The Mission Phoenix

I am sure that many have been following the developments of the 2010 LCMS convention in Houston with interest.  In case you have been on vacation or living under a rock, the convention elected a new president and vice-president (Rev. Matthew Harrison, pres; and Rev. Herbert Mueller, VP).  Even more interesting, though, is that the convention approved the resolution to re-structure our Synod into two commissions - one for "national mission" and the other for "international mission".&...

The job of an evangelistic missionary can be summarized in one word: contextualization. For some reason, that word has a bad reputation in some circles. I’m not quite sure why – perhaps it has been used as a catch-all to justify teachings or practices that depart from the Word of God.

But it doen’t deserve a bad reputation. Contextualizing a message means that the message is presented in a way that is understandable to the hearers. Every LCMS past...

I, for one, am completely fed up with the “shell game” that LCMS World Mission is playing with the missionary numbers. LCMS World Mission works very hard to give the impression that we are sending more career missionaries now than ever, even though that is absolutely not true.

The recent headline: “Fan into Flame tops 55.9 million; Funds 29 missionaries”  (http://www.lcm...

       Rev. Alfred and Nancy Ebel served as missionaries in New Guinea from 1968 – 1978. Rev. Ebel taught at Papyulu Lutheran School, Highlands Lutheran School and Balob Teachers College in New Guinea. Here are some of their observations and recollections of their mission service.

       What does one do with one hundred 100-watt bulbs that only go “pop” when put in a socket? Fortunately,...

       I was serving on some church committee or other, and we were debating whether or not to proceed with a particular course of action. One of the members of the committee, a Lutheran lawyer, opined: “For me, that doesn’t pass the squirm test.”  What - I asked - is the squirm test? He said something like this: “If all of the details of this decision became public knowledge, would you be OK with your part in it? Or would it make you...

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. – I Peter 5:7

       God is interested in your well-being. Did you ever think of that? He is. He wants you to be healthy, free from worry, confident about the future, and in good spirits. He wants your marriage to be wonderful, your children to be a blessing to you, and your single-ness to be satisfying. If you are not well – spiritually, emotionally, phy...

       "What do you think of LCMS World Mission?"

       Don't you find that to be a hard question to answer? I know I do. I think that most LCMS missionaries have a love/hate relationship with our denominational mission organization. It goes with the territory.

       The way a missionary feels about their sending agency has a lot to do with the reason why a missionary goes overseas...

The following is a portion of a post by David Ernst in the "General Discussion", "Should we still be sending missionaries overseas?" David Ernst arrived in Venezuela as a volunteer missionary. He is now an ordained pastor of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela and lives and works in Venezuela. See his blog at: http://venezuelaview.blogspot.com

       "One of the reasons I volunt...

Everyone loves a good missionary story. Heck, I love a good missionary story, and I've lived dozens of them! The story we love to hear is the one where the precious Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ is shared with someone who - in all likelihood - would never have heard that old, old story if the missionary had never come. If we, as the Church, had not sent that person. If we had not supported him or her. We love the missionary story, because we - all of us
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As I mentioned in the "Who I Am" page, I served as an evangelistic missionary to Venezuela from 1988 - 2001.  It was my intention to continue serving as a missionary until God called me home.  In 2000, I accepted the call to serve as LCMS WM Area Director for Venezuela and the Caribbean.  At that time, Dr. Glenn OShoney was the executive director of LCMS WM, and he spearheaded a reorganizion of LCMS World Mission.  The idea was to decentralize missions - to move ...