Reaching out and serving the human needs of the community.
Ministries Christ Lutheran serves:
Bags of Blessings
This program collects hygiene & comfort items, packages them in Ziploc bags and distributes them to people experiencing homelessness.
Filling the Gap
Each year there are several weeks where food is not offered at the schools (Spring Break, before & after Summer Break). This program sets up in locations throughout Wichita where children can come and receive a free bag lunch every day that the school doesn’t provide food.
Food 4 Kids
In the Wichita School District, on Fridays, many children on the free/reduced lunch plans are sent home with a backpack full of food that will help feed them throughout the weekend.
St. Paul’s Breakfast
Christ Lutheran believes in serving others. Because of this, we prepare, serve, and clean up at the Community Breakfast to feed the homeless at St Paul’s Lutheran the 4th Saturday of March, June, September, and December. This is a cooperative effort between other ELCA congregations, and other organizations to provide a nutritious breakfast to those in need. The meal is prepared on Friday night (breakfast burritos, homemade rolls, and a sundry of other good food). The number served is between 100 & 150 persons each week.
Camp Tomah Shinga
This is a Lutheran church camp in Junction City, KS. By acreage, it is one of the largest ELCA camps in the country.
StepStone / Dear Neighbor Ministry
StepStone responds to the critical needs of survivors of domestic violence. Dear Neighbor Ministries works to transform the lives of the poor, abused, and neglected of our community.
Both are sponsored ministries of the Congregation of St. Joseph.
Lutheran World Relief (LWR)
LWR provides assistance to those in need around the world. We help by providing quilts, baby layettes, and school supplies.
Sandwich Saturday
Every Saturday a different church/organization makes bag lunches and hands them out to people experiencing homelessness in downtown Wichita.
Falcon Fellowship
Each month during the school year, Christ Lutheran hosts a free lunch for students at Heights High School. They walk across the street, get a free lunch, and hear a gospel message, usually from a youth pastor. On other days, students come across the street for free snacks, soda & conversation with our pastor and volunteer congregants. We also host about 75 students every day through our daily lunch snack program.
Partners for Wichita
This local faith-based organization is dedicated to bringing churches, social service providers, businesses, and individuals together to form partnerships for service and improving the community. They run a very effective Safe Streets program in several middle schools.
Mision San Juan de Dios
We continue to support a Spanish-speaking ELCA mission congregation in Wichita. They currently meet at St. Paul Lutheran, but are a separate outreach. The mission pastor is Ivan Gonzalez. They regularly have 20-40 people in worship on Sundays.
Central States Synod of the ELCA
We are connected with all of the other ELCA Lutheran churches in Missouri and Kansas. We are led by Bishop Susan Candea and the synod headquarters are in Kansas City.
Open Door Ministries
This is a ministry of the United Methodist Church that provides food, clothing and shelter to those who need it in Wichita.
Box Tops for Education
We currently collect Box Tops for Education in order to support the ongoing efforts & ministry of Mosaic.
Wichita Children’s Home
The Wichita Children’s Home offers the only emergency, temporary residential shelter for children in our community.
Family Life Center / Safe Hope
Located in El Dorado & Newton, KS, this ministry provides comprehensive services to the victims of the crimes of domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault/abuse, with special attention to each client’s individual needs.
Mercy Ships
They operate floating hospital ships that provide state-of-the-art care to those in desperate need – free of charge. Brittany Garrelts (one of our members) serves as a nurse & administrator on the ship, Africa Mercy, currently serving in western Africa.
ELCA Good Gifts
This is an opportunity for people to make gifts to people in other parts of the world. You can give a family anything from a chicken or a goat to a medical kit or malaria net. You can purchase an entire water well for a village or simply buy a seedling tree. Gifts range in price from $10 to $2,500 and you can select what gift you’d like to offer from their online catalog.
Global Faith In Action (GLIA)
GFIA is a local organization that believes that healthy dialogue is a bridge to transformation of families, communities and our world. Their past experience has taught them that dialogue builds relationships, and relationships create understanding, and understanding promotes peace. This is an interfaith organization that observes that there is no stronger community witness than an active, dialogue-centered interfaith membership organization.
International Rescue Committee
This is the local branch of an international organization that helps resettle refugees. We support them primarily by collecting donations for the incoming families.
Justice Together
Justice Together is a faith-based organization that works toward justice. They do a lot of community organizing around local justice needs in order to make positive and lasting changes. The two focus issues for 2024 are homelessness & mental health. They are affiliated with the national organization called DART (Direct Action Research & Training Center).