LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1981, Page 108

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108 STEWARDSHIP EMPHASIS—FORWARD IN REMEMBRANCE

Almighty God. Please join in prayer with the Rev. Jim
Uhrinak.

“Shall we pray. We indeed thank and praise You this
evening, dear Lord, for having remembered us with your mercy
even before the worlds were framed, and for continuing to
remember us each day, so that by Your Holy Spirit we receive
from Your hand all those precious treasures which we need
both to sustain our faith and our bodies on this earth. We thank
You in a particular way this day that by Your Spirit You have
remembered and visited this church and taught us something
anew about faith and trustin Your Word and promises through
the appeal Forward in Remembrance. We thank You, Father,
for blessing us in spite of our hesitancy and our doubts and in
spite of questions that Satan and our own flesh raised within
us. Thank You for moving the leaders of this church, especially
the laypeople in this church, to respond to Your mercy by
presenting themselves first to You as living sacrifices and then
bringing their gifts of love and adoration in the form of money
for the work You have given us to do. We recognize, Father, that
we have been able to do this only because You do daily
remember us in Your mercy, and equip and empower us for the
task You have set before us. We pray that You would continue
to remember us in the years that are ahead, so that we, as Your
good and faithful servants, may be empowered to continue the
work that You have begun among us, and that we might
certainly use well and apply effectively those resources You
have permitted us to gather to win souls all over this earth.
Father, we need Your help even more now, we feel the need
more now than in the past. Be with us and bless us—we ask this
for Jesus’ sake and in His name so that all the world may join
with us to crown Him Lord of life, to praise and serve Him into
time everlasting. We ask it, Father, trusting that You will hear
us and bless us. Amen.”

Another very close friend and one whom I have come
to admire and respect so much is the consultant who is
the architect of this appeal. If you are going to build a
new church building, you will find out very quickly that
there are a few self-proclaimed experts in the assembly
who know everything there is to know about building a
church, and you say a silent prayer that they will not
offer their services. You quickly go out and hire the best
professional architect you can get. The architect of this
appeal was Mr. Peter Flynn, of the Community Coun-
selling Services (CCS). Community Counselling
Services has worked with churches for 30 years and has
an astounding record of success. When you realize that
this appeal may have broken all the records in the total
of pledges for a central church body, and when you
know that it also may have broken all records for the
lowest cost (already below 4% and going down, when
most appeals run 18% to 29%), then you know that we got
our money’s worth out of these people. They kept us
from going down blind alleys, they kept us from doing
things that were counterproductive. We learned our
lessons without the usual costs that are associated with
mistakes and inexperience. The members of CCS are
fine Christian people who are devoted to their work
because they believe it will help to spread the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. Mr. William Hanrahan is the executive
vice-president, and Mr. Lane is the area vice-president.
But the personification of that counseling service for us
is Mr. Peter Flynn. He worked with me day by day, and
hand in hand. He now has been promoted to vice-
president of Community Counselling Services. He also
got a great gift from this appeal. He fell in love with our
secretary, and on July 11, one day after this convention

is over, if the convention approves, he is going to marry
her. Here is Mr. Peter Flynn.
Also, recognizing the blessings of God as they hay,
been manifested through them, I want to pay tribute to
the 38 District Preisdents. One of the accomplishments
for which I am very grateful is that all 38 Districts
bought into Forward in Remembrance, and gave it
priority above everything else as the synodical conven
tion of 1979 requested. I believe that the Distrie
Presidents deserve a great deal of credit for the succes;
of this appeal. I believe, too, that we should remember ir
the years ahead that they, as the leaders of thei
Districts, and as the arms of this Synod, are the one
who can bring the stewardship of this church body to#
God-pleasing level. I have the highest regard for all 9
them, and I want to tell you how much J admire an
respect them.
I want to thank the District Directors who carried du’
much of the work for the District Presidents, the sub
District Directors, the 900 Action Group directors, anid
the congregational pastors. So much credit must go tt
the pastors! I repeat what I have said so often; only t!
pastors can bring the theology of stewardship to thé
Christians of this church body. No one else is ordained
or commissioned to do that. They are the ones who didit
in Forward in Remembrance. They are the ones who
inspired the congregational leadership, who preach
the sermons, who led the Bible classes about Forward in
Remembrance, and who brought the inspiration to thei
people.
Twenty thousand volunteers in this church body
brought about, under God, the success of Forward
Remembrance. I would like to ask all of you—Distrie
Presidents, District Directors, sub-District Directors:
Coordinators of Information, Action Group Directors,
pastors, and congregational leadership teams, who a
here tonight, to stand up. Let the delegates see just how
many of those volunteers are here tonight. Would y:
please stand up. These are the heroes of Forward it
Remembrance!
I would like to tell you this. Many of you ha
stopped me and thanked me for taking on the work
Forward in Remembrance. Believe me, it was not
burden. It was a joy! From the very beginning it w
obvious that the Lord had given His blessing to th
appeal. It was He who decided that this church bo
should go into missions and ministry in the decade:
the 1980s in a way that has never been done befor
was He who used me and gave me the joy of leading tl
appeal. There were certain objectives that I hoped th
He would use me to achieve. I prayed that the Holy Spi
would work through me to do far more than just rai
money in this church body. I would not have fou
much joy in that, although it was a very importa
aspect of the appeal. I prayed that He would use mea
all of the volunteers in Forward in Remembrance
bring a sense of renewal to our Synod. To bring a feelit
of unity again. To bring a feeling of oneness between
congregations and the Synod so that we would trul:
“walk together” again. That He might use us to sho