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	May 5, 2003
................................................................
LCMSNews -- No. 32

	Plan aims to reverse
	LCMS membership drop

	By David L. Mahsman

	FORT WAYNE, Ind.  LCMS President Gerald Kieschnick April 6
unveiled a new initiative that he said is aimed at reversing a 30-year
membership decline in the Synod.

	The plan would bring together leaders from the 30 top LCMS
congregations in each of eight categories -- the five-year increase in
worship attendance, for example, or the number of adult confirmands in
the last five years -- to learn how the plans they made and the
strategies they implimented, under the blessing of Gods grace, enabled
them to achieve the results they did, he said.

	Kieschnick made his announcement to the Synods Council of
Presidents (COP) during its April 5-7 meeting at Concordia Theological
Seminary here.

	The president said the 240 congregations identified as leaders
in the eight categories would be challenged to do even more in the
coming years and to mentor four other congregations each.

	He said they would be provided funds to help them do it.
Kieschnick assistant Rev. Jon Braunersreuther said that most of the
funding, $400,000, will come from a Synodwide block grant provided by
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

	The initiative has been titled One Mission ABLAZE: Igniting
Effective Congregations. Kieschnick called it an effort toward
fulfillment of the vision for One Mission, One Message, One People --
a theme he has been sounding at district conventions.

	I believe its time to bring the vision to life, he told the
COP.

	Braunersreuther said that separate gatherings for congregations
topping five of the eight categories are planned for the new fiscal year
that begins July 1. The senior pastor and a lay leader would be invited
from each congregation, he said. Also to be invited are the respective
district president and a staff member.

	Although grant funds will be provided to the congregations -- in
groups by category or individually -- to help them achieve their goals,
the congregations will be asked to fund attendance of their own
representatives at the gatherings.

	The eight categories, Braunersreuther said, represent five-year
records for adult confirmands, growth in worship attendance, the number
of new missions planted, attendance growth at new missions, the increase
in the number of non-Anglo worshipers, new professional church-worker
recruitment, and adult accessions through school ministries and through
youth ministries.

	With 240 congregations identified in the eight categories and
four congregations to be mentored by each of the 240, some 1,200
congregations -- nearly 20 percent of the Synod total -- could be
touched directly by the initiative, Braunersreuther said. He added that
the 30 top congregations in each of the categories also will be asked to
provide helpful information in publishable form that will be shared with
the entire Synod on the Web.

	This is an attempt to move the culture of the Synod toward an
outreach orientation, Braunersreuther said.

	In other business during last months meeting, the COP:

	-- placed 166 pastoral candidates from the seminaries and 93
commissioned-minister candidates into their first calls. The council
also assigned 184 seminary students into their vicarages.

	-- continued discussion of five objectives, adopted in November,
intended to address controversy and conflict in the Synod. Much of the
discussion was in small groups.

	-- elected new COP officers  together they make up the
councils Program Committee -- who will take office after this years
round of district conventions. They are Michigan District President C.
William Hoesman, chairman; Oklahoma District President William
Diekelman, vice chairman; South Dakota District President Vernon
Schindler, secretary; and Southern Illinois District President Herbert
Mueller Jr. and Eastern District President John Brunner, at-large
members of the Program Committee.

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