Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 2019 · 67th Convention, Tampa › Page 149

LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 149

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
Crookston; and Trinity in Jansen closed their doors and ministries during this triennium. We thank God for the lives they
touched. Divine Shepherd in Omaha gave birth to Grace Hill
Lutheran Church, Omaha. Changing and challenging demographic shifts, along with decreasing numbers of available pastors continues to call for faithful creativity in how we bring the
Gospel to our broken world.
The Nebraska District supports funding for four campus ministries: Lincoln, Omaha, Wayne, and Kearney. Ricky
Jacob continues to serve faithfully in Native American ministry in Winnebago. Hispanic and African immigrant ministries
continue to make known the love of Christ. The generosity of
our congregations and individuals overflow in local, national,
and international mission support, with missionary Gary Thies,
Rev. Dr. Brent Smith, and the many volunteers of Mission Central having become the largest mission supporting agency in the
LCMS. The Nebraska District and Concordia University, Nebraska, continue a strong partnership in the Gospel, with district congregations and individuals moved by the Spirit to support the mission of CUNE as well as our LCMS seminaries at
St. Louis, Missouri, and Fort Wayne, Indiana. Our two LWML
districts and the LLL continue to find ways to support ministry
and outreach within and beyond our borders.
Our task is clear and our focus is on the future. As we live
out life together, mercy, and witness, we focus on strengthening the faith of believers in their connection with Christ and, in
Christ, growing in our connection with one another. We need to
wrestle with our differences and find our common confession
that in our deeds we might continue to show the compassion of
our Lord and in our witness proclaim the truth, the way, and
the life.
+ To God Be the Glory +
Richard Snow, President

R38

New England District
It is my privilege to be in my third term as president of the
New England District. If you will indulge me, it is with all my
heart before my Savior that I personally affirm New England to
be the finest district in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.
Our pastors are wonderful gifts to the Church plus the numerous church workers, rostered and otherwise, are nothing but
blessings to our part of Christ’s harvest field. It is my privilege
to serve in this role and I pray with humility before our Lord
that He makes me worthy of such a responsibility. This report
will outline the major wonders that the Lord has done among
us in the last triennium.
The Lord in the last triennium focused our ability to provide care for the church worker and the worker’s family. The
New England District “upgraded” the divine call to Deaconess
Tiffany Manor to a full-time position and she accepted. After
evaluation during the last triennium it was determined to seek
to make this position, namely “Deaconess for Human Care” a
full-time position and to budget resources accordingly. Deaconess Manor has done a marvelous job of reaching out to our
church workers and the families of the same, especially with a
focus on pastors’ wives. She has been readily accepted by the
pastors and church workers. Her office is under my own supervi-

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sion as district president and we have regular reports but the district has insured that confidentiality is always to be maintained
in her work. It was also felt, and enacted upon accordingly, that
the title of her job be changed to “Director of Worker Support”
to more reflect the nature of her office.
The Lord in the last triennium also focused on our ability
to provide care for the congregations. The New England District had called a District Revitalizer, the Rev. Eric Sahlberg,
who is a church planter and expert in church revitalization. In
the last triennium he travelled extensively throughout New England engaging pastors and church leaders in the area of church
revitalization. With New England sadly leading the way in the
secularization of our society, with all six of our states now in the
top ten states for rejecting traditional Christian views and experiencing the decline of the church we are indeed a mission field
and in need of revitalizing our present congregations—such has
received great support and more funding for same is in our current fiscal year budget.
In light of these goals and objectives the New England District adopted a new logo with the cross of Christ hovering over
a map of our six states with His love beaming down upon them.
We also after overnight retreats with staff and with the support
of our board of directors adopted a new vision statement for
New England that is basically, “Care for the Worker—Care for
the Congregations—Care for the Neighbors.” We believe that
healthy workers lead to better care for our churches and great
outreach and care for our communities as a result.
“Care for Neighbors” includes work in the last three years
of the district in foreign missions with continued support for
ministry in Kenya, Africa, and Liberia, Africa. We have also
begun work with establishing an Oromo congregation in Boston, Massachusetts. The district also supports local human care
ministries including a successful “Hands of Grace” outreach
to Northwest Connecticut out of one of our district congregations. This ministry has inspired human care outreach in other
New England District congregations including “The Bridge” in
South Windsor, Connecticut, and “Caring Shepherds” in Hebron, Connecticut. Other congregations engage in similar ministries.
As a rule, New England, perhaps because we are indeed
an outpost of the Synod in the northeast corner of the United
States, and with many of our congregations living with a “mission/outpost” mentality—is remarkably free of conflict and is a
hallmark district of collegiality, Christian peace, and unity. In
the last three years we did create a full Employee Policy Manual
and have updated our entire Operations Policy Manual as well
to insure these things can continue. As such, I have been blessed
as district president with relatively lesser work demanded in the
area of doctrinal correction or conflict. Most of my work has
been to help struggling congregations meet financial needs and
to maintain ministry in our post-Christian environment here in
New England.
Most of our parish workers, especially the clergy, did not
grow up in New England or even the Northeastern portion of
the United States, resulting in a sense of isolation. The cost of
living in New England is astronomical. We have a growing number of congregations unable to afford full-time pastoral ministry—and we are greatly indebted to our retired pastors who
serve them on Sundays or during the week. As stated earlier, we
are in a post-Christian environment and we acknowledge that
2019 Convention Workbook