LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 115

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OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS

COVID-19: The Unprecedented Challenge to
Ministry in Our Time
It hit us hard, as it did all of you. But I am so grateful to our
wonderful God that we made our way quite well through this time
of virus invasion. Pastors, church leaders, and congregation members made decisions to the best of their ability, and they respected
the decisions of other congregations as how to handle matters dealing with the pandemic. And so, by God’s grace and the Spirit’s
direction, the proclamation of God’s Word continued, online or in
person. Moreover, the saints continued to give their offerings to
the Lord so that, in most cases, our ministries did not suffer financially. That some congregations “upped their game” when it comes
to technology, including the use of online giving, was a surprising
new benefit stemming from our having had to deal with COVID-19.
Our Lutheran schools and early childhood centers carried the
tremendous burden of how to educate the children and how to staff
their ministries. When schools closed for a time and tuition wasn’t
coming in, many wondered how they would pay the bills. I’m
very grateful to our school administrators, teachers, and staff for
how they so patiently and creatively met these and countless other
changes and challenges brought about by the pandemic. I’m grateful to our school children and school families for displaying the
fruit of the Spirit (love, peace, kindness, patience, etc.), as they and
their schools had to adjust to a strange new life under COVID-19.
But along with the difficulties came opportunities. I loved the
perspective of one of our pastors. He believed and communicated
that, in spite of COVID-19, God was on the move. In spite of COVID-19, God was accomplishing great things. His message of Law
and Gospel was marching forward. God was taking care of us, and
we, His precious children, were being good neighbors to others.

Congregations Banding Together or Doing
Something Novel in This New and Different Time
Many of us grew up in the Church when our congregations,
Sunday School programs, and confirmation classes were bigger.
Today, it’s different (and it’s not just because of the pandemic we’ve
endured). The Church is not the center of life, like it had been in
days gone by. People think they are regular church attenders, these
days, if they worship once a month. Some of our churches have
no Sunday School because they have no children, and some of our
churches haven’t had a junior confirmand in the past five years.
One decision many of our churches have made is to form a
multicongregation parish with one or more congregations. This is
nothing new in South Dakota (we have 70 congregations in such arrangements), but now even more of our congregations, for several
reasons, are beginning to band together under new parish agreements. Why must they band together in new alignments? Chiefly, in
order to afford to call a pastor to serve them, at a time when salaries
and benefits for pastors are increasing in cost and church membership numbers have declined (so also has the population in many
rural communities). Some congregations, therefore, need other
congregations to assist them in keeping the church doors open and
the Gospel proclaimed and taught.
In the last triennium, 12 of our congregations entered into new
parish alignments. God’s people and their pastors in these parishes
understand that hearing God’s Word and having the Sacraments
properly administered in their midst is of life-giving and life-sustaining importance. They understand that God has something for
them to do in their communities: share the Gospel and serve their

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neighbors with acts of kindness. They accept that they must align
in new ways to continue this God-blessed ministry, for their own
sake, and for the sake of others. And they’re doing it. Praise God
for our multipoint parishes and the faithful pastors who serve them!
Beyond the multicongregation parish phenomenon, some congregations and circuits are doing something novel to carry out the
mission of God in this world. Examples of this include these:
•

St. Paul, Spearfish, is the mother church to Trinity, Belle
Fourche, the first church plant in the district in 18 years.

•

Participation in the Specific Ministry Pastor program (SMP)
is growing, allowing churches to raise up men in their midst
for bivocational, ordained ministry.

•

Laypeople and pastors in Circuit 1 have launched the Rural
Gospel Initiative. The purpose is to support ministry staffing
of congregations in the circuit for new or amplified efforts in
rural and small-town ministry and to support and encourage
education and training events concerning Christian witness
and service.

And, in addition to new ministry endeavors, God continues to
bless our steady, long-standing ministries to Native Americans on
the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations, our district-wide deaf
ministry, and our campus ministries.

Lutheran Family Service: God’s Care for Us in a
Special Way
From the beginning of the 2018–2021 triennium, our district has
been working with Lutheran Family Service (LFS), based in Fort
Dodge, Iowa, to explore how we can join forces to support the
mental and emotional health of our LCMS population in South
Dakota. After much discussion with LFS, the board of directors
of the district voted to enter into a ministry agreement with LFS,
beginning in 2020, and renewed for 2021. Delegates to our district
convention, at the end of 2021, then voted to extend and strengthen
the relationship. What a blessing this has been! LFS and their professional counselors have consulted with our pastors, assisting our
pastors in giving counsel to church members. Our church workers
themselves have turned to the counselors at LFS, via Telehealth,
to work through mental health problems of their own. And now
our laypeople are able to turn to LFS counselors for help too. An
exciting development has been the opening of counseling offices in
Chamberlain and Sioux Falls.

Our Prayer for All of You
Our district convention theme, back in December 2021, was
“Rooted in Christ, Abounding in Thanksgiving.” Our theme verses
were Colossians 2:6–7: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established
in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
We pray that your life will be marked with such a thankful, rooted
connection to the Savior of us all: the crucified, risen, ascended,
and reigning Christ!
Scott C. Sailer, President
2023 Convention Workbook