2015 Lutherans Engage the World - March - April

Lutherans ENGAGE the WORLD March – April 2015, Vol. 3, Issue 4

Lutherans

ENGAGE the WORLD March – April 2015

vol. 3, no. 4

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The Time to Act

Time to Show Up LCMS MAF, SPM Chaplains Minister Where Needed Most

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Baltic Churches Bear Mercy through Multigenerational Ministries

Maternity Home Extends Christ’s Love to Women in Crisis

12 Engaging the Church in the work of witness and mercy across the globe in our life together.

LUTHERANS ENGAGE THE WORLD is published bi-monthly by The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. © 2015 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Reproduction for parish use does not require permission. Such reproductions, however, should credit LUTHERANS ENGAGE THE WORLD as a source. Print editions are sent to LCMS donors, rostered workers and missionaries. An online version is available (lcms.org/lutheransengage). To receive the print edition, we invite you to make a financial gift for LCMS global witness and mercy work. Unless otherwise noted, all photos are property of the LCMS. 888-THE LCMS (843-5267) lcms.org

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001

by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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engage A BOWL OF SOUP I don’t know his name, and it is likely he will never know his face graced the cover of a magazine read by 90,000 Americans. He could

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Offering ‘Christ-Centered Services’ with Freedom

Campus Conference Takes on ‘Taboo’ Topics

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Put Your Passion into Action for Life Have Mercy on Me!

S TA F F David L. Strand Pamela J. Nielsen Erica Schwan Melanie Ave Megan K. Mertz Erik M. Lunsford Carolyn A. Niehoff Chrissy A. Thomas

executive director, communications executive editor manager, design services staff writer managing editor/staff writer photojournalist/staff writer designer designer

be anyone, anywhere, whose situation in this sin-broken world means he doesn’t always know where his next meal will come from.

What fills that bowl? Make no mistake, with the nourishing broth is also Christ’s MERCY. This issue explores how together we bear Christ’s mercy and defend the blessing of religious freedom in our land in order to more boldly confess Christ in word and deed.

You can read about the soup line and how your gifts and prayers over the years have made it possible for Lutherans in Latvia to provide tangible, life-sustaining mercy as they point their neighbors to the fonts, altars and pulpits of the Latvian Lutheran church, where forgiveness, life and salvation are freely offered.

From our earliest days, we in the LCMS have been focused on bearing mercy. Today, evidence of that is seen across the country as willing hands in congregations come together, often working with Recognized Service Organizations like Lutheran Family Service of Iowa, to care for neighbors in need.

Our presence at the March for Life each year underscores our commitment to defending the most vulnerable in our land. But we don’t just march! Read about how a maternity home started by a Florida congregation is showing mercy to women with few other options.

The Church faces many challenges in bearing mercy. But perhaps the greatest challenge for us today is the escalating effort by the government to limit what the Church may do for her neighbors.

Our views are becoming increasingly unpopular with the culture around us. Yet some 475 college students and campus-ministry workers came together to explore how faith in Christ speaks and acts in the face of lifestyles and beliefs often considered too “taboo” for the church.

There’s a lot in this issue. Snuggle up with a bowl of soup and have a read!

In Christ, Pamela J. Nielsen Associate Executive Director, LCMS Communications

EDITORIAL OFFICE 314-996-1215 1333 S. Kirkwood Road St. Louis, MO 63122-7295 lutheransengage@lcms.org lcms.org/lutheransengage

Cover image: A man sips soup at a Diaconia Center soup kitchen site of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia in Riga, Latvia.

PHOTO: LCMS COMMUNICATIONS/ERIK M. LUNSFORD

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ears ago, after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) solemnly declared SUVs to be irresponsible, if not sinful, I quipped to the ELCA’s presiding bishop, “The ELCA says something about everything. The LCMS says nothing about anything.” That’s not entirely true, but we have been rather quietistic in the LCMS. The LCMS once had an office in the District of Columbia. Our plans for a new office have been much more intentional.

We’ve done a great deal of work in preparation. The entity will be largely independent but constituted to serve LCMS interests (and those of other conservative Lutheran friends). It will not tell people how to vote. It will provide an LCMS voice at the table with other Christians and citizens of goodwill. We will focus laser-like on just three issues: (1) life, (2) marriage and especially (3) religious freedom.

Above all, this office will provide an aggressive defense against the current cultural and legal pressure to push traditionally minded Christians out of the public square, as well as a defense against discriminatory practices against the church by the government. And these are mounting.

The Apology of the Augsburg Confession praises legal action, when necessary: “Public remedy, made through the office of the public official, is not condemned, but is commanded and is God’s work, according to Paul (Romans 13). Now the different kinds of public remedy are legal decisions,

capital punishment, wars, and military service” (Ap XVI 59). Where the government impedes our freedom to believe and act according to our biblical confession, we will fight for our freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. And we also will fight shoulderto-shoulder with citizens of goodwill — be they Lutheran, Christian or not — for the religious freedoms of all. For the conscience is bound only to God, not to men. Consider how St. Paul made use of his rights as a Roman citizen. “I appeal to Caesar,” he said in Acts 25:11.

We have a gem to share — that is, the Lutheran/New Testament teaching on the two kingdoms. Government is established by God (Romans 13). The Church is established by God (Matthew 16; 28). Government is ruled by reason (Rom. 2:12ff ). The Church is ruled by revelation (i.e., the Bible, as John 8:31 says). “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mark 12:17).

Unlike many Protestants, we Lutherans have no interest in “Christianizing the government.” The government should operate according to sound reason. Good laws are reasonable and do not contradict the Ten Commandments. Bad laws are

unreasonable. It is unreasonable to legalize the killing of the unborn. It is unreasonable to penalize a private school because it believes in traditional marriage. One does not have to be a Christian to see that. Of course, the Bible clearly rejects abortion too. Yet, Christians oppose it on the grounds of both the Bible and reason.

