About Us

PIUM is a coalition of Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Churches in the St. Louis metropolitan area, which are challenged with “urban ministry”, and, partner with each other to serve God and our communities better than if we tried to do so separately.

Each of these “Member Churches” have a Delegate, whom they appoint, to represent their church and vote whenever there’s a proposal to change the PIUM’s By-Laws. A “member church” may also have one/more Alternate Delegates to substitute for the Delegate. If neither a Delegate or an Alternate is available, anyone who has been designated to represent the church may do so (1 church—1 vote).

A Board of Directors is elected by the Delegates (or their representatives) from the members of these churches (presently, there are 9 members on this Board). Also, there are some Advisors (elected by the Board), are non-voting members of the Board, and they normally will represent an LCMS organization (e.g., LCMS -Missouri District, Lutheran Ministries Association (LMA), Christian Friends of New Americans (CFNA), etc.). The Officers on the Board are: Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, Treasurer, and Secretary.

The common PIUM ministries (including some of the prior PIUM Teams) are grouped into 4 “Core Teams” (with Leaders elected by the Board) as follows:

· Human Care

· Mission Outreach

· Resource and Development

· Training and Education.

The “Executive Committee” consists of the Officers, the Core Team Leaders, and the Advisors (non-voting members). There is also an “Audit Committee”, chaired by the Board’s Vice-Chairperson.

Also, a recent organizational paradigm - grouping the “member churches” into “Clusters”, consisting of “Magnet” churches (member churches with more limited resources), “Cornerstone” churches (member churches with more resources) and “Partner” churches (non-PIUM Member LCMS churches (mainly in suburban or rural areas) which will support these “member churches” with prayers, ideas, funds, and volunteers), has its first, trial implementation called the “Alpha Cluster”. The plan is for the rest of the “member churches” to also be included into other Clusters.