LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 46

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46 SYNODICAL REPORTS

Scope of Current LCMS World Mission International Work

LCMS World Mission’s international work is organized into
four geographic regions—Africa, Asia, Eurasia, and Latin Amer-
ica. Sponsored work/projects for 2003-04 were as follows:

25 countries with work/projects totaling less than $25,000 annually:

Afghanistan Benin Belarus Bolivia
Cambodia Chile Cuba Czech Republic
Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia France

The Gambia Guam Hungary Ivory Coast
Laos Lithuania Mexico Myanmar
Pakistan Paraguay Sri Lanka Sudan
Tanzania

13 countries with work/projects totaling between $25,000 and
$100,000 annually: .

Argentina Australia Haiti Grand Cayman Islands
Korea Latvia Philippines Poland

Sierra Leone Slovakia South Africa Spain

Uganda

16 countries with work/projects totaling between $100,000 and
$300,000 annually:

Brazil Germany Ghana Guatemala

Guinea India Indonesia Jamaica

Japan Liberia Macau Papua New Guinea
Puerto Rico Taiwan Thailand Vietnam

10 countries with work/projects totaling more than $300,000
annually: .

China Hong Kong Kazakhstan Kenya
Kyrgyzstan Nigeria Panama Russia
Togo Venezuela

13 countries with working relationships only:

Angola Belgium Botswana Burkina Faso
Canada Congo(Kinshasa) El Salvador England
Finland Honduras Lebanon Portugal
Uruguay

¢ International work/project totals* for triennium

2001/02 actual $15,720,824
2002/03 actual $15,447,633
2003/04 budget $11,268,206
TOTAL $42,436,663
3-year average $14,145,554

*These totals do not include salaries and benefits for personnel or
administrative expenses.

Scope of Current LCMS World Mission National Work

The national work of LCMS World Mission is organized
around giving assistance to special LCMS task forces and mission
societies working in ethnic and specific areas. North American
work also focuses on supporting congregations, Districts, and
groups with training in church planting, church turnarounds, evan-
gelism, and small-group ministry. Support is given to the Center
for U.S. Missions in Irvine, Calif., for the work of training church
planters who work in North America. Significant support is also
given to the Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology at Concordia
Seminary, St. Louis, Mo., for distance-education programs leading
to ordination for ethnic church leaders.

During the last triennium, a missionary formation track at the
seminaries was begun to train missionary pastors for work in North
America. The Open Arms Institute was established to help Districts
plant congregations through early-childhood development centers.
Additionally, the President’s Task Force on Mission in the 21st
Century was formed to research and report to the President of the
LCMS and the 2004 Synod convention how the LCMS can be
more faithful to mission development in North America.

2004 Convention Workbook

Ethnic and specific mission work among 12 categories in North

America:

African Immigrant—90 ministries
Blind—-25 cities/60 work centers

Campus/Int’! Student—73 ministries
Hispanic—160 ministries
Muslim—46 ministries/12 cities
Urban—S cities

Asian Immigrant—198 ministries

Campus—190 ministries/610 host
congregations

Deaf—95 ministries

Jewish—S cities

Native American—17 ministries

Open Arms Early-Childhood Centers—35

National work/project totals* for the triennium

2001/02 actual
2002/03 actual
2003/04 budget
TOTAL
3-year average

$1,993,733
$2,080,883
$2,789,369
$6,863,985
$2,287,995

*These totals do not include salaries and benefits for personnel or

administrative expenses.

Balanced Focus Plan—Partner Focus

Kindle a common vision and mutual commitment to sharing the
Good News of Jesus with 100 million people by the 500th anniversary
of the Reformation in 2017.

The “partner focus” of the Balanced Focus Plan concentrates
on groups who are outside of the LCMS World Mission organiza-
tional structure. Partners include such entities as church bodies,
missionary alumni, auxiliaries, Recognized Service Organizations,
mission societies, universities, seminaries, and LCMS Districts.
LCMS World Mission views partnership as an opportunity for sep-
arate entities to fully engage strategically in a common goal. LCMS
World Mission does not look for partnerships that merely involve a
50/S0 division of responsibilities. Real partnership happens when
two or more groups individually agree that they will be equally
committed at 100 percent to a common goal. The success of the
Ablaze! vision will be achieved when partners agree that they share
equally in the responsibility of achieving the goal.

Partnership Examples of New Work

Mission Society—In the spring of 2003, LCMS World Mission
Executive Director Rev. Robert Roegner signed a historic partner-
ship agreement linking the Synod’s mission board with People Of
the Book Lutheran Outreach (POBLO) in a joint effort to plant
churches and train leaders in Pakistan and other Central Asian
countries.

While LCMS World Mission has signed more than 30 other for-
mal partnership agreements, this agreement marked the first time it
had delegated the key function of church planting among a specific
cultural group to another U.S.-based organization. The firstfruits
of these efforts have resulted in a Lutheran church, seminary, and
medical clinic being established in Lahore, Pakistan, in 2003.

POBLO, an LCMS mission society based in Dearborn Heights,

Mich., reaches out to Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs in the United
States and abroad. POBLO is a member of the Association of
Lutheran Mission Agencies (ALMA). The organization already
sponsors workers in Pakistan and northern India, and plans to reach
out into other countries as well.
LCMS District—In 2003 the Mid-South District of the LCMS
formed a partnership with the East of Lake Victoria Diocese
(ELVD) in Tanzania to plant more churches through the establish-
ment of mission-training centers, where indigenous leaders can re-
ceive training for such activities as church planting and evange-
lism. To date, there are four training centers in the ELVD
established through this partnership with the Mid-South District.
Through the ministry of the first two training centers, in approxi-
mately two years, more than 100 leaders were trained and almost
1,800 people baptized! At one of the newest of the four centers, ap-
proximately 400 additional people were baptized in spring 2004.