As part of our office in D.C., we envision internship opportunities for youth, educational connections with our Concordia University System, and state-by-state coalitions of LCMS lawyers and others to monitor religious freedom issues across the country.

Our D.C. office will produce significant briefs on vital topics, such as the two kingdoms teaching. It will provide contact with LCMS elected officials, as well as encouragement and training for LCMS members (and other Lutherans) interested in running for office or serving in government. It will be a locus for the many young LCMS staffers who serve in D.C. and who are marvelous and active Christians.

There is much work to do. We are nearing our trigger point of $2 million. The entity will do its own funding work once launched and will not be a burden to the Synod’s budget. There is a great deal of interest and excitement about this. It’s time to act. Many others have been carrying our water for years.

It’s time to show up and support them. “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

In His name, Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison President, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

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“I appeal to Caesar.”

(Acts 25:11)

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PHOTO: ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK

The Time to Act

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Questions

10 with

Jordan Gehrke

by Adriane Heins

Political consultant and LCMS Lutheran Jordan Gehrke has 15 years of political experience. A partner at Pulse Red Communications, he spends his days inside the Beltway providing strategic advice to candidates like newly elected Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, who won his November 2014 election in a landslide.

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Working in politics, especially campaigns, we constantly have to be mindful of the Eighth Commandment — to explain everything in the kindest possible way. Too often, you see people saying things about their opponents that just aren’t true in order to win a battle that day.

What got you started working in politics?

Our family was very politically involved growing up. My grandfather was very active in local politics, and my dad was a judge. … I started working on campaigns as a kid.

Describe what a day at work looks like.

I’d say that no two days are the same, but since 2010, our team has been focused on identifying tech problems in campaigns and trying to solve them. … When actually running campaigns, we combine a lot of these different elements at once and help candidates with strategy, messaging and technology.

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Recount your greatest achievement thus far in your work.

PHOTO: JEFF ADKINS

I felt a tremendous sense of gratitude seeing Senator Sasse sworn in. [Ed. note: Gehrke served as senior advisor to Sasse.] He built a team of big-cause/low-ego people who were involved because they cared about the direction of their country and didn’t really care that the experts said we couldn’t win.

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Politics can be intense. How do you make your job fun?

The intense part is the fun part. You have to be wired a little bit differently in order to enjoy this job. You are sometimes forced to make split-second strategic decisions in a stressful environment. It can feel like walking a high wire, but I enjoy it.

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Describe a moment when your beliefs as a Lutheran collided with your work in the political sphere.

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Why is it important for Lutherans to maintain “a seat at the table” in political discussions?

The ideas and actions taken in public directly affect the way people act and believe at home. … That is not to say that government is the ministry — far from it. But there are issues being debated in the public square every single day that impact us all, and we neglect political life to our great peril.

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Are there other Lutherans working inside the Beltway?

There are many Lutherans working in all sorts of areas — from Hill staffers writing policy to journalists to members of Congress.

It’s great to see.

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How does your church family support you?

I am deeply grateful for our pastor and our church members. They’ve become some of my dearest friends over the years. It really is like having a second family.

If a young Lutheran is considering a career in the political arena, how would you encourage him or her as a brother in Christ?

We need more people who understand that politics is not the center of life. The Framers believed that what made America great is the understanding that all of the truly great stuff that happens in this country happens in the states, not in D.C. … With that said, I also tell people that if they can do good work by running for office or working at the staff level — well, we need people in this vocation who have the right motives and want to reaffirm the American ideal.

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What’s one thing the average Lutheran might be surprised to know about his congressman, senator or president?

Just how hard the job is on them and their families. Members of Congress are often far from home, commuting every weekend, not seeing their kids very much, being challenged in lots of ways.

Pray for the governing authorities, indeed! They need it. It’s a tough job.

Adriane Heins is managing editor of The Lutheran Witness and editor of Catechetical Information for LCMS Communications. ▶ Have a question? Email Gehrke at

jordan@pulsered.com.

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Time to

Lutherans march with hundreds of thousands of other pro-life supporters during the 42nd annual March for Life Jan. 22, 2015, in Washington, D.C. u

PHOTOS: LCMS COMMUNICATIONS/ERIK M. LUNSFORD

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“It’s

easy to be lulled into a sense of complacency, assuming that our religious liberties won’t be curtailed that much in our lifetime or that, if they are, we won’t really feel the impact,” admits Barb Below, assistant to LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison.

For many Lutherans, curtailing a person’s ability to feed the homeless or an LCMS congregation’s right to determine who gets to use its building may seem far-fetched.

And yet, watch the evening news or crack open The Wall Street Journal and you’ll find that “our world is different from just even 10 to 20 years ago,” Below observes. “I’m not trying to be dramatic.

This is a current, real threat that we must take seriously. While we pray that our freedoms aren’t diminished at all, we also proactively think about future generations and about the challenges they will face if we don’t make the case for our values and ideals already now.”

Show Up

by Adriane Heins

Free to be Faithful

PHOTOS: LCMS COMMUNICATIONS/ERIK M. LUNSFORD; MAP: ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK

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The LCMS hasn’t been idle. Working alongside other organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom, the Heritage Foundation and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the LCMS launched “Free to be Faithful” in 2012. It’s an initiative that educates and raises awareness about the increasing intrusions by the government and culture into the realm of the Church.

The initiative’s focus is three-pronged: (1) support the sanctity of life from conception to natural death, (2) promote and encourage oneman/one-woman marriage for life, and (3) defend and champion religious liberty for all.

