LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1981, Page 109

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that there is integrity in the church body despite all the
claims of the skeptics. That He would use us to bring
about a trust within our church body. This is something
for which almost 3 million people have been praying for
many years. I prayed that He might use us to bring this
great church body to a higher self-perception of how
God could use it in mission and ministry. I hoped that
God would use us to reveal how He has blessed our
membership with so much wealth that we have all the
financial resources that we need to do what He wants
our church body to do in the decade of the 1980s to
achieve the objectives of His Great Commission.

I could tell you a thousand stories of what has
happened in answer to those prayers. I could tell you
stories from the telephone calls we have received, from
the letters we have received, from congregations and
pastors and laypeople who have written to us about the
spiritual blessings that accrued to them because of their
participation in Forward in Remembrance. One pastor
wrote something like this: “We were a divided congre-
gation, we were a congregation with hostilities and
tensions, we were a dead congregation. The one thing
we did right was to participate in the full plan of
Forward in Remembrance. Today, now that we have
given our gifts to our Lord, we are so busy witnessing for
Him, we are so busy bringing His Gospel to our com-
munity, that we don’t have time to find fault with each
other. We now spend our energies and time in evan-
gelism and witnessing instead of hurting each other
and bringing grief and sadness to the church.”

As you can imagine, many individuals made great
financial sacrifices in their pledges for Forward in
Remembrance. But many congregations have sacrificed
as well. The congregation to which I belong has a debt of
$90,000, and yet it raised $134,000 for Forward in
Remembrance. The members of the congregation didn’t
say, “First let us take care of ourselves, and then we will
think about reaching out in mission and ministry as our
Lord asked us to do.” They understand God’s priorities
very well.

This morning I preached to a congregation that just
a few years ago had a membership of some 2,300 souls.
Now, because of what has happened to our inner cities,
slightly more than 200 people are supporting that
congregation and that large and beautiful church
facility. They pay the maintenance, the utilities, andall
the other costs. These heroes are going to keep that
congregation going and growing in the inner city. Yet
that congregation, with all it’s problems ‘and all it’s
expenses, raised over $8,000 for Forward in Remem-
brance. They wanted to participate and join hands with
6,000 other congregations to bring the Gospel to all the
world as the Lord has commissioned us to do. (Some
day, because I know from Forward in Remembrance
what God can do, those pews will be filled again, and
great choirs once more will sing from that balcony.)
Congregations that were torn, now are united in the
mission and ministry of Forward in Remembrance.
Congregations that were far below budget and were
giving almost nothing to District and Synod, now are

STEWARDSHIP EMPHASIS—FORWARD IN REMEMBRANCE 109

exceeding their budgets for their own congregation and
for District and Synod. Miracle after miracle the Lord
has performed through Forward in Remembrance, and
these congregations have written to tell us about them.

God has some special plans for our Synod. Too much
has happened in our church body. Too many things
have come together this year to be coincidences. We
didn’t have enough pastors even to take care of our
congregations in the United States and Canada. Now
the Lord has filled both of our seminaries and, beginning
next year, the large classes will begin to graduate. The
Lord has taken care of that! Our colleges are filled with
church workers. Something is happening among our
young people. They are going in larger and larger
numbers to prepare for full-time work in the church. The
Lord is doing that! We said we didn’t have opportunities.
Nations of the world were becoming so secular that they
didn’t want missionaries. Even the secularization of
America had us downhearted. It appeared that people
no longer wanted to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But
listen now to Dr. Westcott tell you about the invitations
that we have received from all parts of the world. Look
at the opportunities that we have on our own continent.
The Lord has opened the doors of opportunity at the
same time that our seminaries and colleges are filled
with potential workers for our church. We didn’t have
any money, we couldn’t afford to do anything, and now
look what the Lord has done in Forward in Remem-
brance. It is a miracle! We also have elected a popular,
very attractive, devoted, and articulate Christian to be
our synodical President in this decade of the 1980s. The
Holy Spirit has given The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod everything it needs to go out in mission and
ministry. And 4,590 congregations, 76.4% of the congre-
gations, have already committed themselves to provide
the financial means by which this can be done. Already
$74,804,386 have been pledged by these congregations,
and several hundred more congregations are just getting
started. Who knows what the Lord may do if we are
faithful. I have a very few suggestions to make.

First, I believe that this church body must give more
ownership of the synodical programs and priorities to
the congregations. They must be brought into the
decison-making process. Let us not try to make the
communicants believe that the church is at “500 North
Broadway,” or that the Board for Missions or the Board
of Directors are the church, or that they are going to take
responsibility for the programs. They are the facilitators
and the enablers, but the church is in the congregations,
the Great Commission is in the congregations, the joy of
leadership and the joy of missions and ministry must be
in the congregations, and, if you are a member of one of
those congregations and work as you have done in
Forward in Remembrance, you will find the joy of
leadership in the Great Commission of our Lord.

Second, I would recommend that we don’t forget the
names of the 20,000 Forward in Remembrance volun-
teers. They served you well in Forward in Remembrance,
and they are your future leaders. Give them a little rest,
but not too long—then put them to work again. They