Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park

Dear Friends, 

After months of waiting for Election Day, we now have an idea of the direction our country will take over the next few years. We know that many among us at Augustana are discouraged, exhausted by the tension of the past months, afraid of what is to come. At a moment such as this, it’s good to remember the sentence Jesus says most often: “Do not be afraid.” Fear paralyzes us. But faith calls us to walk forward with courage, knowing that our God of grace and truth is with us. God is always working to unfold a future prophesied in scripture, a future that lifts up the lowly and makes all things new. 

This is a time to intentionally care for your spirit. One way to do this is to recommit yourself to God through worship and prayer, fellowship, service and stewardship. This is a time when we all need to take advantage of the great gift we have in Christian community, in being the body of Christ together. You can always come to either of us pastors to talk about your feelings, your fears, your hopes, or if you’d like help in praying. 

Right now, we can only guess what this next year will bring. But it seems likely that life will become more difficult for very poor people, for anyone from another country who is not a U.S. citizen, for anyone who identifies as queer in any way, for many of our neighbors. As your pastors, we ask everyone to commit to making Augustana in the coming year a place of welcome and safety, a place where people can come to set down their burdens and find rest and help. Right now, we can only guess what this will look like. But what we will ask of you on Commitment Sunday on November 24 is to commit your time and money and talent to preparing Augustana to truly be a sanctuary for our neighbors. 

On Commitment Sunday, we will ask you to bring forward to the altar your financial commitments for the coming year. We are slowly increasing our mission support as a congregation so that we can give ten percent of our income to God’s mission through the wider church. In 2025, we want to increase Augustana’s giving by one percent. We ask that you prayerfully support this life-changing ministry by increasing your own household support by one percent. 

These are difficult days. Fortunately, we walk with the God of peace. May that peace be with you,

Pastor Nancy and Pastor Matt

What does it mean to give to the wider church?

This year, our congregation gave $15,000, or 3.5 percent of our income, to our local synod, Metro Chicago. In 2025, we would like to increase our giving by one percent, giving $20,000, or 4.5 percent, to the wider church. 

A synod is an association of congregations, and ours is just one of 65 synods that make up our national church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. 

Some of the money we give stays in MCS, and just over half goes on to support ministries of the ELCA. Augustana and members receive some of this money back again, in the form of support for things like campus ministry and scholarships for international students. We all benefit when the ELCA spends this money on disaster relief and hunger programs and development projects in other countries. 

For an easy-to-navigate look at the work of the ELCA, take a look at https://elca.org/Our-Work