GOSPEL IMPACT THROUGH YOU 2016 Annual Ministry Report
CONTENTS A Year in Review ...................... 3 Ministry by the Numbers ....... 11 Impact Stories ....................... 13 Consolidating Statement of Activities ............................ 21 Board of Directors & Foundation Members ........ 22
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Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ, As we embark upon Lutheran Hour Ministries’ celebration of 100 years of mission and ministry, we recognize that the strength of this organization has always been the called, equipped, and SENT laypeople at the grassroots level. From the formation of the International Lutheran Laymen’s League in 1917 to today, individuals like you have taken ownership of the mission of Jesus Christ by coming together to find new ways to move forward with Gospel proclamation.
nations around the world through a variety of culturally-relevant outreach programs and resources. Your gifts, prayers, and volunteer involvement allow hurting people to find answers and relief in the Gospel.
In today’s increasingly post Christian world, the need to boldly proclaim the love of Christ is greater than ever.
Again, thank you for your faithful support, and may God bless you richly in the coming year!
We rejoice that you made the decision in the past year to partner with Lutheran Hour Ministries. Your support allows us to share the Good News with more than 56 million people each week in more than 50
Please explore this year’s ministry report to see just some of the examples of how God is working through you. I hope you are humbled to see the ways in which God uses our talents and treasures to make His Gospel known.
In His Service,
Kurt Buchholz President & CEO Lutheran Hour Ministries 2
A Year in Review
HOW YOU HELPED CARRY THE GOSPEL Lutheran Hour Ministries witnessed exciting progress in 2016 for each of the four strategic ministry priorities outlined in our comprehensive strategic plan. Following are just some of the ways in which Lutheran Hour Ministries was abundantly blessed by God during the last year.
GROW GOD’S KINGDOM THROUGH EXPANDED MEDIA OUTREACH
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FORWARD IN 2016 Lutheran Hour Ministries’ flagship ministry, The Lutheran Hour®, reaches around 1 million listeners each week through traditional radio, a mobile app, and its web site. The program’s newest segment, Action in Ministry, highlights the church at work and presents a global view of how God is working through Lutheran Hour Ministries by providing ministry stories and sharing available resources. The Lutheran Hour continues to expand its footprint by securing more ideal time slots on powerful radio stations such as WRKO/680 AM in Boston. The broadcast also returned to a familiar spot on the radio dial this year when it began airing on WLW/700 AM in Cincinnati. WLW was one of the first stations to air The Lutheran Hour in 1935, and it continued airing the weekly broadcast until December 2014. Rev. Dr. Gregory Seltz, Speaker of The Lutheran Hour, was honored with this year’s Legacy & Leadership Award from Bott Radio Network during the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Convention in Nashville, Tenn. The award recognizes Seltz’s service as a Christian leader as well as the long-standing history of The Lutheran Hour radio program. LHM’s expanded corporate social media presence regularly reaches tens of thousands of people through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vimeo, and YouTube. An innovative whiteboard video entitled The Empty Tomb was released just before Easter and quickly went viral with more than 82,000 views. 4
ENERGIZE, EQUIP, AND ENGAGE LAITY FOR OUTREACH Two new videos serve as great resources for churches to use in Bible study classes. We the Church: The Priesthood of All Believers examines the role of LCMS laity both inside and outside of the church and challenges today’s church members to embrace their rich heritage as disciples by sharing the message of hope they have in Christ Jesus. A Man Named Martin—Part Two: The Moment paints a fascinating picture of competing ideologies, historical events, and personality clashes—all of which came to a head with Luther’s famous nailing of the 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenberg. Nine classic episodes of This is the Life were re-released on DVD featuring stars like Jack Nicholson, Leonard Nimoy, and Angie Dickinson long before they hit the “big time”. Each episode has one thing in common: God reigns through every event in our lives, and it is by faith in His Son that our lives find their fullest meaning.
