LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 2

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2

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS

they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every
day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:41).
Confession of sin, confession of the faith, and praise belong
together. To the extent these three mark our lives as people, a church
body, and a convention, we shall experience many blessings. Sinners
all, let’s repent together and welcome and love one another as fellow sinners redeemed. Let’s hold to the strong confession of Christ’s
teaching and bear witness to it that we may join Jesus in His mission
“to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). And may God mercifully
grant us hearts burning with joy and praise as we confess Him publicly, come what may!
“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God,
my rock in whom I take refuge. … I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised” (Psalm 18:2–3).
Using the model of Luther’s A Simple Way to Pray, please pray
with me the following prayer:
Lord, You instruct us in this text that you are our rock and refuge.
And you desire that we trust in You and call upon You and praise You.
T. I thank you that Your holy Word is so very clear and that You delight
in Your children looking to You for comfort, refuge, and praise.
C. I confess that I have had many doubts and fears about my life and
about the church in these last days. I’ve been lazy at prayer. I don’t
know the psalms like I ought. Worse, I have often failed to call upon
You for refuge, and my worship and praise have faltered.
P. I pray, Lord, that You would forgive me my many sins. Cause me to
love and trust Your blessed Word and many promises. Help me grow
in the knowledge of Your Word. Cause my life to be one of endless
thanksgiving and praise to You. In Your holy name I pray. Amen.
I.

“The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost”
(Luke 19:10)
We exist to serve Jesus’ mission to those who do not know him. All
of us as spiritual priests have the great privilege of sharing the Gospel
with those around us in our everyday lives. Whether laypersons or
preachers or apostles, the people who encountered Jesus spread the
word! Note the woman at the well: “Many Samaritans from that town
believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony” (John 4:39).
Note also the Gadarene: “The man from whom the demons had gone
begged that he might be with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,
‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’
And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much
Jesus had done for him” (Luke 8:38f.)
“Every One His Witness.” A comprehensive evangelism effort!
It’s time to seriously “up our game” in the matter of reaching
the lost. God calls unbelievers into His kingdom, and he gives us
the unbelievable blessing of doing it through us. Below in the Office
of National Mission reports, please carefully read the section in the
report from the Chief Mission Officer (CMO) on our new evangelism
emphasis and program, “Every One His Witness.” We are delighted
that it is being received so well! You will hear more at the convention.
Demythologizing the Mission:
The Brutal Facts of the LCMS Forty-Year Decline
Folks, the LCMS has been declining for some forty years. No
LCMS district has shown any increase in the number of the baptized in nearly twenty years. A couple of years back, I requested our
internal Rosters and Statistics people do a thorough study on the
performance of each district over the past forty years, with a focus
especially upon the last decade. While districts vary in the percentage of decline, the trend line for all of them is the same. It’s even the
case in the two largest districts (Texas and Michigan), which have
planted the most congregations over the past forty years. We noted
that the decline of the two Iowa districts was identical from 2002 to
2016 Convention Workbook

2012. This was intriguing because Iowa East tends to be quite conservative and Iowa West less so. This and other factors has led me to
believe that our decline could hardly be pegged to closed Communion
or worship practices, much less our doctrine or our biblical positions
on social issues.
We commissioned two more very thorough demographic studies, which actually looked at the LCMS presence in every county of
the United States. We have gleaned an enormous amount of information that will be very helpful in our mission to reach the lost. The
second study noted something I find remarkable. Last year, it took
the Southern Baptists 47 adult members to gain one new adult convert. For the same period, it took the LCMS only 44 adult members
to gain one new adult member! The Mormons are at the top in outreach, gaining one new convert for every 40 adult members. Who
would have thought that the LCMS would have stronger outreach than the Southern Baptists! But the following information
is very sobering. Even if by some miracle of divine grace, we were to
up our evangelistic efforts to equal the Mormons, the additional members gained would only stem the decline for one year in two larger
districts of the LCMS.
The third demographic study really honed in on the landscape
of the US with respect to the birth rate. Americans, and particularly
European-descent Americans (95 percent of the LCMS), are not having children at even the replacement rate of 2.1 per family. The year
1959 saw the largest number of LCMS births and Baptisms. Last
year’s number of LCMS births was down some 70 percent from 1959.
Society has changed. Marriage is delayed. Education comes first.
Debt affects marriage and families. Delaying marriage and child rearing means far fewer children. Children are very expensive. There
is much, much more that is affecting the LCMS that we will share.
After the third study was done, I asked for just a little more information. I asked for a county-by-county report on the birth rates for
each district area of the LCMS. Guess what? The district/state with
the highest birth rate in the past ten years (South Dakota), happened
to be the best performing district of the LCMS (only a 4 percent
decline from 2002–2012). New Jersey had the lowest birth rate over
the past decade, and the district accordingly showed the greatest losses
over ten years (33 percent). What’s more, the performance of each
district lines up almost exactly with the birth rate of each area.
Some are crying foul, that we are letting these facts be known as
though we are intent on foregoing evangelism and prohibiting birth
control. Some are claiming that we are simply providing excuses or
are intent on some sort of legalism, such as telling people they have to
have more kids. Pure nonsense! The Catholics prohibit birth control
and their birth rate is the same as ours. In Jim Collins’s outstanding
book From Good to Great, he says the first step in moving from a good
to a great organization is to “acknowledge the brutal facts.” The brutal fact is that the growth of the LCMS has overwhelmingly occurred
via childbirth. The brutal fact is, we could elevate our evangelism
performance to that of the Mormons, and we would still be looking
at numerical decline in 33 of our 35 districts. Sober facts. These are
not excuses. These are facts. I have raised this issue so that we can
together make informed and wise decisions about our mission today
in this nation. I’m done with myths. Adult conversions are a very
significant secondary factor in the growth or decline of the Synod.
Adult conversions mirror births and Baptisms in part because these
conversions very often happen as a result of a marriage or childbirth.
Outreach is vital.
This information should cause us all to be very circumspect on the
convention floor, where it’s common to hear that “we are declining
[for this or that reason], so we should pass [or not pass] this overture.” We are sharing these facts so that we can begin to address real
issues, not myths. The fact is, we have fought, blamed, and cajoled