# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2023_S84
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

84

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
online networking and information-sharing platform that
launched in 2023.
2.

3.

Through financial one-on-ones, webinars, and other
tools, we can continue to reach more church workers to
help elevate their personal financial knowledge and help
them be retirement ready. We also can continue to grow
usage in wellness point solutions to help more workers
be well to serve well.
Membership in our plans can grow, bringing in ministries
that once—or never—were in the plans.

External threats:
1.

We will continue to closely monitor activities in Washington, DC, and work to represent the interests of ministries and church workers with respect to continued
significant legislative and regulatory activity.

2.

In light of economic volatility and uncertainty, CPS
works closely with industry-leading consultants and advisors to manage expected investment risk and return
dynamics over a long-term horizon while adhering to
certain fundamental principles such as diversification,
portfolio rebalancing, and liquidity management.

3.

The Concordia Plans are built on the strength of large
participation numbers, and any ministries choosing to
leave the plans create an impact our board and leadership
would be required to navigate.

C.2. Goals
As a ministry partner, we want to be viewed as a trusted member
of a ministry’s team that brings valuable solutions to employee benefit and business challenges. As a worker advocate, we want to not
only be the source and resource for all matters related to the care
of church workers and their families but also to be these workers’
physical, emotional, and financial wellness champions.
In the short term, we are focused on the following projects to
enhance the way we serve:
1.

2.

Introducing a new online portal to ease the benefits
administration process and improve the member benefit
experience for those who prefer to interact online
Enhancing the product designs of the Concordia Health
Plan and Concordia Disability and Survivor Plan to
meet the varied needs of ministries and provide a comparable level of care to LCMS workers

3.

Enhancing the value and ease of enrollment in the Concordia Plans, including reducing administrative burden
by performing essential ministry business functions

4.

Further supporting the mental health of LCMS workers

5.

Utilizing an online platform to connect LCMS lay leaders in order to collaborate, share resources, and access
expert materials

6.

Continuing to cultivate a culture focused on delivering
exceptional customer experiences

Concordia Plans is dedicated to serving LCMS organizations
and church workers. We bring together thousands of
ministries of all sizes, enabling us to offer affordable, quality
benefits and business solutions that allow ministries and
workers to focus on what really matters: spreading the
Word of God.
James F. (Jim) Sanft, President and CEO
2023 Convention Workbook

R20

Lutheran Center for Religious
Liberty
Introduction
The mission of the Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty
(LCRL), The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s (LCMS) twokingdom, First Amendment organization in Washington, D.C., is
to ignite and fuel a uniquely Lutheran response to increasing intrusions by the government in the realm of the church while educating,
encouraging, and equipping LCMS members and organizations to
take informed action in support of religious freedom for the sake of
the Gospel ministries of LCMS churches, schools, and universities.

Purpose and Services
The LCMS, through the LCRL, monitors and protects the
church’s First Amendment rights—guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution—in the public square so that LCMS churches, schools,
and universities can continue to boldly preach Christ crucified as
the power of God for salvation without government coercion or
interference. The LCRL equips Lutherans and Lutheran organizations to:
1. engage federal and state officials through advocacy and defensive legal strategies;
2. educate future generations about serving God through vocations in government, law, and public policy; and
3. connect with Lutherans involved in government affairs.

Why This Matters
We are living in a time when Christian values and morals are
under attack—culturally, legally, and politically—from cultural
and political forces throughout society that are committed to:
•

aggressively chipping away at Americans’ most basic religious liberties despite the protections of the First Amendment;

•

rapidly deconstructing and redefining, through law and litigation, the biblical definitions of marriage and the family—
the very building blocks of our culture;

•

discarding as inconsequential, despite Roe v. Wade’s defeat,
the lives of 64 million preborn Americans;

•

politically and legally targeting LCMS schools and preschools, regardless of their constitutional protections, because of our biblical teachings on marriage and sexuality;
and

•

politicizing and demonizing the public expression of our
Christian faith, even its main teaching of “We Preach Christ
Crucified,” and seeking to silence any form of publicly
“testifying to the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27), the
catalyst and calling that is the heartbeat of who we are as
Lutherans.

An evaluation of current faith-based entities and think tanks in
Washington, D.C., indicates a plethora of groups and institutions
that support the protection of religious liberty. However, none offer the distinctly confessional Lutheran understanding of Luther’s
two-kingdom theology: