LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 32

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32

SYNOD REPORTS

• 19 countries with work/projects totaling between $100,000 and
$300,000 annually:
Brazil
India
Macau
Spain
Venezuela

Cambodia
Czech Republic
Indonesia
Japan
Papua New Guinea
Taiwan
Thailand
Vietnam
Slovakia

Dominican Republic
Korea (South and North)
Sierra Leone
Togo

• 11 countries with work/projects totaling more than $300,000 annually:
China
Kazakhstan
Panama

Germany
Kenya
Russia

Guinea
Hong Kong
Kyrgyzstan
Nigeria
Restrictive Country in Eurasia

• 24 countries with historic or working relationships only supported
by regional budgets:
Afghanistan
Botswana
Cuba
Estonia
Hungary
Mongolia

Angola
Burundi
Denmark
Finland
Laos
Myanmar

Australia
Canada
El Salvador
Georgia
Lebanon
Pakistan

Belarus
Congo (Kinshasa)
Eritrea
Guatemala
Madagascar
Senegal

• International work/project totals for triennium

2007–08 actual
2008–09 actual
2009–10 budget
TOTAL		
3-year average

$14,499,873
$14,697,580
$14,925,135
$44,122,588
$14,707,529

(up 27% from $11,378,887 for the 2004–2007 triennium)
Scope of Current LCMS World Mission National Work

Nationally, our strategic goal is to serve as a catalyst for mission
partnerships in order to build the capacity of districts and congregations in the United States to share the Gospel with the lost by word
and deed within our churches and communities.
LCMS World Mission, National Mission provides resources, training, and support for the following:
• Congregational and individual outreach, including trainers for
on-site equipping at LCMS congregations, national training
events, and identifying and creating quality tools and resources
for outreach.
• Church planting and new mission starts, including national missionaries serving specialized urban geographic areas and ethnic
ministries, as well as Ablaze! Covenant Congregations.
• Helping revitalize the mission focus of existing congregations, done through a strategic partnership with Transforming
Churches Network (TCN), an LCMS RSO.
• The National Mission Affiliates—partner organizations of
LCMS World Mission working in the 10 ethnic and specialized mission fields in the U.S. that LCMS World Mission has
recognized as especially strategic and critical for mission work
based on demographics, opportunities, and challenges. The
10 include African Immigrant, Asian, Black, Blind, Campus,
Deaf, Hispanic, Jewish, Muslim, and Native American fields.
The Ablaze! Faith-Sharing Web site was streamlined in 2009 with
a clear, easy-to-use interface for sharing your faith-sharing stories to
encourage others across the Synod in sharing the Good News about
Jesus. To date, 10,573,346 faith-sharing moments and hundreds of
actual faith-sharing stories have been logged on the site www.lcms
.org/ablaze.

In 2009, The 72—Partners on the Road began offering weekend training seminars in the Florida-Georgia and Minnesota South
Districts to help congregations begin, expand, or enhance their local
outreach to their communities.
Atlanta Urban Mission Strategist Missionary, Rev. Stephen
Wiggins, is working to identify congregations that are willing to
become covenant congregations and plant new congregations. He is
helping to revitalize older congregations with new energy to reach
new people from all ethnic groups. One of the churches that he’s
working to revitalize is Christ Lutheran Church in East Point, GA.
The church is working toward the establishment of a low-income
housing development for senior citizens. By creating affordable housing, the congregation can not only serve seniors, but it also creates
an environment in which they are free to do evangelism and connect
people with the message of the Gospel.
LCMS World Mission strategically partners in helping congregations revitalize their mission focus through the Transforming
Churches Network (TCN). TCN is now working with 30 LCMS districts to train consultants and coaches and prepare study materials.
To date, more than 330 congregations are involved in the revitalization process, which includes learning communities for pastors
who later lead similar communities for congregational leaders. The
one- to two-year process includes a weekend consultation to identify five strengths and concerns and outlines five “prescriptions.” If
a congregation chooses to continue in the process, the district assigns
“coaches”—one to work regularly with the pastor and another to work
with the congregation. Most current projects involve urban and suburban congregations, and TCN is working with the Rural and Small
Town Ministry to incorporate adaptations to fit the needs of rural and
small town congregations.
LCMS World Mission continues to providing leadership and assistance to help healthy congregations replicate themselves. Ablaze!
Covenant Congregations are recruited by the respective district or
self-identified and approved by the district; form a covenant with their
district, which in turn is shared with LCMS World Mission; and may
be comprised of a partnership with other congregations to plant up
to four new congregations. To date, 197 congregations are Ablaze!
Covenant Congregations—the goal is 600. These congregations
are connected to resources and training through the Center for U.S.
Missions that includes the Church Planter Assessment Center and,
beginning in spring 2010, ten-week online Church Planters Training.
LCMS World Mission is partnering with Lutheran Church
Extension Fund to provide a revolving mission planting fund. The
fund provides for operating expenses of new mission plants in the
U.S. This loan is disbursed in three one-year increments, up to
$50,000 per year (for a maximum loan total of $150,000). The interest rate is zero percent with a three-year balloon, allowing time for
the ministry to become established. These funds are accessible at
any time and are not dependent on a grant approval cycle. The cyclical motion of this fund will allow dollars to continue to revolve and
bless new church plants, as loans are repaid. This fund will support
a stewardship mind-set in the LCMS, as the loan-receiving congregations agree to make regular donations back to the revolving fund,
which puts mission learnings into practice and allows the LCMS to
reach more people with the Gospel.
New church starts in the LCMS now stand at cumulative 567, and
the trajectory is exciting toward the goal of 2,000 new church plants

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