Boston, Massachusetts – 2023

New Start: Boston, a city with 4.3 million souls, is known as “America’s College Town” with 53 colleges and universities. The closest WELS church to the urban center is a 90-minute or more drive to the south. This unique urban mission will be modeled after church plants in Atlanta and New York City and could have potential for college and cross-cultural ministry.

Fast Facts:

• Read more about the exploratory work in Boston in these Missions Blogs:
  • March 2024: Sowing seeds in urban soil
  • November 2023: Athens of America
• Joshua Koelpin was assigned from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Mequon, Wis., in May 2023 to serve this new mission start. He was installed on August 6, 2023.
• There are eight energetic and gifted WELS members currently residing in Boston who will be assisting in the mission effort.
• A group of students from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary worked with the North Atlantic district mission board to prepare a strategy for how to mobilize a core group, reach the community, and use limited resources to maximize reach in Boston as part of a church planting course held in January 2023. Read more in this article from Forward in Christ magazine.
• The closest WELS church is Good Shepherd in South Attleboro, Massachusetts, a 90-minute (or more!) drive to the south. The Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS), WELS sister church, has a church in a far northwestern suburb.

Contact:
Rev. Joshua Koelpin, Home Missionary
[email protected]
507-766-0674