Lutheran Hour Ministries 2017-2018 Annual Report (Abbreviated Version)

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Gospel You

to the through

2018 MINISTRY IMPACT REPORT Brothers and Sisters in Christ, In 1917, a group of faithful “pioneers” gathered together for the first time as laity in Milwaukee to support the Church in word and deed. It was with this particular act that the ministry of the International Lutheran Laymen’s League/Lutheran Hour Ministries (Int’l LLL/LHM) first formed. Little did those laypeople know then of all the tremendous plans God had for this worldwide ministry, yet we are here today as a testimony to the sovereign plan of God, attesting to what He can do with people following His will.

The world may have changed, but the power of the laity remains strong today as the Int’l LLL/LHM continues to move forward by adapting with the times to remain a leading force for providing the Gospel message to others. Since our founding, we have repeatedly faced the learning curve of how to best present the Gospel to new generations using new technologies, and throughout that history we have seen examples of God’s providence, power, and protection! God truly is good ALL the time ... even when we may not understand His ways.

Thanks to the sustained, generous support of faithful individuals like you, the Int’l LLL/LHM enters its second century of ministry knowing that bold new strategies are required for sharing the love of Christ with the billions of people who do not know Him. Technology and rapid cultural shifts may have altered the face of evangelism, but Christ’s Great Commission still stands … and God continues to call us as His SENT people on a constant mission for the Savior.

We are extremely blessed that you made the decision to partner with us during the past year. Your support allows LHM to share the Good News with more than 125 million people each week in more than 50 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.

Please explore this year’s ministry impact report to see some of the ways God is working through you. I hope you are humbled to see how God uses our talents and treasures to make His Gospel known.

Thank you so much for your faithful support. May God bless you richly in the coming year!

Your Partner in HIS Mission,

KURT BUCHHOLZ PRESIDENT & CEO, LUTHERAN HOUR MINISTRIES The Lutheran Layman January - February 2019 | 11

A YEAR IN REVIEW

How Your Gifts Helped LHM

Share the Gospel in 2018

L

utheran Hour Ministries launched SENT, a global initiative to proclaim the Gospel, during a special celebration event in Milwaukee in August. As an expansive, holistic, multi-layered plan to answer the pressing challenges and realities of the 21st century, this initiative brings greater vision, clarity, and definition to the work LHM is already doing.

To create the greatest impact for our friends, families, churches, communities, and world, the ministry is focusing on four key strategic priorities outlined in our comprehensive five-year strategic plan. Following are some of the ways in which LHM was abundantly blessed by God during the last year thanks to your generous support.

ENERGIZE, EQUIP, AND ENGAGE Laity for Outreach The strategic partnership with Barna Group provided LHM with vital insights in 2018 related to Spiritual Conversations in the Digital Age, and a monograph based around this topic was offered to church leaders around the United States.

Based on this research theme, Barna painted a picture of the “Eager Conversationalist,” a person who has conversations about faith more than 10 times a year. These findings allowed LHM to create the profile of an engaged, Gospel-sharing layperson that guided the development of resources tailored to help laypeople grow in various areas of sharing their

faith. The creation and implementation of a “Spiritual Conversation Curve” not only helps LHM equip Christians as witnesses but provides an overarching framework to align products.

Our LHM Learn website (lhm.org/learn) provides free outreach resources that help individuals reach out with the love of Jesus Christ in their everyday lives. At any given time, around 1,300 active users are participating in the more than two dozen courses available under five categories: Christian Foundations, Cultural Concepts, Everyday Insights, Outreach Essentials, and Spiritual Reflections.

Nearly 600 teachers, parents, and other educators registered for the 2018 Online Mission Trip to Cambodia—which means tens of thousands of students saw firsthand how the Gospel is shared in another part of the world. The “trip” provided four days of content on an interactive website including videos, photos, online curriculum, and discussion questions to allow participants to explore Cambodia’s culture, discover how LHM is meeting the needs of the local population, and reflect on what it means for their daily life.

GROW GOD’S KINGDOM through Expanded Media Outreach LHM welcomed the Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler in October as the new speaker of The Lutheran Hour®. In addition to connecting with people through the traditional methods of radio and in-person events, we look forward to partnering with him to utilize the expanding possibilities for sharing the Gospel that are offered by new technologies.

