LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 122

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122 SYNOD REPORTS >

that has died or a revitalization of an existing congregation that is
dying. The goal is to start new Word and Sacrament ministries
specifically aimed at people who do not have saving faith in Jesus or
who are not closely attached to His Body, the Church.

Another change that has come to the NID is the way in which
the mission is funded. In the past, several congregations continued
to receive subsidy year after year. Now, a new system called
“Ablaze! Mission Outpost Grants” has been put in place. Any con-
gregation or ministry seeking financial support from the offerings
of the people in the congregations of the district must now apply
for such a grant. A requirement for the awarding of these grants is
that it must be for something new—something from as large as a
whole new congregation to as small as an expanded ministry al-
ready in existence. What is crucial is that something new or addi-
tional be done to bring the Gospel to people and to bring people to
hear the Gospel.

And in yet another major change, the district is changing the
way its staff members are deployed. The NID is changing from hav-
ing staff members who provide programs for congregations to hav-
ing three mission-planting pastors and one director of the “Groups
Ablaze!” small group ministry development. (Small Group ministry
development is for both new and existing congregations.)

All of these changes are aimed at carrying out “The One Thing.”

The Northern Illinois District is also changing the way it com-
municates with its members regarding the funding of the mission.
As we all know, the past generation has seen a change in the way
members give their offerings to the Lord. In the past, most simply
made their offering through their congregation, and congregations
passed on much of that to district and Synod. Now, both individuals
and congregations want to be much more specific in directing where
their offerings go. So, our district office gladly distributes the spec-
ified offerings of the people and congregations to various missions
and ministries in the LCMS, doing this dollar for dollar, even
though there is a small cost to administering these offerings. At the
same time, we point out that mission offerings are much more than
simply that part of the undesignated funds that come into the dis-
trict. So it’s a matter of communicating where the people’s offer-
ings to the Lord both come from and go to. We also are emphasizing
proportionate or percentage giving, both in terms of what we ask
congregations and members to contribute and in terms of what our
district office sends on to Synod from unrestricted offerings.

As we in the Northern Illinois District move forward, we join with
all our brothers and sisters in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
and with the entire holy Church on earth in asking the Lord of the
harvest to send workers into his harvest, and asking that the Holy
Spirit would add to our number daily those who are being saved.

Dan P. Gilbert, President

R7-05-23
Northwest District

I pray that you will be active in sharing your faith so that you
will have complete understanding of every good thing you have in
Christ Jesus. Philemon 6

The people and ministries in the Northwest District have taken
these words both seriously and literally by sharing their faith. Good
things in Christ Jesus abound. The Holy Spirit is planting seeds in
hearts, and we are racing to catch up.

In 2004, a donor congregation responded to the Northwest Dis-
trict emphasis of Tracking the Spirit by giving the district a Win-
nebago 37' motor home. With an additional Ablaze! gift, the
“Tracking the Spirit-mobile” is crisscrossing Synod’s largest geo-
graphical district, training many of the 270 congregations to share
the love of Jesus. In a nonthreatening, homey atmosphere for meet-
ings on the road, this mobile evangelism tool allows our teams to

2007 Convention Workbook

partner with our congregations and ministries and actually live with
them in their communities for days at a time. The district also has,
in Idaho, the largest legal 18-wheeler mobile Vacation Bible
School semitrailer, with a second one coming into service in sum-
mer 2007 in Oregon. Literally dozens of communities are impacted
by our traveling bands of trainers and equippers.

In the past five years, 100 congregations have participated in
Tracking the Spirit discovery sessions, establishing prayer partner-
ships, sharing Jesus without fear groups, and making the covenant with
the Holy Spirit to ask daily for an opportunity for sharing the love of
Jesus with someone who needs Him. Coalitions of congregations and
circuits have formed. People, leaning on the power and work of the
Holy Spirit, are growing and reaching out. The Northwest District has
logged over 200,000 “critical events” of sharing Jesus. We are tracking
names of those who do the sharing and are learning from these early
adopters of this new culture of outreach. One hundred and fifteen (115)
have accepted the call to teach English as a second language in main-
land China and return with stories of sharing their faith with their stu-
dents who are eager to learn of their faith, culture, and core values. All
of these questions lead to sharing Jesus!

The Northwest District has used a western metaphor of imagin-
ing a stampede of priests in teaching the fundamental Lutheran
doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. People are participating
in the deliberate movement of the Holy Spirit in their hearts and
lives for the purpose of planting Gospel seeds in their own com-
munities. They are freed to be what we are called to be: the priest-
hood of all believers who are challenged by their pastors to a new
LCMS culture of outreach. The culture change is everywhere. Pas-
tors and inspired leaders have been freed to equip the priests to
daily be in ministry and service as their daily vocation.

There are now reported stories of over 200,000 people who have
been reached with the Gospel message. We have 550 prayer partners
who are receiving weekly district prayer request reminders forwarded
to them via e-mail. The Center for Prayer Renewal (CPR) is instru-
mental in spiritual and meditative retreats that build the foundation of
prayer in all aspects of life of lay and professional church leaders.

The Northwest District is among the top leadership districts in
planting congregations. The district has partnered with the national
church body in planting ten new mission congregations in Ethiopia
and five worshiping communities in Vietnam. The Alaska Mission for
Christ (AMC) has served for the past 25 years as a laboratory of lay-
led church planting. Over 100 church communities have been served
by licensed deacons. Gifted and trained leaders have ministered with
Word and Sacrament in 120 settlements and villages in Alaska.

Ministries to various ethnic groups in the Pacific Northwest in-
clude Vietnamese, Latino, First People (Native American Indians),
Sudanese, and African immigrants from Oromo and Ethiopia.
Many cultures are being touched through the maritime ministry of
the Tacoma Seaman’s Center.

LAP (Leadership Advancement Process) has grown beyond the
Northwest District—training more than 200 people throughout the
world via distance learning technology in the U.S. and places as
far away as Kenya and Ethiopia.

The Northwest District has 131 schools and preschools that are
benefiting from a districtwide two-year pilot project of empowering
education ministries into authentic outreach ministries of the
Gospel. Our high schools and Concordia University—Portland, are
full partners in Tracking the Spirit via Synod’s Ablaze! emphasis.

We learn daily not to “quench the work of the Spirit.” We trust
that God is building this church body into a new culture of outreach
and church planting. Our work is to be faithful seed planters. We
find ourselves caught up in an authentic “Acts of the Spirit”
experience. We are convinced that the twenty-first century is more
like the first century than any of the intervening centuries of this
Christian era. To God be the glory!

Warren W. Schumacher, President