LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 121

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

SYNODICAL REPORTS 121

migrants from Kenya, and LOCASHA (Love Caring and Sharing),
in Newark, which is reaching African immigrants and African
Americans. A new preaching station in East Orange was added in
2003 under the leadership of Edwin Dwah, a Liberian immigrant
who has completed the Missionary Training Center at Concordia,
Bronxville, N.Y., and has applied to enter DELTO. Mission work
continues through a preaching station, which is an outreach of Re-
deemer, Newton, N.J. (Tri-State Lutheran Fellowship which meets
in Montague, N.J., reaches the expanding population in the north-
west quadrant of the state.)

The last triennium witnessed the addition of two new congre-
gations (mentioned above) and the closure of one congregation in
Jackson, Township, N.J. Both the communicant and baptized mem-
bership trend is slightly downward over the last three years.

The need for intentional outreach is clear. With a few exceptions,
our congregations can be grouped by thirds. One third are growing.
Some are growing in surprising ways with the addition of a second
pastor at three congregations and support staff at others. Most of our
congregations that are growing, which are served by one pastor, have
added support staff to manage volunteers and outreach ministries. A
second third of New Jersey District congregations are plateaued or
slightly declining in membership. A final third are considered “At
Risk” by the fact that less than 50 people worship on a Sunday morn-
ing.

One “At Risk” congregation, St. John, Bound Brook, N.J., has had
a significant turnaround during the last triennitum. Average worship at-
tendance increased from 20 to 70 per Sunday. The Congregation
Growth Council of the New Jersey District formed a task force of laity
to work with the leadership of St. John. Key in the tumaround was the
assigning of a Deacon who is a graduate of the New Jersey District
Leaders and Learners in Faith program and the Missionary Training
Center at Concordia, Bronxville, N.Y. The District is currently forming
another Task Force to work with a second “At Risk” congregation.

Additional efforts at helping congregations turn around from de-
cline include education events such as Great Commission Convoca-
tions. These have assisted congregations in moving from maintenance
ministry to a mission focus. The addition of a Mission Executive to
the staff of the New Jersey District has allowed the initiation of a pre-
sentation to Circuit Pastoral Meetings of a congregation-ministry-as-
sessment process.

In order to provide “seed money” to plant new churches in areas of
demographic growth and in cross-cultural outreach, the New Jersey
District initiated in the Fall of 2003 a “Seed Money for New
Churches” campaign. The “Seeds” Campaign as it is commonly called,
has achieved surprising results considering it is the first of its type in
the New Jersey District. Although it started later in 2003 than planned,
the initial phase has raised pledges of over one third of the goal (ap-
proaching 40 percent). Most significant are the identification of Con-
gregation Coordinators in each congregation who provide a conduit
for mission information. They are also the people through whom the
continued recruitment of “Seed Planters” is coordinated. A “Year 2
Seeds Campaign” is about to begin for 2004, and a year 3 program is
planned.

Funding for the expanded mission work will also flow from the re-
sults of the work of the Mission and Ministry Advancement Coordi-
nator, use of reserved assets with Board approval, and the lifting up of
Biblical Stewardship practices in our congregations.

An interesting development in the area of workers in the harvest
field is that now seven men from New Jersey are studying at our two
seminaries. This is an all-time high in anyone’s memory. In addition,
there is one DELTO student, and applications are in process for five
more men in training for ministry. There is currently one man studying
in the Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology, with two more appli-
cations in-process. The looming clergy shortage spoken of several
years ago may yet arrive when “baby boomer” pastors start retiring
in large numbers. In the short term, there are less than average pastoral
vacancies in New Jersey due to DELTO students taking over for re-
tired pastors or in “At Risk” congregations.

The New Jersey District is committed to being faithful to the Great
Commission in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We will seek to
enter the doors of opportunity the Lord is opening for us. We seek to

be a vital part of the LCMS, bringing a faithful scriptural and confes-
sional witness to Jesus Christ to those who do not yet know Him and to
nurture the faith in those already gathered around Word and Sacra-
ment.

William R. Klettke, President

R7-05-20
North Dakota District

The theme for our most recent convention was “Restore the
Joy.” This report will speak of several ways that our District is un-
dergoing a fairly extensive restoration. More important than those
things, however, is the continuing work of God the Holy Spirit in
restoring and renewing us by the means of grace. There seems to be
a lack of joy in our worship and in our service. This may be caused
by the “change and decay” that we see going on around us. Our
farm and rural population is declining along with the rest of the
Great Plains states. Only a few cities are growing, so there is a cor-
responding lack of growth in most of our medium-sized congrega-
tions. The joy of being redeemed and renewed must still prevail in

- both our worship and in our service to the Lord because it is true

and real and because it is the best opportunity for us to give a pos-
itive witness to those around us.

That positive witness is the key to our North Dakota version of
“Ablaze!” We do not have the type of growth and activity that
would make us one of the igniting congregations. We do have
some congregations, some of them rural ones, where there is
growth taking place because of the hard work of the pastor and
people with a heart for evangelism. The critical event of “Ablaze!”
is one person sharing the Gospel with another person who doesn’t
yet believe that Jesus is their Lord and Savior. We are developing
models that can be used as people share their faith in very personal
situations with friends and neighbors. We are also developing stew-
ardship materials that have a similar type of critical event in that
they use a one-on-one approach. Few of our churches could be
called “program churches” so we are putting less emphasis on pro-
grams and more emphasis on an informed and faithful group of
people talking about what the Lord has done for them. Through it
all, we continue to emphasize the restored joy that such an ap-
proach must include.

Restoration in the District includes some sweeping changes in
structure that were made at the convention. Bringing our visitation
Circuits in line with the requirement for electoral Circuits reduced
the number of Circuits from nine to six. This makes for some larger
areas to cover and has somewhat hampered the functioning of the
ILWML and ILLL as they adopted the same zone structure, but it
should serve us well for many years without having to make
changes every convention cycle. Viewing the number of pastors
and laypersons who were able to serve on our District Divisions
led us to decrease from seven Divisions to four. We did, however,
designate one of those Divisions to work with the health and
growth of our professional church workers. Although the total
number of leaders in our District has decreased because of these
changes, it has made it easier for all of us to get together at one
time in one place to develop and to continue to enhance an overall
strategic plan for the District. At the heart of that plan is joy.-

Larry S. Harvala, President

R7-05-21
North Wisconsin District

The North Wisconsin District consists of 223 congregations in
39 counties in northern Wisconsin and 11 counties in the upper
peninsula of Michigan. These congregations vary greatly in size,
composition, tradition, and worship, but all are united in the faith

2004 Convention Workbook