The launch of an online radio station, SENTradio (lhm.org/sentradio), provides around-the-clock archived sermons from various speakers of The Lutheran Hour, as well as hymns, contemporary Christian music, Scripture readings, morning prayers, and evening vespers. In addition to airing on 1,800 traditional stations throughout North America, The Lutheran Hour is also now available on new media platforms such 12 | The Lutheran Layman January - February 2019

as a mobile app, Amazon Alexa, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Sirius XM satellite radio.

A podcast section on the LHM website (lhm.org/podcasts) now includes seven offerings: The Lutheran Hour, a Reflections segment, a special broadcast of The Lutheran Hour airing on American Forces Network, Daily Devotions, Action in Ministry, Sentido Latino, and Ayer, Hoy y Siempre.

Syndication efforts for Christmas television specials were especially robust, with more than 1,250 clearances being secured for Christmas Is, Little Shepherd, The Puzzle Club Christmas Mystery, Red Boots for Christmas, The City that Forgot About Christmas, and The Stableboy’s Christmas. When combined with Easter syndication, nearly 2,100 airings of LHM television programming occurred.

BRING THE GOSPEL TO THE UNREACHED Around the World

The Power Bank television program in coordination with SAT-7 began airing in June. The weekly, 60-minute variety show dramatizes real-life problems and struggles for young people and their families, many who doubt God’s grace and forgiveness and are uncertain of their role in life and God’s intention for them. The broadcast has the potential of reaching

tens of millions of viewers in more than 20 countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

Drawing on the success of Power Bank through SAT-7’s Arabic channel, LHM began sponsoring a live program, Golpand, on SAT-7 PARS that focuses on children ages 5-13 and teaches morals and values through games, educational videos, and drama.

Providing funding for staff and production as well as the design of a new web page expands proclamation of the Gospel among Farsi/Dari speakers in the region.

Social media is shining the light of Christ into

the Middle East and North Africa. In the past year, LHM messages have reached tens of millions of people, and about 380,000 people from more than 15 countries have responded by subscribing to our page.

Loading MP3 players with the Kazakh Bible and Lutheran Bible courses, sermons, teaching content, songs, and hymns allows LHM to reach nomadic Kazakh people in eastern Asia who spend up to six months a year with their flocks and herds in pasture lands and outside the range for radio signals.

New efforts in southeast Asia and Puerto Rico are proclaiming the Gospel to the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic communities in these areas.

ENGAGE COMMUNITIES in the Digital Mission Field In today’s digital age, people increasingly go online to learn, connect, and even build relationships. The online community of THRED continues to deepen relationships with non-Christians through digital means by offering open and honest conversations with people of different backgrounds about life, faith, and Jesus. More than four million unique impressions have been made through this important program.

The platform provides multiple opportunities for important conversations to happen online—from articles

to videos and from forums to social media—and THRED staff is always looking for ways to start better conversations in more places: • THRED Dialogues videos allow individuals to hear a conversation with people of different backgrounds reacting to the words of Jesus found in key moments of His life. Then, they can interact with others and share their own thoughts in the comments.

• The Spoken Word video series by Joe Davis and Chad Armour helped THRED connect with audiences it was previously not reaching, such as a more diverse group of individuals between the ages of 25 and 45.

• Social media LIFE conversations have transitioned from using blogs to vlogs (video blogs), increasing engagement with the addition of the video element.

• Monitoring social media allows THRED staff to see what people are talking about online. Engaging in discussions about heated topics such as the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, can be difficult in maintaining middle ground, but that doesn’t stop THRED from allowing open conversations on its page. A long-time follower who identifies himself as agnostic mentioned how much he enjoys coming to THRED for conversations that make him think about his ideas and how he forms them.

