The Bishop’s Report For The Northwestern Ohio Synod Assembly
Bowling Green, Ohio • May 20-22, 2004 

To all God’s beloved in the Northwestern Ohio Synod, who are called to be saints:  Grace  to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s difficult to believe that six years have gone by since I was called to serve as your bishop. As you might imagine, I have learned much about the work that God is accomplishing through the ministries of this synod.   I have had opportunity to worship and preach in almost all of our congregations and to learn something about the specifics of each ministry.  I count it a joy to know of the vitality of many pericope study groups for those preparing for the preaching of the texts in our congregations and partnerships that have developed among some of our congregations for the sake of more effective ministry.  I have had the privilege of getting to know the co-workers in the Gospel in this synod, those both rostered in various ministries as well as our lay leadership. I have come to know the stories of faith and life and something of the joys and sorrows shared by many.

Ministry Through The Northwestern Ohio Synod 
In addition to our congregations, many other ministries exist because of our walking together in the Northwestern Ohio Synod.  I have become familiar with the rich tradition of Lutheran Social Ministries that are supported by congregations and individuals of this synod and have come to value the critical ministry they continue to provide.  It has been a delight to observe and to participate in our various camping ministries organized through Lutheran Outdoor Ministries of Ohio.  As your bishop, I have had the privilege of serving on the Board and Executive Committee of Trinity Seminary and have come to appreciate the gift God has given to us in that seminary.  It is gratifying to experience the faith and commitment of those preparing for pastoral and other ministry in this church and to watch their knowledge and skills develop.  Many of you are graduates of Capital, Wittenberg or other colleges and universities affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  It has been good to learn something of the work of these institutions and their commitment to excellence in education and providing the space for the nurturing of faith in Christ. This synod supports Lutheran Campus Ministry in Ohio.  I give thanks to God for those ministries of presence-including that of Toledo Lutheran Campus Ministry led by Pastor Wendy Sherer.

As your bishop, I have been deeply appreciate of our partnership with the Dodoma Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania and the manner in which God has blessed both that Diocese and this Synod through this partnership.  Can we even keep track of all the relationships that have been created through this partnership and the numerous ways in which God has used this partnership to enrich our lives and faith?  Similarly, we have been blessed through our “full communion” relationships and our working covenant with the Toledo Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church.  Through such relationships I have come to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a part of the “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic” church.

In visits with your congregations, I have lifted up our vision statement, “We are 188 outposts for mission where God is at work making Christ know in our congregations, communities and world.”  That’s not just an empty statement.  Thanks be to God, it is the truth.  The above offer flesh and blood illustrations of that truth.  I could offer many more

Ministry Through The Evangelical Lutheran Church In America
If, in the last six years, I have learned much about what God is doing in the Northwestern Ohio Synod, it is also true that I have learned much about what God is doing through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Many of you are aware that the reduction in Mission Support has caused a corresponding reduction in those who serve in our Churchwide Offices.  Here let me share the importance of some of those offices for our work in the Northwestern Ohio Synod.  Our Churchwide Representative at this Assembly is the Secretary of this church, the Rev. Lowell Almen.  How I have appreciated his counsel on a number of occasions, his “coaching” with respect to rostering matters, his gentle reminder of the nature of our covenant together in this church and corresponding understanding of a constitution to serve that covenant, his historical knowledge of this church and the predecessor church bodies.

Yes, on a number of occasions, I am grateful for the legal counsel afforded to those who serve as bishop in this church.  I am not an expert in the law.  I appreciate one Phil Harris whose love for this church and commitment to the Gospel leads him to offer guidance to bishops for the stewarding of this church’s mission.

Last Fall I had the privilege of attending a Consultation in Tanzania including those who are companions in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania and the ELCA.  What a gift it was to have resource people knowledgeable in this church’s globall mission including Gaylord Thomas and Lynda Tidemann from our Chicago Offices.

