The theme of this year’s convention and the phrase chosen by WELS leaders to identify our synod into the future is “Christ’s Love, Our Calling.” WELS President Mark Schroeder says those two little phrases encompass everything God has done for us—and our joyful response.

“Everything we are as individuals and everything we are as a church really flows from God’s love to us in Christ,” he says. “And now that God gives us that grace, what is our response? What has he called us to do? And how can we as a church body then carry out the role that God has intended for us?”

Schroeder says these are important questions to address as delegates determine the future ministry of the synod. “In times like this, we have to remind ourselves that no matter how things look around us, Christ’s love is all around us; it doesn’t change, and it doesn’t go away,” he says. “And regardless of the resources we have, our calling remains the same—to do the very most we can and to seize every opportunity we can in the most faithful way we can.”

And since that mission will not change, Schroeder says “Christ’s Love, Our Calling” is more than just a two-year convention theme. “It’s a beautiful summary of who we are as a church body and what this church body is built on,” he says. “Really, it defines what we stand for both now and into the future.”

Complementing the theme is a new synod logo—to be widely visible for the first time at the convention. “Long-time WELS members will recognize the distinctive shape of the traditional WELS cross, updated graphically to demonstrate our calling to spread the gospel to the entire world,” says Joel Hochmuth, WELS director of communications. The logo carries the tagline “Christ’s Love, Our Calling” and will be available for congregational use following the convention.

Hochmuth says that while a new theme and updated logo can be helpful in reenergizing our mission as a church body, “they can never take the place of our ultimate motivation—the gospel.”