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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 64

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

64 SYNODICAL REPORTS

We thank the Missouri Synod for its support and we express
once more our thanks to God for the privilege and honor He gives
us in the opportunity to serve our church and so many others with
resources that are faithful to Scripture and the Lutheran Confes-
sions. May God strengthen the work of our hands so that the mes-
sage of Christ crucified and risen for the sins of the world may be
even more boldly and broadly proclaimed by the congregations,
church workers, and laypeople of the Synod. We are honored by
the privilege and opportunity to provide this report which high-
lights the significant events and work at Concordia Publishing
House over the last three years. We pray for God’s continuing
blessings on Concordia Publishing House, trusting in His mercy,
through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To God alone be the
glory.

Robert Knox, Chairman
Paul T. McCain, Interim President
and Chief Executive Officer

Board for Black Ministry Services

“When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with
one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from
heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house
... and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak as
the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in
Jerusalem Jews, devout men and people from every nation under
heaven, and when this sound occurred the multitude came together
and were amazed because everyone heard them in his own lan-
guage. And they marveled and asked, ‘How is it that we hear, each
other in our own language in which we were born?’ ” (Acts 2:1-8).

Black Ministry’s vision statement: To garner the spiritual and
material resources of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod for
Black Ministry so that
* members are nourished in the faith;

* new people are reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and
* the approximately 70,000 black Lutherans will increase to more
than 100,000 within the next decade.

Like most programmatic boards of our Synod, there have been
drastic cuts in dollars and staff during the economic downturn, even
the cancellation of our 2003 Family Convocation. But by the grace
of God through visionary leadership, aggressive Board actions, the
guidance of the Black Clergy Caucus and active District units, there
has been an effective restructuring, and Black Ministry has contin-
ued to grow

National Office Structure

_ Svnodical Convention .

Board for Black Ministry Servicer
9 Members 2 Advisors

Department of Black Ministry Services
~ Execative Director

Assistant Etecative Director

“Church Planting
Task Forces
*Pastoral: Lay Delegates
vAdult Participants
Musicology
“Workshops Church Revitalization
*Black Miniswy Units in Disuiets oF thrice Specific Mnterials
“Board to Board Relationships
“Board w Drsinct Relationships
Counci] of Admimsirawors
sRecrutiment sRecrunment
“Board far Mission Services North America

Recruitment
Assist with Budget
+Web Page Design

2004 Convention Workbook

Districts Units Structure

More than 57 new churches have been started since 1993
through partnering with Districts, aggressive church planting and
outreach, and through our urban schools and the igniting of the 300
congregations in Black Ministry over the past 10 years. The
African American membership in The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod has increased from more than 50,000 to nearly 70,000, with
the goal of reaching 100,000 in the next decade.
Recently, the Black Clergy Caucus and the Leaders in African
Immigrant Ministry made the historic step of jointly meeting to
share information on how to better plant churches, do outreach to
each other, and move toward the Pentecost 2000 goal of starting
more than 1,000 new ministries and the Ablaze! initiative of touch-
ing the lives of more than a million of the 38.3 million African
Americans in the United States by 2017.
The congregations in Black Ministry are being encouraged to
be “mission-focused” and have been issued a sixfold challenge:
¢ Applying the Law and Gospel within the African American ex-
perience through contextualized worship

¢ Planting new churches to reach a new generation of African
Americans

¢ Reenergizing existing congregations for outreach

¢ Recruiting black pastors and professional church workers

* Positioning urban Lutheran schools for maximum outreach to
African Americans

* Congregations in Black Ministry financially supporting the work
of Black Ministry

¢ Praying for Black Ministry’s continued growth in the LCMS

The writer of Revelation has given us a glimpse of what heaven is

like:

“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude
which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, people, and
tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in
white robes, with palm branches in their hands shouting, ‘Salva-
tion belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ ”
(7:9).

Let us pray and work that God the Holy Spirit will enable us to
hasten in making this beatific vision come true in our beloved
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

“The Church’s One Foundation”

The Church’s one foundation Is Jesus Christ, her Lord;
She is his new creation By water and the Word.
From heav’n he came and sought her To be his holy bride;
With his own blood he bought her, And for her life he died.
Elect from ev’ry nation, Yet one o’er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation: One Lord, one faith, one birth.
One holy name she blesses, Partakes one holy food,