Last summer I attended the ELCA National Youth Gathering in Atlanta.  On my first day, I came upon a pastor of this Synod, Lisa Cleaver, who served as a resource for the Youth Gathering in addition to serving as Director for Disability Ministries in our Churchwide Office.  On that occasion she persuaded me to navigate a prepared course in a wheel chair that ended in a “bathroom.”  How grateful I was that this was not an urgent moment.  Pastor Cleaver has done excellent work in this synod and churchwide in alerting us to the needs and gifts of those who are “differently abled.”

In April our staff had a retreat at Camp Mowana.  We wanted to reassess what was happening in this Synod’s ministry and begin to chart future directions for this ministry-whether led by myself or someone else.  Pastor David Daubert from the ELCA Division for Outreach provided us with skilled leadership that kept us grounded in Christ and focused on God’s mission.  Regional Coordinator, Marilyn Smith, served as chaplain and provided many insights gained from her years on Synod Staff.

Do we need to mention the ELCA’s World Hunger Appeal and its work with Lutheran World Relief as another illustration of the importance of our work together?

Here too the list of important ministry offered through the ELCA goes on.  It includes mission starts in ethnic communities and growing communities, the development of congregational resources for stewardship, education, evangelism and the support of such ministries as our radio ministry, The Lutheran Vespers.

In short, over the past years I have learned much about what it means to be a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the work that God is accomplishing in and through our life together.

Some Goals  For Our Life Together

A.  Keeping The Good News Of The Crucified And Risen Jesus Central To Our Life And Witness 
By the grace of God, we are those who in baptismal waters have “been marked with the cross of Christ forever.”  Our story is shaped by the story of the God who is revealed through the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.  We are nurtured in that story through the proclamation of Christ and gathered into it through our “baptism into Christ”, fed by the “body and blood of Christ”, and granted the life-giving Holy Spirit so that we are enabled to confess, “Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2).  The temptation to replace that confession with another (for example, materialism, consumerism, nationalism, the primary pursuit of one’s own happiness as an end in itself, success) will always be there.  May God grant those who are a part of the Northwestern Ohio Synod the obedience of faith!

B.  Leadership That Is Centered In Christ
If God is to use the Northwestern Ohio Synod for the sake of God’s mission in the world, it is critical that the church’s leadership, both laity and clergy, be centered in God’s promises in Christ.  How will that happen apart from leadership which seeks to link the confession of Christ as Lord with all other aspects of faith and life.  We need leadership that will put God’s benefits in Christ to good use, that is, to faithful use.  That will not happen apart from prayer, the study of God’s word, the use of the gifts God gives in Holy Baptism and in the Lord’s Supper, the practice of tending the community of faith, a willingness to tell the story of God’s love in the crucified and risen Christ, stewardship, and a life of service-always including the possibility of suffering for the sake of the Gospel.  Can we expect such characteristics in the life of our pastoral and lay leadership?  Can we expect it of all the baptized?  Where such characteristics are present, by the grace and Spirit of God, one will experience a church that is making a faithful witness.  Is that not our hope and prayer for the Northwestern Ohio Synod?

C.  Congregations That Are Centers And Outposts For Mission
The Church is God’s mission to the Church.  The Church is also God’s mission to the world.  As God’s shapes us into the Body of Christ, God also sends us into the world.

The one comes with the other.   As the faithful congregation is “marked with the cross of Christ, called and gathered”, it is also sent into the world.  Each congregation will need to keep asking, How do we give of ourselves for the sake of the world?  Each of the baptized will need to keep prayerfully asking, How would God use me and my gifts for the sake of God’s mission, for the “care and redemption of this world?

Some Matters That Need Attending In The Days Ahead

1.  Working Through The Sexuality/Homosexuality Deliberation
This is a difficult conversation both in the world and in the Church.  We should not be surprised that we would also find it difficult within this church.  By the grace and Spirit of God, can we continue to have this conversation in a manner that draws deeply from our Baptismal and Eucharistic identity, that listens to each seeking “to speak the truth in love,” that draws from the Scripture, that puts Lutheran Confessional Theology to good use, that is fervent in prayer seeking, “Thy will be done?”  Can we keep framing this conversation within the context of God’s mission to the world?

