WELS by the numbers

As a Christian church body, our calling is to nurture the faith of our members and to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Everything about the way we're organized is designed to serve that dual purpose.

We are the third largest Lutheran church body in America.

1,290 churches   
394,241 baptized members  
309,116 communicant members 

We have 12 districts to allow for more area-specific ministry, personal contacts, and member involvement.

Arizona-California
Dakota-Montana
Michigan
Minnesota
Nebraska
North Atlantic
Northern Wisconsin
Pacific Northwest
South Atlantic
South Central
Southeastern Wisconsin
Western Wisconsin

We support work in world mission fields like Malawi, Zambia, Cameroon, Nigeria, Albania, Bulgaria, Japan, Russia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, India, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. We also support mission work in about 190 locations in the United States, Canada, and the West Indies.

We maintain a college in New Ulm, Minn., a seminary in Mequon, Wis., and two preparatory high schools in Watertown, Wis., and Saginaw, Mich., for the education of our pastors, teachers, and staff ministers.

1,458 pastors 
2,706 teachers

Our congregations—either individually or as federations—operate one of the largest Lutheran school systems in the country.

337 Lutheran elementary schools
398 early childhood ministries
23 area Lutheran high schools
1 Lutheran college

We run one of the largest Christian prison ministries in the nation, distributing hundreds of thousands of Bibles and Bible correspondence courses to inmates across the United States over the last 20 years.

We are a member of the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, an organization of 20 confessional church bodies throughout the world.