LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 128

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128 SYNODICAL REPORTS

For this reason, the Task Force, in its report to the SED Board
of Directors, endorsed the development of “Training Leaders for
Ministry” (TLM). As an alternative program for the training of pas-
toral assistants for Word and service ministry, TLM has been in
operation since September 2001. It is congregationally based and
made credible by its partnership with the Missionary Training Cen-
ter at Concordia College in Bronxville, N.Y. Its six core courses
are offered to persons from all regions of the SED through the use
of video teleconferencing. The 2003 District convention, moreover,
wholeheartedly embraced TLM “for the sake of God’s mission to
the world.”

This same convention, held May 16-18 in Durham, N.C., ne-
cessitated the election of a new District President, and it also re-
sulted in the naming of two new Vice-Presidents and three changes
in the BOD membership. Equally evident, however, was continuity
with the work of the previous administration. Building Unity and
Trust, Renewed Commitment to Outreach, and Development
of Resources for Mission were not simply the three themes around
which the convention was organized. They have become the
roadmap for the SED during the next triennium.

Building Unity and Trust among ourselves was in fact the
chief objective of the SED Theological Convocation, Nov. 3-5,
2003, in Williamsburg, Va. The process of fraternal conversation
that began at this Districtwide event included lay leaders and pro-
fessional church workers of all types.

2004 has featured the pouring of fresh energy into Renewing
Our Commitment to Outreach and Developing Our Resources
for Mission. New ways to plant new ministries are presently being
ventured in every region of the SED. Ethnic immigrant ministry
opportunities keep cropping up everywhere, including such ex-
pected places as Greensboro and Hickory, N.C. Schools and day-
care centers continue to be viewed as fields that are ripe for har-
vest, and always on our agenda is the strengthening of existing
congregations in their witness to the world.

Underway as well is “God’s Mission Today,” an effort to gather
groups of “mission pioneers” at various locations in the SED. We
are thanking them for their willingness in times past to set out
ahead of the rest of us, giving them a picture of the mission oppor-
tunities that are before us at present, and then requesting their sup-
port. The goal of this program is to raise up an army of prayer part-
ners and an additional million dollars each year to be used
exclusively for the funding of mission partnerships.

Mission, as we see it in the SED, is at the core of the faith that
highlights the grace and mercy of a God, who through His Son,
Jesus Christ, has reached out to each of us. To confess this same
faith clearly implies outreach on our part to others in our world,
and for this reason our commitment as a District is to do all that
we can to strengthen existing mission partnerships and to seize
every opportunity to help forge new ones.

Jon T. Diefenthaler, President

R7-05-32
Southern District

“Telling the Old Story in a New Century” continued from the
previous triennium as the theme for the 2003 Southern District con-
vention. The convention highlighted the pioneering spirit that is ev-
ident in the Spirit-empowered historic and innovative ways the
Southern District has been Telling the Old Story.

The convention gave thanks and praise to God for the ministry
of Mount Zion Lutheran Church, New Orleans, which served as
the host congregation for our 70th convention. Formed in 1878 by
the Synodical Conference mission program, Mount Zion is by
God’s grace celebrating 125 years of ministry as the oldest LCMS
African American congregation. They join 38 other African Amer-

2004 Convention Workbook

ican congregations, as well as the Synod’s historic Concordia Col-
lege in Selma, Ala., in Telling the Old Story to one of the many di-
verse cultures in the Southern District.

As a pioneering District in Distance Education Leading To Or-
dination (DELTO) we have seen God add six ordained pastors and
three more vicarage students to the ranks of those Telling the Old
Story in the Southern District. The Spirit continues to swell the
ranks of trained tellers with the addition of 36 men and women en-
rolled in the Southern District’s newly formed Lay Ministry Train-
ing Institute (LMTI). The Telling of the Old Story is also being ex-
panded by the new Mission Scout Program as well as through The
Southern District Education Endowment Fund. This fund under the
blessing of God has surpassed its original investment goal and is
providing 45 scholarships annually to students attending Synod col-
leges and seminaries.

To strengthen congregations in their telling, Intentional Min-
istry Planning and Contagious Christian Workshops are being held
Districtwide; the Southern District Church Extension Fund incor-
porated to expanded its resources; and the District meeting in con-
vention recommitted itself to the ongoing study of the Scriptures
and the Confessions.

This past year the Southern District saw a chapter of its story-
telling come to a close with the retirement of Rev. Orval Mueller as
District President. His journal entry of 15 years of Christ-centered
service, written with his sense of humor and genuine concern for
the welfare of God’s people, set a loving evangelical example for
all future storytellers.

The Southern District continues to explore innovative models
of mission planting in the rapidly growing areas of Alabama, Mis-
sissippi, Louisiana, and the panhandle of Florida as the District en-
ters the third century of Telling the Old Story.

Kurtis D. Schultz, President

R7-05-33
Southern Illinois District

“What we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with
ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said,
‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ”
(2 Cor. 4:5-6).

The church is that “assembly of all believers among whom the
Gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are ad-
ministered according to the Gospel” (AC VII). The real “action” in
the church mandated by God takes place in the congregations as
God’s people worship, baptize, preach, teach, confess, absolve,
gather in the Lord’s Supper and, most of all, reach others with the
saving message of Christ. Here is where God is faithful to His
promises. The Missouri Synod (and its local expression in the
Southern Illinois District) is a federation of congregations united
by the same confession of Christ. It exists to help the congrega-
tions do together what they cannot do separately.

Therefore the Southern Illinois District consists of 97 congre-
gations served by 96 pastors (of a total 106 active pastors). These
congregations include 43,807 baptized souls. Enrollment in our 24
parochial schools (served by 169 full-time and 47 part-time teach-
ers and 24 administrators) is 4,568. We have 34 preschools, 19 of
which are part of Christian day schools. We have two Lutheran
high schools, one in Edwardsville with 239 students and 22 full-
time faculty, and another in Evansville, with 46 students and 4 fac-
ulty. A group of congregations will open a third high school, Christ
Our Rock High School in Centralia, the fall of 2004, God willing.
(These are 2002-03 statistics.)

The mission of the District is to support the work of these 97
congregations, enabling them more effectively to share the Gospel.
Between conventions the District operates through a Board of Di-