Mission Work

This page provides general information about Mission Work at St. Paul and specifically lists efforts we presently support and others we may support in the future, both providing links to their websites and brief summaries about them.

Mission Work in General

Mission statements are popular with all sorts of organizations. Such a statement of purpose is intended to guide an organization's direction and decision making by giving it an overall goal. With that goal, a mission statement often plays a significant role in strategic planning, as leaders try to anticipate changes in their market and to use human methods to make their organization succeed.

That sense of the word "mission" goes back to what the Bible says about God the Father's love for the world leading to His giving His one and only Son, so that whoever believes in Him might have eternal life (John 3:16), but that is where the similarity stops. *READ MORE* The Father sent Jesus with the authority to accomplish that good purpose, and Jesus, in turn, sent the disciples turned apostles with the authority to forgive and retain sins (John 20:21-23). The word for "sent" used in the Latin translation of that text is the word that gives us our English word "mission". The apostles (from the Greek for "sent ones") then ordained pastors in congregations in specific places along their journeys. Through that pastoral office the Holy Spirit still creates faith when and where God pleases in those who hear His Word. God's plan of salvation is carried out in ways no person can anticipate, and no human methods change the plan's success.

St. Paul Lutheran Church is itself the product of mission work from the Wendish settlers of Lee County, Texas, and has done and continues to do mission work. St. Paul has planted mission congregations throughout the Austin area, and St. Paul continues to be where some of God's Austin-area sheep come to hear the voice of their Good Shepherd from His under-shepherds. As those sheep gather around the purely preached Word and the rightly administered Sacraments, they receive the forgiveness of sins from the apostles' authoritatively sent successors. The "mission" of the sheep is to go and live faithfully in their calling or vocation. As they do, they show in their words and deeds the love of God in Christ for the world to the people God brings across their paths.

At the same time, the pastors and people of St. Paul give of the resources God has entrusted to their stewardship to support the work of bringing the Good News of forgiveness by grace through faith in Jesus Christ to the world. Such giving has good Biblical precedent. In the Old Testament, for example, the patriarchs gave one-tenth of all they had received to the Lord (Genesis 14:20; 28:22). The people of Israel gave likewise to the Levites (Leviticus 27:30), who in turn gave a tithe of that tithe to the high priest, as to the Lord (Numbers 18:26-32). Such tithing does not justify a person before God, of course, as Jesus makes clear in Luke 18:9-14. Rather, such a tithe is given in thankful appreciation for all God does for us. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul encouraged the congregations in his care to set aside a sum of money on the first day of every week (Sunday) to give to the church in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem congregation had not only served as the mother church to many others, but was also plagued by drought and persecution (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). As its namesake apostle encouraged, St. Paul Lutheran Church strives both to have its members cheerfully and proportionately give to the work of the local congregation and to have the congregation likewise give to the work of the Church at large (2 Corinthians 8-9).

St. Paul Lutheran Church not only reaches out directly through its own people and activities but also indirectly by supporting the work of the Christ through other agencies. As the book of Acts records the Holy Spirit spreading the Gospel from a single city, to the region and nation, and to the ends of the world (Acts 1:8), so St. Paul strives to support the mission work of the Church at large in the Austin area, across Texas and the United States, and around the world. However, we do not support any and every mission effort. As the pure preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of the Sacraments are the basis for the true unity of the Christian Church, so the St. Paul congregation does best when it supports mission work that shares its confessional commitment in teaching and in practice.

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