Faith Rattei is the only full-time staff member at her church, New Life Church—Lutheran in Hugo, Minnesota. "I'm it," the 26 year-old Director of Christian Outreach (DCO) says. There's no secretary. The current pastor is a full-time volunteer, having recently retired from another church. The pastor's wife does the bulletin. Otherwise, Rattei is the church staff.

That's a tall order for a young woman in an aging, traditional church. But a visionary pastor—a previous fill-in—had suggested hiring Rattei when she was only 23. "They'd never heard of the position before," she says of the church's response to the DCO suggestion. "They hadn't been doing outreach over their history. But they knew something had to change or they would have to shut their doors. In the end, I formulated my job and developed what was next."

"What was next" required a great deal of work from Rattei. She got to know the church members and community. She built relationships and gained their trust, which was no small feat. "I was new and fresh out of college," she says. "Most of them had at least kids my age, if not grandkids! It was always a wonder if they would listen to me at all … about anything."

But they did listen, and Rattei began to take on more and more responsibilities from vision-casting and marketing the church to starting small groups and other ministries out of, well, thin air. "It was basically a rebirth model here at New Life. We had to start things like a youth group. The nursery didn't exist. The Sunday school was moving into non-existence, so that had to get revamped." In an ideal congregation, the DCO position in Lutheran churches is primarily involved with evangelism, missions, and outreach. In smaller churches like New Life, however, the DCO position tends to flow through every area of ministry.

Rattei is fine with that. "I see my role overall as helping [members of the congregation] in each area of ministry see that they are outreach, and make sure that's their number-one focus. Through discipleship, worship, fellowship, evangelism, and service is where the outreach happens. Without them, we're not doing it."

A faithful Summit attendee for the last several years, Rattei is fueled by a "holy discontent" she identifies with a passion for reaching the lost and for making sure her church is properly equipped to do so. It's a passion that ignited when she was a teenager. She recalls an evangelism campaign her church in high school once implemented. "I remember them saying, ‘Everyone, here's a bumper sticker that says Share the Good News About Jesus. And I asked my mom, ‘Why don't they just put the actual good news about Jesus on the bumper sticker, instead of telling people who might not know the Gospel to share the Good News?' It just didn't make any sense to me."

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