The Inner-City Mission Committee Collection

Collection

Identifier: S005

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The records consist of documents pertaining to committees on which Pastor Rolfe Westendorf participated, including the Inner-City Mission Committee (ICMC), the Multi-Cultural Mission Committee (MC2), and the Urban Mission Committee (UMC). Including are agendas and minutes from committee meetings, planning documents for mission seminars, personal letters written by Pastor Westendorf, essays on inner-city outreach, demographics of Milwaukee and the neighborhoods surrounding WELS churches, and updates on inner-city work, including the annual inner-city VBS outreach program and ministries such as Northside Lutheran Ministries. Some of the materials also involve early Hispanic outreach in the WELS.

Dates

1971 - 2000

Conditions Governing Use

Biographical / Historical

Prior to 1970, the WELS was not directly involved in the affairs of inner-city congregations. When some congregations began having some success in cross-cultural evangelism in the inner-city, and when other congregations began closing their doors, the General Board for Home Missions (GBHM) organized several seminars in the early 1970s to see how inner-city successes might be duplicated and inner-city closings might be avoided. The increased connection between the GBHM and inner-city congregations, especially in city of Milwaukee, revealed a need for on-going communication and support. To fill that need, the Inner-City Mission Committee (ICMC) was created in the 1970s. It met on a regular basis to assess the needs of inner-city congregations, counsel churches in changing neighborhoods, and educate the WELS as a whole on the blessings and challenges of inner-city ministry. As the need for cross-cultural work expanded, the GBHM, now the Board for Home Missions (BHM), created the Multi-Cultural Mission Committee (MC2) in the 1980s to oversee national cross-cultural work. After the formation of the MC2, the ICMC continued to function as a separate committee and focused directly on inner-city work in the Milwaukee area. In the late 1990s, the ICMC was renamed the Urban Mission Committee (UMC).