LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 108

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108 SYNOD REPORTS

living in Babylon, our Christian faith no longer holds a favored (or
even an appreciated) position in our culture. Such a shift has greatly
impacted our 188 congregations and 74 Christian schools. Over the
past decade, the total baptized and confirmed membership of our
CNH congregations has declined by nearly 10 percent. This trend
does not reflect the evangelical nature of our Lutheran congrega-
tions. It signals, however, that our churches no longer play an inte-
gral role in our communities. The cultural bridges that once brought
unchurched people to us have disappeared, and we struggle as to
how to build new bridges from our churches to our communities.
People in the CNH have seen their world shift from a church-dom-
inated society to a post-church and unchurched society. God has
planted us in the soil an American mission field with a future and a
hope rooted not in our past, but in His Son.

As Christ’s missionary people, three significant challenges lie
before us:

1. To be outreach churches in an unchurched society, that is, in a
society where the Christian church no longer holds significant
cultural meaning or value.

2. To confess our cross-centered faith, not only in the arena of the
Christian church, but also in the arenas of other religions and
religious pluralism.

3. To shift from ministry roles of clergy and laity commonly
associated with a churched environment to roles regularly
employed on mission fields.

We give thanks to the Lord that we do not face these mission
challenges alone. Under the Ablaze! standard we join partner
churches around the world committed to sharing the Gospel with
100,000,000 unreached people by 2017, the 500th anniversary of
the Reformation. As such, CNH is utilizing outreach strategies at
work extensively on our world mission fields. These focus on the
development of “faith communities” (small groups of committed
Christians) led and multiplied by faithful laypeople. The mobiliza-
tion of laity for planting such communities has been the church’s
primary method for missional outreach since the New Testament.
Moving in this direction, however, requires ongoing theological ed-
ucation for pastors, commissioned workers, and laity that is biblical
(Christ centered), missionally focused, and carried out “‘on the job.”

Critical to a mission field mind-set is the “flattening out” of
structure and responsibility. Thus we moved to a model of de-
ployed staff, assigning a mission counselor to each of three areas
(roughly equivalent to our present North, South, and Pacific Re-
gions). These men work with the individual congregations in their
areas to assist the pastors and people to discover their mission field
and be equipped to serve it. At the same time, we expanded our
Partner Ministry Committee (the mission arm of the district) to five
localized Mission Action Councils with representation from each
circuit, our district LWML, CEF, and Board of Directors. It is in-
tended that the MACs will provide vision, coordination of the mis-
sion resources of these various district agencies, and opportunity
for each circuit to have direct input into the mission decisions of
the district, as well as shift from district centered to stronger local
ownership of mission outreach.

Along with restructuring, we have invested heavily in relearn-
ing, that is, unlearning many patterns and habits of ministry that
developed in a churched time and culture but do not spread effec-
tively and widely the Gospel in an unchurched or mission context.
Several pastors and lay leaders have begun gathering in “learning
communities” dedicated to studying the Scriptures to learn what
the Holy Spirit has to teach about proclaiming the Gospel beyond
the boundaries of the organized church.

This hinge period of CNH has required our staff, board of di-
rectors, and congregational leaders to be bold in faith, flexible in
decision making, and ardent in prayer. We thank the Lord for these
many great saints, who, in the midst of present uncertainties, have

2007 Convention Workbook

stepped out of the comfort zones of their past predictabilities and
embraced a future and a hope anchored in His unchanging
promises.

Robert D. Newton, President

R7-05-03
Central Illinois District

The Central Illinois District celebrates 100 years of existence
this year. Back in 1907, the Illinois District was divided into the
trinity of Northern, Central, and Southern. We are planning cele-
brations for the fall of this year.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come!” (Isaiah 60:1) was the
theme for our convention last year. We have consistently put forth
a missionary thrust, as our themes for past district conventions /
would indicate: 2003—Not Ashamed of the Gospel!; 2000—Tell
the Good News about Jesus; 1997—Sent Forth by God’s Blessing.
Our theme was to indicate to all that Christ did come and become
the light that this dark world needed. We are to carry this light out
into the world and not snuff it out.

We in the Central Illinois District are on a saving mission, We
desire to help light the way for others in this world. In fact, at least
one year in this past triennium our district was recognized as hav-
ing the most Baptisms of any district in the Synod. We indeed want
God to bless our efforts to let our lights shine. Peter reminds us
(1 Peter 2:9): “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful
deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous
light.”

Following the 2004 resolution that was passed at the Synod
convention, and following the model convocation held in Phoenix
in August of 2005, the Central Illinois District held its convocation
on April 29, 2006, with the theme “The Congregation’s Ministry
and Mission: Who’s in Charge Here?”

During the past triennium, one congregation transferred to us
from the Northern Illinois District—Calvary, Watseka. We were
saddened when Epiphany, Dunlap, decided to close its doors and
when Pilgrim, Decatur, decided to withdraw from the LCMS. We
currently have 156 congregations and 5 mission outposts.

We see opportunities to open more mission outposts as there
are many areas that do not have a Lutheran presence and people
are requesting that we begin a congregation in their area. From our
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod we hear about Ablaze! Also we
in CID continue to work with “Telling the Good News about
Jesus,” which clearly puts before us the task our Lord has given us
to do.

Our district’s support for a foreign mission, The Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Latvia, was new in 2005. We were privileged
to have ArchBishop Janis Vanags be our presenter for our conven-
tion. It was very helpful to hear the message about the growth of
the Lutheran Church of Latvia and its survival under Communism.
Our brothers and sisters in Christ in this partner church will benefit
from our assistance, and our congregations will benefit as we learn
about the trials and joys of a church within a country that has been
occupied by other countries for most of its existence. This emerg-
ing church was under Communist rule for 50 years and has only
been free for the past 12 years. We have assisted by providing
funds for the work with those who are in need—soup kitchen, chil-
dren’s center, and other opportunities to assist with sharing the
Good News. We also have provided cars for pastors, computers for
pastors, yarn for the people to use for themselves and others, and
most recently have assisted with their mission to Ireland.

During the past triennium, we have had opportunities to help
those in need, including those with special challenges, such as
being deaf, blind, or developmentally disabled. We have also been