LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 18

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18 MISSIONS, EVANGELISM, AND SOCIAL MINISTRY

resolution. A goal of 10,000 in attendance at the daily sessions
and 15,000 in attendance at the Saturday Night Rally has been
set.

3. Synod’s Master Plan—Witness Goal No. !

The Synod’s Master Plan for the “80s lists four witness
goals. The next four sections of this report take up each of those
four goals and report on activities and suggested plans related
to each of them.

Goal No. 1 reads: “By the end of the decade. the congre-
gations of the Synod increase their members by 25" over what
the membership was when the decade began, increasing the
total number of adults gained by Baptism and confirmation
each year.”

To accomplish a 25": growth would mean an increase of
679.499 members for the decade. The first two years of the
decade there was an increase of 3.887. In addition to planting
new congregations, the most important factor in accomplish-
ing that kind of growth is the attitude of pastors and lay
leaders toward outreach and growth. Too often the primary
concern for the parish is maintaining the present operation of
the parish and ministering to the needs of the present parish-
ioners. There is nothing wrong with that concern. but the
mission of the church is to be witnesses to all people and to
make disciples of all nations. Before a church, a Synod, or a
congregation can grow. there must be a desire to grow anda
willingness to pay the price for growth.

Many pastors of the Synod have attended Church Growth
Seminars and read literature relating to Church Growth. Some
of the Districts have entered into contractural agreements with
independent Church Growth organizations to conduct a two-
year Church Growth program with the congregations of their
Districts. In order to help achieve Witness Goal No. 1 and to
provide the Districts and the congregations with Lutheran
materials and programs for Church Growth, the Board for
Evangelism Services is recommending to this convention the
establishment of a Church Growth Department under the
Board for Evangelism Services. (See related resolution.)

When a congregation develops the attitude of concern for
reaching out to people in their own community with a loving
proclamation of the Gospel. members will seek to share their
faith with their friends and neighbors. In order to help
motivate and equip members to do this. the Witness Workshop
program was developed by the Board for Evangelism Services.
District leaders were trained in each District who could conduct
Witness Workshops for individual congregations and for
groups of congregations. A manual on How to Conduct a
Witness Workshop is available for use by the leaders at such
workshops. At this time. most Districts are conducting some
Witness Workshops. The long-range goal is that each congre-
gation conduct an annual Witness Workshop for its own
members.

A variation of the Witness Workshop is the Teacher Witness
Workshop. developed for teachers of the Christian day school.
Several pilot workshops have been conducted. At present, a
joint committee of the Board for Evangelism Services and the
Board for Parish Services is developing the Teacher Witness
Workshop and preparing materials to use in such workshops.
The committee is:

Dr. Kent Hunter. Corunna. Ind.

Mr. Art Linnemann. Portland, Oreg.

Mr. Lou Jander. St. Louis

Miss Jane Fryar. St. Louis

Mr. James Boldt, St. louis

Rev. W. Leroy Biesenthal, St. Louis

One of the ways in which congregations provide a struc-
tured system to help members witness to their neighbors and
friends is by conducting a Lutheran Open House Mission,
which provides a series of nightly services or special Sunday
opportunities to which members can invite others. In the late
‘50s and early ‘60s these were called Preaching-Teaching-
Reaching Missions. At that time the adult baptisms and
confirmations of the Synod reached an all-time high, up to
35,000 annually. In recent years many of the Districts have
sponsored joint Open House Missions and some congregations
have experimented with different styles of Open Houses. The

Board for Evangelism Services called together some District
leaders who had experienced Districtwide Open House Mis-
sions in order to explore possibilities for the future. In attend-
ance were:

Rev. Roy Bleick. Nebraska District

Rev. Lyle Muller, Northern Illinois

Rey. Ellis Rottmann, Missouri

Rev. Del Tiemann, Eastern

Rev. W. Leroy Biesenthal. staff

The result of the Lutheran Open House Think Tank was a
recommendation that Districts and congregations continue to
sponsor Open House Missions. tailoring them to meet their
specific needs. The Board for Evangelism Services will provide
leadership materials. (See attached resolution.)

Other programs and materials which are offered to congre-
gations to help motivate and equip members for personal
witness are:

—Materials for an annual observance of an Evangelism
Festival, suggested for the fourth Sunday in January. Each
year the materials include a worship service, suggestions for a
sermon and a children’s message, a banner pattern, and a
Bible study on witnessing. The past two years were:

1982 theme—“Come—Go Tell”

1983 theme—"Tell One”

—Gospel Communication Clinics. Each District has trained
leaders to conduct clinics for this program developed jointly
with the Board for Youth Services. Materials include booklets
for leaders and participants on the theme “The Gospel Ac-
cording to You.”

—Junior High Retreats. using the materials entitled Share
Life.

—Child Evangelism Conferences for children. a Saturday
or Sunday training program together with some visitation.

—Discipleshops. a retreat-style experience for youth which
stresses personal renewal and witnessing with a strong empha-
sis on following up the local parish, developed by the Texas
District and being made available to Districts through the joint
efforts of the Board for Youth Services and the Board for
Evangelism Services.

4. The Synod’s Master Plan—Witness Goal No. 2

Goal No. 2: “By the end of the decade, 75": of the congre-
gations of the Synod have at least five evangelism callers who
have been intensively trained to be evangelists.”

The basis for this goal is that there are special evangelism
calls which need to be made in every parish. calls on people
who visit the church. people who are searching fora meaning-
ful faith. people who are struggling to understand Christianity,
people who move into the community and may be looking fora
church home. Scripture indicates that some members of the
church are given the gift of sharing the Gospel in this kind of
visitation program. perhaps up to 10 percent of the member-
ship. In order to send members on this kind of evangelism calls,
they need some training. called in the goal ‘intensively trained
to be evangelists.” For a number of years many of the Missouri
Synod congregations have used Evangelism Explosion au-
thored by D. James Kennedy as the means to train lay people to
be evangelists.

In a recent survey taken by the Evangelism Department,
57°" of the congregations indicated that they had used or were
using this program, and 53”: of them found it “very useful” or
“somewhat useful.” The Board for Evangelism Services has
encouraged congregations to switch to a Lutheran visitation
training program. called Dialog Evangelism. written by the
Associate Secretary of Evangelism of the Synod. Rev. W. Lerov
Biesenthal. Pastor Biesenthal conducts clinics in cooperation
with Districts in order to train pastors and key lay leaders. For
four years there has also been a synodical clinic in St. Louis,
held at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Eureka, for those who
cannot attend a clinic in their area. Pastor Biesenthal also
conducts clinics for seminary students during their evangelism
class. During the past two years 27 clinics have been held,
serving 1,100 people. The Dialog Evangelism method uses
some of the same features that are used in Evangelism
Explosion, such as diagnostic questions, on-the-job training.