In a time when Christian morals and values are gradually becoming more unpopular in the public square, quietism or allowing others to speak on one’s behalf can be tempting.

But the “laypeople in our Synod, and a growing number of church workers, are increasingly voicing concern. … Laws, regulations, executive orders and court decisions are increasingly working to silence the right of Christians to live and act under the Gospel of Christ,” notes Mark Hofman, executive director of LCMS Mission Advancement.

And now, more than ever, it’s personal.

“They are affected in their homes, their schools, their businesses and vocations, and in the public square with a push to be silent in confessing the Gospel in word and deed,” he explains. “And these baptized people are looking to their church body for help, counsel and resources that will allow them to act.”

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Get Involved The Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty Now, however, the LCMS is primed to give an even bolder confession in an even bigger way. Since 2012, LCMS Mission Advancement has steadily been raising funds to build a permanent office — the Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty — inside the Beltway.

Its purpose will be to monitor and protect First Amendment rights — guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution — in the public square.

It will not, notes Harrison, “tell people how to vote.” Instead, “it will provide an LCMS voice at the table with other Christians and citizens of goodwill.”

“The planned office in Washington is intended to serve as both the eyes and ears of the church,” Hofman says, “seeking to understand what is going on in the kingdom of the left where it improperly crosses over into the kingdom of the right.”

The office, which will operate independently of but in coordination with the LCMS, will seek to equip Lutherans and Lutheran organizations to (1) engage federal and state officials through advocacy and defensive legal strategies; (2) educate future generations about serving God through vocations in government, law and public policy; and (3) connect with Lutherans involved in government affairs.

“The LCMS Board of Directors is extremely pleased to approve the creation

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of a legal entity that will establish an LCMS presence in Washington, D.C.,” notes the Rev. Michael Kumm, chairman of the LCMS Board of Directors. “The mission of the Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty will be to advocate the positions of the LCMS… . We, as a Board, in conjunction with Synod legal counsel, are making sure that this entity is properly authorized and created to benefit the Synod at-large. It pleases us to be able to assist in this way to further promote and proclaim the Lutheran confession of faith.”

“There is a great deal of interest and excitement about this,” Harrison says. “It’s time to act. Many others have been carrying our water for years. It’s time to show up and support them.”

Providing What Is Needed Free to be Faithful — including the planned Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty — exists to meet the needs of Lutherans asking for help in doing what they do best: confessing the faith in a world that’s not eager to hear it.

Both can and will “hear the concerns of God’s people and then work to provide what is needed — resources, education, conversation — to equip God’s people to act in ways that are faithful to His Word,” Hofman explains. In short, they will “supply what laity and church workers are saying they currently lack.”

And as the Supreme Court edges ever closer to a spring ruling on the definition

March–April 2015

❶ Find common ground with

your family members, friends, co-workers and those in the public square to discuss these issues. An example might be: “I know that you as a mom are concerned about your kids. I’m concerned about children too, and especially the thousands of preborn children that die every day as a result of abortion.”

❷ Give a financial gift and create a permanent

Lutheran presence in Washington, D.C. “Every gift is important in the establishment of the Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty!” reminds Martha Mitkos, LCMS director of Campaigns and Special Initiatives, which includes Free to be Faithful.

❸ Subscribe to the Free to be Faithful

quarterly newsletter to get additional information on the work of Free to be Faithful and the Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty.

Email infocenter@lcms.org to subscribe.

❹ Visit lcms.org/freetobefaithful to download and

make use of free resources that help you bear witness to Christ as you speak about and support life, marriage and religious freedom.

of marriage, and as legislation curtails the way in which churches show mercy to others, the LCMS moves diligently forward, keeping an eye on the cultural and governmental changes while looking forward with joy and excitement to establishing a permanent presence to do the same in Washington, D.C. There, “the Lutheran Center for Religious Liberty will be a tangible reminder that we must always speak the truth in love — both now and in the future,” Below says, “especially when it comes to defending our right to do so in the first place.”

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LCMS MAF, SPM

Chaplains Minister Where Needed Most

by Roger Drinnon

P

icture the injured soldier, the terminally ill patient or the accident victim struggling with imminent death and reflecting on life’s sins, wondering if God will forgive. Then imagine a chaplain delivering the comforting message of the Lord’s forgiveness during life’s most challenging moments of fear and despair.

PHOTOS: LCMS COMMUNICATIONS/ERIK M. LUNSFORD

As LCMS Ministry to the Armed Forces (MAF) chaplains provide spiritual care for our men and women serving in the military, the Synod’s Specialized Pastoral Ministry (SPM) chaplains also minister to those with specific needs: the sick, the imprisoned, the aging, the troubled, the conflicted and the isolated.

“Our LCMS chaplains serve wherever their flock is. That includes places like Afghanistan, Belgium, Djibouti, Guam, Kuwait, Okinawa, Spain, hospitals and ‘Wounded Warrior’ units,” said Chaplain Craig Muehler, the Synod’s MAF director. “Our chaplains are in every clime, living with the people they serve. They are making differences in the lives of their people by offering them the comfort of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in combat, in suffering, in loneliness and in their life challenges.”

Muehler said amid the rigors of military service, including recurring deployments to dangerous combat environments in the Middle East and elsewhere, chaplains often are the only resource service members have for confidential counseling and for hearing “the life-changing Good News of Jesus Christ to assist them in their life’s struggles.”

“One will never truly know how many of our service members were saved from suicide, divorce, assault or moral injuries because they were able to receive confidential pastoral care from their chaplain,” said Muehler, a recently retired U.S. Navy captain who previously served at the Pentagon as deputy chaplain of the Marine Corps.

