2025 Church Worker Grants
On January 25, 2025, MinistryFOCUS proudly awarded financial assistance grants to 79 Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) workers in 27 districts, including 56 pastors, 16 teachers, 3 deaconesses, 3 directors of Christian education and 1 director of parish music. These grants are awarded to help church workers focus less on money and more on ministry so that the faith of believers is strengthened and more people know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Of the 79 awardees, 51 are participating in a new Ministerial Excellence Fund program that is the result of equal funding by MinistryFOCUS through a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., the Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF) and 24 participating districts. These awardees will receive not only $4,500 in total funding in 2025, but also tuition to an online financial education course developed by the Concordia University Wisconsin Batterman School of Business (CUW). The course consists of 10 modules on personal finances and 4 modules on organizational finances. LCEF’s Grace Place Wellness Ministries also will facilitate a closing session. Awardees must complete the course to receive full grant funding. As MinistryFOCUS president Rev. Ken Krueger noted, “We thank God and organizational leaders for the support of Lilly Endowment Inc. through its ‘Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders’ program, for the continued demonstration of LCEF’s support for LCMS church workers, for the commitment of participating districts to its pastoral leaders, and for CUW’s work in designing and executing an excellent online financial education curriculum.”
The other 28 awardees will receive a total of $3,000 in equal quarterly payments.
Since 2015, MinistryFOCUS has awarded 392 grants totaling more than $1.1 million.
Applications for 2026 grants will be available at MinistryFocus.org in November 2025.
For more information, please contact Rev. Ken Krueger at [email protected].