LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 49

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

SYNOD REPORTS
CPS wants to acknowledge with heartfelt gratitude
•

•
•
•

CPS Board of Director’s members whose terms ended since 2010 or
will end in 2013:
• Rev. Ronald R. Carnicom, served three 3-year terms, 2004–2012
• Rev. Fredrick F. Schroeder, completing three 3-year terms, 2005–
2013
Rev. David Callies, served as the President’s Representative to the
CPS Board of Directors, 2007–2010
The support and participation of LCMS employers, workers, and
retirees
God’s continued blessing on the work of CPS as we strive to serve
the needs of LCMS ministries and workers

CPS is blessed to be entrusted with providing for the workers
of the LCMS and in many ways alleviating worry that can distract
from the ministry. Each and every day we take our charge of walking together to heart, committed to serving those in His service with
integrity, compassion, excellence, stewardship, and accountability.
CPS is the Church—caring for its needs, equipping its workers—dedicated to its mission through all that we do. We proudly serve those
who serve to the glory of God.
God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you
have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help
them. Hebrews 6:10 NIV
James Sanft, President
R3-01

Concordia Publishing House
The past three years have been good ones for Concordia Publishing
House (CPH), for which we give all thanks and glory to God. As
the publishing arm of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, we
strive to be the premier publisher and provider of choice for products and services that are faithful to the Scriptures and the Lutheran
Confessions. It is CPH’s great privilege to partner with the congregations of the LCMS in support of their ministry of proclaiming Baptism
and repentance in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins
so that all might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).
Prior to the last convention, CPH won the Missouri Quality Award
(2009). In November 2011, we were honored to be presented with
the United States of America’s Malcolm Baldrige National Quality
Award. The award was the culmination of years of hard work by the
entire team of employees at CPH, involving careful analysis of all
that we do to assure that our processes and procedures across all our
activities are focused on continuous improvement. As we often say at
CPH, quality improvement is not a destination, it is an ongoing journey. (It should be noted that this was the first time in the history of
this federal government business quality program that a publishing
company qualified to receive the award.)
We are grateful to God for seeing us through the economic storms
that have beset all areas of our nation during the past three years.
Because of the loyalty and support of our core customers—the congregations, agencies, entities, and church workers of the LCMS and
the laypeople of our congregations—CPH has been able to realize
the required internal efficiencies that allow us to remain strong financially. Anything we receive above our expenses is invested in future
products and the staffing and infrastructure needed to deliver these
resources. In 2012, our annual revenue was $35,025,000.
It is a very exciting time to be in publishing. The entire industry
is going through a time of great change as revolutionary as any since
Johann Gutenberg’s invention of the movable type printing press in
the 1440s. The “Gutenberg” event of our times is the advent of digital

49

publishing. All secular and church publishers are responding to the
digital era by investing heavily in research and development.
CPH has invested heavily in the digital future of publishing by creating an Emerging Products unit, which, together with our Innovation
Technologies department, develops resources for the future. In the
past three years, and for the first time in our history, we have published books first in eBook formats, before the printed books have
appeared. We closely monitor all developments in digital publishing
and printing technology, since there is such rapid change, and have
produced numerous eBooks and other digital resources, including our
Web-based resources Confirmation Builder, Bible Study Builder, and
the next generation of church management tools, MemberConnect.
But even as we explore the best way to use the wide variety of
options before us, the sales of traditional printed materials remain the
greatest source of ongoing revenue. This is true for all secular and
church publishers. CPH cherishes our partnership with the various
agencies and entities of the LCMS, and we seek to be their exclusive
publisher for any and all resources they desire to produce in support
of their various duties and activities.
At the last convention, the Synod encouraged CPH in Res. 1-04 to
consider publishing more materials on the subject of Islam to assist
our church in understanding and responding to Islam. In response, we
updated and refreshed the volume on Islam in our How to Respond
series. We also have a book in the production cycle that offers a comprehensive analysis of Islam and the challenges and opportunities it
presents. And we have five solid resources available on this subject.
We invite and encourage everyone to visit the CPH Web site at
cph.org to spend some time looking at the variety of resources we produce in support of all the work going on across the LCMS. Indeed,
it gives us great joy to join with all our brothers and sisters in Christ
in thanking our good and gracious God for putting us here, baptized
for this moment. May He bless the work of our hands and continue
to guide, guard, and govern all that we do together in His holy name.
Bruce G. Kintz, President/CEO
R3-02

Concordia Historical Institute
1. Introduction

Concordia Historical Institute (CHI) serves as the Department
of Archives and History of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.
Incorporated as a separate entity in 1927, it provides a function that
the Synod recognized as essential from its founding in 1847. Located
on the campus of Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis, CHI serves the
member congregations of the Synod, its rostered workers, individual
members of local congregations, and the general public with a modern
archival facility, a reference library on Lutheran history, a state-of-theart museum, conferences, publications, and reference and research
services. It also owns and administers historic sites in Perry County,
Missouri, that interpret the Synod’s history and heritage: the Saxon
Lutheran Memorial at Frohna, Missouri, and the “Hill of Peace” historic church at Friedenberg, near Perryville.
The Institute provides several significant benefits to the Synod:
1. CHI is dedicated to the long-term preservation of the official records
of the Synod and its work through its boards, commissions, officers,
and other entities.
2. It provides access to these records and assistance with finding information to help Synod staff in carrying out their work.
3. It provides guidance and counsel to the districts, congregations, educational institutions, and other entities of the Synod in the management
and preservation of their important historical records.
4. It publishes articles on the history of Lutheranism in America so that
people may better understand and appreciate our Lutheran heritage.

2013 Convention Workbook