LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 113

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SYNOD REPORTS
Mercy, Life Together (WMLT) rebranding; KFUO’s relocation
from the campus of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis to the LCMS
International Center; IT infrastructure enhancements; enhanced corporate data security; software and data-related initiatives; and mobile
technology activities.
Planned technology initiatives include migrated and enhanced
Lutheran Rosters and Statistics System (LRSS) functionality; Virtual
Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) implementation; consolidation of corporate data and revision of related policies; and expanded integration
with mobile devices.
May God continue to bless our efforts to make appropriate use of
His gift of technology.
Myron A. Koehn, Executive Director
Chief Financial Officer
The financial challenges facing our beloved Synod really haven’t
changed much over many years. The 1976 Treasurer’s Report in the
Convention Workbook reads much the same as the 2010 Treasurer’s
Report. “A crisis is approaching.” “Synod’s unrestricted revenues
are declining at an alarming rate.” “In only a few short years we will
not be able to perform the functions for which Synod was created.”
To the uninformed, it could easily appear that the Synod Treasurers
have been “crying wolf”! Still, the wolf has not yet appeared. Our
Lord continues to provide. The Synod continues to exist. The Synod’s
objectives are being pursued. Life goes on. Other seemingly more
urgent needs are elevated before our congregations’ members and
seem to garner their support.
Across Synod, even in the face of slowly declining congregation
membership, total Sunday morning offerings have been increasing.
In 2011, total Sunday morning offerings across all our congregations
were over $1.37 billion, a record amount. However, the distribution
of these unrestricted resources for congregation, district, and Synod
mission and ministry programs and operations shows that, overall,
congregations are retaining all of the increase, and even reducing the
overall level of financial support for both district and Synod mission
and ministry opportunities. In fact, beginning in 2009, congregations
collectively have reduced financial support for district and Synod mission and ministry activities.
Facing a decreasing pool of revenue and rising costs, districts collectively have been retaining an average of an additional $1 million
each year, for the past 20 years. This has resulted in a reduction of the
portion of the Sunday-morning offerings that districts finally remit to
Synod. For fiscal years 2013 and 2014, the decline in district support
has not been as great, but it is still declining nevertheless.
Some questions we should ask ourselves are “Is the decrease in
resource sharing a product of lack of information at the congregation level about the work done collectively at the district and Synod
levels?” “Is it the result of a general lack of enthusiasm for proclamation of the Gospel beyond the environs of each local congregation?”
“Can individual congregations do mission and ministry throughout
the world better than could be done collectively?” “Is there a process
problem (i.e., should the flow of resources from the congregations to
the districts and then to Synod be revised or reversed)?”
Regardless of the reasons, this reduction in unrestricted resources,
coupled with constitutional and convention mandates, has resulted in
our declining ability to support our mission and ministry programs
from unrestricted resources and has necessitated reliance on the solicitation of restricted gifts to provide the majority of resources for these
programs.
What can help to forestall reductions in program support? There
are several things we could change or do. One would be to eliminate the “historic CUS debt” and provide the Concordia University
System, Inc. (CUS) a way to generate resources for its own operations

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and capitalization. Such actions would reduce the demand on Synod’s
available unrestricted resources and allow sustained or increased levels of support of mission and ministry programs by over $3 million.
Another change we could make would be to change the way we
allocate resources shared by our beloved congregations to district
and Synod for our common work together. A third would be to allow
Synod Inc. to suspend the implementation of convention-passed mandates until a specific funding mechanism is identified and proven
reliable, or only as growth in resources allows.
The opportunities to spread the salvific message of the Gospel
and to address the human care and relief needs throughout the world
will always exceed the financial resources that we have available to
address them (Matt. 26:11; Mark 14:7).
Several important questions we must ask ourselves are “Are we,
collectively and as individual congregations, serious about doing our
part to carry out the Great Commission?” “Do we still see value in
walking together to perform witness and mercy activities throughout our nation and the world?” “Are the activities we determined in
the past to do together still appropriate?” “If so, are we effectively
communicating those needs and opportunities to our congregation
members so that they may understand the need to provide resources
to fund them at levels that are adequate to accomplish them?” “If we
are not providing adequate resources now, what can we do to increase
support?” “If we are providing adequate resources, how can we better
distribute them to meet the needs that we have identified?” “Are we
making the support of our local congregations and their ministries a
greater priority than our support of our district and Synod’s national
and international missions and ministries?”
I must point out my observations related to the hard work of the
dedicated employees at the International Center who kept focused
on the task before them during the restructuring of Synod programs
under two mission boards. This restructuring occurred during a period
of declining revenues and the consumption of reserves, wherein for
the past four years adjustments to employee pay were not able to be
made—not even modest cost-of-living adjustments. Additionally, job
uncertainty was a large issue. Asking employees to do more and more
with less and less is neither sustainable nor healthy in the long term.
Departments that report administratively to me are comprised of
competent and dedicated employees whose support for Synod operations is vital.
• The Accounting Department serves the Synod by accurately
recording the receipt and expenditure of restricted and unrestricted resources entrusted to us by congregation members and
other donors, both directly through direct contributions and indirectly through congregations’ world missions and ministry budgets
that support their respective district’s and the Synod’s missions and
ministry programs.
• The Internal Audit Department serves the Synod’s boards, commissions, service departments, and agencies as requested by
their governing boards or as directed by the Synod’s Board of
Directors. The Internal Audit Department (1) performs financial
statement audits in accordance with generally accepted auditing
standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants; (2) helps to reduce overall audit costs by assisting
external auditors who perform financial-statement audits of the
various Synod corporate and trust entities; (3) examines and evaluates corporate and individual compliance with LCMS Board of
Directors policies and recommends ways to improve internal controls, operations, and organizational structures to make them more
effective and efficient; and (4) investigates allegations of suspected
financial and organizational misconduct, in accordance with Synod
policy.
• The Risk Management and Insurance Department serves the
Synod by analyzing and procuring appropriate insurance coverage,
2013 Convention Workbook