LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 37

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OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
•

That the LCMS give thanks for both North American seminaries for
their critical role in preparing pastors and giving higher degrees to men
from partner churches and give more monies to the Global Seminary
Initiative to increase the number of students.

3. Perform human care in close proximity to Word and Sacrament
ministries.
Strategic Direction: All church planting is to be accompanied by institutional works of mercy. The following activities support this strategic
direction.
Current and Future Impact:
• Initiate mercy institutions alongside Word and Sacrament church
plants. This means establishing, promoting, and sustaining any institution involving human care for that community.
• Initiate five-year deaconess program. Teach two courses per year in
five sister churches for a total of 10 years (launches in May 2016).
• Mercy/Life/Disaster Response conferences. The region will promote
annual Latin American Mercy conferences.
• Disaster response preparedness. Training in the theology and practice;
prepare and train leaders.

Recommendation:
•

That the LCMS remain committed to serving people in body and spirit
so that the whole person might be served as our Lord Jesus has done in
rising in body and soul and promises a resurrection of body and soul.

4. Collaborate with the Synod’s members and partners to enhance
mission effectiveness.
Strategic Direction: The LAC Region will partner with national churches, seminaries, RSOs, and other groups to implement the strategies described in this plan. Please see mission priorities 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 to see
our mutual collaboration.
Present Impact: Create FOROs—Each area will have a FORO/FORUM
to provide theological education, offer accountability, and raise financial
and human resource support for the work in the area.
Future Impact: Vocational Bible institute will be created. This Bible
institute will be vocational in nature rather than preparing people for a
career in church work (launch in 2017).
Recommendation: Give thanks for our faithful partner churches who
give witness in a variety of contexts and environments and seek to do
that faithfully through the preaching of the Gospel.

5. Promote and nurture the spiritual, emotional, and physical
well-being of pastors and professional church workers.
Strategic Direction: LAC Region will institutionalize this kind of care
for its staff and will work to offer the same kind of care to partners in
the region.
Monastery Approach: The monastery is for worship, rest, study, and fellowship for missionaries and sister church presidents, professors, etc. As
such, we have identified the following—

Current and Future Impact:
•
•

•
•
•

Regional missionary retreats—Yearly, bring all together for study of
the Word of God, time of worship, and fellowship.
Pastoral visitors—Primary task of those in supervision of missionaries is pastoral care/theological oversight of missionaries and mission.
Three times a year have reading of theology aimed at studying theological life of the mission and addressing issues that need attention.
Develop mission leadership—Continue to use CTSFW certificate program (six courses).
Language and cultural acquisition plan and electronic manual.
Provide mentorship—weekly mentorship for new missionaries.

6. Enhance early childhood, elementary and secondary education,
and youth ministry.
Strategic Direction: Supporting and strengthening education may be included in the mercy work associated with church planting and strengthening existing congregations.

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•

Assist Uruguay in establishing her university. This is to be the first
Spanish-speaking Lutheran university. Its capacity will be 12,000
students.
• Support Lutheran school teachers to be connected with Lutheran
schools throughout Latin America for professional development.
• Connect Concordia Lutheran schools in the US to Latin American
Lutheran schools.
Recommendation: Pray for the founding of this Lutheran university in
a country in which more than 40 percent of people are self-professed
atheists.
Eurasia Region—Rev. James Krikava, Regional Director

Since assuming the position of Regional Director on Nov. 10,
2015, the Regional Business Manager and I have been conducting
visitations to our areas in order to assess strengths and weaknesses
as we move forward in ways consistent with the Gospel of Christ and
conducive to our Lord’s command to His Church to go and make disciples of all nations by baptizing and teaching (Matthew 28:19–20).
This teaching reflects the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church, collected in the Lutheran Book of Concord, a correct explanation of the doctrines of Holy Scripture dealt with therein. In this
way, our Lutheran identity will be expressed in word and deed in all
that our missionaries undertake in their various fields.
Our work can be categorized as follows—
•

Direct mission work by LCMS pastors and workers on the ground.
o Ordained pastors doing the work of the preaching office in church
planting and nurturing new churches to a mature Lutheran faith.
o GEO missionaries and others working in the areas of mercy and
witness in support of and connected with church planting and/or
already established church bodies where indigenous pastors have
assumed the work of the preaching office.
• Support of direct mission work by LCMS pastors, educators, and other
personnel needed to assist mission upstarts, mission church partners,
and other emerging partners in the Gospel.
o Area chaplaincy(ies) to minister to GEO workers and others
around them in places where Lutheran pastoral care is not available from partner churches due to language barriers or other circumstances.
o COMM to cover and promote work and activities in the region for
regional awareness among our workers and for Synod awareness
of our regional missions.
o Theological education and continuing education within mission upstarts, new Lutheran church bodies, emerging Lutheran
churches, and established partner Lutheran churches where such
education is desired and requested.
Visitations: Since November 2015, we have visited—
• Sister Lutheran churches in the Baltic countries of Latvia and
Lithuania, meeting with church officials and laity
• Scandinavia—Attended a Northern Europe Luther Academy (NELA)
conference in Bergen, Norway, meeting pastors and laity of our sister
church in Norway, as well as confessional Lutherans from Sweden,
Finland, and Denmark
• Russia—Attended the convention of the Ev. Lutheran Church of Ingria
in Russia (ELCIR), where we have had missionaries in the past and
still support some of the pastoral work and humanitarian projects there.
Representatives from the Lutheran Church in Novosibirsk also were
in attendance, giving us an opportunity to hear about the church and
seminary there, which has long been supported by the LCMS.
• Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan—Visited both countries twice. All of our
missionaries except one have left these two fields now served by indigenous pastors. The situation in both countries has become complicated
due to two revolutions and the domination of Islamic governments.
• Mongolia—The last of our missionaries to leave Kazakhstan was actually expelled from the country, in part because of his mission work in
the Kazakh language. The Lutheran Church of Kazakhstan works in
Russian, an official language of the country. While mission work in

2016 Convention Workbook