<http://www.lcms.org> e-News LCMS News
February 6, 2006 .................... LCMSNews -- No. 3
World Mission targets both growing, declining congregations for Ablaze!
By Paula Schlueter Ross
In its quest to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to at least 50 million "unchurched" North Americans over the next 12 years through Ablaze!, LCMS World Mission will be depending on the participation of congregations that baptize, confirm, and add names to their membership rolls each year.
After all, they're the ones with outreach-focused ministries, right?
But the Synod's national mission leaders say they also will be counting on at least 2,000 of the church body's static or declining congregations (in terms of numerical growth) to turn their ministries around as part of the Ablaze! effort.
"Our goal is to have a minimum of 2,000 congregations by 2017 that are revitalized," said Rev. Roger Altenberger, who until recently was director of church revitalization with LCMS World Mission. Altenberger began serving Jan. 16 as mission facilitator with "Ablaze! Connection," a "global learning community" for Ablaze! to be launched later this year.
Statistics indicate that more than half of the Synod's 6,100 congregations confirmed just one -- or no -- adults in the past year, according to Altenberger. And those aren't just rural churches -- they're situated "all over the place" in cities and suburbs as well as in rural areas, he says.
"God desires all of us to be missional, and in most of these cases people have just forgotten what their first love was and why they existed as a congregation to begin with," says Altenberger. He sees the church revitalization post as helping declining congregations "get back to where they were in the beginning" of their ministries.
Altenberger has been one of three executives working together as part of LCMS World Mission's "National Mission Team" to implement Ablaze! in North America. Succeeding him as director of church revitalization is Rev. David Born, LCMS World Mission's regional director for the Northeast Region of the United States.
The team also includes Rev. Yohannes Mengsteab, who's charged with encouraging a new wave of church planting, and Rev. Scott Snow, who wants to convince all Missouri Synod Lutherans that they can -- and should -- share their faith with others.
Altenberger may have had the toughest job of the three, but, like his counterparts, he believes Ablaze! goals are not only "doable," but "small" in God's eyes. As dying congregations once more begin to thrive, he expects their success stories to encourage others in similar straits to seek help, too.
Working with a dozen LCMS districts in a pilot project last summer, Altenberger helped develop and train leaders for a six-week Bible study called "Motivation for Mission" that's designed to "shift a congregation's spiritual paradigm." After completing the course, congregations will have to decide "whether to become missional or continue business as usual," he said.
Participating districts identified 255 declining congregations that are being invited to take part in the Bible study and its follow-up component, "Groups Ablaze!," a small-group process for building an outreach-focused congregation.
So far, every congregation that has begun the process has been receptive, according to Altenberger, and those that have applied its principles to their own situations "have seen an increase in worship attendance, they [now] have adult confirmations, they're engaged in their community, and more people in the congregation are involved in witnessing activities" -- characteristics of a healthy, outreach-focused congregation, he says. "It's just changing hearts and changing minds to see that the lost are the most important" focus.
The process is relatively inexpensive -- about $60 for materials -- and Altenberger encourages interested congregations to contact his successor, Rev. David Born, for information.
"The more people who are involved, the more opportunities we'll have to reach 100 million people [through Ablaze!]," he said.
For information, contact Born at (800) 433-3954 or david.born@lcms.org <mailto:david.born@lcms.org> .
Planting more churches
As LCMS World Mission's director for new mission fields development, Rev. Yohannes Mengsteab sees his role as "helping healthy congregations replicate themselves."
Working with LCMS mission leaders, districts, and mission societies, Mengsteab has begun a process to identify 600 "healthy" Synod congregations that will commit to planting three or four "daughter" congregations each over the next 12 years.
Do the math and you can see that the plan would effectively meet the Ablaze! goal of starting 2,000 congregations in North America by 2017.
Mengsteab notes that this isn't the first time the Synod has set an aggressive church-planting goal. "We had a similar vision in 1979," he said. "The goal was to plant 1,800 congregations in 10 years," or about 180 a year. The actual number of churches started was less than 100 a year -- 70 to 80, according to Mengsteab.
In his opinion the effort was not successful because the Synod failed to "clearly connect church planting and leadership development" -- the strategy it uses in overseas mission fields. In effect, the church body was increasing the workload without increasing the manpower, with an expectation Mengsteab calls "unrealistic."
This time around, lay leaders in each of the chosen congregations will be trained as "church planters." Their theological education will be modeled after the Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology, a distance-education program based at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, that trains immigrants -- mostly Africans -- as missionaries in less than four years.
The new missionary-training program, which Mengsteab hopes will be in place by this summer at both LCMS seminaries, has been dubbed "Missionary Pastor Leadership Development." Traditional mission-track seminary students also will be recruited as church planters, as well as deaconesses and other professional church workers, according to Mengsteab. And a number of congregations may choose to put together "church-planting teams" of several people -- rather than just a single person -- to guide their efforts.
