LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 5

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SYNODICAL REPORTS 5

and creative ways they could move ahead with outreach. Multi-year
projects were encouraged moreso than single one-time projects.

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 cen-
tral 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 what-
ever 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 hold-
ing out a “self-help” program. We are not offering a gimmick or a
“quick fix.” We are not talking about some new “positive think-
ing” 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 dif-
ference! 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 un-
precedented 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 responsibili-
ties of the synodical President. After listing a variety of these ac-
tivities, I could not help but pause and thank our good and gracious
God for the abundant blessings He has provided to our Synod dur-
ing 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 work my way through
this summary of the various activities of the President’s Office dur-
ing 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 fel-
lowship 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 dif-
ficulty 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 demon-
strated at their convention when, in spite of open and intense pres-
sure 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 slrives 1owards 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 Augs-

burg 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.

Rejecting these false doctrines, we confess the complete authority of
the Bible and its teachings, as it is correctly and unchangingly stated in
the Book of Concord. We can have full fellowship with those churches
who share with us the same faith and teachings, and which do not or-
dain or promote the ordination of women, do not defend homosexual
behavior, do not make compromises on the doctrine of justification, and
who confess that each communicant in the Holy Communion, under the
sign of bread and wine is given and receives the body and blood of the

Lord.

This is a remarkable act of courage from this relatively small
group of Lutheran Christians who have had to endure so much
under the dark years of Soviet persecution and now have to endure
the pressure of left-leaning Lutherans who demand that they com-
promise their strong confessional stance, even threatening to stop
sending them much-needed financial support.

I am struck by the sad irony of the fact that at precisely the same
time as the Lithuanians take such a courageous stand, there are
some Lutherans in our country and, yes, even some within our own
Synod, who would shy away from such a clear and open witness to
the truth and instead are working to undermine the position of his-
toric, confessional Lutheranism within our Synod through various
tactics and methods. There is much we can learn from these our
new friends in Lithuania. May God strengthen and support them in
their faithful confession and may He lead us always to the same
bold, courageous witness to the truth of His Word!

Across the world more and more churches are emerging from
years of persecution and turmoil under oppressive governments and

2001 Convention Workbook