See the AFLC Departments giving subsidy details below.
For 2023, the AFLC General Fund has a subsidy request of $424,000 and as of October 31, 2023 has received 83%.
General Fund's expenses are primarily payroll and benefits, program and promotional, administrative, and repairs and maintenance of the AFLC Administrative Office and presidents home properties. General Fund includes the President's Office and the Business Office. The General Fund is overseen by the Co-ordinating Committee.
If you have questions about the work of the General Fund, please call our office at (763) 545-5631.
Beginning January 2022, The Lutheran Ambassador magazine became free of charge to subscribers! You can subscribe and donate to the Lutheran Ambassador here.
The Mission of AFLC Evangelism and Discipleship is to “Encourage, Equip, and Assist our AFLC congregations and pastors in making and equipping disciples who make and equip disciples.”
Some of the ways that we are doing that include:
Our Website and Online Evangelism and Discipleship Resource Library
One of the areas that we focused on during COVID, and still believe to be crucial to reaching this digital culture has been the updating of our website and our online Evangelism and Discipleship Resource Library.
We now live in a world where, on average, a person spends 6 hours and 37 minutes looking at a screen each day (for internet-connected activities), which includes 2 hours and 31 minutes scrolling through social media channels,1 hour and 38 minutes of streaming music, and 1 hour and 12 minutes of listening to podcasts.
With this in mind, we have worked to make our website intuitive and visitor friendly. We are also continuing to work at expanding and updating our website to include current and relevant evangelism and discipleship resources, ministry testimonies, resource reviews, and more for our AFLC pastors, congregation members, and visitors to use free of charge.
While there is a large amount of evangelism and discipleship materials available already online, there are not a lot of conservative Lutheran resources that reflect our AFLC’s unique perspective. With additional financial support, we would like to be able to more fully research and update our library with new materials and resources as well as develop Free Lutheran specific evangelism and discipleship materials where there are none available.
Rekindle the Fire
This annual church-wide event is designed to “Rekindle the Fire” of evangelism and discipleship within the hearts of our AFLC pastors and church members through relevant and insightful teaching on this critical calling. It takes place on the Tuesday before the AFLC Annual Conference, in a nearby location. This year we have expanded this to include all AFLC pastors and members free of charge. We provide multiple workshops and speakers from 3pm to 8pm as well as free childcare and an evening meal. Our budget in the past for this event was $5,000, but now that we have invited the entire AFLC to join us, we have increased that to an annual budget of $10,000.
Disciple Equipping Workshops
After a great deal of prayer, research, and conversations with our pastors and congregations, we have begun developing Disciple Equipping Workshops that we will able to bring to our AFLC congregations beginning the fall of 2023. These workshops are intended to assist our pastors and congregations in equipping their members in a variety of disciple making and equipping skills through in person training workshops.
Our first, three-part workshop, “Living Out Your Faith in a Post-Christian World” will equip congregation members to actively live out their faith in their community. Some of the session titles for this workshop include, Living as a Disciples in a Post-Christian World, Confidently Sharing the Hope within You, and Engaging Your Community For Christ. You can visit our workshops webpage for more details on this and other workshops we are developing. We hope to be able to offer this to our AFLC congregations without charge other than a free-will offering. We are completing the development and testing phase of this first workshop, and plan to offer this workshop this fall while developing a one- day Congregation Leadership Workshop that we hope to begin testing in 2024.
RightNow Media Subscription for AFLC Pastors and Ministry Workers
During the COVID crisis we began offering to our AFLC pastors, seminary students, ministry workers, and their families, a free subscription to Rightnow Media. If you aren’t familiar with RightNow Media, it is like a “Netflix” of Bible studies, family and couples’ resources, kids programming and much more. With tens of thousands of video resources, it provides access to solid Christian teaching and disciple-maturing tools for the whole family.
What we found is that they were really blessed by it and we received many “thank yous” from pastors, seminarians, and their families. We currently have over 160 active family users, and we are hoping to connect with more of our AFLC pastors in the years to come as they become more internet comfortable. The subscription we have is called a, ‘Denomination Level’ and it allows us to include all of our AFLC clergy roster as well as our seminarians, and full time church ministry workers. The cost is $189.99 per month, but if we purchase a whole year’s subscription they knock off one month’s subscription cost making the total annual cost, $2089.99.
These are just some of the areas where we are working to encourage, equip, and assist our AFLC congregations and pastors in making and equipping disciples who make and equip disciples. If you have any suggestions, questions, or ideas as to other ways we might fulfill this mission, I would be glad to visit with you. My direct line is 763-412-2021 or you can email me at [email protected]. I would love to hear from you.
Thank you again for your prayer and financial support of AFLC Evangelism and Discipleship, and may the Lord richly bless you.
With you in His service,
Pastor Randy Nelson - AFLC Evangelism and Discipleship Director
Our greatest financial need is for funding to maintain increased staffing hours for full-time Administrative Assistant Diane Brubakken, enabling us to complete more projects in a timely manner. We have been greatly understaffed for many years due to a lack of funds. A generous gift in June 2016 allowed the Board of Publications to increase this position from 30 to 40 hours per week. We pray that God would provide the funds to continue this role as a full-time position. Gifts can be designated for “Staffing Needs.”
View Ambassador PE and Publications web site here: https://www.ambassadorpublications.org/
We are truly grateful to God for each congregation and individual that is supporting AFLC Youth Ministries! We are honored with the responsibility of winning, building, equipping, and multiplying maturing teen disciples of Jesus by serving our AFLC fellowship.
At the 2021 Annual Conference, the AFLC Youth Board was straightforward in their concern for the 2022 finances. The strong response across the AFLC fellowship has positioned AFLC Youth Ministries is to serve teenagers and congregations effectively in 2022. Our efforts with Youth Workers Weekends, the Apprenticeship Program, FLY Beyond, and meeting congregational needs will be completely covered.
Thank you so much for your partnership in sharing Jesus with today's teens! www.aflc.org/youth
Thank you for your interest in AFLC World Missions. We covet your prayer even more than your financial support. Would you commit to pray for World Missions?
Even though we need prayer, your financial support is also vital to work of spreading the Gospel around the world. The finances of AFLC World Missions are divided into three separate areas. Two of those three have budget subsidies that have been approved by the AFLC Annual Conference. The three areas are described below.
AFLC World Missions Budget – Conference Approved
This budget funds all our ministries as well as oversight for those ministries. Those ministries include:
• Brazil - • India - • Mexico - • Uganda - • Paraguay - • Switzerland - • Ambassador Institute - • Journey Missions
AFLC World Missions Personal Support (Missionaries) – Conference Approved
This budget funds our missionaries as they serve in many places around the world. Each missionary is expected to raise their own personal support to keep them on the field.
Approved Special Project List
These special projects are approved by the World Missions Board, but have no budget subsidy from the AFLC Annual Conference. A list of the approved special projects can be found by clicking here.
Thank you for partnering with us in church planting. It is our mission to help churches plant churches. We also want to identify gifted leaders in our church family who can help us start new congregations. We believe the planting of new churches is the most effective way to reach the most people for Christ. Our goal is to help churches plant three new congregations every year. Jesus said, “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” That promise guides AFLC Home Missions.
To help us in the work, we welcome your help:
1) Join our Knee-mail Prayer Team (send an email to [email protected] to get started).
2) Invite one of our seven committee members to speak to your congregation (call us at 763-412-2018).
3) Encourage your church and district to appoint a team to study how you could be used by God to plant a new church.
4) Send an individual gift or a congregational benevolence to support AFLC Home Missions.
5) Join our team of monthly givers who sponsor the work of training and supporting planters and help us fund the matching gifts we offer to churches willing to plant new.
See Home Missions Web site here: https://www.aflchomemissions.org/
The Free Lutheran Bible College and Seminary is grateful for generous support from congregations and individuals. Gifts not otherwise designated provide for a significant amount of funding for the Bible College and Seminary, accounting for more than 40% of total income. These gifts have the direct effect of keeping the amount charged students far below the actual costs of Bible College and Seminary. FLBCS is committed to investing such financial resources to fulfill the mission of establishing students in the eternal and inerrant Word of God for a life of faith in Jesus Christ and faithful service in His Kingdom.
Some friends choose to give to scholarships. These funds do not pay for operational expenses or other projects, but go directly to students to help pay their student accounts, and these gifts are greatly appreciated by our students. Donors may contribute to scholarships (or other items) here.
The Student Life Center has propounding impacted the essence of student life at FLBCS and has greatly contributed to the overall mission and goals of the institution. Gifts given with a donor designation (see Capital Campaign) toward the Student Life Center will be used to pay for the outstanding note, the only long term debt held by FLBCS. Other friends may choose to give toward scholarships, and such gifts will be given to students to help pay their student accounts.
Your prayer and financial support of the Bible College and Seminary is greatly appreciated. For more information, including how to consider FLBCS in your estate or established long term and/or planned giving, contact Director of Donor Relations Sherry Mork at [email protected], or (763) 544-9501.