Like MAF chaplains, SPM chaplains minister to people in particular life situations where the need is great.

“There are four general areas of SPM. One is institutional chaplaincy in settings like prisons, hospitals, nursing homes, hospice and mental-health agencies,” said the Rev. Joel Hempel, interim director of SPM. “Secondly, there are lcms.org/givenow/globalmission

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emergency-services chaplains — mostly fire and law-enforcement chaplains. A third group includes pastoral counselors — these are part-time or full-time ministers who have received additional post-seminary training to work in a pastoral counseling center or in a parish. The fourth area is clinical pastoral education. There are only a handful of these colleagues still active. They teach pastoral care and counseling to those who want to become chaplains or who want to become increasingly competent in pastoral care to enhance their parish ministry.”

Hempel said contexts for SPM chaplains also include centers for those recovering from substance abuse, managing developmental disabilities and hospice services.

“SPM chaplains have unique opportunities to reach out to people with the Gospel,” he continued.

“For example, if you’re in hospice ministry, you’re visiting with people who are dying, talking with family members, listening for any kind of spiritual or emotional brokenness or maybe the need for reconciliation with a loved one,” Hempel said. “Carefully and respectfully, you attend to the pain, which unsurprisingly often leads to unresolved issues in their relationship with God. Others are more immediately open in expressing their struggle with guilt or anxiety about life after death. Opportunities often present themselves for people to confess their sins and receive God’s merciful forgiveness through Christ.”

“Hospital ministry gives us a chance to make contacts with everyone,” said the Rev. Doug Nicely, chaplain at Memorial Hospital in Belleville, Ill. “[SPM] chaplains get ‘called out’ more often than not when there are serious problems with patients and their families.”

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Nicely said prayer with families, especially after the death of a loved one, is an important part of his ministry.

“It is an honor to serve our Lord and to pray with almost everyone I meet,” he said.

Hempel said as institutional chaplains often operate amid the challenges of pluralistic and ecumenical settings, it solidifies their Lutheran identity by helping them define both who they are and who they are not, while teaching them how to reach people who are outside of the LCMS, including people of other faiths as well as those who are non-religious or even anti-religious.

“If you go into this ministry, you have to have the personality and the aptitude to function (as a Lutheran) in a non-congregational, multicultural setting,” he said. “You have to like a challenge, need minimal affirmation, want to be with people when they are most vulnerable and hurting, and love seeing the Spirit of Christ at work!”

As Christian military members face restrictions in their freedom to exercise their faith in an increasingly secularized military, Muehler said LCMS chaplains remain dedicated to the Word of God. “Our LCMS chaplains continue to be the salt of the earth in these challenging times. They remain faithful, because they are men of integrity who take their ordination vows seriously,” he said. “They boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those entrusted to their care.

They work within the military by cooperating without compromising their Lutheran Confessions or their conscience.”

Roger Drinnon is manager of Editorial Services for LCMS Communications. ▶ View photo galleries of the Synod’s

chaplains: photo.lcms.org

March–April 2015

PHOTOS: LCMS COMMUNICATIONS/ERIK M. LUNSFORD

U.S. Navy Cmdr. Charles Varsogea (top left and right), chaplain at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, Calif., and the Rev. Doug Nicely (second from left), chaplain at Memorial Hospital in Belleville, Ill., exemplify the care the Synod’s chaplains demonstrate for people in need in specific life situations. u

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t U.S. Navy Cmdr. Charles Varsogea, chaplain at

the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, Calif., arrives at his office to help a recruit late one Saturday evening.

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put your passion into action for

E F LI Contact a local pregnancy center and ask what that center’s specific needs are.

On Jan. 22, some 380 Lutherans joined the LCMS at the 42nd annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. Nearly half of those marching with the LCMS were high school or college students. Want to inspire your youth to stand up for life? Here are some ways you can get involved without having to travel to the nation’s capital. Pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) usually welcome assistance.

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Distribute promotional items to local churches, schools and businesses

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Assist with babysitting during parenting classes

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Assist with organizing fundraising events like banquets, walks and baby bottle campaigns

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Learn more at:

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Provide administrative assistance (copies, filing, etc.)

Coordinate clothing and diaper drives

OFFICE HELP

DIAPER D RIVE

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PRC WEBSITE

Offer to clean or paint a center’s facilities

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Help develop or update a pregnancy center’s website

Sort material donations and organize the center’s baby closet

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Host a baby shower at church or with friends, donating the gifts to a center’s baby closet

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Baltic Churches Bear Mercy through

Multigenerational Ministries

by Erik M. Lunsford

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n Riga, Latvia’s wintry capital city, frigid waves from the Gulf of Riga lap the shore as confetti-size snowflakes coat the birch trees one February day.

Here, in this former Soviet state, a story of mercy, accountability and flourishing partnerships between church bodies is unfolding.

Inside an unassuming municipal apartment building, oddly like multicolored Lego blocks and noticeably void of ornate architecture, an impromptu chorus bursts into Latvian folk music. After the song has ended, the singers settle back with French press coffee and Piragi meat-filled pastries.

Beaming, a woman on the verge of tears thanks a group of visiting LCMS representatives. Everyone is talking about the benefit of the Diaconia Center mercy site at the complex, which is partly

supported by a grant from the LCMS through partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia (ELCL). It’s one of four sites that focus on showing Christ’s love to low-income residents.

In comes the Rev. Ivo Kirsis, parish and Diaconia Center pastor. He sports a Sean Connery beard and a charming smile. It’s time for Divine Service, and everyone files into a small reception room complete with an altar, crucifix, candles and an open Bible.

Kirsis kneels in prayer, and heads bow in silent reverence. A disabled man leans on his crutches.

