Northwestern Ohio Synod Assembly
Churchwide Representative Report
May 18, 2007

by Rev. Richard Magnus,
Executive Director Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Missions

Thank you so much for your financial partnership through Mission Support that you as congregations share with the synod and in turn is shared with churchwide for our common broader ministry. Thank you for your leaders who serve beyond this place: Jeanine Grimm who serves on the ELCA Nominating Committee (are you here Jeanine?) and Pastor Keith Hunsinger who serves on the ELCA Church Council. Pastor Keith, where are you? Please feel free to speak to either of us with questions about the churchwide expression of the ELCA.

Again, I say I, Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, and all of our colleagues at the churchwide expression give thanks to God for each of you. Thank you for your partnership in the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the Sake of the World.

As we begin this report, let’s first hear from Presiding Bishop Hanson (showed video).

100 years ago Lutherans had the great foresight to begin a critical ministry that has blessed the church with countless leaders. Campus ministry was born when Pastor Howard Gold began a call to campus ministry at the University of Wisconsin in 1907. 45 years ago campus ministry invited me in and challenged me to be part of peer ministry and leadership on the St. Cloud State University Campus, St. Cloud, MN. That experience changed my life. 

How many of you in this room have had experience of campus ministry? And where are the campus ministers who serve on this territory? Campus ministry broadened my worldview tremendously. It connected me with Lutherans throughout the country. It gave me an opportunity to study with Lutherans in the U.S. and Canada during the 1964 International Lutheran Student Summer Seminar at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. We studied Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer as we lived together in community. It introduced me to ecumenism through the National Student Christian Federation. Campus ministry gave me a purpose, a direction, and helped me realize a call to ordained ministry. Thanks be to God for the gift of 100 years of campus ministry and for all those who serve in campus ministry today, students and staff alike. We would not have campus ministry in this church were it not for the fact that we do it together. God is making a difference for the sake of the world through our work together in campus ministry.

I often wonder if we, members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America realize what an incredible gift we have in our church in its many expressions and manifestations. Mark Hanson has been reminding us these past few years that one of our callings is to steward the rich ecology which is the ELCA. You have taken that calling seriously as you have brought your “Affirmation to Reflect Our Unity and Shared Mission in Christ” commitment forms to offer at worship committing to working toward even stronger connectedness. The commitments you make are critical, all of them. The encouragement of fellowship with colleagues so that none of us works in ministry alone is essential to living and working in the body of Christ. Praying for your partners in ministry connects us as we think of each other in ministry.

Every Wednesday morning at Chapel in the Lutheran Center we remember a particular synod, its bishop, its congregations, its companion synods, an ecumenical partner and those in particular need. It connects us with all of you throughout the church. And the commitment to work at growing in Mission Support will be so helpful. The resources that synods and churchwide have to work with as percentages of congregational budgets have decreased on average during the whole twenty years of the ELCA. That has put tremendous pressure on all the synods and churchwide. Just think of what we could do in our life together if all in the church would accept the challenge to commitment which you have received. Thank you for your participation in that process. That is very encouraging for all of us your partners in ministry at the churchwide expression.

Thanks be to God for your leadership, Bishop Lohrmann, and for all of you who have seen the hope and encouragement in this commitment to be together. We are rich in resources as a church through our colleges – witness the several reports at the back of your material, through our social ministry organizations – again as you can see in the reports of those organizations, through our seminaries as you see the strong ministry of Trinity Seminary in developing leaders for this whole church – and as we appreciate the talents of Dr. Taylor in the bible studies of these days.

Lutheran Services of America is celebrating its Tenth Anniversary – we touch one in 50 in the U.S. through the work of agencies like those which have reports in your material. Just this week a group of executives of units had the privilege of meeting with Jill Schuman, Executive Director of LSA. We celebrated the exciting partnerships that have been formed over those ten years of working together as an alliance and then had the exciting opportunity to vision with her about what might yet be to come. Think of it, working together through social ministry organizations, brought together by LSA, we touch one in 50 U.S. citizens each year. We do make a tremendous difference working together in God’s mission.