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LHM continues to investigate ways to effectively leverage technology for equipping even more people to share the Gospel. Work has begun on developing a Learning Management System (LMS) to allow for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of e-learning training programs. The vibrant history of laity-driven ministry and a bold vision for future sharing of the Gospel were highlighted during a 100th Anniversary kickoff event in St. Louis. Around 900 attendees visited with LHM ministry center representatives from around the world and heard from a slate of speakers who challenged, energized, and equipped them with tools and encouragement to put their faith into action.
LHM International Ministry Center Directors at the 100th Anniversary in St. Louis
Rev. Dr. Gregory Seltz greets guests at the 100th Anniversary worship service
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BRING THE GOSPEL TO THE UNREACHED AROUND THE WORLD LHM expanded ministry efforts into new areas by starting operations in Turkey and Laos. Proclaiming the Gospel in places like these requires telling people about what we believe, teach, and confess in a non-confrontational way so that the Holy Spirit can do its work on people’s hearts and lives can be transformed. The launch of a Regional Digital Outreach Project in Latin America uses the internet and its tools to reach out and digitally connect to the non-believer and non-Christian population. This online platform addresses topics (such as marriage and family, relationships, and more) that are of concern to the target audiences and allows them to start an online dialogue with trained volunteers from LHM ministry centers in Latin America.
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LHM’s refugee relief program in Lebanon continues to grow and over the past year served more than 10,600 people residing in the affected areas of Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. As this conflict lengthens, LHM is becoming known and trusted by local people from a variety of faith backgrounds. Around 250 Lutheran schools participated in the Online Mission Trip to Guatemala during National Lutheran Schools Week 2016. This virtual mission adventure enriched students’ world-view as they saw firsthand through pre-recorded videos the importance of sharing God’s message of salvation through LHM–Guatemala’s ministry efforts. LH M.O RG /O NL
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Lutheran Hour Ministries’ focus is to share the life-transforming Gospel of Jesus with those who do not know Him. We do this through ministry centers around the world that are staffed by local Christians, who know the local language(s) perfectly, and who know how to communicate the Gospel in ways that are understandable in their own culture. Rev. Dr. Douglas Rutt Director of International Ministries Lutheran Hour Ministries 8
LAUNCH A NEW DIGITAL MISSION FIELD
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Many Christian organizations have tried and been unable to find an appropriate approach for delivering online content that reaches unchurched and dechurched individuals. LHM has spent much of 2016 researching and developing optimal web and mobile platforms for reaching these individuals with the Gospel as it moves closer to the launch of the new THRED brand in 2017 for using the digital realm to reach individuals who are disconnected from the church. Initial components of THRED will include: • A Facebook page that provides daily and weekly topical posts (image, text, and video) that can be shared by Christians on their social media platforms to encourage conversations with non-churched individuals about aspects of faith, Jesus, and/or Christianity; • A monthly online topical discussion hosted by THRED that looks at topics such as peace, community, faith, politics, etc. with the help of Christian and non-Christian guests. They will also be posted as a playlist on the main THRED YouTube channel. • A website, thred.org, that serves as the home base of content and the location where we drive traffic when people are looking for answers and want deeper conversations. This page will also be the location to which many online topical searches are driven. • A Jesus Dialogue video series located on YouTube and our THRED web site that offers a more in-depth look at what Jesus said. • A volunteer-based, proactive online outreach program (social listening), along with a volunteer-based e-mail system that responds to any inquiries that happen as a result of THRED content.