MINISTRY BY THE NUMBERS 125 MILLION + People Reached with the Gospel Globally Every Week

50 +

Countries Ministry Reach

75,000 Members Today

64,614

New Bible Correspondence Course Students Enrolled Annually Around the World

1,800

65,728

Annual Referrals to Churches

546,919

North American Stations Airing The Lutheran Hour

Annual Responses to Outreach Efforts

1 MILLION

Listeners to The Lutheran Hour Each Week

109,000

317

Staff Members Worldwide

Video Plays in the Last Year on LHM’s Vimeo Page

142,958

23,364

People Connected with Christian Communities Last Year

4,500 +

Engagements (likes, comments, shares, etc.) through THRED Platforms

LCMS/LCC Churches Using LHM Resources

68,341

People Trained in Evangelism Last Year

The Lutheran Layman January - February 2019 | 13

17% - FUND DEVELOPMENT

7% - ADMINISTRATION

7% - OTHER INCOME

LHM Board of Directors (As of Dec. 2018)

76%

I B U TI O N S

Income

O -C % 65

- M

International Lutheran Laymen’s League and Subsidiaries Consolidating Statement of Activities (in thousands) Year ended May 31, 2018, with comparative totals for 2017 LHM FOUNDATION

2018 CONSOLIDATED TOTALS

2017 CONSOLIDATED TOTALS

$30,909 753 31,662

$873 1,604 2,477

$31,782 2,357 34,139

$30,485 3,135 33,620

OPERATING EXPENSES Ministries 24,021 Administration and Fundraising 7,267 Operating Expenses 31,288

178 178

24,021 7,445 31,466

25,024 7,781 32,805

2,299

2,673

815

OPERATING SUPPORT AND REVENUE

INT’L LUTHERAN LAYMEN’S LEAGUE

Donor support Other income, net Operating income

Operating Income in Excess of Expenses Non-operating income Non-operating expenses Non-operating Net Income Endowment and other fund distributions

374

Chairman Phillip Johnson

Secretary Janice Wendorf

Maplewood, Minnesota

Grafton, Wisconsin

Vice Chairman Gene Partlow

Treasurer Paul Pettit

Williamsburg, Virginia

N

IN

IS

Expenses

Consolidated Operating

TR

TRY

Consolidated Operating

- ESTATE 28% GI F

TS

Directors Londa Borer-Skov

Michael “Mick” Onnen

Sacramento, California

Davenport, Nebraska

Jack Ficken

Leonard Pranschke

Fairview, Tennessee

St. Louis, Missouri

Richard "Dick" Gast

Edith Schoepp

Canyon Lake, California

Onoway, Alberta, Canada

Gretchen Jameson

William Snow

Muskego, Wisconsin

Watertown, South Dakota

Jonathan Laabs

Karen Soeken

Roselle, Illinois

Ellicott City, Maryland

The Lutheran Hour Ministries Foundation (As of Dec. 2018)

Officers John “Jack” Kidwell Chairman Bay City, Michigan

Brian Mitchell

Vice Chairman Lee’s Summit, Missouri

Jeffrey Craig-Meyer President St. Louis, Missouri

Loren Podoll

Secretary Riverton, Wyoming

David Lanius

Treasurer St. Louis, Missouri

Lois Engfehr

Assistant Secretary Collinsville, Illinois

Rev. Jay DeBeir Vice President St. Louis, Missouri

1,370 1,209 161 1,062

637 (637)

1,370 1,846 (476)

(1,062)

-

1,344 1,367 (23) -

Trustees Kurt Buchholz

1,597

600

2,197

792

Net Assets, Beginning of Year 28,524 Net Assets, End of Year $30,121

17,984 $18,584

46,508 $48,705

45,716 $46,508

Lutheran Hour Ministries is the registered d/b/a name for the International Lutheran Laymen’s League.

A copy of the full audit report is available online at lhm.org/report.

14 | The Lutheran Layman January - February 2019

Kelly Keithly

LHM President & CEO St. Charles, Missouri

Yuma, Arizona

Phil Daniels

Alexandria, Virginia

Chesterfield, Missouri

Jack Ficken

Change in Net Assets

Lincoln, Nebraska

David Leege

Calvin Neeman Waterloo, Illinois

Int'l LLL Board of Directors Representative Fairview, Tennessee

Lynn Scudieri

Glenn Gerber

Shawn Sny

Katy, Texas

Phillip Johnson

Int’l LLL Chairman of the Board Maplewood, Minnesota

Naples, Florida

Saginaw, Michigan