Thanks for your good work in evangelism. I’ve heard of your group of 10 evangelists from Toledo that led a wonderful conference last December, and are available throughout the synod to help members to be better able to share their faith. It is time for reclaiming the reformation emphasis of the ministry of the baptized. What could happen if we became an evangelizing church where all the disciples of Christ shared how God is active in their lives with those they meet every day at work, at play and in the family.

Throughout the world Lutherans are seeking to strengthen the ministry of evangelization. We make a difference together through the support we give to the Lutheran World Federation which just recently celebrated its 60th anniversary by returning to Lund, Sweden, where the Federation began its life in 1947. I recently shared with our staff in the Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission unit the story of an evangelism grant to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe. That church does mission in a country collapsing both economically and politically. The people in Zimbabwe are now among the poorest on the African continent. For decades this church of 150,000 “did” church growth solely by baptizing children who attended the Lutheran Primary schools. That was outlawed some time back, and the church realized that they didn’t have another plan for “evangelism.”

Today their evangelism plans are strategic, ambitious and sound. They are gathering 30 clergy and lay leaders and training them in basic evangelism skills. Those leaders then disburse out into the church and are equipped to train others. They have set clear goals for a 3-year program. They know what leaders will be trained and how the training will be measured. Materials will be prepared to assist in the training sessions. They know how many parishes they hope to effect in a three-year program. A significant part of their program will focus on HIV and AIDS education – over 3,000 people in Zimbabwe will die of AIDS this week – the church must be involved.

There request to the LWF includes funding for one car, two motorcycles, ten bicycles and camping equipment (tents/sleeping bags and cookware for the trainers). We stand beside them as a sister church in the LWF – 140 member church in 78 countries. 66 million members, who do make a difference working together.

Again, contextually discovering what is appropriate and setting about doing the ministry which is critical to God’s mission in that context. You helped that grant be made. You are present in that HIV/AIDS ministry and in that sharing of the Gospel by the one who rides the bicycle, sleeps in a tent, and proclaims powerfully the action of the Holy Spirit in his or her daily life.

I heard exciting things about our cooperative ministry in Mercer County. Three congregations, St. Paul, Coldwater, Trinity Fort Recovery, and St. James, Salamonia in Indiana that have come together to call one pastor and are led by a Synodically Authorized Minister. Thank you for such missional thinking that takes context into account and finds, I’m sure with the empowerment of the Spirit, the appropriate leadership that allows a group of congregations to move from survival to mission as the focus for ministry.

Your Lay Academy for Mission makes such leadership possible. I understand that you have trained quite a group of leaders and that several of them are leading congregations and others are looking to put their new skills to work in their own congregations. That is very exciting and something that needs to be happening throughout the church. Keep up the good work and keep sharing your stories of how this is working with the rest of us in the ELCA.

It is also exciting to hear about the good work taking place out of St. Johns, Port Clinton as they reach out across the water to South Bass. That sounds like a fascinating ministry and it sounds like you have a gifted leader who will bring the most needed gifts and skills of youth and family ministry to reach out to the 80 some students on the island. How fortunate that the Roman Catholics and the Episcopalians are willing to help with facility needs so that those concerns don’t prevent you from doing the ministry.

And do I understand correctly that one of your companion synods will also help in the ministry by sending leadership to help reach out to the 600 some students from Eastern Europe that work on the island? I’m impressed! We in EOCM are privileged to partner with you in this venture. I will look forward to the ordination this evening that will send your young leader off to this exciting ministry. And I’ll look forward to hearing the stories of flying to and from the Island during the times when the residents are frozen away from the rest of you.

I was excited to read about your proposed Ethnic Mission Strategy. We in the ELCA have committed to being an inclusive church that works against any kind of racial discrimination and that seeks to mirror in our congregations the populations in our communities. I appreciate the fact that you are embarking on this strategy so that you can be fully part of this critical aspect of who we are as a church. You start from an important place, repenting of our past errors and claiming the sin of racism. You expect the power of the Holy Spirit to move you to look for the gifts God has placed close to your church doors so that you might receive and be blessed in ways that you may not yet have expected. This is such an exciting day of diversity as people from all corners of the world become our neighbors. There is so much to gain, so much growth for individuals and congregations as we are blessed by those God has sent to make us more whole.

