DiscipleLife Alive!

A Vision for Growing Missional Outreach

in the DiscipleLife Alive! Synod

The Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana is the DiscipleLife Synod. Our Mission is Sowing and Growing Disciples of Jesus. We are 120 congregational ministries, called by our Lord Jesus Christ, formed for outreach in the world, and gifted with all that we need to accomplish the mission opportunity at hand.

DiscipleLife happens in a variety of settings and contexts. It begins with Christ’s Great Commission and our understanding that we respond to God’s gifts of grace and love with our individual lives, lived out in the community of the Church. God first loved us so much that God sent Christ Jesus, God’s own son, into the world to provide us with the promise and gift of eternal life. We joyously receive this Good News, live it in our baptismal covenant made, for most of us, when we were yet infants. Each week we gather with the community of the faith for worship, share the Word of God in Christ, experience the empowering of the Holy Spirit, receive the forgiveness of sins in Holy Communion, and go forth as witnesses to the world. We are not alone in this venture…we join with believers in our congregations, across our synod, and around the world through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We are people empowered to sow seeds of the Gospel; God grows them into fruits that abide.

One of our primary DiscipleLife goals is to Encourage Generous Hearts. In this initiative we recognize that God has blessed us with all we need to do the work to which God has called us. Our dreams are big, God’s mission is all-encompassing, and it is time to bring those dreams to fulfillments.

Among those DiscipleLife goals our dream is to…

• Grow our Synod Mission Endowment Fund to over $ 2 million by 2012
• Develop the facilities of Briarwood for the youth and adults who make use of that beautiful location for growth in faith
• Complete the construction of the Jubilee Lutheran Centre as well as provide ongoing support for the new Lutheran Medical Clinic in our Companion Synod in Calaba Town, Sierra Leone
• Build the assets of our synod’s Campus Ministry Endowment Fund to support outreach to young adults on our college campuses
• Grow our synodical Fund for Leaders in Mission, our seminary scholarship fund, growing to sustain everyone who is called to ministry. Now is the time to act.

DiscipleLife Alive!

DiscipleLife Alive! is a bold synod-wide capital campaign to provide funding for the five major interdependent ministries of the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod. This unified campaign will run from 2010 through 2012 and will seek to raise $ 3,000,000 from individuals and congregations in the NT-NL Synod. The funds from the campaign will be divided in the following proportions:

	Mission Endowment Fund of NT-NL Synod	40 %
	Briarwood Lutheran Ministries	25 %
	Companion Synod Outreach	15 %
	NT-NL Campus Ministry Fund	10 %
	NT-NL Fund for Leaders in Mission	10 %

DiscipleLife Alive! is a bold attempt to engage all of the congregations of our synod in growing an attitude of faithfulness, sharing in the outreach of the wider church, and encouraging generous hearts.

We have been called to this moment of DiscipleLife!

‘Seeds That Change’ have been distributed by the Mission Endowment Fund to 51 different ministries in the Synod since 1996 to assist them in Sowing and Growing Disciples of Jesus.

These grants totaling $272,240 have been made possible by the generous donations to the Fund by individuals and congregations since 1992. The DiscipleLife initiatives have been used in the Board’s decision making process when distributing the grants.

To fulfill our Priority of starting 12 new missions by 2012 (12 x 12), the Mission Endowment Fund has awarded grants to some of those already working to cultivate a climate of congregational growth and renewal. Several grants have been given to congregations to provide for after school care and community Vacation Bible Schools. In order to help congregations affirm our Evangelical Lutheran identity, funds have been granted to ministries to train leaders and provide materials for Bible Study. Mission Endowment Fund is working to strengthen partnerships within the synod by providing grants so ministries can work together – for example, congregations received grants to provide summer Day Camps staffed and led by Briarwood Retreat Ministries.

Our Dream…
With an endowment of over two million dollars, the earnings would potentially provide funds to give substantial grants to fund a mission start or revitalize an existing congregation in a new, creative way of ministry through outreach. The Mission Endowment Fund plants ‘Seeds That Change’ from mere ideas into the blessed fruit of Grace through God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

more about MEF...

Briarwood Lutheran Ministries—the summer camp and adult retreat ministry of the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod—has been experiencing major change over the last year. A visioning team, the board, and the staff have been spending significant time in prayer and Bible study as we seek to understand what God’s purpose is for Briarwood. What we hear is that God’s purpose for Briarwood is to be a natural setting where people can experience God’s love. It is that simple – yet that all-encompassing.

As we have sought to align our ministry with this purpose, we have seen significant growth and change. All of the feedback from the summer camp ministry was positive. Our retreat ministry has increased significantly. New ministries at Briarwood are growing.

Camping ministry has always been a key ministry in the church for growing the faith of young disciples and increasing the leadership skills of young adults. Briarwood is a vital partner with the NT-NL Synod in growing disciples and developing leaders – both youth and adults – through the summer camp and retreat ministry. Since 2006 we have built a brand new cabin in the Oak Grove camping area and are in the process of remodeling the remaining three cabins so that this entire site will be as good as brand new. The Meadows Lodges have been completely remodeled and in partnership with synod’s congregations, we are receiving funds for the renovation of all the cabins in Trail’s End and, eventually a new chapel at Briarwood.

