Where Do Our Offerings Go?

Mission support (or benevolence) is a way we are United, Supporting, and Serving together.   Our offerings are more than a line item in a budget—they are a shared expression of faith that allows the whole church to carry out Christ’s mission locally, regionally, and globally. Through our giving, we minister together in ways that no single congregation could accomplish alone.

The ELCA understands itself as one church united in three expressions: congregations, synods, and the churchwide organization. These work interdependently, sharing both responsibility and resources to proclaim the Gospel, serve neighbors in need, and equip leaders for ministry.

A significant portion of each offering remains within the congregation to sustain worship, outreach, and local programs. Congregations support wider ministries outside their walls when they designate a percentage of their income for mission support (USS congregations in 2024 contributed just over seven percent).

The synod uses these funds to strengthen ministries close to home. Mission support sustains vital partner ministries such as Camp Mount Luther, campus ministry programs including those at Penn State, United Lutheran Seminary, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Pennsylvania, and cooperative work with organizations like the Pennsylvania Council of Churches and the ELCA Foundation. Synod staff work on leadership development, pastoral transition, and support of congregations with education opportunities, including the Lay Ministry Institute. It also funds the synod youth initiative. Mission funds may return to your congregation in the form of grants, services, programs, and resources.

The synod shares a percentage of mission support with the ELCA churchwide expression. This enables more serving through global mission partnerships, leadership formation, Lutheran schools and universities, youth gatherings, disaster response, and hunger relief. It also supports collaborative work with ecumenical partners including the Lutheran World Federation, World Council of Churches, full communion partners, companion synods (like the Lutheran Church in Liberia and the Ansbach-Würzburg Kirchenkreis in Germany), and the National Council of Churches. Sue Ellen Spotts, the synod’s Director for Evangelical Mission (DEM), works half time as DEM. The ELCA funds the position of DEM (which USS shares with Allegheny Synod) and provides additional funds for the work of the DEM in the synod.

Together, as congregations united in purpose, we can extend Christ’s work far beyond what any one community could do alone. Through faithful offerings, we participate in a ministry that is at once local, regional, and global—bearing witness to God’s grace in action.