LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 60

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60

REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

The “Tell the Good News about Jesus” Web site provides a summary of projects that have been funded
through the EOC grant effort (www.lcms.org/310). Reading through them, one cannot help but come away with a
very deep sense of appreciation for the good work being
done in our congregations. I encourage you to take a look
at the “Tell the Good News about Jesus” Web site if you
are able and look over the EOC project summary page.
All these efforts are underway to support and enhance
the central and essential purpose of the church: telling the
Good News about Jesus! The key to this entire effort is not
a grand and glorious new program handed down from the
Synod’s offices. It revolves around and is based on the personal witnessing that each and every baptized Christian is
called to do in his or her own life, in whatever station and
calling in life they find themselves in, in whatever their
vocation might be. We need to open our eyes to the harvest fields for mission that the Lord places right in front of
us—across the street, in the store, in the church. Wherever there are people who are hurting and searching,
there the Lord is calling us to tell the Good News about
Jesus.
And the same attitude needs to characterize our congregations, our Districts, and our Synod. We have spent
enough time talking about evangelism in this church and
about reaching out; now we need to devote all of our efforts and attention to actually doing it, telling the Good
News about Jesus!
We have fantastically good news to tell about. We are
not holding out a “self-help” program. We are not offering
a gimmick or a “quick fix.” We are not talking about some
new “positive thinking” program or a way to run away
from life’s problems. We are not trying to “sell” anything
to people. We instead are holding out the one thing in this
life that makes a difference—an eternal difference! We are
holding out to the people in our lives the entire, complete,
and total forgiveness of all of their sins. For as we tell the
Good News about Jesus, this is precisely what we are extending to them. We are telling them of the one who came
into this world, lived perfectly, suffered horribly, and finally died as the perfect atoning sacrifice for the sins of
the world.
May God continue to bless mightily this important effort as we move together into a new millennium. May He
permit the first ten years of this new century and new millennium to be a time of unprecedented growth in the
Gospel for our Synod.
III. A Summary of the Activities
of the President’s Office
When I was preparing this portion of my report to the
synod, I was once again reminded of the diverse activities
and responsibilities of the synodical President. After listing a variety of these activities, I could not help but pause
and thank our good and gracious God for the abundant
blessings He has provided to our Synod during these past
three years. I also thank Him for the opportunity He has
provided to me and to the President’s Office staff to serve
Him and the Missouri Synod. It is both a profound honor
and a distinct privilege to be able to do so. Let me now
200l Convention Proceedings

work my way through this summary of the various activities of the President’s Office during the last triennium.
Church Relations

I know that a highpoint of our convention this summer
will be our consideration of three church fellowship proposals. We will have the opportunity to consider altar and
pulpit fellowship with three Lutheran churches—in Sri
Lanka, Haiti, and Lithuania. In each case, the Lord is providing our Synod with the opportunity to partner with fellow Lutheran Christians from around the world to confess
the truth of His Word and to reach out boldly with the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. What a joy this is. I am looking
forward to having the presidents of each of these three
churches present at our convention.
In the case of Sri Lanka, we will simply be recognizing
the fellowship that has always existed between our
churches, since our Synod was involved in earlier years in
the planting and formation of this church. They have now
reached that point where they are an independent church
body and wish to establish a church-to-church relationship
with our Synod.
In the case of Haiti, various groups and individuals in
our Synod have been working in Haiti for a number of
years in cooperation with Haitian Lutherans. This part of
the world is one of the most poor and the conditions are
extremely difficult, yet through this difficulty the light of
Christ’s Gospel shines. The Lord has blessed the efforts of
the hard-working church workers and laypeople of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Haiti. It is a privilege to
be able to move ahead with fellowship with our brothers
and sisters in Christ there.
With Lithuania, it has been a joy to see the relationship between our two churches develop and grow.
Through theological contacts between various LCMS professors and missionaries, we came to know and appreciate the confessional stance of Lithuania. Over the past
several years there have been increasing contacts between
our Synod and the Lithuanian church, particularly
through the efforts of Concordia Theological Seminary in
Fort Wayne. I have had the privilege of meeting with
Bishop Kalvanas twice, and my respect for him and for his
church continues to grow.
They are yet another example of a church body that is
coming to Missouri because of our stand for a genuine confessional Lutheranism. The Lithuanians’ courage was remarkably demonstrated at their convention when, in spite
of open and intense pressure by a person representing the
interests of the Lutheran World Federation, they adopted a
statement that makes their intentions clear when it comes
to fellowship with other Christians. I would like here to
quote from the resolution adopted by the Lithuanians.
The ELCL possesses and strives towards the preservation of the right and pure preaching and teaching of
the apostolic Word of God and the correct administration of the Sacraments as they were instituted by our
Lord Himself. This has been the goal of the confessors
of the Augsburg Confession (AC VII) and the Formula
of Concord (FC X, 31). However, we are faced with false
doctrines which endanger the Biblical and confessional
identity of our Lutheran Church in Lithuania.