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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 26

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

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OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS

gations, and coordinate mercy work closely tied to Word and
Sacrament ministry.
The work in Eurasia varies greatly, not least due to the immense geographical area of the region from Europe (actually
Greenland is included on the Eurasia Map) all the way to Vladivostok, Russia, on the Sea of Japan and including most all of
Europe, the Middle East, all the former states of the old USSR,
and Mongolia. One can only imagine the great diversity of culture over such an expanse; however, while sensitive to culture,
we strive to find a proper balance between contextualization of
the universals of the Lutheran Church and faith. It is easy to become oversensitive to culture, forgetting that all culture among
people is the product of a fallen world and entangled by the
sin of Adam. There still needs to be that divine counter-culture
which can be recognized by Christians (in our case, confessional
Lutheran Christians) the world over, so that Christ may be seen,
heard, and remembered—and not us. As annual site visits are
made to the areas of work and influence in Eurasia, it is a priority of OIM Eurasia to observe how the church, whether in
the former Soviet Union, the Baltic States, Eastern, Central or
Western Europe, is not merely sensitive to the given culture but
especially recognized by the universals of Lutheranism. For example, whether we can understand the language of the Divine
Service of Word and Sacrament, we should be able to recognize
where we are even by the external markers of the Lutheran liturgical life of the mission church.
It has been an amazing experience for me personally, having
spent 16 years as a missionary in Central and Eastern Europe,
to witness the general tendency to avoid secular intrusion into
the church’s worship life as well as the keen interest in the history of the Lutheran Church in a given country. As an example,
the people of the revived Czech Lutheran Church dug deeply
into the theology and work of Jiří Třanovský, a Czech student
in Wittenberg around 1600. His monumental hymnal includes
translations of more 16th-century Lutheran hymns than all
American Lutheran hymnals combined. Also, a thorough study
of Luther’s Formula Missae and his Deutsche Messe led them
eagerly to embrace and adopt the Order of Service from the
1530 Agenda of the Lutheran Church of Minden, Germany. (It
is quite similar to Divine Service V from LSB.) Such decisions
enhancing Lutheran identity are quite indicative of European
churches generally. What a joy to have had a part in this development since the fall of Communism. They have understood
well article XXIV of the Augsburg Confession: “The chief purpose of all ceremonies is to teach the people what they need to
know about Christ.” In similar ways, this same mentality can be
noticed in Eastern Europe and Russia due to German Lutheran
influence not only in Russia but in the Baltic states, Ukraine,
Romania, and elsewhere.
Our actual work encompasses actual missionary work on
the ground, support of partner and emerging Lutheran churches through theological education, and mercy projects connected
with Lutheran Word and Sacrament ministry. On the ground,
missionaries are working among Kazakhs in Mongolia, in Kyrgyzstan, Germany, Romania, and Italy (OIM also has two missionaries and their families in Spain, but Spain is still under the
direction of the Latin America Region since the original work in
Spain began under the Lutheran Church of Argentina). We are
rebuilding our work in Russia with two lay missionaries working
in St. Petersburg and two theological educators teaching at the
2019 Convention Workbook

seminary of the Ev. Luth. Church of Ingria in Russia (ELCIR)
in Koltushi, near St. Petersburg, Russia. Our full-time theological educator in the seminary of the Siberian Ev. Luth. Church
(SELC) has now retired, but the Siberians now have a full faculty of their own indigenous pastors and teachers. Among our
Russian-speaking work, both of these seminaries are involved
in providing continuing education for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Ukraine, and Belarus. While OIM Eurasia supports them in
these efforts, the fine Russian Lutheran teachers are providing a
valuable service to these churches. Our own LCMS men are also
involved in this work, but it is always better to have qualified
men teaching who are completely at home with the language
and mentality of the believers being served with the Gospel.
Other theological education in the region, which is sponsored by OIM Eurasia, includes:
1.

CTSFW STM program in Gothenburg, Sweden.
OIM Eurasia sponsors study for the more advanced
indigenous pastors of the Eurasia region who can
handle instruction in English.

Luther Academy Riga is the seminary of the Ev.
Luth. Church of Latvia. OIM is assisting the Latvians in their 6-year reaccreditation process, which will
now also be recognized throughout the EU with an
English language seminary curriculum. The Latvian
church is a strong partner with the LCMS, and we
will hopefully be providing the newly accredited seminary with one full-time theological educator for their
faculty as well as several associate professors from
our region who will serve in Riga, teaching 1–2 week
intensive courses.

Through Eurasia Regional support, we sponsor
numerous pastoral conferences through NYLT (the
Network of Young Lutheran Theologians), Corpus
Christi (an annual youth conference patterned after
the LCMS Higher Things), an annual theological
conference for pastors and laymen from Central Europe, regular 1-week seminars for theological training
and continuing education for the Ev. Luth. Church
in Ukraine, and assistance with similar seminars in
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Mercy projects include:
1.

The Hope Center in St. Petersburg, part of the ELCIR’s work in Russia.

The Faith and Hope Center in Novosibirsk, connected to the work of SELC in Russia.

Other efforts:
1.

We currently have three GEO missionaries and one
career missionary assisting in the refugee work of
our partner church, SELK (Independent Ev. Luth.
Church of Germany).

We have LCMS pastors serving in international
Lutheran congregations in Prague, Frankfurt, and
Kaiserslautern (in cooperation with the LCMS military chaplaincy office).