LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 57

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

SYNOD REPORTS 57

Board for Black Ministry Services

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one
place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came
from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came
to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from
every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd
came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them
speaking in his own language. Utteriy amazed, they asked: “Are not
all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each
of us hears them in his own native language? (Acts 2:1-8)

Black Ministry’s Mission Statement: Being empowered by
God, called to carry out the Great Commission, undergirded by the
Black Ministry Convocation and the Black Clergy Caucus to garner
the spiritual and material resources of The Lutheran Church—Mis-
souri Synod for Black Ministry so that:

Members are nourished in the faith, and new people are reached with

the Gospel of Jesus Christ all over the world.

The Board for Black Ministry is in one accord with the vision
of our Synod “One Mission, One Message, One people” and the
Ablaze! initiative to touch the lives of 100 million people who
don’t know Jesus Christ by the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran
Reformation (2017). The Board for Black Ministry has set the in-
dividualized goal of touching the lives of one million African
Americans in North America by 2017. The Board for Black Min-
istry Services Ablaze! initiative is being actualized through ag-
gressive board actions, new leadership, the guidance of the Black
Clergy Caucus, and vibrant district unit and national Family Con-
vocation celebrations.

Partnering with the districts of our Synod and with other entities
of the Synod, such as the Board for Mission Services, through ag-
gressive urban church planting and outreach, there are more than
75,000 African American Lutherans in the LCMS and growing.
Through our college and seminaries and alternate routes into the
ministry, more African American pastors, deaconesses, and church
workers are being recruited for work in God’s kingdom.

Through the Board for Black Ministry’s “Lifting the Vision,”
congregations in Black Ministry are being encouraged to be Mis-
sion Focused and have been issued a six-fold vision challenge to
reach a million souls.

1. Making worship more meaningful in the African American
context.

2. Planting new churches to reach a new generation of African
Americans.

3. Re-vitalizing congregations for outreach.

4. Recruiting black pastors and professional church workers.

5. Positioning urban Lutheran schools for maximum outreach to
African Americans. “Let the Children Come.”

6. Congregations in Black Ministry financially supporting the
work of Black Ministry.

To undergird the “Lift the Vision” challenge, Phase | of a fund-
ing initiative is underway to raise one million dollars (a million to
reach a million souls). This initiative urges each member to give a
minimum of $15.00 over a three years period. That’s $5.00 annu-
ally! The Black Ministry Family Convocation meeting in Selma,
Alabama (July 2006), on the campus of Concordia College, sup-
ported this “Lifting the Vision” effort in Resolution 1-02:

To encourage support for the Board for Black Ministry
Services Vision Plan - Phase 1

WHEREAS, The Board for Black Ministry Services Executive Direc-
tor Reverend Dr. Phillip Campbell presented to the Black Clergy
Caucus in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Vision Plan—Phase 1; and

WHEREAS, The Vision Plan—Phase | is to share the Gospel with
1 million of the 38.3 million African Americans in North America; and

WHEREAS, The vision plan calls for participation by pastors, con-
gregations, and those concerned for Black Ministry and the growth of
The Lutheran Church—Missouni Synod as a whole; and

WHEREAS, The vision plan asks for each Lutheran in Black Ministry
to commit to giving $5.00 annually for three years (3 years = $15.00);
therefore be it

Resolved, That the Board for Black Ministry Services encourage the
convocation, pastors and congregations in Black Ministry to fully
support the financial goals of the Vision Plan—Phase 1.

Adopted

July 20, 2006

Further, Dr. Robert King, Fourth Vice-President of the LCMS
has said, “There is the prophetic biblical truth: ‘Where there is no
revelation, the people cast off restraints’ [Prov. 29:18]. This is a
vision that beckons us to reach those who are perishing spiritually
as we listen to the call of Christ: ‘Come follow Me and I will make
you fishers of men’” [Mark. 1:17].

Mindful of Solomon’s warning and inadvertently accepting
Christ’s call, Black Ministry Ablaze! vision is pursuing to accom-
plish major goals by 2017:

—Connect with one million African Americans through the Gospel.

—Support the Ablaze! outreach initiative with $ 1 million. Can we
succeed? Yes, by faith in Jesus Christ, which moves each of us to re-
solve: “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength”

(Phil. 4:13).

Black Ministry has a tremendous job to do. We cannot wait for
others to do what we know needs to be done. We are empowered
by the Holy Spirit to plan, coordinate, and to act according to the
mandate of Jesus given in Matthew 28:18-19: “All authority in
heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And I am with al-
ways until the end of the world.”

The writer of Revelation has given us a glimpse of what heaven
is like in Revelation 7:9: “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 be-
fore the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in
their hands shouting, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on
the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Please pray for Black Ministry. Let us pray and work that God
the Holy Spirit will enable us to hasten in making this beatific vi-
sion come true in our beloved Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord;

She is His new creation by water and the Word.

From heaven 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 every 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,

And to one hope she presses with every grace endued.

There is but One Mission—to seek and save the lost. The One
Message is that Jesus Christ died to save sinners. We are One Peo-
ple. God has placed us together on this earth at this time to serve
and to give Him the Glory.

Phillip Campbell, Executive Director

2007 Convention Workbook