Did you know that your congregation is part of a regional group of LCMS ministries and church workers called the Mid-South District? You can think of the Mid-South District as your congregation’s extended LCMS family! To help you get to know the Mid-South District—and learn what district ministry is all about—this monthly “Closer Look” is being shared with your congregation. Each month, a different fac-et of district ministry will be featured. This month’s update takes a closer look at how the Mid-South District is addressing the need for church workers.

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) is currently facing a critical shortage of new church workers. This means that fewer and fewer people are pursuing careers as pastors, Lutheran school teachers, Direc-tors of Christian Ed (DCEs), Directors of Parish Music and other critical areas of professional church work. As Jesus observes in Matthew 9:37, “... The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few...,” there persists a need for people to discern and answer the call to serve in our Lutheran churches and schools. In the Mid-South District, this important issue is being addressed head on through the Set Apart to Serve Task Force—a group focused on the recruitment of new church workers.

Comprised of professional church workers from across the Mid-South District, this dedicated team is taking resources provided by an LCMS national initiative and employing them to reach people in our local Lutheran community—especially those who the Lord may be calling to a life of service in ministry. The nation-al initiative is called Set Apart to Serve and features numerous tools to help spread the word about the ful-filling opportunities that exist in professional church work. 

As the work of the Mid-South District’s Set Apart to Serve Task Force gets underway, watch for news and re-sources to be shared in your congregation. This effort seeks to connect hearts for ministry with opportuni-ties to serve! You can learn more at https://www.lcms.org/set-apart-to-serve.