Historical addressHow Congregations Join a Shared Resource Center

The Synod Resource Center presents itself as the resource site for the Northwest Synod of Wisconsin. It does not describe itself as a shop or a publisher. It acts as a shared shelf where pastors, teachers, parish librarians, and worship planners can find teaching and formation help without each parish buying everything alone. That model matters for you because it sets expectations. You arrive as a borrower and a contributor, not as a customer. When you explain the idea to your council, describe a shelf you tend together rather than a service you consume.

In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, becoming a member expresses a long-term commitment to the life and work of the church. The church describes that commitment as both personal and practical. It includes showing up for worship, learning, and service, and it includes a commitment of resources to sustain the work of the congregation as well as the national and global church. The church teaches that all people are imperfect and are saved by grace alone through Christ, and that through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God shared human sin and suffering. Its roots are in Scripture and in the Book of Concord, and its social statements give broad frameworks for moral formation and thoughtful engagement. If you lead volunteers, that language helps you frame the center. Joining is not a subscription. It is a way to take part.

The Synod Resource Center page does not publish a fee schedule or a join form. You start instead with the welcome message and the subject lists, then you read the Site Resources Usage Policy before you borrow or copy anything. Look for the current contact address on the site, note which staff person handles lending if one is named, and keep a simple record in your parish: who requested what, for which date, and when it is due back. If you need a template for first contact, How Resource Center Lending Works for Congregations gives you a steady way to phrase the request, the return date, and the condition check.

The site organizes its holdings under ten headings: Administration; Education; Evangelism; Pastoral Care; Personal Growth; Social Concerns; Stewardship; Theology; Worship, Music, Art; and Youth, Women, Men. Use those headings the way a parish librarian uses subject drawers. Administration helps councils and church offices. Education and Youth, Women, Men support Sunday school, confirmation, and adult groups. Evangelism and Stewardship support invitation and giving. Pastoral Care and Personal Growth support visits and small groups. Theology and Social Concerns support study and discernment. Worship, Music, Art supports planners and musicians. When you search, write down the heading, not just the title, so the next volunteer can find the path again. For background on why headings matter, Cataloging Basics for Congregational Resource Shelves explains how a clear subject structure saves time.

The site asks visitors who find the pages helpful to consider a financial contribution to support the ministry. Checks are made out to the Northwest Synod of Wisconsin and sent to the Synod Resource Center address shown on the site. There is no price list tied to that request. Treat it as congregational support, in line with the wider church practice where gifts sustain people, congregations, synods, and ministries working in many places. For a small church, the workable habit is a line in the Christian education budget for shared resources, approved by the council, with the check memo and date kept with your lending log. That keeps gratitude and accounting together.

Every shared shelf lives or dies on return condition and honest copying. The site has a Site Resources Usage Policy and a COVID-19 UPDATE notice, which tell you that health and handling rules can change how lending works. Read both pages before you promise dates to teachers. Clean kits before returning them, count pieces against the packing list, report damage right away, and copy only where the policy allows. If you borrow a VBS kit, keep the age range, the volunteer roles, and the missing-piece note together in one envelope. That envelope becomes your training tool next year, and you can compare notes with Choosing VBS Kits That Fit Small Church Volunteers when you judge what your team can run.

A cooperative center asks for shared responsibility, not just careful borrowing. Name one contact person for requests and returns. Put return postage or mileage in the budget. Add a brief report to the annual meeting: what you borrowed, how many learners used it, and what you gave back in money or volunteer help. The wider church invites members to support youth and family growth, worship planning, global relief, and care for creation, and to stand with people who face exclusion. Your council cannot do all of that at once, so pick one visible link between the borrowed resource and parish life. If the youth group used a study on grace, let the group thank the congregation on a Sunday and name the subject heading that helped.

You will get more from the collection if you close the loop. When you return a kit, add a half-page note for the next borrower: which session ran long, which craft needed extra hands, and which song your pianists could play without rehearsal. File that note under the same subject heading you used at the start. You can learn more about the scope and the current lending terms on the Northwest Synod resource site before you plan the season. Then place one date on the parish calendar for checking the shelf, the log, and the budget line, so the next coordinator inherits order rather than a box of loose pieces.