LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 19

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MISSIONS, EVANGELISM. AND SOCIAL MINISTRY 19

memorized outline. 16-week course, etc. In the survey men-
tioned above, 38". of the congregations of the Synod are now
using DE. Cassette tapes and videotapes of a clinic are also
available for help in teaching the course in the local parish. It is
also being published in Spanish with the aid of special gifts
and the cooperation of the Board for Mission Services.

Since the demand for clinics has been so large. Pastor
Biesenthal has trained other teachers who can conduct clinics
for training pastors and kev lay people:

Rev. Ellis Rottmann, Missouri District, St. Louis

Rev. Roger Tormoehlen, Salem Lutheran Church. St. Louis
Dr. Robert Scudieri, Christ Memorial. East Brunswick, Nw.
Rev. Darwin Karsten, St. Mark's, Eureka. Mo.

Dr. Oswald Waech, Los Alamitos, Calif.

5. The Synod’s Master Plan—Witness Goal 3

Goal No. 3: “By the end of the decade. the Synod has
fashioned a ministry of membership cultivation so that its
congregations can reduce their backdoor losses by 50°."

For the past 13 years the congregations of the Missouri
Synod have removed from their books annually about 50.000
communicant members, making a total loss of 650,000 mem-
bers. This means that on the average the Synod removes a
congregation of 1,000 communicant members each week. and
this has been going on each week for 13 years. Nothing that
has been tried to date has been able to change that figure.

The Synod has tried a Membership Referral System by
which members who receive The Lutheran Witness have their
names referred when they send in a change of address. A form
letter is sent to them and the nearest congregation to their new
address, determined by zip code. Only 40 of the members of

the Synod get The Lutheran Witness. To build on this, pastors
“are encouraged to use their Lutheran Annual and refer mem-
bers to congregations near their new address or to send a form
card to the Board for Evangelism Services for manual referral.

The 54th convention of the Synod noted the problem of
membership loss out the backdoor and passed a resolution
entitled, “To Intensify Membership Conservation Program”
(Res. 1-06), which included a resolve “that the Board of
Directors of the Synod be encouraged to fund a staff person to
serve as Secretary for Membership Conservation ona four-year
appointment.” The staff person was not funded in the budget
the past two years, but a $17,000 gift through Forward in
Remembrance enabled the beginning of astudy and survey to
evaluate the present Membership Referral program and to
develop a more effective system, in cooperation with the
Department of Research and Planning. That study is currently
under way.

The board recommends to this convention the establish-
ment of a Church Growth Department with a staff person who
will make concern over these losses one of his responsibilities.
(See resolution.)

6. The Synod’s Master Plan—Witness Goal 4

Goal No. 4: “By the end of the decade. the Synod has
evaluated and improved its system of membership referral and
transfer, enabling at least 80": of the congregations to strength-
en their ministry by which they retain and equip their members
for service to Christ.”

The comments under Goal No. 3 above deal with the
Synod’s Membership Referral System, which is being eval-
uated and changed. Goal No. 4 speaks more directly to
congregations, encouraging them to strengthen their own
ministry to prevent the backdoor losses. This includes a
realistic program of incorporating new members, accurate soul
accounting, involving members in the use of their spiritual
gifts for ministry in the congregation, anda system of transfer
and referral.

7. Ministry to Districts

The Board for Evangelism seeks to serve the evangelism
leaders of the Districts with materials, training programs, and
assistance in conducting clinics and workshops. An Evange-
lism Newsletter is sent six to eight times a year tothe chairmen
of the District Evangelism Boards or Committees and to the
District executives assigned responsibility for evangelism,

with information copies being sent to the District Presidents
and theeditors of The Lutheran Witness District Editions. The Ft ‘ange-
lism Newsletter shares new material. reviews evangelism
books and programs. and provides a means of sharing District
information and programs.

Once a vear an Evangelism Leadership Conference is
conducted by the Synod's Evangelism staff for the District
Evangelism executives or chairmen. In the past biennium
these were:

May 3—5, 1982—Yahara Center. Madison, Wis.

April 29—May 1,1983—St. Pau] Lutheran Church, Trenton.

Mich.

8. Equipping Professional Church Workers

The Board for Evangelism Services offers assistance to the
colleges and seminaries of the Synod in their evangelism
courses and student evangelism activities in order to help
sensitize and equip professional church worker students to
give evangelism a high priority in their ministries. Some
sample material is provided the evangelism classes which are
conducted on campus. At the St. Louis seminary a member of
the staff meets with each evangelism class and together with
the professor of the class and a local parish provides a Dialog
Evangelism Clinic on a weekend which is a part of the class
requirement. At the Fort Wayne seminary a clinic is also
provided through a local parish. Similar clinics are being
developed at such schools as St. Paul. Minn.. in conjunction
with their Director of Evangelism program.

The board through its Guest Evangelist on Campus pro-
gram offers to the campuses. on a shared-cost basis, evange
lism speakers who come to a campus for several days to speak
to classes and convocations, lead worship and devotions, and
at times teach a mini-course on evangelism or conduct a
Witness Workshop.

In the past two years the annual Lutheran Student Evan-
gelism Conference has taken a new turn. For 12 consecutive
years students from the Concordia campuses have met for a
fall weekend evangelism conference planned jointly with the
Evangelism Department of the Synod and representatives
from the campuses. For 10 of those 12 years the conference was
the guest of St. Peter Lutheran Church. Arlington Heights, Il.
which provided housing in homes of members and free meals
for the students.

In the fall of 1981 a move was made. in order to involve
students from public colleges and universities in the conference
through the Lutheran campus pastors and their ministries on
those campuses. Oct. 23—25, 1981. the first such conference
was held, at Northern Illinois University at Dekalb, Il. From
what was learned there, a second conference was held at the
University of Wisconsin, with Calvary Chapel serving as the
host, Oct. 22—24, 1982. There were 225 students participating.
from 8 Concordia campuses and from 14 public campuses. The
conference was planned jointly by the staff of the Synod's
Board for Evangelism Services and the Campus Ministry
office, together with representatives from both the Concordias
and the public campuses. Plans are to continue to sponsor this
kind of evangelism conference.

9. Witnessing to Jewish People

Since 1977 the Synod has in each convention encouraged
the Board for Evangelism to prepare materials and assist
congregations in witnessing to the Jewish people in their
communities. The work in the past biennium was continued by
a Task Force on Witnessing to Jewish People appointed by the
Board for Evangelism Services, consisting of:

Rev. David Born, Rego Park. N.Y.

Mr. Steve Cohen, Don Mills, Ontario

Mrs. Jean Kiefer, Warrington, Pa.

Rev. Daniel E. Lochner, Birmingham, Mich.

Rev. R. John Perling, Beverly Hills, Calif.

Dr. Erwin J. Kolb, St. Louis, Mo.

The work of the task force might be summarized under the
list of “Duties and Responsibilities” assigned to it by the Board
for Evangelism Services.

1. Regularly review tracts, books. and materials pertaining