LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 60

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60 SYNODICAL REPORTS

During the past triennium we have focused keenly on commu-
nicating with and serving our most important clients: the congre-
gations, church workers, and laypeople of The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod. We have been working hard on frequent and
regular communication with the key decision makers in our con-
gregations. Our efforts are focused on reaching the people in the
pews and homes of the LCMS. But our focus on service does not
end there. Put simply, we believe that the resources produced by
Concordia Publishing House are a blessing for any and all who
have a desire to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ, clinging to
His Word as vines to the branch. For example, we continue to find
a growing and expanding interest among the congregations and
professional church workers of other churches, most significantly
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We seek to serve all
those who desire a genuinely biblical Lutheran confession of the
Christian faith. We place our materials into the hands of people
throughout the nation and world as we sell our materials wholesale
into the “trade” channel. We provide materials to over 2,200 book-
stores and to all major bookstore chains (such as Barnes and Noble,
Borders, Books-A-Million, etc.) and also to Internet retailers such
as Amazon.com. The Missouri Synod can take great satisfaction in
knowing that its publishing house is moving materials that bring
the clear and distinct Lutheran presentation of the Gospel to many
people well beyond our immediate circles.

We are pleased to report that we are once again regularly shar-
ing a portion of our income with The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod. Concordia Publishing House stopped regularly returning an
annual portion of its income a number of years ago. In the past tri-
ennium, we adopted a policy by which, in any year in which there
is a positive income situation, CPH will give 10% of that income to
the Missouri Synod. The first year the policy was implemented we
were able to present the Synod with a check in the amount of
$150,000. As this report is being prepared, we anticipate presenting
another check to the Synod in excess of $200,000. Additionally, in
2003, we distributed over $360,000 directly to LCMS congrega-
tions and schools in the form of $50 vouchers that were sent to
every congregation and school. We believe it is important for the
Synod to know that supporting CPH’s efforts also helps to support
the worldwide outreach of the LCMS in a very tangible way. This
truly is a partnership in the Gospel.

We continue to strengthen partnerships with the various agen-
cies entities and recognized service organizations of the Synod. In-
tentional efforts to improve relationships with the various entities
located at the International Center have resulted in improved ser-
vices to the IC and increasing levels of IC use of CPH services. We
expanded our presence on the university and seminary campuses
of our Synod. Where we do not manage a campus bookstore, as we
do at Concordia, River Forest and Concordia Seminary, we placed
Concordia Publishing House displays at several of our LCMS uni-
versity bookstores with good results. Recently, we signed an
agreement with Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne to
manage their bookstore. The ability to be in direct contact and ser-
vice to the future church workers of our Synod is both a privilege
and opportunity for Concordia Publishing House. We continue our
collaboration with mission agencies and entities of the Synod to as-
sist the worldwide spread of the Gospel.

A significant contribution Concordia Publishing House is mak-
ing to worldwide outreach with the Gospel is through our multi-
ethnic department, producing materials in many languages. We
have a special focus on serving the needs of our nation’s largest
minority population, the Hispanic and Latino communities. Con-
cordia Publishing House is the premier provider of Spanish re-
sources for teaching the faith to children. Unlike many other pub-
lishers producing Spanish materials, our materials for
Spanish-speaking people are predominantly written by native Span-

2004 Convention Workbook

ish-speaking people. To cite but two examples of materials in other
languages we would point to the production of Martin Luther’s
Small Catechism in the language of Ethiopians and Eritreans, and
the Chinese Hymnal—a massive undertaking in partnership with
the Hong Kong Synod. We welcome partnerships with other
groups, such as Lutheran Heritage Foundation, which specializes
in providing Lutheran materials translated into many languages
throughout the world.

A critical event for Concordia Publishing House in the past tri-
ennium was the implementation of a new data management sys-
tem. Our new software provides us with the most up-to-date tools
for taking orders, processing them, understanding customers and
their needs, and making the most efficient use of all the resources
the Lord provides (both the people who do the work and the mate-
rials we need to use to accomplish our goals).

We set in motion the preparation and publication of an entirely
new Sunday school curriculum. Customers indicate how happy
they are with the extensive changes that were made to the present
Our Life in Christ Sunday school materials and have affirmed the
direction set as we move to a new curriculum. We anticipate mak-
ing the new curriculum available to the church in 2006. It is being
developed with careful focus-group testing and intensive surveys
of what our congregations and teachers want and use.

Another popular curriculum item we offer is our Vacation Bible
School materials. Our materials offer creative, engaging, and fun ac-
tivities, but, most importantly, deliver the actual Gospel, something

‘not often found in materials produced by other VBS publishers.

Concordia Publishing House looks forward to serving the
Synod as the publisher of the new hymnal this convention will be
considering. We heartily encourage the Synod to move forward
with the new hymnal. This will be a major effort in the coming tri-
ennium. Our state-of-the art distribution center now allows us ship
out the hymnals in case quantities in an efficient manner to the con-
gregations ordering them. We look forward to the wide variety of
companion and support materials that will be published along with
the hymnal itself. Our music department has been working closely
with the Commission on Worship in the planning and design of the
new hymnal. Members of our editorial staff have been working on
various subcommittees of the new hymnal project as well.

We continue to study and explore how best to use emerging com-
puter technologies for the delivery of the intellectual content we hold
in trust and manage for the Missouri Synod. The American Edition
of the works of Martin Luther was placed on CD-ROM at the begin-
ning of the last triennium. The largest single collection of Lutheran
theology on a CD-ROM is a Concordia Publishing House product,
the Concordia Electronic Theological Library. We are offering more
and more of our resources as downloadable resources, such as the
God’s Abiding Word Bible study series and we continue to identify
materials that we can place on CD-ROM for ease of use, such as in
our Vacation Bible School, Sunday school, and special Christmas pro-
grams and services. Responsible use of computer technology to fa-
cilitate ease of use of published materials will continue.

Our presence on the Internet continues to grow as sales via our
Web site (www.cph.org) climbed to over one million dollars annu-
ally—a dramatic increase from under $400,000 in 2001, to
$600,000 in 2002, to over one million dollars in 2003. We know
many people use the Internet site as an online catalog, placing or-
ders with our customer service center, after identifying what they
wish to purchase by exploring our Internet site.

Concordia Publishing House is committed to our partnership
with Lutheran educators throughout our Lutheran preschool, early
childhood, and day schools. We reflect the historic strength of The
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod: Christian education. We pro-
vide a wide range and variety of curriculum resources. We com-
pleted the Voyages religion curriculum in the past triennium. Con-