(This message was written by Pr. Jamie Gallagher, Pastor of First Lutheran Church, Monmouth, IL. The Northern Illinois Synod held its annual Congregational Resourcing Event (CRE) on March 22, 2025.)
Since the announcement was right before Lunch, I started by asking who was hungry — with a lot of hands going up, I simply said, there are millions of people who are asked that question and there is not a table of lunch sitting right there waiting for them. I then reminded the gathering that it was 50 years ago when Lutherans just like us gathered in a room just like this had someone raise their hand to ask “Can’t we do something about the hunger crisis” and all the other hands went up and said, “yes we can”. Today, ELCA world Hunger is a ministry worth over $21 million dollars, but that money doesn’t come from thin air, it comes because we Lutherans still raise our hand and say, “Yes we can”.
I then spoke about the giving challenge, and how it is the generosity of a donor from our synod that is going to match up to $100,000. And I don’t really remember how else I said everything, I didn’t have anything written down. I just went up there and spoke about it. I also shared the story of how my congregation is giving toward this, and how as of that morning I was anticipating over $1,200 to go toward ELCA World Hunger.
What I didn’t know Saturday but what I do know today is that my congregation is at $1,698 and I have one more week to collect for ELCA World Hunger. This has been the largest single month collection for what our church calls “vision and purpose giving” our monthly outward benevolence offering collection. And it isn’t even close. I think for St. Jude’s we once raised $650. For LDR last month, we raised $515, but that is the best we have done before. So, I am excited for the enthusiasm my congregation is pouring into this, and I am looking forward to our synod having that same enthusiasm.
The workshop I led had 10 participants. I used the take home version of the Generation Zero activity from the 2024 Youth Gathering. They were assuming family roles and playing them well – they were counting candies in the jar and guessing way off but having fun. They played with playdough and made goats, some good, some not so good, but all in good fun, and they learned what some of the root causes of hunger are and what ELCA World Hunger is doing amid those causes.
It was a great time. We also collected a bunch of new ideas we will be sharing on our synod website for fundraising ideas for ELCA World Hunger as they all had great ideas.
So, it was a great day to announce the challenge and present the workshop.
