LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 47

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OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
o Photo archive of more than 10,000 color-corrected, high-resolution
curated photographs for our publications
Expanded Video Archive—video.lcms.org

Since 2013, our two-member video team, lead by an experienced
newsroom producer, has gathered video footage from across the globe
to produce all manner of videos—documentaries, live-streaming,
webinars, missionary biographies, disaster-relief, marketing, curriculum, training, interviews, and news—that help to shape and tell the
stories of our collective work, making a case for its support.
o

o

152 video productions, totaling 2,677 minutes, or 44-plus hours, have
been produced and uploaded to our YouTube channel since August
2013.
YouTube channel viewers watched for 9,406 hours.
• Our strongest demographic is men ages 25–34, an encouraging
and desirable core of young viewership.
• Our top five viewing countries: United States, Canada, United
Kingdom, Germany, Brazil.

Ministry Support

Coordinated by our three-member production team, COMM
produces a variety of projects on behalf of the Synod’s offices and
ministries. Often, these projects are multifaceted efforts that include
combinations of print, Web, video, photography, and extensive
graphic design. Many involve marketing and promotional pieces or
conference and ministry resources.
o
o

3,000-plus projects in the last triennium, many of these multifaceted
(i.e., involving multiple pieces)
Examples:
• Life Ministry ultrasound curriculum
• Book-length memoir of Papua New Guinea missionary Rev. Dr.
Otto Hintze
• Missionary prayer cards and giving pages for each LCMS missionary
• Disaster Ministry Mercy in Action curriculum for pastors, educators, and congregations
• Free to Be Faithful donor events
• Coordination of the LCMS exhibit at 35 district conventions
• District and synodwide presence at conferences and conventions

Undergirding our production team is the battery of graphic designers and writers in the department. Besides designing and laying out
a host of other materials, both print and electronic, our graphics people also design every issue of The Lutheran Witness, Reporter, and
Lutherans Engage the World. Meanwhile, our small team of writers
and editors is responsible for a prolific output of top-quality editorial work.
Special Campaigns

As the culture continues to drift away from God’s will and Word,
the church is increasingly challenged to speak up and out to defend
God’s teachings on a variety of social matters. To that end, COMM
has collaborated with the Office of the President and the ONM to create a growing number of resources and opportunities for the church
to proactively defend the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and
religious liberties:
o

Free to Be Faithful—lcms.org/socialissues/freetobefaithful
• An education and awareness campaign aimed at inspiring LCMS
rostered members and laity to take informed action to protect the
freedom of religion.

o

Social Issues Webpage—lcms.org/socialissues
• In an effort to help the people of God maneuver through this
earthly kingdom and the many social issues confronting them
in their daily vocations, a growing body of resources on topics
ranging from domestic violence to religious liberty is being as-

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sembled to help inform and guide the Christian life, as each baptized child of God lives out the faith.
• Multi-week campaign in response to the Center for Medical Research’s undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood:
•	Multiple e-blasts to inform the church and encourage members to
speak out, including resources for individuals and parishes
• It Is Time to End Abortion video—video.lcms.org/archives/3187
• 48,000 views on Facebook

Future Plans
Create a Network of Lutheran Communicators

In this age of rapidly changing communication technologies and
the growing challenge to be heard, we aim to intentionally connect
with communicators in LCMS districts, colleges and universities,
seminaries, and partner church bodies to foster a network that shares
and encourages best practices through the following:
o Direct contact and consultation
o Hosting a biennial communicators conference for districts, schools,
and partner church communicators to collectively strengthen and
sharpen our skills and effectiveness
Multimedia Shareable Stories

No longer is it enough, in many cases, to provide a single photo
and story of running text. Today’s audiences demand robust storytelling that includes audio, visual imagery, infographics, and text. We are
currently strategizing and investigating the best ways to present our
collective Witness, Mercy, Life Together work in multimedia storytelling formats for easy viewing and sharing online.
Social-Media Advancement

Social media is a rapidly changing world of many-sided communication. The ability to connect in the moment and share a photo, video,
thought, or experience with thousands across the globe and receive
their reaction in an instant makes it a powerful communication tool.
Almost daily, new options for social media appear. What is the
best use of these communication outlets for the church? How can she
teach the faith and direct people formerly unknown to Lutheran altars
and pulpits where they can experience Life Together in the family of
God? How do we wisely engage the culture and speak the truth in
love? These are questions we regularly ask and work to answer. In
the coming triennium, we aim to do the following:
o
o
o

Employ new outlets where people are gathering online
Increase our use of social-media analytics to inform content creation
and posting
Be more strategic in using social media to increase followers and their
engagement with our content

Challenges
Our challenges are perpetual, and we are ever exploring new ways
to meet them. Chief among these are the following:
o Reaching more LCMS lay members directly through online
engagement
o Reaching a greater number of LCMS members under the age of 30.
This is imperative for the future life of the church, and we are collaborating with our youth, young-adult, and campus-ministry leaders to
meet this challenge.
o Increasing the trust level of parish pastors so they feel confident
in sharing our communications with their members. This can be
accomplished only through the use of first-rate, worthwhile communications—content that is faithful to the Word of God and the Lutheran
Confessions—delivered via an array of media outlets.
o Handling a constantly growing number of project requests from ministry areas. The increasing demands for services tax our finite group
of COMM staff people and force us to plan more carefully and seek
more efficient ways of communicating to our audiences.

2016 Convention Workbook