One-third of Latvia’s population lives at or below the poverty line, according to Ramona Petrika, a staff member at the Diaconia Center in downtown Riga.

Emigration is a problem, although it’s unlikely a tourist in Old Town would see

this statistic as clearly as the amber jewelry and wooden toys dotting the window displays of souvenir shops.

“Diaconia is part of the church,” says Inta Putnina, Diaconia Center director. She sips Rooibos tea and adjusts her delicate shawl during conversation. “On Sundays we have service, and on weekdays we go and help the people.”

What exactly does diakonia mean? In Greek, it means “service,” and the Christian Church through the ages has understood this as bearing the mercy of Christ to those in need. In this case, it also is an establishment that serves the poor, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Matthew sheds some light in his Gospel: “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’” (Matt. 25:40).

Children play together at the Generations Day Care Center in Riga, Latvia.

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PHOTOS: LCMS COMMUNICATIONS/ERIK M. LUNSFORD

An elderly woman walks past municipal apartments, the site of a Diaconia Center mercy project in Riga, Latvia. u

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Each year, the Diaconia Center in Latvia serves

123,345 people.

23,250 children 27,500 adults 70,675 people through soup kitchens

Truly, it’s about people helping people in the context of Christ and His Church, says Putnina.

The Diaconia Center in Latvia has four mercy sites. Two are for children and families, one for children and adults, and the last for adults only. Putnina says the mercy sites serve 123,345 people each year — 23,250 children, 27,500 adults, 70,675 people through soup kitchens and another 1,920 who receive food packages.

Put this into perspective: The LCMS has 2.2 million members, while the entire population of Latvia is 2.1 million. The ELCL has 712,531 members.

The Diaconia Center was established in 1994, and diaconal work with the LCMS began when Deaconess Grace Rao, director of LCMS Deaconess Ministry, started in 2006. She and the Rev. Tony Booker, LCMS regional director for Eurasia, continue the partnership, helping to train diaconal workers and assisting with a new diaconal project directed at the aging population of the Latvian church that resides in rural areas.

“Diaconia work is an act of the church,” Booker says. “We’re a body of Christ, and we can’t help but do what needs to be done as we look around our neighborhood and our backyard. That’s how the actions have been driven here, and that’s centered through congregations, pastors, through volunteers from congregations … reaching out to their neighborhood and delivering Christ, 14

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if you will, both in person and in Word and Sacrament.”

A few years ago, the LCMS gave a substantial amount of money to the church for diaconal work. Instead of infusing the money into various projects right away, the Latvian leaders waited for the right time. Now the fruits of their patience have blossomed into projects that “show excellent organizational skills, administrative skills and tremendous accountability.”

Booker adds, “This is exactly what we want to encourage in all of our partner churches.”

And while there’s a worry that faithbased organizations can fall away from the church when nourished by municipal subsistence, the centers here are perpetually bound to the church, not unlike a sneaker shoelace hopelessly knotted together.

Along a street in Riga lined by tall trees and even taller buildings sits the Generations Day Care Center for adults and children. Strong tea swirls, chocolates soften and children pray before supper.

They hold hands, laugh and crack jokes together. Some saunter to a side room for soccer, while another boy handily beats an adult in two quick games of pingpong.

Lifelong relationships form here, a witness to life together.

But the story of mercy work in the Baltics doesn’t end in Riga.

To the south, in the neighboring country of Lithuania, large neighborhoods of Soviet-

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1,920 people through food packages

era housing in various towns still bring to mind the years of oppression — both secular and religious. Snow blankets the rolling hills; ice forms at the fingernails of waves off the Baltic Sea. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania, led by Archbishop Mindaugas Sabutis, is a minority, confessional, liturgical partner with orphanages, soup kitchens and a treatment center for drug and alcohol addicts. A new phase of the addiction program is currently underway.

Renovation of a vacant building in rural Garliava will provide a chapel and halfway home for addicts as they transition toward independence.

“We are happy that this part of our mission is very blessed,” Sabutis says. “It’s about the context of Word and Sacrament in their historical experience of diaconal work.”

During treatment, addicts will receive the comfort of God’s Word through services to be held at the chapel.

“To come alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ and fellow Lutherans here in the Baltics,” Booker says, “and to see them pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps, as we come alongside them and assist them as we’re able to, and to see the results now in these later years is fantastic.”

Erik M. Lunsford is the staff photojournalist and a writer for LCMS Communications.

View the photo gallery: photo.lcms.org

lcms.org/givenow/globalmission

PHOTO: LCMS COMMUNICATIONS/ERIK M. LUNSFORD

Ilze Juhnevia with the Diaconia Center of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia doles out hot soup to area residents and homeless in Riga, Latvia.

Maternity Home Extends Christ’s Love to Women in

Crisis

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MERCY MOMENT

q Resident Director Rachel Woolery (center) joins

Jenny (left) and Lillian as they make lunch at Redeeming Life Maternity Home in Sanford, Fla. The Christ-centered home of Redeeming Life Outreach Ministries is a safe haven for single women experiencing crisis pregnancies.

by Megan K. Mertz

HEADER PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO, LCMS COMMUNICATIONS/ERIK M. LUNSFORD

I

n August 2014, Lillian was pregnant, alone and on the verge of homelessness.

When she was fired from one of her two jobs because of the pregnancy, she didn’t know how she was going to make ends meet for herself and her unborn son, due in late March.

In desperation, the young woman, whose last name is being withheld to protect her privacy, went to a local crisis pregnancy center, which referred her to Redeeming Life Maternity Home in Sanford, Fla. Now, just a few months after moving into the maternity home, Lillian said she has undergone a total “transformation.”

