LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 111

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SYNODICAL REPORTS 11]

R7-05-03
Central Illinois District

Our last District convention (54th) had the theme “Not
Ashamed of the Gospel” (Rom. 1:16). If we are to tell the Good
News about Jesus, we certainly cannot be ashamed of the Gospel.
All of us who have been baptized into Christ have experienced
what it means to be brought out of darkness into God’s marvelous
light. Our efforts during the past triennium have been to encourage
our people to be witnesses for our Savior. This past November the
Central Illinois District received a certificate from the Synod for
the most baptized members brought into the church by any District.
We praise the Lord for empowering the Holy Spirit to work among
us.

Congregational visits have been and are being made by our Dis-
trict staff. We strive to visit each of our 16 Circuits in a two-year
cycle as a staff and then individually visit as many individual con-
gregations as we can. This past year we have been focusing on our
District missions, helping our people to better understand what is
happening with the offerings they bring to God’s altar.

With the addition of Our Savior Lutheran of Milford (trans-
ferred from NID), we now have 157 official congregations. We
also have several preaching stations served by LCMS pastors—our
Hispanic Ministry in the Quad Cities, Wittenberg Center at Nor-
mal, Mahomet, and Buffalo.

The Synod encouraged theological conferences to focus on
what Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions teach about church
fellowship. The model conference was held in August 2002 in
Scottsdale, Ariz. At this conference CID and IDE decided to host a
joint event in the Quad Cities area. The two District Presidents
suggested developing the conference around the theme of confess-
ing Christ Jesus as Lutherans in the twenty-first century.

Our District continues to send almost one thousand youth to our
LCMS National Youth Gathering. Our Junior High gatherings have
grown from 100 to over 435 attending this annual lock-in.

Our Stewardship Commission developed a District communi-
cation piece to discuss the work of the District for the Septem-
ber/October “GatePost.” Our desire was to raise the awareness of
the work of the District to our communicant members.

We have now rearranged our staffing in the District office to
include a part-time gift planning counselor. In the fall of 2003 we
hired Mr. David Rohe to serve one-third time as gift planning coun-
selor and two-thirds time as manager of our Church Extension
Fund. The position of business manager has been temporarily as-
sumed by others in the office.

Christian education is a serious undertaking in the Central Illi-
nois District. Most of our congregations operate various volunteer
education programs including Sunday school, VBS, midweek
schools, confirmation instruction, and Bible classes for various
ages. In addition to these, 47 congregations are involved in the op-
eration of 26 full-time elementary schools and 3 high schools. Fi-
nally, 27 early childhood programs—preschools and child care cen-
ters—are operated by CID churches. Enrollment in our ECC is
1,455; in elementary schools, 4,514; and in high schools, 305.
Many educators in our schools are actively involved in the
Lutheran Teacher Colloquy Program. Our District provides some
financial assistance to these teachers. The Teacher Colloquy Pro-
gram has experienced a severe turn for the worse! Classes will no
longer be provided on-site in Central Mlinois. There are now two
options—enroll at one of our Concordias or enroll over the Internet.

National Lutheran School Accreditation is an ongoing process
of self-evaluation, improvement, and recognition based on national
standards. Twelve schools in CID are currently accredited by this
process.

Our Parish Education Committee sponsors a training workshop
each fall for Sunday school teachers and superintendents. It also

sponsors an annual recognition of the Volunteer Teacher of the
Year.

There are over 2.2 million people in the 51 counties that make
up the Central Illinois District. About 50 percent of these people
do not have any church membership. Only God knows the total
numbers who have faith in Christ Jesus, the Savior from sin. Thus
the largest part of our CID budget is used for missions. During the
past triennium we began two new missions. We called Rev. Pablo
Dominguez of Monterey, Mexico, to work among the 20,000+ His-
panics in the Rock Island area. We also began a new mission in
Buffalo, almost halfway between Springfield and Decatur. We
keep looking for new areas to begin missions.

We currently have three preaching stations, three mission con-
gregations, two deaf congregations, four prison ministries, four
campus ministries, special ministry among the developmentally
disabled, and inner-city ministry.

We have conducted workshops and workshop dinners in most
Circuits to assist them in outreach. We have used our own materi-
als for the most part: “Friendship Witnessing,” “Prospect to Disci-
ple,” “Keeping Disciples,” and “Getting Some of Them Back.” As
a result we received an award from the Synod for the largest in-
crease in baptized members.

Much still needs to be done for the Lord’s work “while it is day,
for the night comes when no’man can work.” Our prayer is that the
Lord will continue to give His church and His people the strength
and the faithfulness to preach and teach His holy, inspired Word
so we can tell others that Jesus died and rose for all.

David J. Bueltmann, President

R7-05-04
Eastern District

The Eastern District is the only LCMS District of the original
four to retain its historic name, thus in 2004 it is privileged to give
great thanks to God as it celebrates 150 years of ministry. As the
District does, it continues the tradition from one generation to an-
other of making a difference in the name of Jesus. Included in our
heritage is the first Church Extension Fund, the first Foreign Lan-
guage congregations (Polish, Jewish, Estonian, and Lithuanian),
the first African Immigrant Congregation, and the first English-
speaking congregations.

The Eastern District highly values and provides ongoing sup-
port to the visionaries who serve as pastors and lay leaders and see
the preferred future for the church of Jesus Christ in New York,
Pennsylvania, and Maryland. We continue to explore ways to help
congregations grow in their commitment and access the resources
needed to impact the community in which they have been set as
Apostolic Mission centers. We look for resources and models that
we can provide to encourage the development of the spiritual ma-
turity of Apostolic Mission leaders in their local context. We en-
courage the forging of coalitions to initiate innovative approaches
to local missions and cooperative ministries.

In the past three years progress has been made toward the goal
of gathering groups of small, struggling congregations to start
thinking beyond survival and toward transformation. The goal is
to examine demographics, pool resources, and talk about sharing
staff—all while expanding their vision to become outward-focused,
mission-minded, multiple-point parishes. Those congregations that
are experiencing growth are in need of intentional programs for
leadership development. The challenge is to spend the necessary
time and money equipping, encouraging, and influencing leaders—
professional and lay—to tap their resources and focus the work of
their congregations on mission.

Pioneer Camp and Retreat Center remains one of the high-visi-
bility, high-impact ministries of the District. Long-time camp ad-

2004 Convention Workbook