But lets not kid ourselves, this ministry is not easy. It demands our very best. We have much to learn from unfortunate situations where congregations have begun to open their doors to different ethnic and racial groups but because careful theological and cultural preparation was not done, we have experienced disastrous results. Sometimes our strategies take courageous leadership.

A few weeks ago I visited the Florida-Bahamas synod as we were evaluating some urban strategy work that had been done. We learned, in that setting, about many congregations that over the years had dwindled to 15-30 members, all white in communities that were 75-95% Hispanic. One such congregation was St. Luke Lutheran Church in Hialiah. They had struggled for years but just were not able to make the connection to the 95% Hispanic community that surrounded the church. When the hurricanes came through the church was damaged to the point where the existing group of leaders had to admit that they could no longer continue. The synod helped the existing members, most of whom lived some distance from the church to find other church homes, some of them back to the church that started St. Luke years ago. Then a leader who had been identified as an evangelist in another congregation, trained by that congregation to use her gift, and assisted to get into theological education through an approach similar to your lay academy followed by Theological Education for Emerging Ministry, was invited to restart a ministry in the facility that had been repaired by the synod. Pastora Remedios Cruz went into the community to discover the people. She met the leaders, business, political, educational, public service, etc. and she began to invite people to join her in reclaiming this wonderful facility in a prime location in Hispanic Hialiah for the good of the community and for the good of God in the community. This past February the group had their first worship. 160 people came from all parts of the community including the mayor and the two state government representatives. The mayor said to Bishop Bennoway at that first worship, “Thank you for preserving this important institution and facility for the sake of the community. This congregation is already making a tremendous difference in Hialiah.” Where a congregation was ready to die, new life was born. Thanks be to God for working together for the sake of the world. You are involved in that new beginning through mission support which helped us in EOCM partner with the synod and the restarting congregation.

I am so excited about our ELCA. I feel we are just on the verge of exploding in exciting ways of participation in God’s mission. Think about how Evangelical Lutheran Worship has been received. The first printing was too small and additional printings have been called for. Much due to the success of the new hymnal Augsburg Fortress ended 2006 with a positive balance for the first time in many years. They also contributed over $400,000 back to the ELCA to help with future worship material development.

And how about the call to the new initiative that will come to the Chicago Churchwide Assembly entitled Book of Faith: Lutherans Read the Bible. What could happen throughout our church if all of us reclaimed daily bible reading and study that continually asks, how would God’s Word move me this day personally to witness to God’s love and will for the world, and if in our congregations we actively participated in small group Bible study asking how God would use us in the congregations, being transformed by the Spirit and being used by the Spirit to help transform our congregations, and our communities. I can feel it coming. This Lutheran tradition bound and richly facility blessed part of the body of Christ is about to wake up, to stretch its muscles as the Spirit has its way with us.

You reported that the mission support reduction trend was broken last year. The whole ELCA experienced an increase in mission support this past year, the first time in five years. Its starting to happen. I hear more and more bishops in synods talking about walking together in faith as the theme they will use repeatedly as they help their leaders and their congregations discern their God given mission in their places and as they together live out that mission. Its happening in exciting ways.

And you are about powerful mission in this place, Spirit led change that is appropriate to who and where you are. Thanks be to God for you and your partnership. I can feel it coming, can you? We celebrate significant anniversaries, 20 years for the ELCA, 10 years for Lutheran Services in America, 100 years for Campus Ministry, 60 years for the Lutheran World Federation. And we anticipate what the Spirit is up to amongst us. Blow spirit, blow. Have your way with us. Take us on adventures the ends of which we can not possibly know, but that are good for the sake of your world. Keep us together Spirit so that we might be truly useful in your finally triumphant mission. Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ who gave his life on a cross so that we might have life. Use us Spirit that we might be an extension of that life giving ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Thanks for your partnership.