Redeeming Life’s Resident Director Rachel Woolery helped her set goals, seek counseling and successfully appeal for reinstatement in her undergraduate-degree program, from which she had been forced to drop out. Now Lillian is looking forward to her college graduation in December.

Lillian is one of 13 women in the midst of crisis pregnancies who have lived at Redeeming Life since it opened in November 2013. The home currently has four adult residents and one baby, with three more babies due this spring.

The home provides a respite from the world — a safe place where residents can reflect on who they want to be, learn important life skills and work toward goals for the future.

Each week, Woolery meets one-onone with the residents. During their stay, residents learn about time management, parenting and financial literacy. They also receive regular prenatal care and are expected to work or volunteer, if they aren’t yet able to get a job.

Some of the residents come from abusive homes, Woolery said, so it’s important for Redeeming Life to model a healthy family lcms.org/givenow/globalmission

environment. Every evening, she and the residents gather together to cook dinner, keep the house clean and have a Christcentered devotion.

“It’s a very intense and personal ministry,” Woolery said. “When you say you are going to be their family, you’ve got to meet them where they are.”

Woolery and Sheryl DeWitt, Redeeming Life’s executive director, also encourage the residents to attend the adult instruction class at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, which is just across the street from the home.

For Lillian, the class helped her understand principles of the Christian faith and make friends at the church. This past December, she was confirmed and became a member of the congregation.

“It’s the very first time that I’ve become a member of a church,” she said, calling the love she has received at both the home and the church “life-changing.”

Lillian also is proud to report that while living at the maternity home, she’s been able to save money to provide a financial safety net in case of emergency.

“I feel like I’m a different person. I’m a lot more capable, I believe in myself, I have stronger faith,” she said. “I still have moments of anxiety, but I know that things are going to work out for us.”

Despite the daily ups and downs of the ministry, Woolery and DeWitt find encouragement in the small things: sonogram photos, news of a resident’s unexpected debt relief and the many other ways God is working in their lives every day.

“There are days when it’s overwhelming,” DeWitt said. “But we’re growing, we’re learning, we’re loving these women the very best we can, and we’re trying to honestly reflect the love that Christ has showered upon us.”

Megan K. Mertz is managing editor of Lutherans Engage the World and a staff writer for LCMS Communications.

Learn more: u Read about Redeeming Life’s founding: blogs.lcms.org/2013/planting-seeds-of-life u View the photo gallery: photo.lcms.org u Visit Redeeming Life’s website: rlom.org March–April 2015

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OFFERING ‘CHRIST-CENTERED SERVICES’ WITH

by Melanie Ave

L

utheran Family Service of Iowa (LFS) doesn’t want the government interfering with its ability to offer “intentionally Christ-centered services.” The stance is clear, whether visiting its website or talking with employees.

And because of that, the nonprofit organization, a Recognized Service Organization (RSO) of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, does not seek or receive government funds as it offers adoption services; church worker support; congregational services; and pregnancy, mental-health and marriage counseling.

About 46 percent of the organization’s $1 million budget comes from private support, such as congregations, other organizations and individuals. The remainder comes from program fees.

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“We don’t take federal funding … and won’t so we don’t have to compromise our Christian witness,” said the Rev. Max Phillips, executive director of LFS. Despite this, Phillips speculates that one day the organization will be targeted for placing Jesus at the cornerstone of its ministry and using Lutheran theology as a guide for how it delivers services.

“I believe we will be challenged at some point,” Phillips said. “I think it’s an opportunity for us to stand up for what we believe in and to express our faith.”

Facing Pressure Increasingly, Christian and faith-based organizations are facing pressure to provide services without regard to sexual orientation, marital status or gender

March–April 2015

identity, even if it runs contrary to their religious beliefs or convictions.

Stanley Carlson-Thies, founder and president of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance, wrote in Outcomes magazine that even though most Americans believe in God, lawmakers and judges are imposing secular norms on their operations. He cited the following as examples: ▶▶ Some agencies have been forced out of providing adoption and foster-care services because of conflicts about placing children with same-sex or unmarried couples. ▶▶ Some universities have denied granting religious student groups official campus status because of their requirements that leaders be faithful believers.

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nform

PHOTO: HEMERA/THINKSTOCK

FREEDOM

▶▶ Doctors and counselors have been charged with discrimination for referring patients elsewhere instead of serving clients whose sexual standards they oppose.

Religious liberty is at risk, said Deaconess Dorothy Krans, director of RSOs for the LCMS. The LCMS works with 175 socialministry RSOs. RSOs are independent, but they extend the Synod’s mission and ministry. They also agree to ensure that their programs are in harmony with the doctrine and practice of the LCMS. “Our organizations do mercy work,” Krans said. “They serve those who are needy, hurt, suffering. And they do so because of their faith in Christ, showing the love and compassion of Christ to others.

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“ We don’t take federal funding … and won’t so we don’t have to compromise our Christian witness.”

— Rev. Max Phillips, executive director of Lutheran Family Service of Iowa

“They’re compelled to do mercy work because they are living out their faith.

That brings with it concerns regarding our religious rights of freedom.”

In the Winter 2012 edition of Outcomes magazine, Carlson-Thies wrote that the narrowing scope of religious freedom is

the “fast-growing determination to define faith-based practices as discriminatory and illegal.”

Lutheran Family Service of Iowa requires its counselors to be professionally trained and licensed, to be mature Christians and to have a desire to incorporate their faith in their work. When it comes to adoption, it requires adoptive couples to be married and active in the Christian faith.

“We really try to base our decisions on what is best for children,” said Wanda Pritzel, the organization’s director of Ministry Support and Congregational Services. “We believe it’s best for children to have a mom and a dad and to have both those roles filled and active in their lives.

“That means that we don’t place children with same-sex or single parents.

