LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 119

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SYNOD REPORTS 119

With the many blessings in the Nebraska District also come
great opportunities that call for congregations, schools, pastors,
teachers, and other church professionals to open their eyes and see
the harvest of souls that the Lord is providing. The district is par-
ticipating in a pilot project of the Synod to test a model for planting
churches called the Association of Related Churches. Peace
Lutheran Church in Columbus, Nebraska, has partnered with the
district to plant a church using this model.

While many rural and small town areas of Nebraska are experi-
encing population decline, opportunities to share the Gospel of
Jesus still abound. Some small towns are also experiencing the ar-
rival of immigrants who bring their culture and spiritual needs.
Seeking God’s guidance to proclaim the Gospel and demonstrate
the compassion of Jesus can prove to be a challenge where popula-
tions decrease and new cultures are appearing. God is raising up
His people to follow His lead to bring the Gospel into these set-
tings. Pastors, teachers, and DCEs. are serving in multiple ways.

The district has also initiated a Lay Leadership Program in part-
nership with Concordia University in Seward to train congrega-
tional members for special service in assisting their pastors,
teachers, and DCEs. Men are being led to prepare for the Office of
the Ministry by entering a seminary of the Synod or seeking en-
trance into Distance Education Leading to Ordination (DELTO).
There are currently four DELTO vicars in Nebraska training to be-
come pastors of rural and small town congregations. There is one
DELTO vicar training to plant a church through St. Paul Lutheran
Church in Malcolm near Lincoln, Nebraska. Others are preparing
for colloquy into the teaching ministry of the church.

A president’s task force studied lay ministry from a biblical, con-
fessional, and practical perspective. The district hosted a 2005 theo-
logical convocation for ordained and commissioned church
professionals, as well as laity to dialogue about the role of pastor and
laity in mission and ministry. Dr. Andrew Bartelt of Concordia Sem-
inary in Saint Louis and Dr. Naomichi Masaki of Concordia Theo-
logical Seminary in Fort Wayne were the convocation presenters.

The Nebraska District also hosted two Ablaze! events called
“Prairie Fire” in 2004 and 2005 in order to provide a large selection
of equipping workshops and seminars for laity and church profes-
sionals to prepare to be Ablaze! with the Great News of Jesus
Christ. These Prairie Fire events drew 700 participants each. Rev.
Bob Roegner of LCMS World Mission and Rev. Bill Diekelman,
the Synod’s First Vice-President, have each been inspirational
keynote speakers at these events. The 2007 Nebraska District
Prairie Fire is set for August with Rev. Scott Snow of LCMS
World Mission as the keynote speaker. The Nebraska District is
also engaging and encouraging its congregations in the Ablaze!
movement by developing a system of “Ambassadors Ablaze!” Con-
gregations and schools are encouraged to identify and support an
ambassador Ablaze! to be trained and equipped by the Nebraska
District. This ambassador will then pray for, encourage, educate,
and support fellow congregational members in the sharing of their
faith story. Through periodic and intentional contact, resources will
be shared and Ablaze! accounts will be reported, enabling the vi-
sion of Ablaze! to be shared with those throughout the district,
Synod, and the world.

In 2007, the Nebraska District celebrated its 125th anniversary.
The district has established a special “Thankoffering” to celebrate
this milestone with a goal of $1.25 million to support Nebraska
District missions and the district partnership with the emerging
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sudan. The Nebraska District will
also participate in the Synod’s Fan into Flame in 2008.

As the Nebraska District looks to the future, congregations,
schools, pastors, missionaries, teachers, other commissioned work-
ers, and lay leaders are asking the Lord to open their eyes and look
at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.

Russell L. Sommerfeld, President

R7-05-18
New England District

The theme of the 14th regular convention of the New England
District was “Outreach New England: Ablaze in Jesus!” The dele-
gates voted to make this our continuing mission theme for the pre-
sent triennium. We featured some of our exciting mission
opportunities interspersed throughout the convention in what we
called “Ablaze Moments.”

Ablaze moments included our Outreach Kenya emphasis that
began in summer 2004. It began with a visit to our BOD by Rev.
Matthew Harrison, in which he challenged our district to consider
partnering with our sister church in Kenya. The Lord has blessed
our efforts in raising approximately $150,000 to support the mate-
nial and spiritual needs of our fellow Christians in Kenya. The of-
ferings have helped to support the building of an orphanage and a
women’s center, provided sports equipment for children, and the
sponsoring approximately 100 orphans. They’ve also purchased
cows, motorcycles, and gasoline for some of the pastors. A fourth
team is preparing to go to Kenya this summer. This will be a med-
ical team of 25 qualified people. Previous teams have helped with
teaching at the seminary and local schools, along with the provid-
ing of building and architectural expertise.

Outreach Kenya showed us what can be done for the Lord and
His people when we join together in a district-wide effort. It cer-
tainly set the atmosphere for our desire to help our brothers and sis-
ters in the hurricane torn area of Mississippi. We have raised
$100,000 for the cleanup and rebuilding efforts in the three con-
gregations that we were assigned. A total of 7 teams (54 people)
have gone to Mississippi helping with the rebuilding efforts. We
have partnered with LCMS Human Care to provide funding to St.
Paul’s Lutheran Church in Picayune, MS, to begin construction for
a Day Care Center/Mother’s Day Out Program. We have assisted
Lutheran Church of the Pines in Waveland, MS, to do extensive
renovations and repairs including the purchase of major kitchen ap-
pliances. Recent work teams have been involved in repairs and re-
building of area homes.

LCMS World Missions, through their National Missions de-
partment, has partnered with us in starting new local missions.
They have provided initial funding to enable us to begin two new
outreach ministries in the district. We have entered into a partner-
ship with one of our congregations to reach out to people of various
cultures in the metro Boston area. Pastor Landon Schkade will
spend one third of his time as the called pastor of the congregation
and two thirds as a mission developer. He is developing the Boston
area coalition of our area congregations in a partnership of mission
strategies and support. This ministry is working hand-in-hand with
the Brazilian ministry that is centered in our Boston congregation at
First Lutheran.

The second outreach ministry that LCMS Missions has helped
to fund is bringing Rev. Sam Lazarus from India to begin mission
work in both the Atlantic and New England Districts. Rev. Lazarus
has completed the colloquy program and is presently leading a wor-
shiping community in Orange, CT.

We have realigned our circuits so that they comply with the
LCMS guidelines for electoral circuits. The realignment enabled
all of our nine circuits to be of the proper size so that we did not
have to seek any exemptions for this 2007 Synod convention.

Our Synod’s Ablaze! movement is alive and well in New Eng-
land. Our convention set a district wide goal of 500,000 critical
events by Reformation in the year 2017. We are increasingly
spreading the word that Ablaze! has as its primary purpose to bring
intentionality and training to our laity so that they can confidently
share their faith with those who do not know Jesus as their Lord
and Savior.

2007 Convention Workbook