THRED is built not on the assumption that people who come to the site are in search of eternal salvation but rather on the expectation that they simply have an interest in exploring a perspective that’s different from their own. So THRED doesn’t hammer them with Law and Gospel, it doesn’t pose any dilemmas about where they might spend eternity, and it doesn’t ask them to ‘make a decision’ about anything. Instead, it invites discussion. Andrew Fitzgerald Associate Director of Outreach Lutheran Hour Ministries
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1 Million
Listeners to The Lutheran Hour Each Week
185,570
Web Video Views in the Last Year
1,700+
North American Stations Airing The Lutheran Hour
18,815
People Connected with Christian Communities Each Year
49,577
New Bible Correspondence Course Students Enrolled Annually Around the World
213
Local Staff in LHM’s International Ministry Centers
75,000
Members Today
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128
LHM Staff throughout the United States
56 Million+
People Reached with the Gospel Globally Every Week
2,500,000
Print Materials Distributed Annually Around the World
50+
Countries– Ministry Reach
422,480
Annual Responses to Outreach Efforts
49,274
Annual Referrals to Churches
4,500+
LCMS/LCC Churches Using LHM Resources
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Reached through LHM’s Float in the Tournament of Roses Parade ®
As the longest-running, and currently the only, Christian float in the Tournament of Roses® Parade, the Lutheran Hour Ministries float is a bold representation of Christ’s love amid an increasingly secular event. Millions of households watch the parade on TV. When you consider those who watch in groups, in public places, and online, many more are added. The Tournament of Roses Parade clearly has a momentous national impact. But it can be easy to lose sight of the individual impacts of this event that reaches so many people. Tom, a Lutheran from Phoenix, Ariz., wasn’t even watching the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day 2016. He just happened to be walking by the TV and heard Al Roker say something about the only float in the Rose Parade with a Jesus in it, sponsored by Lutheran Hour Ministries. This caught his interest, so he went online. 13
After exploring www.lhm.org, he was inspired to begin listening to The Lutheran Hour. He has listened for the past year, but this was just the start of his engagement with the ministry as he has now dived into other resources such as GodConnects and the A Man Named Martin video Bible studies. Tom shares how this faith has grown through these materials. He always thought that he was supposed to be chasing after God and felt like nothing was ever enough. The GodConnects series showed him that it is God who chases after us. “That was the beginning of a new story for my life,” he says. Soon he led a men’s retreat for his church using Lutheran Hour Ministries’ resources. In Tom’s words: “I don’t even know how to say it. I’m a Lutheran, I read the Bible, I do what Lutherans do, but you guys are incredible. You have the most valuable teaching tool on the internet. Again, thank you!” God has been the Initiator and the Guide for Tom’s spiritual growth and the role that Lutheran Hour Ministries has been blessed to play in that process. Imagine how many other “Toms” have been reached since the Lutheran Hour Ministries float began appearing in the Rose Parade in 1951. LHM is thankful for the service of the Southern California District of the International Lutheran Laymen’s League and the thousands-strong volunteer force known as the Petal Pushers. Their faithfulness helps this ministry touch hearts and change lives!
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The Impact of LHM Print Materials Graciela grew up in a small town in Venezuela where alcoholism and poverty were common. These toxic issues led to another persistent problem—verbal and physical abuse directed at women and children like Graciela. This foundation of hardship led Graciela to rebel and abuse alcohol at a young age. Eventually, her parents threw her out of the house. Without a home or family, Graciela wandered the streets. She was overcome by something we’ve all felt in our lives at one time or another—hopelessness. Though she wasn’t looking, one day Graciela found a booklet from LHM–Venezuela called Trusting in God. She didn’t know God and had never even learned to pray. Yet she felt drawn to the booklet and a need to answer the question “Where is the God that people talk about?” Graciela read the booklet and, for the first time, she realized that she was not alone in her troubles. God offered her unconditional love and forgiveness, and He would not fail her as others so often had done. She asked for forgiveness and slowly discovered a second chance at life. She also called LHM’s ministry staff to thank them and let them know how God worked in her life through this resource. Today, as a married mother of two, Graciela lovingly shares Jesus every day with her husband and children.