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Both of those fly in the face of current culture.”

Krans said the organizations often feel governmental pressure due to state and federal grants and contracts. These grants and contracts may carry with them restrictions that limit organizations from living out their Lutheran identity.

“That can make it very difficult for a faithbased organization, especially Lutherans, to say, ‘This is who we are. This is what we believe. This is why we serve those in need because of our faith in Christ,’” Krans said.

Living Out the Faith Lutheran Family Service of Iowa was founded in 1901 as a home-finding society.

The organization operated an orphanage and placed children for adoption. Over the years, the organization has found homes for thousands of children.

In 2014, it placed 10 infants, two older children and three embryos, who were adopted and born, making it one of the

largest adoption organizations of its kind in Iowa.

Jeremy and Dawn Mills of Garner, Iowa, adopted the youngest two of their four children through LFS. Their family now includes 10-year-old Dalton, 3-year-old Emersyn and 1-year-old McCoy. Makinley died in 2007 of a terminal genetic disease.

“What drew us to Lutheran Family Service of Iowa were its religious goals and beliefs, which really matched ours,” Dawn Mills said. “We just had a gut feeling, a feeling in our hearts that that’s where we wanted to go.”

While some faith-based adoptive and foster-care agencies have curtailed their activities out of fear, Phillips said Lutheran Family Service of Iowa has “redoubled” its efforts. It has taken a larger role in advocating for religious liberty, traditional marriage and life.

At the 2015 March for Life and LCMS Life Conference in Washington, D.C., in January, Kim Laube, the organization’s director

of Pregnancy Counseling and Adoption Services, was there, standing up for the unborn. She met with Rep. David Young (R-Iowa) about pro-life legislation.

Krans said now is a good time for RSOs and LCMS members to speak their faith in the public arena.

“Our organizations should be able to live out their faith and still have the ability to receive government funds,” she said.

“It’s very important for our church and for our members to be aware that this is a great opportunity for them to stand by the side of our organizations and say, ‘We are Lutheran, and this is what we believe.’

“We’re serving people who are in need, who need housing, who need aging care, who need homes, who need food. Our Lutheran organizations should have their religious rights of freedom protected.”

Until recently leaving the Synod’s employ, Melanie Ave was a staff writer and the social media coordinator for LCMS Communications.

“ What drew us to Lutheran Family Service of Iowa were its religious goals and beliefs, which really matched ours.”

PHOTO: DAWN MILLS

— Dawn Mills, pictured below with her husband, Jeremy, and children McCoy, Dalton and Emersyn

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March–April 2015

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WITNESS MOMENT nform

CAMPUS CONFERENCE

Takes on

Topics

by Megan K. Mertz There’s a battle taking place on America’s college campuses. Unbiblical viewpoints, especially those on issues of sexuality, are gaining ground among the nation’s young adults — even among those who come from Christian homes.

To educate Lutheran college students and campus-ministry workers on some of these issues, LCMS U, the Synod’s campus-ministry arm, held “TABOO” Jan. 5-7 at Saint Louis University (SLU) in St. Louis. The conference addressed the issues of marriage and sexuality, including homosexuality, dating and defending the traditional view of marriage.

Approximately 475 college students and campus-ministry workers from some 100 colleges and universities around the country attended TABOO, and several attendees had the chance to immediately put what they were learning into practice.

PHOTO: LCMS COMMUNICATIONS/ERIK M. LUNSFORD

Confrontation at the Conference But Lutheran college students weren’t the only ones interested in the conference. On the final day, SLU’s LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning or queer) student group, Rainbow Alliance, set up a table outside the lecture hall with a sign that read, “Our love is not taboo.”

At the suggestion of a college student who was attending TABOO, the Rev. Eric Andræ, assistant chaplain at the conference and LCMS campus pastor at various schools in Pittsburgh, and Shana Ziolko-Marting, director of the Lutheran Campus Center at Northwest Missouri State University, bought the students hot chocolate on behalf of the conference.

This simple act started a conversation that lasted more than two hours and included about a dozen people on each side of the issue.

“They had a lot of misunderstandings about what we are really all about in terms of what love is, what repentance and for-

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giveness are, what hate is and is not, what the Bible actually teaches,” Andræ recalled.

“One of the students said, ‘I don’t think you realize how hard it is. You’re asking [homosexuals] to be celibate for life,’” he continued. “I said, you’re right. I can’t imagine it. All I can tell you is you won’t be alone. We’re willing to walk with you as you struggle under that burden and to support you and hear you. And the Lord will be with you.”

Ziolko-Marting called the experience “very positive.”

The Rev. Eric Andræ (left) talks to LGBTQ supporters during the TABOO National LCMS Campus Ministry Conference at Saint Louis University in St. Louis.

“We weren’t just talking about the issues on an island, we got the chance to experience it and do that ministry,” she said.

“Talking, being civil, not yelling — this was the ideal version of the ministry.”

Continuing the Debate The debate that started on the final day continued even after its closing worship service.

In the following weeks, the SLU student newspaper reported that the Rainbow Alliance sent the university “a list of demands,” which called for disciplinary action against the staff members who allowed LCMS U to rent space for TABOO and a public apology, among other things.

The group claimed the conference violated SLU’s mission as a Jesuit institution.

In response, Bethany Glock, a senior undergraduate student at SLU and an LCMS

member from Wenona, Ill., wrote an editorial that was published by the same paper Jan. 29.

“We, the members of the St. Louis LCMS U chapter, … hold that this conference was in line with the Jesuit mission, SLU policies and the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church,” she wrote.

“If open discussion and dialogue are something to be desired at SLU, why would an effort be made to ban events like this from campus and to marginalize conservative religious groups like the LCMS, of which many SLU students are members?”

