# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S4 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 4 OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS oo oo oo •• •• •• •• George Hawley, “A District-Level Examination of Demographic Trends and Membership Trends within LCMS Districts,” Journal of Lutheran Mission (December 2016): 2–6. •• Launch of Lutheran Young Adult Corps. (www.lcms .org/young-adult-corps). •• The youth organization Higher Things has been designated an RSO. George Hawley, “The LCMS in the Face of Demographic and Social Change: A Social Science Perspective,” Journal of Lutheran Mission (December 2016): 7–84. •• Improvements in LCMS National Youth Gathering. •• Creation and expansion of LCMS U, with a renewed emphasis on retaining LCMS youth through their college years, and the largest campus ministry gatherings in the history of the LCMS (lcmsu.org). We know that if a college student does not connect with a church in the first month, he or she will likely not return to church until having children. •• Blue Ribbon Task Force study on LCMS schools. Ryan C. MacPherson, “Generational Generosity: Handing Down Our Faith to Our Children and Our Children’s Children,” Journal of Lutheran Mission (December 2016): 85–121. These studies have been helpful in dispelling myths and in taking an honest look at the demographic trends at work today—generating faithful, missionoriented responses in our LCMS approach to national mission. Renewed focus on outreach, revitalization, and church planting: Mercy We are called to love and serve all people in need. We seek to do works of mercy in close proximity to Word and Sacrament so that we have more opportunities to bring the Word of Life in Christ to a dying world, all in cooperation with districts and our many partners. oo Every One His Witness—Synod’s first comprehensive evangelism training program in 35 years. Soon to become available in Spanish (www.everyonehiswitness.org). •• LCMS World Relief and Human Care/LCMS Disaster Response continues to be very healthy, responding to major disasters around the world as well as the U.S., such as Hurricane Harvey (2017). oo re:Vitality—assists congregations to improve their outreach to new members, follow-up with inactive members, and conduct basic strategic planning (www.lcms.org/church -revitalization). •• oo A Resource for Church Planting—provides a step-by-step approach to chartering a new congregation, adaptable to any context (www.lcms.org/how-we-serve/national/churchplanting). With Hurricane Harvey in Texas, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere, LCMS Disaster Relief reported more than $10 million in gifts received and in various stages of being distributed. (All of this with no discernable negative impact on giving to other LCMS mission or ministry programs.) In Texas alone, together with local Lutherans, we have Major expansion of conferences, webinars, and ongoing support of Rural and Small Town Mission (RSTM). This work supports pastors, professional church workers, and lay leaders by equipping them to meet the unique challenges of leading Christ-centered outreach in rural and small-town communities (www .lcms.org/how-we-serve/national/rural-and-small-town -mission). Completion of a major study called “Retention of Lutheran Millennials: 2017 LCMS Study of Young Adults,” which surveyed 2,000 millennials—current and former LCMS members (www.youthesource.com/ wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Congregational-Data -Webinar_pt1.pdf). Everyone interested in young people and the future of the LCMS, and especially young people in the local congregation, must read this fascinating study. We are not losing youth at any higher rates than the past two generations. The youth we lose are not overall at odds with our doctrine and worship. Most who quit coming to church are not going to church anywhere. If we retain young people into adulthood, 70 percent are retained for life. 2019 Convention Workbook oo provided eight full-time staffed disasterresponse centers across the affected area; oo provided two disaster-response warehouses and distribution centers with full-time staff; oo helped to facilitate the work of over 110,000 volunteer hours; oo served more than 800 homes; oo distributed more than 2,000 pieces of furniture. •• Continued support and attendance at National March for Life and LCMS Life Conferences (www .lcms.org/events/lifeconference). See my statement (unanimously endorsed by the LCMS Council of Presidents) responding to recent New York legislation allowing even infanticide (https://blogs.lcms.org/2019/ lcms-presidents-statement-regarding-gubernatorial -actions-expanding-abortion-in-new-york-and-illinois/). •• Regular send Medical Mercy Teams to Africa and elsewhere (www.lcms.org/mercy-medical-teams). •• Ongoing support of Veterans of the Cross and Soldiers of the Cross for church workers in crisis (www .lcms.org/how-we-serve/mercy/serving-church-workers/ veterans-of-the-cross).