Sierra Leone, West Africa is the poorest English speaking country in the world. Much of the current poverty can be directly attributed to the recent civil war. The brutality of the war left hundreds of thousands of people destitute financially, emotionally, spiritually, and, in many cases, physically. As Christians, we have an opportunity to support less fortunate people around the world and what better opportunity than through our Companion Synod relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sierra Leone (ELCSL)? We support the ELCSL in a variety of ways:

• The Jubilee Centre, which is nearing completion, will be the center of worship and outreach for the ELCSL. It is expected that another $300,000 is needed to complete the construction.
• The Medical Centre in Calaba Town established in 2009 with an NT-NL Synod Mission Team and now staffed by the ELCSL serves as an inexpensive and reliable place for neighbors of the church to come for medical care. The primary mission of the clinic is to focus on pre-natal, birth, and neo-natal needs. The primary need in support of the clinic is money to buy the medications they need to run the clinic.



• Education plays a key role in the development of any society. The NT-NL Synod supports the building of schools where the ELCSL has churches.Teacher salaries, books, pencils, paper, uniforms and other basic necessities are critical for teaching the children of Sierra Leone the basics of reading and writing with the objective to help them build a stronger country going forward.
• Pastor Kate Warn is a Pastor-in-Residence in Sierra Leone on a two-year commitment through January 2011. We support her presence in Sierra Leone with salary, benefits and other necessary components for living in Sierra Leone.

Our Dream…
Our goal is to raise $ 300,000 to finish the Jubilee Lutheran Centre, provide financial support for our Pastor-in-Residence, and build the capacity of the ELCSL Lutheran Medical Clinic.

more about ELCSL...

Lutheran Campus Ministry assists persons in academic settings to discover and fulfill their vocation in Jesus Christ (Mission Statement of ELCA Campus Ministry).

The mission of Lutheran Campus Ministry is to reach young people for Jesus Christ, extending the outreach of ELCA congregations to the university campus. Through this ministry, Jesus encounters students in communities formed around God’s Word and sacraments and calls them to follow faithfully. The NT-NL Synod maintains a staffed ministry at the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University through Lutheran Campus Ministry at Denton. At other sites, congregations near the campuses provide special outreach to students, faculty, and staff.

In academic settings that are intellectually rigorous, emotionally volatile, and spiritually engaging, Lutheran Campus Ministry provides a place for faith to be challenged by the study of scripture and enlightened by the Holy Spirit. It equips students in the faith, at a time when a world of challenges and negative influences cloud their perspective. Students hear the call to faithful DiscipleLife and learn to serve the needs of others in the larger world. Through experiences in creative ministry and volunteer service, students who are active leaders in the church on campus today provide competent, enthusiastic, trained leadership for the church for years to come.

Our Dream…
Our vision is to expand the position of campus pastor to a full-time position; this will enhance ministry at LCM Denton and provide additional resources for congregation-based ministries. Also needed are funds for leadership development, resources, and travel for students. These gifts to Lutheran Campus Ministry help to assure that pastoral care and counsel to students, hospitality, worship and program resources, publicity, and evangelism efforts on campus continue for years to come.

more about Campus Ministry...

We move from the College Campus to Seminary in the DiscipleLife Alive! Campaign. The NT-NL Fund for Leaders in Mission says to our seminarians your leadership matters to us. This new fund, professionally managed by the ELCA Fund for Leaders in Mission, will enable us to give synod scholarships to seminary students from congregations of this synod. With this new fund currently at over $ 25,000, we are working to provide scholarship resources to ensure that faithful and promising men and women can accept the call to ministry and provide leadership for the NT-NL Synod and the entire ELCA in the 21st Century.

Students currently make great sacrifices to answer God's call. The estimated cost of attending an ELCA seminary is $70,000 to $102,000 over four years. Seven out of 10 seminary students take out loans to fund their education and then anticipate typical monthly loan payments of $300 to $600 while serving in their first call. Many pastors who are called to serve smaller or struggling congregations simply cannot accept such calls because the salaries will not allow them to meet these loan commitments.

In the last 10 years over 50 students from NT-NL congregations have completed seminary and the candidacy process to become rostered leaders in the ELCA. How many more could have attended seminary if this Fund could provide half or full tuition for our students?

Our Dream…
An endowed NT-NL Fund for Leader in Missions will allow us to give scholarships to:

• Reduce the debt of our seminary graduates.
• Attract and encourage more candidates from our congregations.
• Affirm those who respond to the call to ministry.
• Respond to our mission challenges.

You Are Invited to…

1. Join Lutherans throughout our synod in DiscipleLife Alive!
2. Dedicate yourself with others to prayer, Bible study and worship, calling upon God’s Spirit to guide us in our mission to Sow and Grow Disciples of Jesus
3. Invite other congregations and leaders of this synod to become more powerfully a sign of the Lord’s presence in the midst of this growing community and to meet ministry needs through courageous witness to the Gospel message
4. Participate in the leadership of DiscipleLife Alive! as we form Leadership Teams and Partner Groups throughout the synod’s territory.
5. Commit yourself to a successful, God-pleasing outcome to our venture of faith! There is urgency for the mission of God among us to grow our Lutheran presence and witness in the communities across Texas and Louisiana.

DiscipleLife Alive!

A Vision for Growing Missional Outreach in the DiscipleLife Synod.