# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2007_S41 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) SYNOD REPORTS 41 * Western—Developing new missionaries through distance edu- cation, with a goal of 200 new missionaries on the West Coast within five years. National Ministry also provides support to the Center for U.S. Missions in Irvine, California, for the work of training church planters who work in North America. The center expanded pro- grams to include those for church growth and for laity and clergy to receive coaching and teaching. They added the Advanced Mission Planters training program and the Edge Gathering for networking with other new church planters and their spouses. Through the cen- ter, more than 250 developers for new missions were prepared in basic and advanced Mission Planter Institutes. Significant support is also given to the Ethnic Immigrant Insti- tute of Theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, for distance education programs leading toward ordination for ethnic church leaders. A missionary formation track at the seminaries for training missionary pastors for work in North America was ex- panded in the triennium, and a new distance education track is being implemented with the seminaries. There are now more than 50 Open Arms Lutheran Child Devel- opment Centers, and at least 30 were the basis for new missions. A new and critical partnership with Church Development Partners developed, allowing for additional means and methods in procuring new sites and properties for mission plants. * Mission Affiliates include ethnic and specific mission work in North America. Ablaze! reports for 2006 include: Number | Congregations | People Mission Congregations of Planted Trained Posts Revitalized People Started Reached Immigrant Indian Fr a al Immigrant | Black | N/A__| | _Blind | 1,238 | 5 417 1 N/A 7 U.S./Canada 28 and 75 U.S./Canada overseas and 95 overseas ¢ National work/project totals for the triennium 2004/05 actual $2,912,865 2005/06 actual $3,308,523 2006/07 budget $3,000,140 TOTAL $9,221,528 3-year average $3,073,843 Scope of Current LCMS World Mission Ministry to the Armed Forces Work Ministry to the Armed Forces (MAF) believes about 12,000 to 15,000 LCMS members are serving on active duty. Serving at sea and ashore with these active duty and reserve forces are dozens of LCMS military chaplains. One important chaplain issue facing the MAF is the mobilization of Reserve and Guard chaplains. Army active duty chaplains are serving tours of 12 months in Iraq/ Afghanistan, seven to nine months for Navy/Marine Corps chap- lains, and four to six months for Air Force chaplains. Army Re- serve chaplains and National Guard chaplains are being mobilized for 18 months on average. All chaplains, active and reserve, are liable for second and third deployments to Iraq and Afghan-istan. For Reserve and Guard chaplains, longer deployments bring se- rious challenges to the parishes and families of the chaplains and their parishes. In August 2006, MAF led a seminar to discuss re- entry efforts, family therapy perspectives, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder definitions and therapy. The seminar group offered several suggestions for a churchwide effort to support these chap- lains, military personnel, and LCMS congregations with a vacancy caused by their pastors’ mobilization. Recently, mobilized Reserve chaplains and their spouses were invited to participate in the an- nual West and East Coast Lutheran Chaplains Conferences to bet- ter understand the stress of mobilization and re-entry. As a result, MAF is moving quickly to set up a nationwide support system of trained counselors to assist the pastor/chaplain, his family, and his congregation before, during, and after mobilization. MAF leadership continues to recruit actively at both seminaries with personal visits and chaplain candidate training programs. To date, there are approximately 30 candidates who desire to be mil- itary chaplains from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and 12 from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne. MAF is funded by the direct support of generous contributions from the church-at- large and has met its budgetary goals for the past three years. Balanced Focus Plan—Partner Focus: Kindle a common vision and mutual commitment to sharing the Good News of Jesus with 100 million people by the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. The “partner focus” of the Balanced Focus Plan concentrates on groups who are outside of the LCMS World Mission organiza- tional structure. Partners include such entities as church bodies, missionary alumni, auxiliaries, recognized service organizations, mission societies, universities, seminaries and LCMS districts. LCMS World Mission views partnership as an opportunity for sep- arate entities to fully engage strategically in a common goal. The success of the Ablaze! vision will be achieved when partners agree that they share equally in the responsibility of achieving the goal. Partnership Examples of New Work: Mission Society—Apple of His Eye Mission Society, a recog- nized service organization of LCMS World Mission, “exists to boldly declare Y’shua as the Messiah and urgently equip God’s people to do the same.” After expanding its Jewish outreach and ministry to multiple sites in the United States, in 2004, AOHE in partnership with LCMS World Mission in Russia named their first overseas missionary in Moscow. The following November, AOHE hosted their first AOHE Jewish Evangelism seminar in Moscow, and in August 2006, their first international outreach in Russia event was hosted by the AOHE Moscow leader and American AOHE leader. LCMS Districts—The United States and Mexico are separated by a land border that covers 1,950 miles between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico and includes four states within the U.S. and six Mexican states. In the summer of 2006, LCMS World Mis- sion’s Latin America regional director and staff met in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where the district presidents from Texas District, Rocky Mountain District, and Pacific Southwest District met with the president of the Lutheran Synod of Mexico to discuss the unique ministry challenges and opportunities in Mexico and the Mexican-U-.S. border and how to best support them. Partner Church Bodies * In 2005, with a first-of-its-kind partnership, LCMS World Mission, the Lutheran Church of Brazil, Bethesda Lutheran Homes and Ser- vices, the Central American Lutheran Mission Society (CALMS), St. Michael’s Lutheran Church (Fort Myers, Florida), Marco Lutheran Church (Marco, Florida), LCMS World Relief/Human Care placed two missionaries in the Dominican Republic. LCMS missionary Danelle Putnam reaches out to the families of the devel- opmentally disabled with training and the Gospel, and Brazilian missionary Walter Ries Jr. focuses on providing theological educa- tion and developing leaders. Together, their work is aimed to plant three congregations in the capital of Santo Domingo; the second 2007 Convention Workbook