# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2013_S25
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SYNOD REPORTS
or otherwise leaving the field. It is the opinion of the OIM Executive
Director that it will take a church-wide, collaborative effort to fill
satisfactorily positions in the field. It will take the entire church to
complete the missiological goals of the church.
To accomplish these recruiting goals, it is being proposed by the
OIM Executive Director to rely on a network to collect candidates for
missionary work. This network would include colleges, seminaries,
districts, district presidents, circuits, congregations, regional directors, other missionaries, OIM staff, and others. The goal is to form a
far-reaching network to supply not only the right number of missionaries but also those who are aptly qualified.
3. Meeting the Pastoral Needs of Missionaries and Their Families

Far too often the church can forget to care for her caregivers. Over
the years, much discussion has come about regarding the need for the
LCMS to provide pastoral support to her own missionaries and their
families. Caring for missionaries and their families has already begun
to be intentionally addressed within the LCMS, and this effort will
hopefully continue to grow in years to come. Some of the intentional
efforts currently in place and being worked upon are the following.
Self-Evaluation Tool. This was created for and is currently being
implemented when missionaries return for a “reconnect.” It is a selfevaluation tool in which missionaries rank the following on a scale
of 1–10 (weak to strong) for the following topics as seen through the
lens of “Lutheran Worship”: vocation, theological education, physical
well-being, financial management, self and family care, crisis management, communications, and mission advancement (donor support).
These evaluations are posed to missionaries during reconnects and
debriefs with the Director, Missionary Services. They provide a background for which positive discussions can then follow, not only while
at home but hopefully also while in the field. This tool (in visual format) can also be used as a self-assessment tool while in the field to
see how well a missionary and family are adapting to missionary life.
Pastoral Care Pool. Regional directors do an excellent job providing care to their missionaries, and ensuring care is occurring. It is
the hope of Missionary Services that we might pull alongside these
efforts of the regional directors and support them in their care of their
region’s missionaries. This could include helping to send qualified
pastoral caregivers to a particular region to provide pastoral counsel
to a couple having marital problems as well as to provide Lutheran
Worship (the Lord’s Supper on a regular basis as well as any other
pastoral needs of the missionary).
Conclusion

Missionary Services is comprised of a very dedicated group of
individuals who desire to see missionaries recruited, trained, deployed
to the field, cared for while serving in the field, and also re-deployed
in such a way that they might successfully return. Perhaps a missionary is no longer serving in the field, but he or she will always
be someone who is representing the work of Christ’s church to new
fields, venues, and peoples. Working alongside regional directors and
in conjunction with LCMS staff, Missionary Services hopes to make
this mandate of Christ and goal of our Synod a reality.
Deaconess Ministry

Under the umbrella of the LCMS, OIM Mercy Operations encourages and supports the deaconess ministry. The key role of the Director,
Deaconess Ministry is to serve as a catalyst nurturing and strengthening the Synod to identify, plan, encourage, support, and enhance the
educational and diaconal needs with partner and non-partner churches
worldwide.
Over the past decade and a half, Mercy Operations has awarded
$200,000 in grants for developing capacity and strengthening internal resources to meet human care needs in proximity to Word and

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Sacrament ministries. Today, with OIM and Mercy Operations and
with strong support from the leadership of the LCMS, deaconess
programs have been begun in Dominican Republic, Indonesia, and
Malaysia (non-partner), India, Latvia, Liberia, Philippines, and South
Africa. These new deaconess programs, as they encourage the women
of the church who are eager to learn the Word of God to serve Him in
various vocations, especially highlight service as a deaconess.
Currently, there are six LCMS deaconess missionaries serving
in Dominican Republic, Germany, Honk Kong, Prague, and South
Africa, and three deaconess intern missionaries serving in Latin
America.
Another area the ministry focuses on evaluating, assisting, and
expanding the existing diaconal projects or developing new programs.
Future goals will focus on continuing to assist with educational and
diaconal needs, coordinating with the regional directors in building
new programs.
Church and Community Engagement

The goal of this OIM initiative is to assist OIM directors and
regional directors to connect with community agencies and residents
through intensive one-on-one interviews in planned new starts or to
capitalize on opportunities for a new start in a setting where significant mercy ministries have developed contacts or prospects.
Efforts to maximize the witness potential of mercy-focused ministries were conducted in the following countries in the last triennium:
Chile, Guatemala, Cuba, Haiti, Peru, and Hong Kong.
In Chile, two congregations were planted to witness to the Gospel
as a result of disaster response mercy ministries in a team partnership
with the Director of Disaster Relief, Rev. Glenn Merritt, and missionaries Rev. Carlos Schumann, Cristian Rauthenberg, and Omar Kinas.
In Haiti, Guatemala, and Cuba, missionaries reported an increased
interest in hearing the Gospel witness from recipients and participants
in ministries of mercy.
In Peru (Lima), seminarians were trained in “the Gospel seeds”
approach of conducting agency and residential interviews, with staff
actually conducting (practicing in real-life settings) these relationship-development activities.
Life and Health Ministries—International
Blessings of the Triennium

LCMS Life Ministries will continue to serve as a resource to our
LCMS mission projects and international partners as we uphold the
sanctity of human life in all we do or say and use life-affirming mercy
work as a complement to the proclamation of the Gospel.
Understanding that all human life is sacred, LCMS Life Ministries
provided staff and volunteer training, ongoing mentoring, and complete funding for the Lutheran Church of Malaysia to open a Lutheran
crisis pregnancy center in an urban area known for “baby dumping.”
LCMS Life Ministries continues to fund the operations and provide oversight to the Nadezshda (Hope) Lutheran crisis pregnancy
center and family counseling service in St. Petersburg, Russia, under
the auspices of the Lutheran Church of Ingria. This center also provides job training, computer certification classes, and parenting
classes, in addition to Bible studies and Christian fellowship opportunities for single mothers.
LCMS Life Ministries resources, such as A Small Catechism on
Human Life by Rev. John Pless, have been translated into Spanish,
Russian, and Tamil and utilized on the international field.
Opportunities for the Future

LCMS Life Ministries will serve as a resource to the Malagasy
Lutheran Church Regional Synod in Avaratrimania for the development of the educational curriculum utilized in their HIV-AIDS
2013 Convention Workbook