LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 27

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OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
Health Ministry complements the outreach of the church by promoting Christ-centered health and wellness of body, mind, and spirit.
Through its domestic and international programs, Health Ministry has
an expansive reach which delivers health and wellness education and
support to individuals and churches in need.
Parish nursing is a division of Health Ministry which has reach
across all 35 districts. The parish nurse is a registered nurse who is
committed to health ministry, working alongside the pastor within
the context of a congregation to deliver wellness programs in support
of the pastoral ministry. The parish nursing program currently offers
continuing education for their registered nurses via a monthly videobased educational session, with topics revolving around theology,
medicine, and patient care. The goal for the parish nurse program is to
coordinate efforts with the Concordia University System so that students may consider parish nursing following their collegiate training.
In addition, the parish nurse program is looking for ways to expand
their reach internationally, with the long-term goal of providing each
region with one or two trained LCMS parish nurses.
Mercy Medical Teams is another extension of Health Ministry
wherein the church and her people are served globally. Mercy Medical
Teams is a short-term volunteer program which offers medical professionals, lay people, and pastors opportunities to serve abroad in a
variety of clinical and health-related settings. These teams are trained
by the LCMS and work in conjunction with LCMS partner churches
and international clinics to deliver primary care to countries such as
Kenya, Haiti, Madagascar, Guatemala, and Indonesia. Since the program’s founding in 2006, more than 40,000 patients have been served,
and more than one million dollars in medication has been delivered.
It is the vision that within the next year, Mercy Medical Teams will
be in partnership with three additional countries.
Health Ministry also recognizes that greater focus must be had
for the health and wellness of professional church workers and their
families. Health Ministry began efforts in 2015 to coordinate with
Specialized Pastoral Ministry, recognized service organizations, and
Concordia Plan Services to create a concise resource which will lay
out professional counseling options, mental health resources, and
physical health programs for use by LCMS called workers.
Specialized Pastoral Ministry—Rev. Joel Hempel, Interim Director

The primary responsibility of Specialized Pastoral Ministry (SPM)
is the ecclesiastical endorsement of ordained and commissioned ministers of the Gospel who are serving as chaplains in institutions and
on the streets with police and fire departments, pastoral counselors,
and clinical pastoral educators. Before endorsement is complete, the
applicant’s district president is asked to give his support and letter of
good standing when the minister first applies, and then his concurrence at the end of the process.
There are 550 specialized pastoral ministers, 200 are endorsed.
Since the Synod’s 2013 convention, 28 have become fully endorsed
by SPM or received a time-limited endorsement in order to apply for
a ministry position and complete their training. In addition, 18 are in
different stages of applying and/or addressing the requirements for
endorsement (additional information about endorsement requirements
may be found in the Ecclesiastical Endorsement Manual linked on the
SPM webpage at www.lcms.org/spm). Endorsement is maintained by
completing 15 hours of continuing education annually, maintaining
active church membership and circuit/district involvement, adhering
to the SPM Code of Ethics, completing a biannual peer review, and
submitting an annual report.
Ministerial health and wellness is vital to the well-being of the
minister and the ministry! Thus collegial support ranks high on
the list of ministry opportunities in the SPM office (ref. 2013 Res.
1-12, “To Recognize and Give Thanks for Military and Institutional

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Chaplains”). Support takes many forms: educational events/retreats
(regional, semiannual, and free); Emergency Services Chaplaincy
(ESC) day conferences (annual); prison ministry biennial conferences
sponsored by the Southern Illinois District (ref. 2013 Res. 1-13A, “To
Designate District Coordinators for Prison and Jail Ministry”) funded/
supported by ONM SPM; pastoral care, consultation, and mentoring
via phone, email, and in person; online learning group in pastoral
care skills; Pastoral Touch (triennial publication); LCMS periodicals that highlight and lift up our constituents and their ministries;
web resources; SPM scholarships for Clinical Pastoral Education
(CPE) and other education that leads to endorsement; and anniversary acknowledgements (soon to be started).
Many who serve in SPM are doing so without a divine call. If they
do not have a call from a congregation, RSO, or district, they are “on
their own,” ministering under contract in a secular institution. Starting
in 2014, the Board for National Mission (BNM) has made available a
divine call for those serving within an institution as a full-time chaplain or pastoral counselor. Since implemented, two divine calls have
been issued (ref. 2013 Res. 2-05B, “To Allow Extension of Calls to
Specialized Pastoral Ministers”).
SPM is comprised of an aging population of LCMS ministers.
Younger, qualified ordained and commissioned ministers are needed
to fill the gap that is being created due to retirements. Without intentional recruitment of those men and women our Lord wants in SPM,
the LCMS will become under- or unrepresented on the front lines of
ministry outside of the parish. A newly established SPM Recruitment
Task Force has been charged with bringing SPM to the awareness of
young men and women going into ministry so that they can consider
SPM as a viable vocational calling. Many avenues are being considered as means for recruitment.
Emergency Services Chaplains are mostly law enforcement and
fire department chaplains who serve as volunteers in their local
communities. They are trained, credentialed, and encouraged to be
SPM-endorsed as representatives of the LCMS. In February 2015, the
SPM ecclesiastical endorsement of Emergency Services Chaplains
was authorized by the Council of Presidents. Since then, 13 have
become endorsed. Of those who have become endorsed in ESC,
four have sought additional training to serve as Disaster Response
Chaplains (DRC). From the beginning of the DRC ministry two years
ago, there have been three deployments (Pilger, Nebraska; Moore,
Oklahoma; and Delmont, South Dakota).
Ministerial care (that is, care of the called ministers and their families) is the church’s responsibility as much as pastoral care of the
church is the called staff’s responsibility. The SPM Interim Director,
along with the Director of Church and Community Engagement and
Director of Life and Health with ONM Executive Director Bart Day,
is seeking to assess how the ONM can best serve districts and district presidents in the provision of additional spiritual support and
emotional care to ministers of the Gospel and their families. Our purposes include (a) identifying already existing resources (both larger
organizations serving the Synod as well as local ministries) that have
been effective in the area of worker wellness; (b) assessing which
resources would be beneficial for synodwide promotion; (c) determining the gaps in service; and (d) working with districts to fill the
gaps as needed.
Prisons are one of the largest institutions in the USA. Prison ministry is one of the many privileged responsibilities of SPM. In addition
to the conferences that SPM funds and in addition to the six full-time
prison and jail chaplains we have nationwide, many parish pastors and
congregations are engaged in local prison ministry—many of whom
are under the enabling and supportive eye of the Southern Illinois
District (SID)—a partner with SPM. Also, the SPM office receives
weekly requests from inmates and families of incarcerated persons
2016 Convention Workbook