LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 18

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18

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS

God supplies what is required for His work, and He does so
through His people. He calls each person in the LCMS to make a difference in sharing the Good News through word and deed, using what
He generously supplies. Thus, the issue of financial “capacity” comes
second only to the question of faith and confidence in God’s promises.
Third is the reality that, at least for the foreseeable future, dollars
to fund mission and ministry will have to be solicited, and that the
solicitation of funds itself costs money. People give because they are
invited into a partnership full of meaning and see the opportunity to
impact the lives and future of others. Our care of and accountability
to those giving joyfully will require money.
Delegates and committee members: please ask hard question(s)
about the Synod’s known and understood financial capacity—and
the ripple effects from decisions that will demand additional capacity—as the convention deliberates the Synod’s work and focus for
the coming triennium. So, too, it must be conscious of sin and how a
weak faith in God’s promises can hinder the mission of His Church.
Changes to Mission Advancement: 2013–16
In July 2014, the corporate Synod completed the integration of
nearly all its direct gift fund-raising and donor care activities by transitioning select personnel and functions out of the LCMS Foundation
into MA. This included personnel responsible for direct response
(mail, email, web/Internet, and telephone solicitations), the recording and receipting of donations, management of the records database,
and the analysis and reporting of advancement performance. An additional major transition moved personnel for the LCMS Joint Seminary
Fund program into MA.
MA is shifting its model away from a money-focused enterprise toward an ever-increasing Gospel-centered, donor-sensitive,
and post-gift accountability model. A greater emphasis is on internal
cost-effectiveness, and the work required in matching people with
the best gift opportunity for sharing on their terms the Good News
of Jesus with others.
COMMUNICATIONS (COMM)
Unit Executive Director, Mr. David Strand

On the eve of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the
Church finds herself between two epochs of communication. The
first, relying heavily on the printed word—begun around 1440 with
Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press, which propelled the
mass dissemination of Luther’s teachings across Europe—empowered those who had the means to acquire the printed word and the
education to read it. In the second, the power of the printed word
has increasingly shared the stage with many other forms of communication. Today, the world of multimedia digital communication is
accessible at anytime, anywhere, to anyone who has an electronic
device and access to the Internet—where words, pictures, videos,
music, and graphic images are being added every moment of every
day, in every language, from every corner of the world.
Telling the Story …
St. Paul encourages the people of God, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there
is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians
4:8). In the cacophony of modern communication and the myriad
messaging coming at us in sound bites, images, assorted missives,
and tiny bits of text, on screens large and small, how does one discern
what is true, pure, honorable? And how does the Church rise above
all this noise with her clarion message that “Salvation is found in no
one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind
by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)?
2016 Convention Workbook

LCMS Communications serves the Synod in partnership and collaboration with, and on behalf of, the offices of the President, National Mission, International Mission, Mission Advancement, Pastoral Education
and others in communicating the message of salvation as it is expressed
in our Witness, Mercy, and Life Together.

Our efforts are aimed at the rostered and lay members of the
Synod, the global confessional Lutheran community, and the general public. We do this through the strategic use of publications and
other print materials, the Internet and digital media, videography and
photography, graphic design, and telecommunications.
Your COMM team is dedicated to telling the marvelous stories
of our Synod’s Witness, Mercy, and Life Together endeavors in the
most compelling ways. As confessing Lutherans, we are heirs of the
Reformation, truth is on our lips, and the Good News of salvation in
Christ Jesus is at the core of all we do. Blessed to possess such grand
and eternally important messages, we have no choice but to be relentless in finding new and better ways to propel these stories out to the
world, positioning them in multiple places in print and online, where
they can edify the reader who discovers them.
… To Whom?
But this is not enough. To communicate, you need someone to
communicate with. Our main audience is the 2.2 million members
of the LCMS, and this is the audience we are least confident we
are reaching. Why? We do not have the names, addresses, or email
addresses for the vast majority of lay members of the Synod. We don’t
even have the correct email addresses for all the rostered workers of
the Synod. Yet we rely on this latter group to share the news and stories of our Life Together with the lay members they serve.
We are grateful to those who do share our resources, but the reality
is that most of our intra-Synod communication efforts fail to penetrate
broadly. They stop at the church door—more precisely, they often
come to a halt in the pastor’s or church secretary’s inbox—and we
don’t have the wherewithal to go directly to people’s homes, whether
by regular mail or email. (We say this with the utmost and all-due
respect for pastors and other professional church and school workers, who we know are extremely busy with their own ministries all
the time!) Our wish is not to circumvent any perceived “gatekeepers”;
rather, our wish it to be allied with them in a common purpose—
reaching more LCMS households with the wonderful stories of their
national church. We simply want to give more laypeople the chance to
avail themselves, if they wish, of our publications and other resources.
COMM’s heartfelt request of this assembled body is your encouragement and commitment to helping us connect directly with more
of the laypeople of the Synod so that they, too, can be informed and
inspired about the work their church is doing—and thus involve and
invest themselves in that work: locally, in their districts, and on the
national and international levels. Thank you—and to God alone be
the glory!
Detailed Reports and Commentary
(by Program Area/Ministry)
OFFICE OF NATIONAL MISSION
Reports by Program Ministries
Revitalization—Rev. Mark Wood, Director
The program re:Vitality is about vitality. Vitality is found wherever
God’s Word is proclaimed in purity and His Sacraments are rightly
administered. However, vitality doesn’t necessarily equate to sustainability (i.e., viability). Through self-assessment, action-oriented training, and outreach-integrated witnessing, re:Vitality guides congregations in identifying and implementing actions that increase vitality
and sustainability by becoming more effective in inviting, welcoming, and receiving people from outside of the Church.