President Gerald Kieschnick introduced Terry Tieman, Executive Director of Transforming Churches Network, whom recognized two churches who have been richly blessed in their ministry and missions.

"While Rev. Tieman is with us today, we will proceed with one of a few special presentations at this convention. As was broadly publicized last year, three emphases for the Synod were developed through a collegial and collaborative process involving the Synod's Senior Leadership Forum (which includes the executive directors and presidents of the boards, commissions, departments, and Synod-wide corporate entities), the Council of Presidents, and Synod's Board of Directors. These three mission and ministry emphases have served as "critical targets" guiding the work of the national church boards, commissions, departments, and Synod-wide corporate entities leading up to the time of this national Synod convention. These emphases were:

1. Revitalizing existing LCMS congregations;
2. Planting new mission congregations; and
3. Enhanced focus on stewardship of time, talent, and treasure.

At this convention, we will recognize some of the congregations from the Synod whom the Lord has extraordinarily blessed through mission and ministry that have been identified as being exemplary in each of these critical target areas.

Watch the video here.

VIDEO: You've Got to Get Out of the Boat
Rev. Dr. Terry Tieman delivers the devotion at the 64th Annual LCMS National Convention on Monday, July 12.

VIDEO: LCMS: One People in Mission

APPLETON, Wis. (April 27, 2010) – Transforming Churches Network (TCN), 1160 Vickery Lane, Suite 1, Cordova, TN, recently received a $75,000 grant from the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation. The grant will help TCN assist congregations revitalize their mission focus.

“Transforming Churches Network is very grateful for this generous grant from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation. It allows us to continue to reach the lost people so that they may come to know Christ as their Savior, which is our goal,” said Rev. Dr. Terry Tieman, Executive Director of Transforming Churches Network.

“We are delighted to assist Transforming Churches Network through this grant, said Tim Schwan, Vice President of the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation. “We trust that this support will strengthen Transforming Churches Network’s revitalization efforts to those it serves.”

This year, St. Paul Lutheran Church in Tomahawk, Wisconsin, celebrated Easter  by hosting an Easter dinner for their community.

click here for video

Pastor Mark Schoenherr’s hope was to feed people physically and spiritually. “Hopefully through this weekend, we can find and reach those who are looking for a relationship with their Savior, Jesus Christ.”

View pictures from February's seminar in Omaha, Nebraska.  Credits and comments are appreciated.

*Be sure to take a moment and fill out the Covenant to Pray and Fast during January, 2010, by clicking here!

According to the Chinese calendar, 2010 will be known as the Year of the Tiger.   (How ironic is that, in light of the famous fall from grace of a certain athlete with that same moniker?)  Others are hailing 2010 as the Year of the Mac (the computer, not the burger), the Year of Living Dangerously, The Year of Online Shopping, and on it goes.  Compared to past years of the Rat and Pig, I suppose some of these new “years” wouldn’t be so bad.  Recently, one guy even wrote a book about his Year of Living Biblically, a fascinating account about his quest to live the ultimate biblical life. His goal was to follow every single rule in the Bible – as literally as possible.

by Roland Lovstad.

Originally printed in The Reporter, December 30, 2009.  View the original article here.

There is an unknown constituency in the midst of the Ablaze! goal to revitalize 2,000 congregations by 2017: they are the ones with no church home or those who don't yet know Jesus as their Savior.

Pastors Andy Nelson and Greg Prauner of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Ridgewood, NJ, were excited by the interactions they had with people in the community when they tried prayer walking and community surveys as a consequence of their involvement in a Pastor's Learning Community.  After the congregation's consultation weekend, they organized members of the congregaiton to employ the same activities as part of their envisioning process.  More then 50 people participated in the surveys in Ridgewood and three neighboring communities, and prayer-walked in teams, meeting people and engaging them in conversations.  Everyone was apprehensive to start with, but when they reported back after the events they were very enthusiastic about their positive experiences out in the community.  A concerted effort was also made to survey community leaders, who were very helpful in pointing out needs in the community which the congregation could address.  A large amount of responses to the surveys was collated by two members who have a business and marketing background.  Now that the congregation is going forward with the envisioning process, they have first-hand information on their community as they pray about which mission targets to engage first.

One of the key principles of the TCN process is measurement.  By tracking our progress we can see what works and what doesn't, as well as our specific impact on church growth and health.  New statistics from the Mid-South District show an average growth rate of 13.9% for consulting churches six months after consultation, with numerical growth as high as 71 people.  Click here to download the full report.

Dear Friends in Christ:

It feels comfortable addressing you as a "friend in Christ," but there are less and less people in the United States who share that feeling.  According to a recent Newsweek article, "the percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades."   In addition, "the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990, rising from 8 to 15 percent."  (For the entire Newsweek article, go to:  http://www.newsweek.com/id/192583.)

Many churches are at a loss about how to deal with this phenomenon.  Some are following the mega-churches and trying to provide more programs, services and activities to attract more people from the community.