LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Page 62

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62

REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

The 3/10 Emphasis: a Key Thrust for the Future
Maybe the best place to begin would be to identify the
spark plug that generated this emphasis. As I found myself
zigzagging back and forth across our church body, visiting
with both pastors and laypeople alike, I found any number
of our people asking the question: “What do you see as the
key emphasis, the key thrust, that should mark our church
body’s attention as we move into the closing years of the
present century and millennium, and the opening decade
of the next?” I thought that was an extremely timely question. As I pondered this question in light of the Word, the
answer seemed rather obvious. It is that we as a church
body would, with great vim and vigor in the years that are
directly ahead, reach out with the saving Gospel of our
Lord to those who do not yet know Christ as Lord and Savior. And to do this as we have never done it before.
Now I can imagine you asking, “But why the 3, and why
the 10?” The answer is not all that difficult. The 3 represents the final 3 years of this present century and the 10,
the first decade of the 21st century. In other words, the 3
underscores the suggestion that we would use the final 3
years of this present century to accelerate—note the word
accelerate—our interest, zeal, and skills in witnessing to
our faith—and that we would do this in order that we
might, starting with the first decade of the 21st century,
move full speed ahead as a church body, a people, congregations, individuals, in boldly reaching out with the saving Gospel of Christ.

Well, that is the foundation for this 3/10 Emphasis. We
will also be talking about those target areas, if I may call
them that, that we encounter every day in our lives where
we can speak with others the Good News about Jesus. We
have most appropriately chosen as the theme of this convention the words from Acts: To the Ends of the Earth. And
understandably, that phrase carries with it the meaning of
people all around the world—people in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America—and that is very important.
Our Personal “Ends of the Earth”
But I would also maintain that your own personal
“Ends of the Earth” is as close as people with whom you
daily come into contact, an arm’s length away. It starts
with your own family—husband, wife, children, grandchildren. Let me ask you—when was the last time that you
spoke with your spouse, your children, or your grandchildren about your faith in Jesus Christ and the joy of that
salvation that is yours?
But it doesn’t stop there. It also involves those people
with whom we work, the neighbor across the street, the
person with whom we have coffee, the family down the way,
yes, and even those casual people with whom we daily come
into contact along life’s road. Recognizing the joy of that
salvation which is ours in Jesus Christ, it is to all of these
people that we need to speak the Good News about Jesus
and the joy of that salvation which is ours in Christ. And
again, why? That they, too, may share in that Good News,
joy, and final salvation.

Proclaiming the Joy of Our Salvation
Why? So that we might once again become a numerically
growing church body? No, significant as that type of membership increase might be. There is a much better reason
than that. It is so that those who do not yet know Christ as
Savior and Lord will, through the proclamation of the
Gospel, be brought by God the Holy Spirit to a saving trust
in Christ and, finally, assemble with us around the throne
of the Lamb for all eternity in heaven. That is the bottom
line in all this. And it is that challenge, more than anything
else, that I wish to lay before this convention as we assemble here these days in this the last convention of our church
body in this present century and millennium.
Needless to say, there are any number of aspects of this
3/10 Emphasis that I could hold before you this day. For example, the place where we will need to begin all of this with
a reemphasis on the joy of that salvation which is ours personally in Jesus Christ. For sometimes, just sometimes, I
believe we get so caught up with the problems and the
stresses of our everyday lives that we do not always recognize—and reflect as fully as we should—the joy of that salvation which is ours personally in Jesus Christ. Both as individuals and as a church body we need to pray with a
renewed emphasis those words which we find in the liturgy
when we sing the offertory: “Create in me a clean heart, O
God, ... and restore unto me the joy of Your salvation.” For
I find it difficult to believe that we will be able to share the
joy of Christ’s salvation as effectively as we should unless,
in our own lives—congregations and church body alike—we
have first captured the full meaning of that joy in Christ.
So restore unto us the joy of your salvation, O Lord!

Merely Another Program? No, a Key Opportunity
If you ask, “Is this going to be just another synodical program?” The answer is no. If you ask, “Will the various entities of our Synod and its congregations be actively involved
in designing and unfolding this emphasis in line with their
unique needs and challenges?” The answer is most assuredly. If you ask, “Do you have a plan for unfolding this
emphasis?” The answer is we sure do, and we will be sharing this plan across the Synod in the next several months
following this convention. If you ask, “Does the 3/10 emphasis mean that during the first 3 years we will only be
studying and not actually witnessing to our faith?” Far
from it! If you ask, “Does this mean that after the 10-year
period of time is over, we will once again go back to our old
ways?” God forbid!
If you ask, “Surely you have a better name for this emphasis than simply ‘3/10’? ” Again, the answer is yes. The
theme of this emphasis is drawn from the words of Acts
8:35, the account of the conversion of the Ethiopian. Philip
told this man what the Bible meant, and we read that “he
shared with him the good news about Jesus.” Thus the
theme of the 3/10 emphasis is this: “Tell the Good News
about Jesus.” What greater duty, and what greater privilege, can we have than to share with others the Good News
about Jesus? We who have been brought to saving faith in
our Lord Jesus have the joyful privilege of proclaiming this
Good News to others! We too are able to “tell the good news
about Jesus!”
There is so much more that I could tell you in connection with the information that step-by-step will be unfolded