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Hopelessness is also a frequent occurrence for the incarcerated, where life is an anxious, yet mind-numbing existence, full of pitfalls to sin and often providing few, if any, positive options for bettering one’s life. Addressing this negative situation was a powerful 12-lesson Bible study from LHM called The Journey Home: A Bible Study for the Incarcerated that focuses on Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son as found in Luke 15:11-32. Russell, a 36-year-old who had been in prison since the age of 17, was the first of 30 inmates serving a life sentence at Louisiana State Penitentiary without the possibility of parole to sign up to receive a copy of The Journey Home. He was also the first inmate to complete it, and he excitedly asked his spiritual mentor if he would send the completed copy of his workbook back to LHM. LHM sent his certificate of completion the next Friday, and it was due for delivery on the following Tuesday. Only two days later, Russell died of a heart attack in his cell. The blessing is in knowing that he spent several hours in God’s Word through this timely LHM resource just days before his true journey home to be with God his Father, whom he believed, trusted, and loved.
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Responding to LHM Outreach Efforts People assumed James was a Christian—but he had never stepped inside a church. His parents, who held to an African traditional faith, gave him his name because children with “Christian” names could receive a better education at Christian schools in Kenya. James, however, considered himself a Mkosa dini, a Swahili term meaning a person with no religion. James struggles with eyesight issues, but he couldn’t afford eyeglasses due to other family needs. Then he heard about an eye clinic being held in Nairobi. The clinic was a joint effort between a local congregation, a team from the United States, and LHM–Kenya, known locally as Nuru Lutheran Media Ministry. Christians shared about Jesus while patients awaited medical care. James listened. One man’s testimony captured his attention. For the first time in James’ life, he realized God cares about him as an individual—and that Christ’s death and resurrection cleared the way for a relationship with Him. The glasses James needed became less important. He realized his main issue wasn’t his physical sight, but his spiritual sight. The next month, at 64 years old, James came to faith in Jesus Christ. Today, he is part of a local congregation. James’ pastor and a fellow parishioner pray with him
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Holistic outreach through an eye clinic offered the path for James to learn about Christ; a literacy program in Ghana offered Gideon a similar opportunity. LHM–Ghana, known locally as Lutheran Media Ministry, partnered with several local organizations in 2016 on a program training volunteers to teach students how to read and write in the English language using the Bible. This approach ensures that while people of all faiths learn to read and write, they come into contact with the Word of God. Gideon learned about a three-day training session being hosted by LHM after seeing several announcements promoting it. He did not have any initial interest in being part of the program until he was encouraged by his father to participate as a way to help him deal with his timidity and low self-confidence. Not only did he commend the program and the skills he acquired, but he emphasized that the biblical aspect had really impacted his life and he would like to extend this new knowledge to others as well. The training equipped him with teaching skills and the constant Bible references gave him the opportunity to learn more Bible verses. Gideon’s participation in class improved day after day and he now looks forward to helping others with their reading, writing, and comprehension as a way to share the Word of God.
