 2022 reflecting on St. Luke’s current ministry and resources, primarily our financial resources. Today we are writing with an update on how Council is approaching the issue of sustainability at St. Luke’s and our recommendations for ways we might move forward in the short, middle, and long terms with a renewed focus on “Ministry for the Here and Now.”

First, to recap the highlights of our conversations up to now: as many of you will recall, at our 2022 Annual Meeting in January, Council reminded the congregation about our financial realities including monthly and annual budget, expenditures, and amount in savings. Of our annual budget of $285,000, we raise only $150,000, meaning that the remaining $135,000 is a deficit that we make up each year by drawing down from the proceeds of the sale of our historic building. At the current rate of spending, these funds will last another 8 years. 64% of our budget is spent on staff, 16% spent on facilities, and 20% spent in other categories.

A couple months later, Council invited the congregation to think about sustainability at a “Town Hall” meeting in March 2022. We explored together a variety of possible futures. We asked ourselves: What would it mean to maintain our ministry pattern as it currently is, even if it means potentially closing in the future? What would it look like to pursue sustainability, or to potentially make significant changes to our congregation? After listening to one another, Council heard St. Luke’s sense of call to sustain our ministry into the future. Council has spent the time since trying to understand exactly what that means.

Over months of conversation and reflection – as a group and with many of you – Council has come to believe that our current gifts and resources are best directed toward ministry for the here and now. We want to spend our individual and collective energy on being the community that God has called us to be, doing the work of the gospel in this time and place. We think this looks like doing justice, growing in faith together, and forming and re-forming as a community in Christ. We believe that we have work to do to clarify our ministry commitments, and we want to devote St. Lukes’ time and energy toward present-time mission and ministry with the hope that if sustainability does come, it will not be because we figured out the perfect solution, but because we remained faithful to live as God's people in this place.

We do understand that the congregation desires sustainability. We remain open to creative ministry possibilities that will increase our sustainability. At the same time, we want to be honest about the fact that there is no easy or guaranteed solution that will balance our budget. Any sustainability effort will require investment of congregational time and leadership. Here is what we imagine sustainability might look like for our congregation in the short, middle, and long terms:

In the SHORT TERM, sustaining our ministry could look like proactively investing our time, energy, and money into practices that connect us more deeply to one another, our neighborhood, and our mission. These activities don’t guarantee any change to our financial situation, but we hope they would make us as open as possible to recognize opportunities as they arise. In the next year, this might look like:

• Investing in relationships with current and potential future space-sharing partners

• Continuing the positive and proactive relationship with Grace, primarily in the form of the St. Luke’s-Grace Space Sharing Committee

• Working with the synod to understand opportunities to share resources with other ELCA congregations

• Improving our outreach / communications with our neighbors in Logan Square

• Encouraging each other to be more financially generous to support the work of the congregation

• Exploring grants or other creative sources of funding

Council also recognizes that sustaining our ministry might mean needing to make significant changes to our ministry pattern in the MIDDLE TERM. Council would prefer to make a significant change to our ministry within the next five years, even if it is difficult, rather than wait until our cash reserves leave us with a sharp financial cliff. Council is not suggesting any particular change at this time, but we want to begin to understand the impacts of potential options such as reducing staffing (e.g. reducing to a part-time pastor), staffing creatively (e.g. sharing with another congregation), and other creative re-patterning (e.g. merger, detached internship site, etc.).

Finally, Council wants the whole congregation to understand the LONG TERM reality that our congregation may eventually need to restructure, drastically pivot, or close. The financial struggles that St. Luke’s is facing do not represent a personal failure on St. Luke’s part; they are part of a larger pattern in our church and world. Our denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and mainline Christian congregations as a whole, are shrinking nationwide. The good news of God in Jesus Christ is eternal and enduring! But what the church looks like and how we do ministry is changing. As the world changes, St. Luke’s will have the opportunity to courageously and faithfully be open to whatever is next.

Together we’ll turn our primary attention to “Ministry for the Here and Now.” While there are many possibilities for the future, we believe God calls us to be present to those around us. An active and thriving ministry is what we are first called to; it may, indeed, turn out to be the foundation for future growth. 

As we work to clarify our ministry commitments, we need your help. We’d love to have your input on this 4-question / 10-minute survey by Sunday, December 11th. We also hope you’ll plan to join us at the Annual Meeting on Sunday, January 29, 2023 where we will explore more deeply what “Ministry for the Here and Now” looks like. Please keep an eye out for other opportunities to voice your thoughts and ideas ahead of the Annual Meeting, and feel free to talk to Council members directly.

In Christ,

St. Luke’s Council

Andrew Bailey, Vice-Chair
Katie Baxter, Chair
Gretchen Burch, Treasurer
Erin Coleman Branchaud, Pastor
Anika Byrley
Megan Moran, Secretary
Lora Salley

Interim Council Members

Council members Marit Johnson and Katy Ajer moved out of state in mid-2022. To fill their vacant seats, Council appointed Anika Byrley (left) and Lora Salley (right) to serve in the interim. Official replacements will be elected by the Congregational Meeting on Sunday, January 29, 2023.

Thank you, Anika and Lora, for your willingness to serve!