Call Day – The End Goal of the APPLE Program

This past weekend, the MLC campus celebrated our May graduation. While that celebration is certainly important, it pales in some ways to the Call Service that follows the graduation ceremony. Families, friends, classmates, and recently graduated education and staff ministry students return to the same room where they just celebrated their graduation to attend the Call Service. Together, the graduates listen to hear their name assigned to their first call to serve in the public ministry of the WELS. Within the span of a few hours, one chapter in our students’ lives closes and another begins.

While some learners in the APPLE program already hold provisional or part-time calls that require the pursuit of a baccalaureate degree in elementary education and licensure, some do not. The end result, though, is the same. For learners who are already serving a congregation, they will most likely be called to serve at that school. For those who are not currently serving a congregation, they will complete the same paperwork for review and consideration of an assignment in the public ministry.