LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 36

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36

SYNOD REPORTS

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work involved a great many people (LCMS Communications, General
Services, Information Technology, the then LCMS World Mission and
LCMS World Relief and Human Care, and the LCMS Foundation).
The new site, better organized and more intuitive, offers streamlined
topical navigation; a MegaMenu for at-a-glance viewing of items; and
“MyLCMS” account creation to manage contact information, electronic newsletters, and people’s personal interests and giving histories.
Further, it offers enhanced search capabilities and improved and consolidated online directories (locators) for churches, schools, church
workers, Recognized Service Organizations, and others. Moreover,
it maintains a library for direct access to a host of documents, forms,
and newsletters and features an improved online-giving catalogue and
electronic receipting for online giving.
Monitored continually the feedback of site visitors, making tweaks to
improve content and functionality. Researched, developed, and configured system features as needed.
Redesigned the KFUO-AM and Classic99.com Web sites.
Gave a major facelift to the Christian Cyclopedia on lcms.org and
made enhancements to the “Make-a-Gift” section.
Designed and implemented, in response to the Synod’s refreshed
branding, the graphical and e-mail template changes on lcms.org as
well as on our blogs and online video and photo galleries.
Worked with Blackbaud to finalize our online event registration
process.

Digital Media

The advent, as a result of restructuring, of the Synod’s first unit
devoted exclusively to video, digital photography, and imagery
archiving (Digital Media) gives the national office more powerful visual components within many of its communication pieces,
including online, electronic messaging, print, and produced video
deliverables. It offers improved efficiencies in the production of video
products and in the maintenance of archived assets, yielding better
stewardship of resources. Finally, particularly in terms of video, it
heightens awareness of LCMS programs and ministries both in the
church at large and in the secular world.
High spots of this newly organized division in the past triennium
(as of January 2013) include the following:
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Provided complete photo and video coverage of the LCMS theological conference in Prague, Czech Republic.
Supplied first-ever digital-media coverage of the LCMS International
Disaster-Relief Conference in St. Louis.
Produced monthly video messages, along with a number of other special messages, from President Harrison.
Produced the district convention video “Witness, Mercy, Life Together:
Blessings—Challenges—Opportunities.”
Attained nearly 83,000 YouTube “views” (a record for us) with five
video messages on the topic of the Health and Human Services contraceptive mandate and religious freedom: “Harrison Speaks before
House Committee,” “LCMS President Comments on Birth Control
Mandate,” “Harrison Answers House Committee Questions,” “Karner
Speaks on Heritage Foundation Panel,” and “LCMS Issues Open Letter
on Religious Freedom.”
Archived thousands of slides from the 1960s to the 1980s; identified
and shipped them to Concordia Historical Institute.
Produced the video project—in concert with a special issue of The
Lutheran Witness—on LCMS military chaplaincy: “Those Who
Serve.”
Produced a number of other significant videos, including but not
limited to pieces on the Dominican Republic Lutheran Mission; the
Lutheran Malaria Initiative and World Malaria Day; the Lutherans
Engage the World magazine presentation; missionary “Reconnects”;
Haiti Lutheran village, clinic, church, and seminary dedications; the
Washington D C “March for Life”; “The Other Rosa” (LCMS educator
Dr. Rosa Young, filmed on location in Selma and Rosebud, Alabama);
and the “Free to Be Faithful” campaign.

2013 Convention Workbook

It should be noted that Digital Media plays a major role in all of
our department’s common efforts during times of disaster. Natural
and man-made disasters were legion in the past triennium, including
such events as the following:
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Japan earthquake and tsunami
Joplin, Missouri, tornado
Alabama storms (five other states affected)
Colorado and Texas wildfires
Minot, North Dakota, floods
Hurricane Irene
Drought and famine in east Africa
Indiana tornadoes
Colorado movie theater shootings
Midwest drought
Hurricane Isaac
Philippines earthquake
Selma, Alabama, flooding
Super-storm Sandy
Newtown, Connecticut, shootings

Catastrophes prompt a wide-ranging and sustained response from
LCMS Communications, including Digital Media. Typical efforts
include news stories with daily updates; consolidated news summary
pages for lcms.org; photo galleries; videos; audio clips; presidential
statements and video messages; rotating Web site content; congregational resources; giving opportunities; e-blasts; social media
messaging; interviews with in-country missionaries and other personnel; and coordinated media relations, including distribution of
news releases and scheduling interviews for KFUO Radio and secular radio and TV outlets.
When the situation merits it, which is often, Digital Media goes
on location with LCMS disaster-relief assessment teams to capture
news, interviews, photos, and video—often making return trips for
follow-up coverage, an example of this being the video “Chile Two
Years Later—From Despair to Hope.”
Digital Media is a key part of disaster-related communications in
particular and of overall LCMS Communications in general.
The Future

Looking toward the new triennium, we intend to continue the
trend of making our synodwide communications more coordinated.
We want to be more globally engaged, more in a network, with our
34 partner churches. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod is not
the “big brother” of our partner churches; rather, as the word implies,
we are their equal partners. We don’t just tell our partners our news;
we tell our people their news. To help bring this about, we need to
continue fostering closer, more-regular contact with the Office of
International Mission’s deployed regional directors and communication specialists, determining the best common platform for their
communication portals. (It will be a blessing when all five of our
worldwide regions have their own communication specialists.)
As of January 2013, we were in the midst of constructing a socalled global blog—an aggregate of all of our individual ministry
blogs—putting all of our blogs into a better organized, single place,
under one main address, enabling people quickly to find and channel into what they want.
This new system will be coupled with a more integrated and efficient method of posting and sharing news stories, press releases, and
the like. It will offer a more comprehensive, one-stop shop, with RSS
(Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) feeds picking,
pulling, and pushing information to wherever it is desired. Anyone
with a Web site or e-mail can receive whatever stories and information