The Church Relations staff of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) is responsible for relating to the approximately 540 congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in Illinois, their pastors and lay leaders, along with the bishops and other leaders of the ELCA’s Central/Southern Illinois Synod, Metropolitan Chicago Synod and Northern Illinois Synod.

LSSI’s Church Relations staff has developed an extensive list of resources and offerings for congregations to help them gain a deeper understanding of and commitment to social ministry on the local, regional, synod, church and even international levels. To view the “menu” of LSSI offerings, click here.

The Church Relations functions of LSSI are part of the Office of the President and are overseen by Pastor Daniel Schwick, assistant to the President and director of the Office of Church and Government Relations, and by Jennifer DeLeon, associate director. Stephen Taylor is the coordinator of the Office of Church and Government Relations at LSSI.

Book Your Date with LSSI

Is your congregation interested in having an LSSI Sunday, a presentation on Lutheran Advocacy, or information about Lutheran Disaster Response or the “Just Neighbors” educational program on poverty? The “LSSI Church Relations Menu” lists many learning opportunities for your congregation, and the “LSSI Speaker Sign-Up” helps to connect you with the appropriate resources at LSSI.

For more information, or answers to your questions, please contact Stephen Taylor, coordinator for the Office of Church and Government Relations, at Stephen.Taylor@LSSI.org or 847/635-4653.

Good Shepherd Sunday: God’s Strong, Gentle Care for People in Need

April 13, the fourth Sunday of Easter, is Good Shepherd Sunday. It’s a day to focus on ways that the church carries out its shepherding ministry today . . . a day to ask, “How does the church care for people in need in our community?”

Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) — your congregation’s statewide social ministry organization — has been caring for God’s lambs and sheep for more than 140 years. As a ministry of the ELCA’s three synods in Illinois and your congregation, LSSI serves approximately 57,000 people each year — children, men, women and families — in 80-plus locations throughout the state.

The three ELCA bishops in Illinois are, by virtue of their office, members of LSSI’s Board of Directors. The bishops recently launched a joint strategy intended to connect congregations and synods more closely to the ELCA’s only statewide social ministry organization in Illinois. As part of that strategy, the bishops will sponsor a resolution at their respective synod assemblies that would designate Good Shepherd Sunday each year as Good Shepherd/LSSI Sunday, and would encourage congregations to use at least that one Sunday each year to focus on their ministry through Lutheran Social Services of Illinois.

In anticipation of the synod assembly resolutions and because of LSSI’s critical financial needs, the bishops encouraged LSSI to distribute resources (bulletin inserts, posters, offering envelopes, sermon starters and prayer petitions) to congregations that may choose to celebrate Good Shepherd/LSSI Sunday this year even though the designation will not become official until next year. These materials, which feature a beautiful illustration of Jesus the Good Shepherd, have been sent to every ELCA congregation in Illinois. Click here to take a look at a black and white version of the Good Shepherd Sunday bulletin insert.

For more information about Lutheran Social Services of Illinois or about Good Shepherd/LSSI Sunday, please contact Pr. Daniel Schwick, LSSI’s assistant to the president, at 847/390-1418 or at Dan.Schwick@LSSI.org. To arrange for a preacher or other speaker from LSSI, please contact Stephen Taylor, coordinator of the Office of Church and Government Relations, at 847/635-4653 or at Stephen.Taylor@LSSI.org.

Zion Lutheran Church (Rockford) received the Ministry of Hope award from Lutheran Social Services of Illinois in January 2005. “Zion has chosen to continue to renew itself in its service to the neighborhood,” explains the Rev. Dr. Denver Bitner, senior pastor of the congregation (shown here at left, along with Nancy Warden, former congregation president, and the Rev. Dr. Frederick Aigner, LSSI president, who presented the award to the congregation).

Ministry of Hope Awards

In the latter half of each year, LSSI presents three Ministry of Hope Awards – one to a church in each of the three Illinois synods – recognizing outstanding congregations that provide leadership in supporting the ministry of LSSI and other ministries in the community.

In 2007, Ministry of Hope Awards were presented to:

• Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Arlington Heights, for its commitment to social justice and ministry. The congregation also hosts a PADS (Public Access to Deliver Shelter) site; initiated a Green Team ministry; and offers an older adult ministry, a Stephen Ministry program and a support group for military families.
• St. John’s Lutheran Church in Rock Island, which offers weekly bilingual homework assistance to children and supports World Relief and members have supported newly settled neighbors from Liberia, Ethiopia, Iran and Russia.
• St. John’s Lutheran Church in Bloomington, which supports various ministries, including a year-round battery recycling program, the Hopedale Growing Project, the Open Door Missions for short-term adult mission trips, local food pantries and homeless shelters, blood drives, and clothing drives for women recently released from prisons.

For more information on the Ministry of Hope Awards, call Stephen Taylor at 847/635-4653.

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