Whether you call it a budget or mission spending plan, a mission spending plan can be a powerful ministry tool. Did you know your mission spending plan does not have to be dull and dry? Did you know that your mission spending plan tells a story?  A mission spending plan can tell the story of God’s work in your congregation and community. Narrative mission spending plans can actually create joy, increase generosity, momentum and draw people closer to Jesus Christ! Yet, our mission plans tend to focus on giving as a transaction rather than how mission plans can inspire generosity, deepen faith and transform lives. Now is the time to let the mission drive the budget instead of the budget driving the mission.

The Stewardship and Mission Support Table of the Metro D.C. Synod invites you to a 60-minute narrative mission spending plan Leadership Academy session on August 26, 2021 at 7:00 pm, led by Rev. Larry Strenge and Nick Kiger during which you will:
 
Learn how your narrative mission spending plan will support the mission story of your congregation
Learn what a narrative mission spending plan is, why it is important and how to create one.
Shift your mindset from transactional giving to the transformational joy of generosity
Receive tools to help you and your congregation tell the story of God’s love through the mission spending plan.  

   
Who Should Attend?

Rostered ministers; stewardship chairs and team members; congregational council members; congregational lay leaders.

Meet our speakers:

Rev. Larry Strenge is passionate about cultivating God’s Generosity through the use of story. In his “re-fire-ment” years (July 2019ff), Larry now serves (April 2021ff) as the ELCA’s Interim Director of Congregational Stewardship. In ordained ministry, Larry served as a mission developer (1988-2009) and as a Director for Evangelical Mission (DEM), ELCA SW MN synod (2009 to 2019). As a DEM he helped develop “P.I.E. (Prosper-Invest-Endow): A Recipe for Generosity,” a ministry that used “God’s story” to address the break-up of families over the passing of assets. He also helped grow an appreciation for use of Narrative budgets in the synod. In “re-fire-ment,” he has served as a coach for graduates of the Lake Institute’s “Executive Certificate in Religious Fundraising” course, as coordinator for the ELCA to provide the Lake Institute’s other course, “Cultivating Generous Congregations,” in his current calling, and as a fundraiser. Larry is married to retired ELCA pastor, Elizabeth Strenge. They live near Sartell Mn where they enjoy growing in Christ while grandparenting, walking, running, biking, swimming, sailing, and doing other winter sports.


Nick Kiger is the Associate Director for Mission Support with the ELCA churchwide expression. Nick lives and works from Columbus, OH where he is a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Upper Arlington. He is married to Misty and they have a six year old daughter, Kara and a two year old son, Cameron. Nick received his Bachelor of Arts in religious studies from Otterbein University and his Master of Theological Studies degree from Methodist Theological School in Ohio. Nick feels blessed to get to experience many different settings of the church. His work has taken him to oil fields, prisons, Native American reservations, storefront churches, Latino congregations in the deep south and rural congregations in the Midwest. In all these places he has experienced the love of God and how we are truly church together for the sake of the world and has learned how the generosity of all three expressions of the ELCA, through Mission Support, makes our ministries possible.