At the time of this writing, SLU’s president had agreed to review the university’s policies on renting space to outside groups.

“These kinds of situations will increase, where we are confronted, where we have to face not only the issue but those who stand at the forefront,” Andræ said. “That’s why we need conferences like TABOO that equip pastors and laity and especially students.

They are going to be the generation that will reach out the most, and they are indeed already doing this a lot on campus.”

Learn more: ▶R ead the Reporter article: blogs.lcms. org/2015/lcms-college-students-tackletaboo-topics-2 ▶R ead Glock’s letter to the editor: unewsonline.com/2015/ 01/29/a-call-for-diversity-of-opinions

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STEWARD’S CORNER

nvolve

Have Mercy on Me!

by Mark Hofman

Here is an uncomfortable truth: The financial resources required to carry out our Synod’s work rarely flow in unsolicited.

Most people today prefer to be asked for help, even if they have to decline, and most prefer to select the organizations with which they partner, even to the point of restricting gifts to doing specific work within that organization. For these reasons, the Synod writes, calls and even visits personally (like any other nonprofit), inviting you and others to partner with us through prayers and financial contributions. Without you, very little of what the Synod does to share Christ’s love could ever happen.

That said, I know it can be overwhelming, confusing and even frustrating to be asked too often and by all kinds of different “ministries.” When that happens, I hear it, read it and see it in reports because people pull back on their giving. So, what can we do together to avoid getting to that point?

The best thing we can do is seek to understand you and the impact you want to have each year. The truth is that appeal letters, beyond being the least expensive way to solicit gifts, are a way for an organization to find out what types of ministry work readers care about, whether there is a particular time of the year they make gifts, if they prefer to write checks or use credit/debit cards, if a more personal conversation is needed as part of the giving decision, and more. Without a donor telling us the answers to these questions, we are 20

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March–April 2015

left to try to discern the answers through our solicitations.

Imagine for a moment what it could be like if we understood you and your needs very well, if we understood all of our ministry partners very well. The appeals you receive would ask for gifts in support of the types of ministry work you care most about. They would come at the time(s) you want them to come. They would come in a way that you prefer. It would eliminate the appeals that don’t fit your needs or goals.

And I can go one better: We also could resurrect the concept of pledging support or setting up recurring gifts. In one swift shot, a pledge of support from a donor communicates a tremendous amount of good information and virtually eliminates the need to solicit his or her support throughout the year.

This past Thanksgiving, my wife and I sat down and talked about the impact we want to make with our charitable gifts in 2015. After thanking God for His blessings, lcms.org/givenow/globalmission

PHOTOS: ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK

Over the last several months, I have spoken with donors who are overwhelmed by the number of mail appeals, phone calls and email messages asking them for a charitable gift — or another charitable gift. Some — but not all — were requests from The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Perhaps you also are one who cries to the Lord for mercy when being solicited for charitable support.

we worked out a plan. We chose the organizations, programs and amounts we wanted to give away. We also decided when and how we would make each gift. We wrote it all down. All that was left was to notify each of the organizations about what they should expect from us in 2015 and what information we wanted or needed to receive in order to reaffirm our choices.

Planning makes it easier to ask the organizations we care about to limit the number and types of solicitations we lcms.org/givenow/globalmission

receive. Why? We give them more than money. We give them valuable information about us — information that actually equips them to wisely manage their investment in us as financial partners.

My point is that sharing information works. You receive and read this magazine because you want to know how your gifts are sharing Jesus with people all over the world. You want to make a difference using the Gospel because you are a steward of that very Gospel. We want to know you, a baptized child of God, well enough that our requests for support match up to your unique needs, dreams and goals for sharing Jesus with the world. And we want to know you well enough to suggest strategies to enhance your joy as a donor and lower our fundraising costs even more.

I see that a great shift is required in how we engage you and others in our shared mission to vigorously make known the love of Jesus in word and deed. We must ask you to share important information about your preferences and goals in charitable giving, and we must work hard to integrate whatever information you choose to share

into our recurring schedule of appeals. That work will begin in the coming months.

You can help us get there by telling us more about yourself, your needs as a donor and your goals as a steward of God’s blessings. With good information about you, we can bring before you the ministry areas, projects, missionaries or programs you care most about, at the right times of the year, through the communication mechanism you most prefer and for the right gift amount — all determined by YOU. This great shift is something we will need to master. I can promise we will make mistakes. My team and I will tear down old habits and build toward best practices, learning the best way to respond to what you both need and deserve as an important partner in our shared mission.

I pray for your patience as we continue to improve our stewardship of each and every contribution, given for the sake of bringing people into the presence of our Lord and strengthening their faith in Him. Mark Hofman, CFRE, MBA, is the executive director of LCMS Mission Advancement.

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NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID Burlington, WI Permit No. 12

Synodwide Appeal

for The Wittenberg Project

PHOTO: DAVID L. MAHSMAN

At the most recent Synod convention, delegates from across the country united behind establishing a permanent Lutheran outreach and educational presence in the birthplace of the Reformation: the city of Wittenberg, Germany.

Our convention’s delegates then encouraged a special appeal to all LCMS congregations and households, so that everyone has a chance to be a part of shaping history. As Lutherans, we’ve done it before.

As Lutherans, we’ll do it again, with the help of God. In early March, this special appeal to help fund the outreach center’s renovation was mailed to LCMS congregations and households. The center will be dedicated on May 3. This is a unique moment, but your participation can be planned and sent at a time convenient for you. Ask your pastor or congregational leaders how you can connect to this outreach, with its 500-year focus.

Learn more: Visit thewittenbergproject.org or call LCMS Mission Advancement at 888-930-4438

The

ittenberg Project