LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Page 15

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SYNODICAL REPORTS 15

North America

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North America

The 1992 synodical convention declared North America a world
mission field. Today in North America the Good News is preached
in 20 different languages in LCMS congregations. District mission
executives and other leaders meet annually with LCMS World Mis-
sion to plan mission strategies.

Goals for 1998 include

* 60 new U.S. mission starts, including 10 new African-American,
five new Hispanic, three new Native American, five new Asian-
American, and one new Jewish;

* growth in the total number of baptized LCMS members;

* new international student ministries and deaf ministries;

* more outreach to blind people.

North American missionaries are training indigenous leaders to
begin small group Bible studies and to establish a growing number
of new congregations. Distance Education Leading to Ordination
(DELTO) helps with this task. In addition, the Church Planter’s In-
stitute expects to train 150 church planters by 1999.

Education and human-care ministries are linked to North Amer-
ican mission priorities. Most of the funding for these efforts comes
from LCMS World Relief and Lutheran Brotherhood.

Specialized Mission Work

For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘] have made
you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the
ends of the earth’” (Acts 13:47).

Mission with the Deaf

Although there are 2.5 million profoundly deaf people in the
United States, less than 5 percent of them are active in a Christian
church. The need is great. LCMS World Mission also works with
deaf people in Australia, Brazil, Ghana, Hong Kong. India, Macau,
and Norway.

LCMS ministry among deaf people has continued for more than
100 years. Educational ministry began in 1873 at the Lutheran
School for the Deaf, now known as Lutheran Special Education
Ministries, in Detroit, Mich. Congregational ministry began on
March 4, 1894, at First Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Chicago.
There are now 59 congregations for deaf people and another 110
congregations provide interpreters. Together, these congregations
have more than 8,000 deaf members.

Mission with the Visually Impaired

Lutheran Mission with Blind Persons is celebrating 75 years of
serving the visually impaired. The LCMS started a program for

work among the blind in 1923, publishing Luther’s Small Cate-
chism in braille. The Lutheran Library for the Blind loans books
and tapes through the mail. More than 700 volunteers in 54 work
centers across the United States produce braille, large type, and cas-
sette materials that are sent to 5,000 people every month. More than
9,000 items go out monthly.

LCMS World Mission also works with blind people in India
and Ghana. Braille materials are shared with the visually impaired
in several other countries.

Ministry to the Armed Forces

The first LCMS pastor to serve as a military chaplain served
during the Civil War. Today, 315 pastors and 2 Directors of Chris-
tian Education minister to nearly 1.5 million men and women serv-
ing in the Armed Forces, plus veterans and those in the Civil Air
Patrol. Eighty-seven are chaplains on active duty. Nearly twice that
many serve in various reserve forces. Thirty-four chaplains serve
Veterans Administration hospitals and 22 pastors serve units of the
Civil Air Patrol.

Laborers For Christ

Laborers For Christ build sanctuaries, classrooms, and multiuse
buildings for LCMS churches, missions, schools, and related insti-
tutions. Rostered Laborers are retired carpenters, handymen and
women, and other “willing workers” who have committed them-
selves to build or remodel facilities for Christ’s mission and min-
istry at minimum wage. Volunteers from the community where the
project is located also help with construction, saving the congrega-
tion additional expense.

Campus Ministry

The 200 LCMS campus and international student ministers
serve students from LCMS congregations and bring the Gospel to
other students who have never heard it. International students—
550,000 every year—come from some 200 different countries,
some of which are closed to the Gospel. Some may carry Christ’s
message with them when they return home, helping to plant new
churches around the world.

How LCMS World Mission Works

Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is
heard through the Word of Christ (Rom. 10:17).

The sole effective means for turning people from unbelief to
salvation is the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering
the Sacraments (AC V).

A Holistic Approach

Because missionaries and national workers proclaim God's
Word to real people with real needs, it is necessary to use a holistic
approach to mission. Programs like education, literacy, agricultural
development, and medical work are closely linked to LCMS World
Mission priorities of church planting and leadership formation.
Most of these programs are funded by LCMS World Relief.

Expanding through Partnerships

LCMS World Mission works in partnership with synodical Dis-
tricts and mission societies to provide financial, emotional, and
prayer support to mission fields, missionaries, and specialized
groups. Mission partners also help recruit volunteers to serve as
missionaries, carry out servant projects, and even gather cultural
information in preparation for opening a new mission field.

Through Together In Mission (TIM), congregations become
partners with missionaries by providing financial and prayer sup-
port. TIM congregations often help recruit volunteers and send
members to work on Servant Events.