# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S164
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

164

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS

This is our time to plant new Lutheran congregations and
schools. Some of that is beginning to happen:
1)

Cross Lutheran Middleton is preparing to charter.
Their weekly attendance at divine service is at 100.
They gather in a local community center, with Rev.
Joel Brandt serving as their pastor. They have plans
to chart on the 501st anniversary of the Lutheran
Reformation.

2)

Bethlehem Sun Prairie is moving forward with plans
to begin a new LCMS congregation in Columbus.

3)

There is chatter about the southwest side of greater
Milwaukee.

4)

Madison is growing in several directions, places
where we have no LCMS presence.

5)

Plans are moving forward to start a Chinese speaking congregation. We have a French Congolese vicar
learning English to colloquize into the SWD.

6)

The SOS Center, our SWD mercy ministry in MKE,
is back up and running, as it serves the youth of the
city with after school tutoring, providing a safe place
for a great many activities.

7)

“Free at Last Ministry,” which works hand in hand
with our ministry at the House of Correction, continues to produce wonderful stories about God working
through Word and Sacrament.

That brings us back to the question: what will the next generation say about us? What will we pass along to them? This is
our time. Now. Our time to be faithful to our Confessions. Our
time to be generous with our Lord’s precious gifts. Our time to
plant new Lutheran congregations. This is our time for us to
work together to plant new churches where we have little or no
LCMS witness. Time for pastors and people, congregations to
work together with circuits, our South Wisconsin District with
our LCMS to sow the seed, to lay the foundations; to plant a
new generation of LCMS congregations here in SWD and beyond.
Yet this is also a very different time compared to the last
several generations. A more hostile time for our Christ-centered
confession. The words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 1 are being lived out before us: “They exchanged the truth about God
for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the
Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
Anti-Christian sentiment is afoot. Worship attendance is
declining. Indifference has set in. We live in a culture that has
accepted Satan’s lie. Sin is no longer serious; it is merely a choice
to live differently, a choice to indulge one’s own selfish desires,
and death is the end. To that Hermann Sasse comments: “Where
man can no longer bear the truth, he cannot live without the lie.
Where man denies that he and others are dying, the terrible dissolution [of his culture] is held up as a glorious ascent, and decline
is viewed as an advance, the likes of which has never been experienced.”5 Such is the present nature of our American culture.
What are we to do? At times like this a confessional Lutheran church like our LCMS ought not fall prey to the enticements of neo-evangelicalism. We are confessional Lutherans.
A confessional Lutheran church, we are called to care about
people both in the church and out of the church. This is our
2019 Convention Workbook

time to show mercy. A confessional Lutheran church we ought
not wring our hands as if we don’t know what to do. This is our
time to confess Christ Jesus as Savior, humbly and yet boldly.
A confessional Lutheran church we have an obligation to
be the people of God in this time where our Lord has placed
us. We have an obligation to the generation among whom we
live, and to the generation of people who follow after us. Martin
Luther writes: “God also wants the pure doctrine to be passed
on to our descendants.”6
“Confessing Christ for the Next Generation.” This is our
time to be intentionally and distinctly Lutheran, honoring our
confession of God and His Word. This is our time to honor our
vocation as the people of God in our various life stations. This
is our time to embrace our communities with the Gospel. This
is our time to plant new Lutheran congregations and schools
as we seek to share the saving Gospel of our Lord Jesus with
people around us. Remember, “God also wants the pure doctrine to be passed on to our descendants.”
Much more needs to be done. May God help us!
John C. Wille, President

Notes
1. Walther, C. F. W. (1987). Church and ministry: witness of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church on the question of the church and the
ministry (electronic ed., p. 140). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing
House.
2. Concordia Triglotta—English: The Symbolical Books of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church. (1996). (electronic ed., p. 45). Milwaukee,
WI: Northwestern Publishing House.
3. Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Volume 78 (Church Postil IV)
(Luther’s Works) (Kindle Locations 7520-7525). Concordia Publishing
House. Kindle Edition.
4. Harrison, Matthew C. At Home in the House of My Father (Kindle
Locations 7418-7427). CPH. Kindle Edition.
5. Sasse, Hermann. The Lonely Way: Selected Essays and Letters,
Volume 1 (Kindle Locations 6256-6257). Concordia Publishing House.
Kindle Edition.”
6. Harrison, Matthew C. At Home in the House of My Father (Kindle
Locations 7436-7437). Concordia Publishing House. Kindle Edition.

R51

Southeastern District
“Let’s Go Fishing.” The Southeastern District gathered in
Convention in May 2018 under the theme “Let’s Go Fishing.”
There, the delegates recognized the Lord’s bookend stories in
which He first called the disciples and then, following the resurrection, commissioned them. We celebrated that not only are
we those who are caught in the net of His love, but we, too, are
called and commissioned for the Lord’s high purpose.
In John 21:5, Jesus asks a probing question: “Friends,
haven’t you any fish?” His inquiry resonates with us now because
there is no lack of “fish” to catch. The population of the United
States continues to multiply, now measuring 327 million people.
The Southeastern District is a geographical area that has an
ever-expanding population and includes 216 congregations and
83 schools across Southeast Pennsylvania (York County), Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, District of Columbia, North and
South Carolina. Three years ago, more than 32,225,000 people
lived within the borders of the Southeastern District. That num-