Without additional church planters, church-planting goals simply cannot be met, he says, and he points to the Synod's African-immigrant ministry as an example. Over a dozen years, the ministry has grown to include 100 African leaders -- only about 20 of them are ordained -- and more than 90 congregations.
"When we began, I was the only active LCMS African-immigrant pastor working with African immigrants," said Mengsteab, who is Eritrean. But the U.S.-based ministry, like its overseas counterpart in Africa, "connected the two [church planting and leadership development] from the beginning, and that's why we have had this rapid growth."
Moreover, he says, "the talents that God has given to all our members need to be utilized in planting churches."
Likewise, Mengsteab believes that every congregation -- regardless of its growth potential -- can take part in church planting by "partnering" with LCMS World Mission and other congregations to provide prayer and financial support, and perhaps even ministry leaders willing to serve outside their communities.
For its part, LCMS World Mission has earmarked $700,000 of its annual budget for new church development in North America. Those funds will be made available primarily to the 600 church-planting congregations, but Mengsteab says any LCMS congregation that's interested in planting a daughter church will receive funding.
"If you have a vision for planting a congregation, call us. We can help," he said. To reach Mengsteab, call (800) 433-3954, Ext. 1336, or send an e-mail to yohannes.mengsteab@lcms.org <mailto:yohannes.mengsteab@lcms.org> .
We're all called
Rev. Scott Snow, like most pastors, has a pretty good vocabulary. But in his role as director of evangelism networking with LCMS World Mission, Snow likes to use two words over and over: "frequently" and "intentionally." Those two words describe how all Lutherans -- from kids to adults -- ought to share their faith with others, he says.
"I think God calls every one of us, God plants every one of us, where He [can] reach folks who don't know Christ as Lord and Savior," Snow said. "And that, wherever we are, there are dozens and dozens of [unchurched] people -- where we get our hair cut, where we buy our gas, where we get groceries, people across the backyard fence, folks at our workplace, kids in school."
And, though many of us may not believe it, Snow says he's convinced that "God equips every one of us with a way to be able to share our faith.
"The thing is, many people have never been asked to do it, they feel that they've never been trained to do it, and they've never done it. So they feel inadequate about doing it."
Today, with the Ablaze! initiative in full swing, Snow is asking all Missouri Synod Lutherans to shed their fears and become more intentional about faith sharing.
He calls the Ablaze! goal of reaching 50 million North Americans with the Gospel by 2017 "kind of puny," really, when you consider that if each of the Synod's 2.5 million congregation members "only shared our faith twice a year over the course of the next 10 years, we would meet the goal two years before the goal is supposed to be accomplished."
Each member. Twice a year. That's it.
To help evangelism-shy Lutherans get started, Snow suggests they employ any of "dozens of tools that already exist to help folks easily share their faith." Those tools include Ablaze! wristbands -- available from the "Resource Exchange" on the Ablaze! Web site at www.lcmsworldmission.org/ablaze <http://www.lcmsworldmission.org/ablaze (click on "Promotional Items") -- and pocket crosses, coins, medals, and tracts that may be ordered from Concordia Publishing House, Lutheran Hour Ministries, Creative Communications for the Parish, Christian Tools of Affirmation, and other entities.
Some LCMS congregations encourage their members to distribute business cards with the church's address, telephone number, Web site, and worship times.
There is no single evangelism tool or correct way for Lutherans to share their faith -- there are a multitude of them, according to Snow -- and he asks each individual to explore what works best for him or her.
Sometimes it's enough to share how God has helped you in your life. Or, you can invite a friend or family member to accompany you to worship on Sunday. You could wear the Ablaze! wristband, which may lead others to ask questions about it. Or, tell young families about your congregation's child-care center or school.
"All of these things are ways that folks can individually figure out and explore what they feel comfortable with, where God has led them, what their experience is, so that they can begin to share their faith in a way that is natural for them," says Snow. Think of the "joy of sharing faith in Jesus" not as "a job," he says, but as "an opportunity."
Connecting Ablaze! with LCMS districts also is important to Snow, who is asking districts to add Ablaze! home page "links" to their individual Web sites and to register as Ablaze! partners, pledging their participation and support. Through those links, visitors to district Web sites also can visit the Ablaze! site, which offers information, resources, and promotional items and allows users to report their witnessing activities.
Counting and sharing those activities is important, says Snow, because "each individual [who hears the Gospel] counts; each individual is important. We also want to be able to share those stories to excite and energize and encourage other members of LCMS congregations to intentionally and frequently share their faith as well."
Snow is available to speak to groups about Ablaze! and how Christians can share their faith with others. Contact him at (800) 433-3954, Ext. 1305, or scott.snow@lcms.org <mailto:scott.snow@lcms.org .
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If you have questions or comments about this LCMSNews release, contact Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org <mailto:joe.isenhower@lcms.org> or (314) 996-1231, or Paula Schlueter Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org <mailto:paula.ross@lcms.org> or (314) 996-1230.
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