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Connected with a Christian Community through LHM Ngam is a 25-year-old housewife living in the Tak Province of Thailand. As she listened to the radio one day while watching her two children, she searched the channels to find an interesting program. When she came upon a local community broadcast, she heard a song she liked. She paused to listen. When the song finished, she continued to listen and was intrigued by the message. It was on Encouragement for You, a program produced by Lutheran Hour Ministries–Thailand. As she listened, she felt less stressed and more positive. The speaker talked about Jesus, but Ngam had no idea who Jesus is. Then she heard about LHM–Thailand’s Bible Correspondence Courses and applied to participate. Ngam has already finished the first course and is beginning to study the first lesson in the second course. The LHM–Thailand team spoke to the woman and introduced her to a local church. She has started worshipping at the church and says she is very happy to be introduced to God. “The course is helping me get to know God and how to follow Him,” she says. “I’m very thankful to your ministry for preparing such good materials.” Ngam is being nurtured by the church and is preparing to be baptized. She is asking for prayers to continue learning and understanding more about Jesus so she can follow Him closely. She prays that her family will get to know Him, too. Radio programming is one of the main forms of ministry that LHM– Thailand uses to share the Good News of Christ among the 99 percent of the population living in the country that has not heard about their Savior. Radio is the media that can reach countless people for the Lord. In addition to Encouragement for You, LHM–Thailand broadcasts several other programs every day on two commercial radio stations around the country. Each program has been effective in touching the hearts of people like Ngam with the Good News of God’s love. 19
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International Lutheran Laymen’s League and Subsidiaries Consolidating Statement of Activities (in thousands) Year ended May 31, 2016, with comparative totals for 2015 2016 CONSOLIDATED TOTALS
2015 CONSOLIDATED TOTALS
$424 (436) (12)
$29,284 150 29,434
$32,032 1,393 33,425
- 167 167
24,138 7,398 31,536
23,580 7,153 30,733
(1,923)
(179)
(2,102)
2,692
Non-operating income 1,320 Non-operating expenses 1,028 Non-operating Net Income 292
- 240 (240)
1,320 1,268 52
1,292 1,248 44
Endowment and other fund distributions
998
(998)
*Change in Net Assets
(633)
OPERATING SUPPORT INT’L LUTHERAN LAYMEN’S LEAGUE AND REVENUE Donor support $28,860 Other income, net 586 Operating income 29,446 OPERATING EXPENSES Ministries Admin. & Fundraising Operating Expenses Operating Income in Excess of Expenses
24,138 7,231 31,369
Net Assets, Beginning of Year 30,736 Net Assets, End of Year $30,103 21
LHM FOUNDATION
(1,417) 17,030 $15,613
-
-
(2,050)
2,736
47,766 $45,716
45,030 $47,766
LHM BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chairman Phillip Johnson
Maplewood, Minnesota
Vice Chairman Gene Partlow
Directors Londa Borer-Skov
Michael “Mick” Onnen
Jack Ficken
Leonard Pranschke
Richard Gast
Andreas Schwabe
Gretchen Jameson
Weldon Schwiebert
Kay Meyer
William Snow
Sacramento, California
Fairview, Tennessee
Davenport, Nebraska
St. Louis, Missouri
Williamsburg, Virginia
Secretary Janice Wendorf Grafton, Wisconsin
Treasurer Paul Pettit
Lincoln, Nebraska
Mission Viejo, California
Brookfield, Wisconsin
St. Louis, Missouri
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Westland, Michigan
Watertown, South Dakota
LHM FOUNDATION Officers John “Jack” Kidwell
Loren Podoll
David Lanius
Brian Mitchell
Curtiss Wittbracht
Pastoral Advisor Rev. Dr. Gregory Seltz
Chairman Bay City, Michigan
Vice Chairman Lee’s Summit, Missouri
Secretary Riverton, Wyoming
Treasurer Waterloo, Illinois
Jeffrey Craig-Meyer
Lois Engfehr
Trustees Kurt Buchholz
Phillip Johnson
President St. Louis, Missouri
LHM President & CEO St. Charles, Missouri
LHM Chairman of the Board Maplewood, Minnesota
Calvin Neeman
Glenn Gerber
Paul Pettit
Katy, Texas
St. Louis, Missouri
Assistant Secretary Collinsville, Illinois
Phil Daniels
Chesterfield, Missouri
Assistant Treasurer St. Louis, Missouri
Waterloo, Illinois
LHM Board of Directors Representative Lincoln, Nebraska
Roy Schmidt
Bay City, Michigan
Lynn Scudieri Naples, Florida
Shawn Sny
Saginaw, Michigan
Karen Soeken
Ellicott City, Maryland
Lutheran Hour Ministries is the registered d/b/a name for the International Lutheran Laymen’s League. *A majority of the losses noted under “Change in Net Assets” are due to less than projected performance as a result of financial market conditions during the LHM fiscal year ending May 31, 2016. A copy of the full audit report is available online at lhm.org/report. 23 22
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