2. Resisting The Cultural Temptation To “Go It Alone”
To love Jesus is to love his Church.  They simply come together.  But such love also insures a measure of “cross-bearing”-sometimes bearing the cross of the other, sometimes requiring the other to bear the cross of our sin, and at all times being carried by Him who bore the cross for us and for our salvation.  For God’s reasons, God has placed us together in the Northwestern Ohio Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in this time and place.  Will we value this partnership, pray together, worship together, work together for the sake of God’s mission, forbear one another?  That’s not culturally popular.  It is, however, the way of the cross, and the way of our Lord Jesus before whom no one can boast.

3. Allowing The Holy Spirit To Convert Us – Again And Again
This synod numerically continues a slow but steady decline.  Where are our children and those of our neighbors?  Where are the new immigrants?  Where are the poor?  Do the words we hear and offer in worship “match” our lives. With respect to telling the story of God’s love, our lips too often have been sealed.  We have forgotten that it is the Church of our Lord Jesus and not our own.  Such forgetfulness invites the judgment of God.  Yet God in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, would awaken renewed faith. And with renewed faith comes the compulsion to “tell the story” and to “live the story.” May God grant us that repentance and that conversion – for our own sake and for the sake of God’s mission to the world.

4.  Offering With Joy What God Has First Given Us- Ourselves, Our Time And Our Possessions
Mission Support for God’s mission through the Northwestern Ohio Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America continues to decline.  Mission Support from the Northwestern Ohio Synod in 2003 declined approximately 3% below 2002.  Elsewhere we have spelled out the significant impact on ministries both in the Northwestern Ohio Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  What would happen if the Holy Spirit would also convert the way in which we use the financial resources God has entrusted to us?  Surely, we would have what we need to fund fully the mission God has entrusted to us!

Finally…
Many of you know that I began this call as your bishop with a sense of shock.  I loved parish ministry and never “aspired” to this particular office.   However, I accepted being a part of the election process and the resultant “call” believing that God works through this calling process.

As I near completion of this “term call”, I thank God for those who have supported and encouraged me with their words, their prayers, their faithful service, and, sometimes, their willingness to go the extra mile.  I have learned much during the past years.  Most of all, I have learned again what it means to depend upon God’s promises in Christ-in any and all circumstances.

I want to express deep gratitude for those who have served on my Mutual Ministry Committee.  They include: Chuck Atkins,  Pat Peter, Diane Sonnenberg, Pr. Chrysanne Timm, Pr. Robert Wietelmann.

I thank God for those who have served on the Synod Council and Executive Committee for the past years.  Most recently, we are blessed with the leadership of Jeannine Grimm, Synod Vice-president; Jonathan Starn, Treasurer; Marilyn Bloom, Secretary: Barb Moelmann, and Pastor Ted Stellhorn.

I also thank God for those who have served on the Synod Staff:  They include:  Tom Basinger, Pam Jacobs, Rebecca Conklin, Carol Groman, Suzanne Wagner, Kathy Lemmerbrock, and Assistants to the Bishop Pastor Dennis Maurer, Pastor Marc Miller, Pastor Ray Gottschling, and Pastor Cathy Schibler.  I am most grateful for leadership for our Synodically Authorized Ministry coordinated by Sister Elizabeth Steele, for the Lay Academy for Mission coordinated by Julie Roy.  Pastor Gene Grimm continues to  be a good resource for our Stewardship Ministry.  Marilyn Smith has been a valued colleague as Region VI Coordinator and Joyce Palmer has provided leadership for the Ohio Lutheran Planned Giving Partnership.

For these dear partners in ministry, I thank God.

In the pastors, associates in ministry, and lay leadership in this synod we have much for which to praise God.

As we consider the ministry of the Northwestern Ohio Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we pray that God will bless us with the Holy Spirit that our confidence in Christ and his grasp of us will enable us to give ourselves for the sake of the world.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  (Romans 15:13)

Your brother in Christ,
Bishop Marcus C. Lohrmann