Beyond What You Think Is Possible
Share
See one ministry’s decade of growth since the LCEF partnership began.
It all started at the board meeting over eight years ago when a group of congregation members approached former Senior Pastor David Smith at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Des Peres, Missouri, and said, “I don’t think just a new portico will be enough. We need a new school building.”
To fulfill that need, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and School began partnering with Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF) in 2018. The project was focused on increasing education space quality and ended up being broken up into two phases. That way, the expansion could also highlight their commitment to musical education while accommodating a growing student body.
In the last six years…
Enrollment has more than doubled—from about 140 students to 310.
60+ baptisms have occurred within school families.
Associate Pastor Tanner Wade at St. Paul’s recognized how insurmountable these changes might have seemed to the congregation at that time. He said, “If you would have asked the people of St. Paul’s eight years ago if $31 million in buildings would have been possible … not a single person would have said, yep, absolutely. And yet, God has not only brought us through it, but seen the Kingdom growth, most importantly … through our enrollment and new member increases.”
For reference, the school enrolled approximately 140 students in May 2020. In August 2026, St. Paul’s Lutheran School opened with over 310 children in kindergarten through eighth grade.
Some of that growth is not just other Lutherans seeking Christian instruction, Principal Dawn Walker noted. Many families are simply seeking a quality education. However, thanks to mission-aligned teaching, school families have requested 60+ baptisms over the last six years. “These are families that have come into our school and, through the Gospel,” Walker stated, “have been led by the Spirit to the baptismal font and have become members of a church.”
LCEF support outlasts construction
Through the project conceptualization and completion, LCEF has been supporting St. Paul’s with loans and ministry planning for every phase.
For example, in Phase 1, the team at LCEF was instrumental in helping St. Paul’s develop and run funding campaigns for the project. In Phase 2, LCEF helped the team creatively spread the project’s work out over five years instead of three to help offset the higher post-COVID building expenses. And now, as the church prepares to dedicate the space built during Phase 2, LCEF continues communicating with them.
That’s a relationship that has endured over time, through multiple project phases and staff changes. “The relationship has transcended the people,” Pastor Wade said, “because I think that mission was central to the whole point of even looking at this from the beginning.”
It is not easy. I don’t want to sit here and say it’s super easy to go through all the logistical challenges, the financial challenges, the realities of what a project like this takes—but it’s also not about easy.”
—Principal Dawn Walker
What would God have you do?
If the team at St. Paul’s had simply considered what they thought was possible for their ministry, then many of their initiatives might not have come to fruition. Instead, as Principal Walker stated, they took it upon themselves to “ask what God would have you do, not what you think you can do.” In that spirit, they partnered with LCEF to accomplish the goals that were right for their ministry’s mission.
Walker summarized the motivation behind projects at St. Paul’s: “It is not easy. I don’t want to sit here and say it’s super easy to go through all the logistical challenges, the financial challenges, the realities of what a project like this takes—but it’s also not about easy … There is no shortage of ways the devil would like to hinder God’s work for the kingdom, but there’s also no shortage of ways that God will withstand those and provide His plan for His church.”
See how LCEF can help transform your ministry for generations to come. Connect with your LCEF representative find similar support at lcef.org/FindMyDVP.
