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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2026, Page 22

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS

In this past triennium, we graduated 50 deaconess students from
our second cohort, bringing our total to 146 graduates from the
three-year program. Sixty-nine diaconal students from 11 countries
have completed their first year of studies.
This year, we launched our Phoebe Academy in three countries,
which focuses on encouraging deaconesses in the Word, fellowship, and diaconal work. The goal is yearly to offer courses, Bible
studies, workshops, and special studies as requested in different
church bodies and mission fields.
A Lutheran teacher program is being built and, Lord willing,
will be launched in this next triennium to bolster Lutheran identity
in our schools across the region.
LCMS Mission and the Lutheran Church Extension Fund, in
coordination with Rev. Kevin Robson and Rev. Bart Day, have partnered with Concordia Seminary, Argentina, to remodel a portion of
their seminary to expand their capacity to receive students and to
rent a portion of their property, enabling the seminary to support
an additional professor. Currently, the LCMS Mission endorses the
salary of one professor at Concordia Seminary, Argentina. These
remodels will contribute toward the seminary’s goal to pursue accreditation for its pastoral students for the first time.

B.3. Show Mercy
Our Mercy Center in the Dominican Republic (an institute of
CMSCR) offers 10 workshops for the laity. New workshops are on
Stewardship, Marriage, and the Himnario Luterano. These workshops are taught across the region and in 15 countries, as requested
by pastors or partner churches, with an average of 15 workshops
offered each year. These are meant to help laypeople be a force for
mercy in their homes, workplaces, and communities.
Our deaconess graduates work with Lutheran Hour Ministries,
Sunday School, Lutheran schools, after-school programs, Vacation
Bible School, and youth programs. They also work at hospitals,
conduct home visits with elderly people, visit group homes for people with disabilities, and help out at soup kitchens and any other
places where the marginalized are found.
Mercy houses in Belize, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela include Lutheran
schools, group homes, after-school programs, food kitchens, and
disaster-relief centers. In each of these areas, the Gospel is offered
alongside bodily care.
Haiti continues to be a challenging situation with a weak government in place. Our Haitian Lutheran Church continues to serve
its people in dire circumstances, and LCMS Mission strives financially to support the six districts there twice a year.
The Venezuelan exile now exceeds 8 million people and is the
single largest exodus of people from one country in the Western
hemisphere since World War II. LCMS Mission continues to support the faithful work of its partner church in Venezuela by forming
pastors, preparing deaconesses, and working with the board of directors of the Iglesia Luterana Venezuela (ILV) in its ministry and
mission needs through the FORO in Venezuela. We strive to connect Lutheran immigrants with our LCMS missions around LAC
and assist these refugees as they settle in their new countries. We
continue to work with our partner church in Chile to send tens of
thousands of dollars in medicine to Venezuela through Lutheran
communities and their neighbors throughout the year.
2026 Convention Workbook

C. Eurasia Region
The Eurasia region of the Office of International Mission remains, geographically, the largest of the four global regions, encompassing all of Europe, the Middle East, the countries of the former
Soviet Union, Mongolia, Pakistan, and Israel. In 2025, the region
was served by 28 missionary families (up from 25 in 2024), two
alliance missionaries, and a growing network of indigenous pastors
and deaconesses working with 14 sister church bodies in altar and
pulpit fellowship and numerous emerging confessional Lutheran
groups. Key long-standing sister churches include the Independent
Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Germany, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of England (ELCE), the Evangelical Lutheran Church
of Latvia (LELB), the EvangelicA.2 al Lutheran Mission Diocese
of Finland, the Evangelical Lutheran Church–Synod of France, and
several others. The LCMS enjoys a mutually productive partnership with sister churches in theological education, church planting,
and mercy.
The strategic plan continues to be shaped by the three pillars
that have guided the work for more than a decade: spread the Gospel, plant Lutheran churches, and show mercy. Church planting remains the keystone, for the planted congregation is the place where
the Word is preached in its purity and the Sacraments are faithfully
administered and from which mercy flows to the neighbor. This approach ensures that efforts are rooted in the Lutheran Confessions,
as churches address challenges like sanctions, refugee crises, and
restricted access while advancing proclamation.

C.1. Spread the Gospel
The Lord is fulfilling this promise in dramatic ways across
Eurasia. Over 2,000 Persian (Iranian and Afghan) converts have
been baptized in Germany in recent years, with Trinity Lutheran
Church in Berlin-Steglitz now numbering approximately 1,600
members, 80 percent of whom worship in Farsi. Complete Farsi liturgy, catechisms, and hymnody are available online (nurezendegi.
org) and are used even inside Iran. Ukrainian refugees (over 1 million in Germany alone since 2022) receive Word and Sacrament
care in Wittenberg and other cities, with services and catechesis
in Ukrainian and Russian. English-language “expat project” congregations, or “home missions abroad,” serve military communities and internationals while reaching locals, particularly near U.S.
bases in Frankfurt, Kaiserslautern, Spangdahlem, and new plants.
In restricted access Central Asia and the Middle East, dedicated
missionaries proclaim Christ at some personal risk, using relational
approaches like English classes and other aids to communicate the
Gospel.

C.1.a. Theological Education
Translation of confessional Lutheran resources into Farsi, Hebrew, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Greek, Czech, and other languages continues at an accelerated pace, placing the unique message of Christ crucified and raised for our justification into the
hands and hearts of people who have never before had access to
it. Missionaries of the Eurasia region are collaborating in the development of a software index system for translations of the Book
of Concord and other Lutheran resources across 21 languages. The
Riga Luther Academy (in partnership with the LELB) serves as the
primary engine for pastoral education. Its hybrid English-language
Bachelor of Theology (BTh) program—combining online coursework, biannual residential intensives in Riga and Wittenberg, and
on-field mentoring by LCMS missionaries—now serves 44 pastoral candidates from more than a dozen countries. This program is