LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 53

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SYNOD REPORTS
of our local congregations establishing a mission council, such as in
the Quad Cities, makes this mission a hands-on effort in which these
congregations hold joint oversight and participation together with
the district. This same paradigm for expanding mission work is being
encouraged among the other circuits of our district, once again, that
there can be an increase of volunteer possibilities among our laypeople and a wider circle of local ownership in these mission projects.
There are mission prospects to be found among the 20,000 or so
Muslims settled in and around the Peoria area. Even the face of central Illinois is changing, but the need for the Gospel is still the same.
We still support the planting of new congregations and outreach to
the hearing impaired, the developmentally disabled, and the imprisoned. Our work continues on the campuses of four of the state’s
largest universities, and though difficult, it remains traditional Wordand-Sacrament ministry with pastoral presence on-site.
A new congregation, Faith, Monticello, had 90 members already at
the time of its commissioning in 2011. However, the congregation of
Grace Lutheran Church in Canton just recently worshiped together for
the last time. Established congregations are seeking ways and means,
by Word and Sacrament, to have the Lord breathe new life into the
hearts of the members and the fellowship of those churches. We are
seeing with the eyes of faith that “the gates of hell shall not prevail.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same. The message must remain unaltered, even if our vocabulary oftentimes must
be tweaked a bit for a 21st-century audience; and then as these mature,
they may exalt the saving God in His language, the language of the
Bible, of the creed, and of prayer.
The gifts we receive from the Lord—water, bread, and wine connected with His Word—are still the same and only tools with which
we enter into the harvest. The word of absolution is still the comfort
of sinners stepping out every day in their weakness and seeking help
and peace from above.
The main focus, as the world is still entrapped in Satan’s net of
lies and death, is the Victor who makes us more than conquerors. The
Head of the Church is still the One who overcame sin, death, and the
grave. The blood that bought our redemption is the substance of an
unchanging Gospel. An empty tomb is the sign and seal of everlasting life.
The names and faces may be different from age to age. Leadership
in this life waxes and wanes, and the folks who step into those roles
come and go. But the real essentials of the Church are no different
through the centuries.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Mark A. Miller, President
R3-03-04

Eastern
The Eastern District celebrates 159 years of ministry in 2013.
As it does, it takes high delight in the privilege and responsibility
as God’s chosen to share the Gospel of Jesus in central and western
New York, the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Garrett
County, Maryland, through 136 congregations, 13 schools, and 46
early learning centers. Our vision is “We desire healthy leaders vigorously equipping God’s people for Kingdom growth.”
Through a time that is both declining and exciting for the church
in America, in the past triennium the Eastern District has focused
efforts on outreach opportunities that have presented themselves with
congregations building bridges into their communities and among a
variety of ethnic and immigrant populations, primarily in the major
metropolitan areas of the district. Those groups have included people of Indonesian, West African, Nepalese, Hmong, Asian Indian,

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Spanish-speaking, and Korean background. New church starts have
been made in suburban and rural contexts.
The Eastern District Board of Directors, recognizing the presence and strength of missional activity on the congregational level,
recently affirmed efforts in our four regions to organize regional mission organizations. These grass-roots organizations—Linc-Pittsburgh,
Linc-Rochester, Christian Life Ministries in Buffalo, Northeast
Pennsylvania Missions, and Philadelphia Lutheran Ministries—identify, initiate, fund, and engage mission opportunities as they present
themselves. Thanks to local leadership and sacrifice, the future of
mission activity is held within these mission organizations as they
seek to foster ways to reach the lost by the power and guidance of
the Holy Spirit.
As our congregations engage themselves in God’s Holy Word and
Sacraments and are surrounded by prayer, they seek opportunities to
form strategic alliances for the purpose of shining the light of Christ
in the sin-darkened world surrounding them with a clarity and brilliance of the Gospel in a style and language that cannot be missed by
those who live there.
Congregational revitalization efforts which had been initiated under the direction of district staff in a process provided by
Transforming Churches Network (TCN) are now being stimulated
through 5–2 ministries and their catalyst groups. While still early in
the development stage, the strategy is to encourage, nurture, and link
our congregations and ministries in prayer, vision setting, asset evaluation, and strategic planning of professional church workers and lay
volunteers work to map the best utilization of existing resources and
the development of key areas of needed growth to best reach the community in which the congregation is situated with the Gospel message.
Pioneer Camp and Retreat Center remains one of the high-visibility, high-impact ministries of the district. Longtime camp advocates
and new supporters have met decisions made in the past several
conventions to continue to increase support of Pioneer. With the retirement of Linda Gage, who now serves as fund development officer for
the Lutheran Foundation and Lutherans in Mission (LWML), Alex
Knowles currently serves Pioneer as executive director. The objective
to make Camp Pioneer a primary resource for ministry in the district
is being achieved at an increasing level.
Pioneer offers the only family servant event in the Synod and has
creatively developed a camping program for children in foster care.
The Buffalo area has the second-highest concentration of children
in foster care in the nation. The Eastern District, Pioneer, Bethesda
Lutheran Homes, Lutheran Service Society of the Niagara Frontier,
and the Lutheran Association for the Developmentally Disabled
[LADD] enjoy a unique partnership that promotes disability awareness and ministry to those with developmental disabilities, utilizing
the gifts of a Bethesda congregational resource contact person and
offering camping opportunities for those with severe developmental disabilities.
The Eastern District works under the mandate to help train and
equip missional leaders to discover and cultivate resources in order
that congregations become spiritually stronger, better equipped, more
outwardly focused, fiscally sound mission outposts that identify and
embrace outreach opportunities in their community, their region, and
throughout the world. These are the questions we keep asking: How
can we best equip and train ourselves to reach into the world, according to God’s command to make more and more disciples of Jesus?
How can we most effectively share the Light as His chosen citizens
of heaven and earth?
Chris Wicher, President
2013 Convention Workbook