LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 12

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12

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
services and sacramental rites of heterodox congregations or of congregations of mixed confession.” The practice of closed Communion then does
not include receiving Communion at churches that hold heterodox positions. The Missouri Synod has adopted Dr. C. F. W. Walther’s Church and
the Office of the Ministry as its official position in 2001 (Res. 7-17A). In
Thesis VIII of Walther’s Church and the Office of the Ministry, Walther
writes, “Here the saying of Augustine holds: ‘Believe and you have eaten.’
As I said before: To receive the Sacrament is a mark of confession and
doctrine. Therefore, whoever does not regard as true the doctrine of the
church in which he intends to attend the Sacrament cannot partake of the
Sacrament in that church with a clear conscience.” (Download Walther’s
Thesis VIII at http://goo.gl/gKqIOq.) Werner Elert, Eucharist and Church
Fellowship in the First Four Centuries, trans. Norman Nagel (St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 1966), 76. “By ‘closed Communion’ we
mean the restricting of participation to full members of the congregation.” Participation in Holy Communion is directly connected to church
fellowship.
19. Ludwig Adolph Petri. Mission and the Church: A letter to a friend
(Die Mission und die Kirche: Schreiben an einen Freund), trans. David
Buchs (Fort Wayne: Concordia Theological Seminary Press, 2012).
20. “The devil never stops cooking and brewing these two kingdoms
into each other. In the devil’s name the secular leaders always want to be
Christ’s masters and teach Him how He should run His church and spiritual government. Similarly, the false clerics and schismatic spirits always
want to be the masters, though not in God’s name, and to teach people
how to organize the secular government. Thus the devil is indeed very
busy on both sides, and he has much to do. May God hinder him, amen,
if we deserve it!” (Martin Luther, “Psalm 101,” 1534, American Edition,
vol. 13, 194–95.)
21. Hermann Sasse. We Confess Jesus Christ, trans. Norman Nagel
(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1984), 52.

R1.2

Chief Mission Officer
Introduction
The Chief Mission Officer (CMO) is responsible to the President
of the Synod for the mission, ministry, and programmatic and
coordinative functions which are implemented according to the policies adopted by the Board for National Mission and the Board for
International Mission, by providing staff and other resources in support thereof. LCMS Bylaw 3.4.3 also specifies that he serves as the
President’s liaison to synodwide corporate entities and commissions; works closely with the Chief Financial Officer and Chief
Administrative Officer in carrying out the programmatic, administrative, and financial functions of the national Synod; supervises
the work of the Office of National Mission (ONM), the Office of
International Mission (OIM), the fund-raising activity of the national
office through the work of our Mission Advancement (MA) unit, the
Synod’s communications, public relations, news, and information
through the work of our communications (COMM) unit; and provides
leadership, coordination, and oversight of pre-seminary/seminary
education and post-seminary continuing education, and advocacy
for pastoral education and health through the work of our Office of
Pastoral Education (PE).
These CMO duties are carried out in crucial support of districts
and congregations, organizations and entities, church workers and
laypersons around the globe—all striving under the freedom of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ—for the sake of the Gospel—to engage the
Synod’s emphases of Witness, Mercy, Life Together. We do so in support of the Synod’s common mission, adopted in our 1995 convention:
In grateful response to God’s grace and empowered by the Holy Spirit
through Word and Sacraments, the mission of The Lutheran Church—

2016 Convention Workbook

Missouri Synod is vigorously to make known the love of Christ by word
and deed within our churches, communities, and world.

Dear 2016 convention floor committees and delegates, upon this
Rock, we repent, confess, and rejoice as the program areas of our
Synod’s national office prayerfully foster working relationships—in
service to the Gospel—that embody worthy and beneficial characteristics of Christian discipleship: for example, faithfulness to the
Scriptures and Lutheran Confessions, love, compassion, humility,
sustainability, stability, mutual awareness, trust, transparency, quality, and outstanding stewardship of the resources (human and other) so
generously provided by our merciful God. We intentionally develop
and implement robust plans that closely conform to the six strategic
mission priorities adopted by the Synod in convention, 2013 Res.
3-06A:
•
•
•
•
•
•

Plant, sustain, and revitalize Lutheran churches.
Support and expand theological education.
Perform human care in close proximity to Word and Sacrament
ministries.
Collaborate with the Synod’s members and partners to enhance mission effectiveness.
Promote and nurture the spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being
of pastors and professional church workers.
Enhance early childhood, elementary and secondary education, and
youth ministry.

Changes in CMO’s Office over the Past Triennium 2013–16
In the long and blessed history of the LCMS, the Chief Mission
Officer position is a relative latecomer, having only been created in
2010 as a result of the convention-mandated organizational restructuring of the Synod. The initial appointee called to serve the Synod as
CMO, Rev. Gregory K. Williamson, departed the office in April 2014.
Rev. J. Bart Day subsequently served as Interim CMO (concurrently, I
might add, while faithfully and capably fulfilling his ongoing responsibilities as ONM Executive Director!) until I accepted the Synod’s
call and was installed May 2015 to begin my service as the Synod’s
current CMO. What a blessing for me personally, to serve the body of
Christ and my fellow brothers and sisters in the faith in such a delightful and challenging role. I am humbled at the magnificent prospects
before us together: to faithfully proclaim the Gospel, advance the
kingdom of God, and introduce people to Jesus so that they can continue to receive His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. Despite
what occasionally appears to be the day-to-day “business trappings”
of the office, I prayerfully intend, under the grace of God, to do my
utmost in service to the LCMS, with the compassion and heart of a
former parish pastor who is genuinely concerned for the care of the
souls of those I’m privileged to meet and work with on a daily basis.
Saturated in the Scriptures, we poor miserable sinners, convicted by
the Law of our own transgressions, wounded and suffering the persecution and rejection of a fallen world, are constantly being given over
to healing and life in the Gospel. And, quite simply, that is where I’m
“coming from” in my role as your servant:
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained
access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces
character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to
shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the
Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:1–5)

Since beginning my duties in St. Louis, I have diligently sought to
execute an effective on-boarding plan, a structured series of activities
that included intentional introductions to and increased familiarization with LCMS structure (boards, committees, leadership, agencies,
entities, policies, and procedures); nonprofit finance, accounting,
and development; and introductory one-on-one meetings with a