LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 121

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SYNOD REPORTS
to the completion of His Father’s will—“that all might be saved and
come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). This post-church era
provides us, His Church, with the greatest opportunities of our lives.
More now than ever before, we have the opportunity, even the necessity to grow in faith and rely less on sight, to choose the high road of
adventure as we follow our crucified and risen Christ into the world
instead of clinging to the fleeting safety of our own human plans and
structures. Regardless of how shaken the foundations seem to be in
this post-churched world, we are anchored by Word and Sacrament
to the cross of Christ, which cannot be moved.
Robert Newton, President
R7-02-03

Central Illinois District
The Central Illinois District of the Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod is beginning its second century of service to the Lord. Our district consists of 156 congregations and several preaching stations,
divided into 17 circuits. We have been a strong financial and prayer
supporter of missions here at home and throughout the world. One of
the highlights in the past three years was to hold a Great Commission
Convocation last November, with Dr. Wallace Schulz as the keynote
speaker, that included a variety of workshops focused on reaching
out to the lost.
We have been heavily involved in outreach and starting new missions. We are intent on beginning a definite effort to launch missions
in three areas where we have not had a real presence in the past. We
live in challenging times, when people are not just walking in the
doors of our churches. The church is no longer among the major
values in people’s lives. We live in an unchurched culture. We are
also not having as many children born into our LCMS families as
in years past.
Our district is focused on telling the Good News about Jesus.
Some would say we are Ablaze! God has called us out of darkness into
His marvelous light. Because of this, we are excited about sharing that
message. Our convention theme was “Born Again to a Living Hope,”
which pointed out to us the purpose for living once we have become
God’s children through Holy Baptism. We dare not hide our light
under a bushel but must let it shine in all we do. We used electronic
voting for the first time at our 2009 convention. It was a blessing to
deal with elections so easily, allowing the election committee to not
have to be away from the convention floor counting paper ballots as
was done in the past.
Our district budget is about $2 million. Of this, about 30 percent
is sent in to support our Synod and seminaries. About 50 percent is
spent on our district’s mission projects. We have five mission congregations (with three more starting up soon), one Hispanic mission, two
hearing-impaired congregations, five prison ministries, one ministry
to the developmentally disabled, four campus ministries at four of our
state’s largest universities, and a ministry with our partner church in
Latvia. Our campus ministries have been a bright spot in missions.
God’s Word has touched the hearts and lives of many young people.
We have also seen quite a few of our young men from our campus
ministries go on to become pastors.
A new adventure this past year has been getting started in the revitalization process. Our biblical Lutheran approach honors the pastoral
office and enables the pastor and congregational members to move
forward together in serving Christ in their community and throughout the world. We continue to tell others the Good News about Jesus
Christ.

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During the past triennium we have held a number of visitations
around the district, sharing with the congregations what we are doing
as a district to accomplish the Lord’s work. We also led officers’ workshops which were requested by many of our congregations.
In the area of Christian education, most of our congregations operate various volunteer education programs, including Sunday School,
VBS, Midweek Schools, confirmation instruction, and Bible classes
for all ages. In addition, 54 of our congregations are involved in the
operation of 24 full-time elementary schools and four high schools.
Another 29 congregations are operating early childhood programs.
Sharing Christ with children is one of our priorities.
Our district church camp, Camp CILCA, is operated by the district and the district Lutheran Laymen’s League and has experienced
some positive changes recently. Even though camper numbers were
down a bit in 2009, the finances of the camp improved tremendously.
Through the efforts of the camp board and the new director and the
blessing of the Lord, much of its debt has been eliminated. Now we
look forward to increased numbers in the summer camp program.
During the past three years we have added two congregations
transferred to us from the Northern Illinois District—St. Paul of
Woodworth and Redeemer of Peru. We also received into membership a new mission congregation—Risen Savior in Buffalo. During
this time, we lost two congregations who left the LCMS—Holy Cross
of Peoria and Our Redeemer of Forsyth—and sadly closed St. John,
Topeka, although its baptismal font and altar are being used at Risen
Savior in Buffalo.
There is always much work to be done in the Lord’s kingdom. We
are thankful that God continues to give us time to reach others with
the message of how Jesus Christ paid for the sins of the world by His
suffering, death, and resurrection. He has promised that His Word will
not return void (Is. 55:11) and has told us He will be with us always
(Matt. 28:20). With His promises, we go forward with His blessing.
David J. Bueltmann, President
R7-02-04

The Eastern District
The Eastern District is the only LCMS district of the original four
to retain its historic name. Thus, in 2010, it is privileged to give great
thanks to God as it celebrates 156 years of ministry as a district. As
it does so, it continues the tradition of transforming lives for time
and eternity, of making a difference in the name of Jesus. Included
in Eastern District heritage is the first church extension fund, the
first foreign language congregations (Polish, Jewish, Estonian, and
Lithuanian), the first African immigrant congregation, and the first
English-speaking congregations.
We in the Eastern District highly value and provide ongoing support to the innovative visionaries who serve as our pastors and lay
leaders, who see the preferred future for the Church of Jesus Christ
in New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. We continue to explore
ways to help congregations “break new ground…” in their commitment and access the resources needed to impact the communities to
which they have been sent. Our vision is to break new ground “…for
the mission of Jesus Christ” as we:
1. Foster a culture of wellness for our church workers,
schools, and congregations;
2. Inspire and/or direct new ministry starts and models in
keeping with the growing kingdom of God; and
3. Promote biblical discipleship/spirituality.
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