LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 22

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22 SYNOD REPORTS

churches. Therefore, it is acceptable to hold up models for good
giving in the church, but always out of honor to Christ.

9) Giving is a matter of the mind, heart, and body. Chris-
tians need to know mentally the principles of sowing and reaping.
Their emotions are involved. The mind and the heart come together
to produce both “cheerful” givers and cheerful “givers.”

10) Giving is a reflection of faith in God’s promises. The
promises of God are both material and spiritual. The greater the
faith in these words: “And God is able to make all grace abound to
you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, (the
greater the capacity to give), (they) will abound in every good
work.” The Christian who comes to believe that God will make
them rich in every way will be generous on every occasion.

11) Giving is an act of service. It obviously supplies the needs
of people, but it also overflows in many thanksgivings to God.
Why? Because when others either receive or see the generosity of
good givers, they rejoice that people put their “money where their
mouth is,“ that is, it becomes an expression of obedience to God
Himself. And the givers themselves are blessed.

12 Giving, including our finances, for the sake of the mis-
sion of the Church, is a response to the indescribable gift the
Church has received in the crucified and risen Christ!

In addition to the power of the Scriptures to motivate faith-filled
lives, we lift up the importance of prayer to renew this church’s
vision for mission and the subsequent funding of that mission.

We are bold to offer up two prayers written in the last 30 years

by leaders of our church with the hope that prayer will fill our -

hearts as we seek the Lord’s blessing upon the ways in which we
FUND THE MISSION.

Savior of all, Great Provider, we have so little faith. We are bound
by the knowledge of our insufficiency and restricted by what we know
are our small abilities. What indeed, are we in the face of the needs that
challenge us? Teach us to trust Your miracle. Where our requirements
exceed our capacity, remind us how You make out of little more than
enough. Where our challenges tower over our competence, cause us to
remember a hillside and a hungry crowd, five barley loaves and two
small fishes. Your blessing puts into our hands twelve baskets more than
we will ever need. We are stopped by lack of vision. We are limited by
littleness of faith. We are slowed and rendered helpless because we are
forgetful that Yours is the power and our walk is at Your side.

Move us to lay hold of all our meager resources and place them in
Your hand. Help us expect a miracle. Our dreams for Your church and
our expectations for Your kingdom are so restrained and our efforts so
repressed. You have given us power to move mountains and we quail
before the hillock. You have promised to protect us and we hide behind
walls of our own making for our safety. Forgive us for our unbelief.

Lord of the valley and King of the hillside, make us equal to our op-
portunities. From manger to tomb You have expanded the little into
much, Perform Your miracle on us and rally us to do Your will and
make Your kingdom come. You make Your march through time not with
the clash and clang of might and power, but quietly on human feet like
ours, But with You going on before and following behind and sur-
rounding us on every side, we will prevail.

Worker of miracles, provide to us that which makes us equal to our
challenge, for Your name’s sake. Amen.

(Dr. Arnold Kuntz)

Disturb us, O Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves;
when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little; when
we have arrived in safety because we sailed too close to the shore. Dis-
turb us, O Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess we have
lost our thirst for the water of life; when having fallen in love with time
we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build the new
earth, have allowed our vision of the new heaven to grow dim. Stir us, O
Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, where storms shall
show Thy mastery, where losing sight of land we shall find the stars. In
the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes and in-
vited the brave to follow Him. Amen.

(Dr. W. Harry Krieger adapted from Sir Francis Drake 1577)

The Floor Committee that created what became Resolution 4-07
understood that a foundational problem that has contributed to the

2007 Convention Workbook

funding challenge the Synod is faced with today is a diminishing
emphasis on stewardship education and motivation in our church
body. As their priority resolution to the 2004 convention they ad-
dressed that belief with Resolution 4-01. It was adopted as follows:
Whereas, God has richly blessed the individual members and con-
gregations of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod with an abun-
dance of resources; and
Whereas, opportunities for mission and ministry in the world have
outpaced available funding in recent years, as evidenced by budget
shortfalls and ministry reductions and all levels of Synod; and

Whereas, the need for biblical stewardship education for all mem-
bers throughout Synod is the foundation for addressing our funding
challenges; therefore be it

Resolved, that the Synod promote a unified stewardship education
initiative entitled “Stewardship Ablaze” in 2006 to raise awareness of
faithful stewardship in all of the congregations, and be it further

Resolved, that each district be encouraged to conduct “Stewardship
Ablaze” education conferences or events that would include all church
leaders (ordained, commissioned, and lay); and be it finally

Resolved, that to ensure broad-based ownership, the Synod’s Dis-
trict and Congregational Services Department shall collaborate with
the Council of Presidents to implement this initiative.

TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATION #1: Stewardship

Our task force commends the work of the Synod’s stewardship
department and the district stewardship executives who are working
on the implementation of Resolution 4-01 and believe its importance
is foundational to the other recommendations in this report. As a
matter of principle we believe that since this year’s vacancy in
the position of Synod Stewardship Executive we should con-
sider the need to REBUILD A SIGNIFICANT NATIONAL
STEWARDSHIP DEPARTMENT for the support of our con-

gregations. Funding allocated to the education and motivation
of our pastors and laypeople in biblical stewardship will repay
itself 10-fold and more in FUNDING THE MISSION. Recent
studies indicate that most pastors are ill equipped OR ill-at-
ease to personally witness to ... let alone have the courage to
lead their people in God-pleasing stewardship living. Starting
with the formation of and continuing education of our pastors
we must look to them as the leaders in our congregations to
build our sanctified lives around biblical principles of steward-
ship living and giving. Between the Synod, the districts, the

inaries, t niversities, the Lutheran Ch Extension
Fund, Concordia Publishing House, Concordia Plan ices
and the Lutheran Foundation we ought to be able ut to-
gether a NEW SET OF RESOURCES, TRAINING, AND
STRATEGIC COMPONENTS FOR THE LAUNCH OF A
STEWARDSHIP REVIVAL IN THE LIFE OF THIS GREAT
CHURCH. We recommend the First Vice-President of the
Synod coordinate the organization of this effort. We urge the
Board of Directors to consider this need in the future budgets
of our national church.

TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATION #2: Evangelism

Any congregation that is losing members has a difficult time
funding their budget. Soon they are making cuts that only result in
further decline in ministry. On the other hand, congregations that
are growing and increasing not only the faith of the existing mem-
bers, but adding new families each year are discovering a growing
pool of resources to fund their mission. Our Synod has lost 400,000
members in the last 20 years, and many of the new members we
have gained are wonderful Christians, but they have not yet grown
into healthy faith-filled Christian stewardship habits. Nor do many
new Lutheran Christians have a “generational connection” to the
value of the national church’s mission. Yet, while these trends have
been occurring both national and district offices have “cut” evan-
gelism from their staffing budgets. We have trusted that congrega-