LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 2

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2 SYNODICAL REPORTS

mailboxes. It grieves me to inform you of what is undoubtedly al-
ready quite obvious, namely, that not all the material you will re-
ceive is accurate, truthful, or charitable.

May the blessing of Almighty God grant you the ability to “sep-
arate the wheat from the chaff” as you endeavor faithfully to pre-
pare yourself for the significant task and responsibility that has
been given to you by virtue of your election as a voting delegate,
advisory delegate, or advisory representative to this synodical con-
vention.

The State of the Synod . . . Defining Reality

On Sunday, July 15, 2001, in an acceptance speech following
my election as President of the Synod, I offered the following
prayer:

Our Gracious Heavenly Father, Your ocean is so big and our boat is
so small. You have chosen to place my hand with Yours on the rudder
of this ship we call The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. At times
my hand will probably be tempted to turn that ship toward the safety of
the harbor, for ships are safe in a harbor. But that’s not what ships are
for. So, fill the sails of our ship with the sometimes steady, sometimes
strong, and sometimes seemingly still breeze blown by Your Holy
Spirit, who is the Breath of Life. And as our ship sails through weather,
stormy or smooth, enable us to cast the life preserver of Your precious
Gospel to those drowning in the depths of sin, that they may also, by
Your grace, be saved eternally, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

In that speech, I identified a number of matters of importance

facing our Synod in the years ahead:

1. The fulfillment of the Great Commission.

2. The recruitment, training, and support of pastors, educators,
evangelists, musicians, and other professional church workers.

3. The importance of the priesthood of all believers, especially the
full support and creative involvement of lay leaders.

4. The importance of relationships between the Synod, its
Districts, and its congregations.

5. The place of the grace of God among us.

6. Synodical solidarity.

On Saturday, Sept. 8, 2001, moments after my installation in
the Chapel of Saints Timothy and Titus on the campus of Concor-
dia Seminary in St. Louis as the 12th President of The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod, I prayed this prayer:

Dear Father in Heaven, look upon Your people gathered in this
beautiful and holy place, filled with the presence of your Spirit. Focus
our eyes and our hearts upon Jesus, given by You, in your majestic and
universal love, for the salvation of the world. Prepare our hearts and
hands this day to love and to serve You and You alone. Build our com-
mitment to be faithful and strengthen our resolve to be courageous, that
through Your power we might “Shake the Earth” with the great news of
forgiveness, life, and salvation, through Christ, the Savior of the world
and the Lord of the universe. We pray this in His most holy and pre-
cious name. Amen.

In that speech, I offered the following comments and observa-
tions:

«It is the mission of the church that concerns me most at the be-
ginning of my term of office as President of The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod. Let it be known, with no equivocation
or uncertainty of any kind, that accomplishing the mission of the
church to disciple and teach the nations of the world will be Job
One in this administration! We do not have the luxury, even if we
wanted to, of “fiddling while Rome is burning.”

(After briefly describing the origin of the early church following
the death and resurrection of Christ, including the persecution and
martyrdom of many believers and disciples, I added,) Also hardy
souls, the people of central Europe, in my case, southeastern Ger-
many near the Polish border, lived their faith in a reasonable sem-
blance of joy and peace. But the oppression of governmental en-
tities made it clear to our ancestors that they had no choice but to
leave the place of their birth, travel on leaky, ill-fated vessels to a
distant land, leaving behind their homes, their property, their her-
itage, their families.

For what reason did they choose to make this sacrifice? The in-
tegrity of their faith was in danger of being lost as a result of gov-

2004 Convention Workbook

ernmental declarations forcing those who bore the name
“Lutheran” to enter into ecclesiastical relationships without ade-
quate basis for such relationships. That would be too much to tol-
erate, much less to affirm.

So, with a portion of their possessions in hand, they embarked
upon the journey that would take some of them successfully to
places like Perry County, Missouri, and Lee County, Texas. Many
of them died on board and were buried at sea. The survivors
thrived in the new world. They ultimately formed what was once
known as the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri,
Ohio and other States, later called the Evangelical Lutheran
Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States. Still later they changed
their name to The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

Notwithstanding the significant growth experienced by congre-
gations and entities of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in
the first century of its existence, the LCMS is not exactly, at the
present moment, on top of the heap when it comes to church bod-
ies that demonstrate vibrancy and significant impact on the world-
wide Christian scene, either among Anglos or among other cul-
tures and nationalities. Few would argue with the existence of our
strong biblical, doctrinal, and confessional stance. Nevertheless,
many would view as marginal our church body’s impact on the
entire body of Christ, not to mention the 4 billion unsaved people
in the world, given our propensity in the past for internal dissen-
sion and divisiveness.

Could it be that, in our zeal to retain our steadfast confession of
the faith once delivered to the saints by our forefathers, we have
become under-concerned with the demonstration of that faith in our
daily lives? Could it also be that we have become less than pas-
sionate, if not lukewarm, with the proclamation of that faith to the
unbelievers of the world who literally surround us at the beginning
of this twenty-first century?

A few specific parochial statistics should suffice to make the

joint:
- Annually, 35 percent of the congregations of the LCMS gain not
one adult by Baptism or confirmation.

¢ Annually, 47 percent of the congregations of the LCMS gain one
adult or less by Baptism or confirmation.

¢ Since 1968, the number of annual adult confirmands has re-
mained virtually the same, just under 30,000. Statistically, it re-
quires the efforts of 115 LCMS members to result in one adult
confirmation.

¢ We are facing significant financial challenges that will chart the
course of the Synod in the years ahead:

- Total annual LCMS congregational contributions have risen
from $200 million to more than $1 billion in the past 30 years
($1.3 billion in 2003).

- Congregational contributions to the LCMS budget through the
Districts of the Synod have declined from just over $25,000,000
to slightly under $25,000,000, not adjusted for inflation, in the
past three decades ($22.5 million in 2003).

¢LCMS communicant membership has risen from 1,875,000 to
1,950,000 in the past 30 years, a sign of the graying of the LCMS.

¢ LCMS baptized membership has declined from 2.8 million to just
under 2.6 million in that same period of time.

¢ We are blessed with a strong commitment to biblical and confes-
sional theology, yet average attendance at worship, Sunday
school, and Bible class continues to decline in many of our con-
gregations.

¢LCMS Bible-study trends indicate Sunday-school enrollment
dropped from 850,000 pupils 30 years ago to under 500,000
today, with youth and adult Bible-study group participants in-
creasing from 310,000 to 340,000 during that same period.

¢LCMS total weekly worship attendance has declined from
1,140,000 to 960,000 in the past 30 years, a decrease of more than
15 percent. Approximately one of every three baptized members
of our Synod attends worship each week.

¢ We struggle with reaching and retaining people in our congrega-
tions, including our children and grandchildren: