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	October 5, 2004 .................... LCMSNews -- No. 70

	Kieschnick urges mission on 'new frontier'

	By David L. Mahsman

	"It is time for The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod to turn the
world upside down for Jesus," Synod President Gerald Kieschnick told
Synod leaders -- board and commission members and executive staff --
shortly after many of them had been installed into office Sept. 18.

	"When do we start?" Kieschnick asked. "Well, time is short and
hell is hot. The time to start is not tomorrow. The time to start is
today."

	Kieschnick delivered his installation-day speech after a noon
luncheon that included the newly elected, re-elected or appointed Synod
officers and members of 16 boards and commissions.

	The installation for the 93 leaders who are beginning new terms
of office had taken place that morning in a matins service at the Chapel
of St. Timothy and St. Titus on the campus of Concordia Seminary, St.
Louis.

	"Here's my pledge to you, the leaders of our church," Kieschnick
said. "I am going to look for ways to encourage, to inspire the people
and congregations of our Synod to be ablaze for the mission. I am going
to look for ways and resources to open up new mission outposts on the
frontier of 21st-century America. And I am going to continue to
encourage the critical-event -- one Lutheran Christian sharing the Good
News with someone who does not know Jesus Christ.

	"It's not a one-man job," he said. "I need your help."

	Kieschnick has been using the term "critical event" to refer to
one-on-one evangelistic outreach.

	"The critical event happens when a faith-filled believer, his or
her heart set ablaze by God's Holy Spirit, tells another person of the
wonderful forgiveness and life that God offers in Jesus Christ,"
Kieschnick said in his speech. "It happens when a Christian tells a
non-Christian or a lapsed Christian or a backsliding Christian that God
came in the flesh to live and die for him that he or she might be
forgiven and have eternal life.

	"In the early years of the church, in larger and larger
concentric circles reaching out from Jerusalem, the critical event
repeated itself time and time again," he continued. "Its aggregate
effect would be nothing less than to turn the world upside down -- to
challenge the beliefs, practices and values of the culture of the day."

	Today's new frontier'

	Kieschnick said that today's church faces a similar frontier,
one marked by a war on Islamic terrorism around the world and "culture
wars" at home in the United States.

	"This is our new frontier: an historically Christian nation that
is fast losing its Christian moorings -- a confused nation in which many
people say that Christianity is merely one ethical proposition among
many, and that Jesus Christ may be a savior but not the Savior,"
Kieschnick said.

	"It may be harsh and politically incorrect to say this, but say
it we must: Those who don't come to faith in Jesus Christ and embrace
Him as their Savior and Redeemer are on their way to eternal
destruction. They are headed for the blackness of eternal night. Those
aren't my words, but the words of Jesus Himself.

	"I don't want to see that happen to one single solitary person,
do you?" Kieschnick asked his audience.

	The president acknowledged that there are "certain areas of
disharmony and tension" in the Synod.

	"I want to work together with you as leaders of our Synod to
change the all-too-often vitriolic nature of our synodical culture that
frequently rears its downright ugly head in our midst," Kieschnick said,
adding that he believes any differences can be brought to a God-pleasing
resolution.

	"I believe we can do this while working toward the same vision:
being God's instruments in leading more souls to Christ," he said.

	'Mission outposts'

	To reach more people with the Gospel will take more pastors,
teachers and resources, Kieschnick said. "But most of all, it will take
LCMS leaders and members like you ablaze with the desire to share the
Good News with others."

	He also said it will take "more and more congregations not
content with the status quo within their own walls but rather burning
with desire to plant new churches in their communities.

	"Whether we like to hear it or not, research shows that planting
new churches -- establishing new mission outposts -- rather than
inviting people to come into older, existing ones, is the best way of
attracting new people to the church," he said.

	Kieschnick encouraged every Synod congregation either to
establish or help another congregation to establish one new "mission
outpost." He noted that one "national goal" adopted by this year's Synod
convention for the Ablaze! initiative is to start 2,000 new
congregations by 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran
Reformation.

	"Now is the time to establish 2,000 mission outposts on the new
frontier," Kieschnick told the Synod leaders. "Now is the time to
multiply the critical event 100 million times. Now is the time to come
together as a band of brothers and sisters in one mission, with one
message, as one people.

	"Brothers and sisters in Christ, that Christ Jesus, our Lord and
Savior, is calling," he said. He received a standing ovation as he
concluded, "Evangelically, faithfully, with great conviction and
singleness of purpose, I invite you: Will you follow Him with me?"

	****************************************

	If you have questions or comments about this LCMSNews release,
contact Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org or (314) 996-1231,
or Paula Schlueter Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org or (314) 996-1230.

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