Messages

121

Your Turn / Re: Gun Control Issues and Clergy

« on: August 31, 2014, 12:14:26 AM »

I knew an LCMS preacher who wore cowboy boots and packed heat under his cassock when standing in the pulpit.

That's how it should be.  We live in dangerous times...

It was western Colorado and in the '60's.  It had nothing to do with dangerous times and everything to do with his persona.

That sounds like a pastor in Glenwood Springs we used to camp and fish with.  He taught my dad a lot about camping, hunting, fishing, and how to put an edge on a pocket knife. If it's the same pastor, it was his persona.

122

Your Turn / Re: The Direction of LCMS World Mission

« on: August 16, 2013, 03:16:09 PM »

Just a quick (and possibly minor) point that should be injected into this discussion for those who don't follow LCMS things so closely.

Post-restructuring, the Office of International Mission (LCMS International Mission) is not simply LCMS World Missions re-branded/re-badged. The two names are not synonymous. 

LCMS World Relief and Human Care, as a stand-alone entity overseen by an elected board, no longer exists even though the type work it carried out continues as "Mercy".  LCMS World Mission, as a stand-alone entity overseen by an elected board, no longer exists even though the type of work it carried out continues as "Witness".

Witness are Mercy are now being done together, synchronized, with the distinction of happening either internationally or nationally.  For national mission, the added work of a number of old stand-alone departments (Youth, Worship, Stewardship, etc.) that rightly is about our "Life Together" is also being synchronized.

This shift makes the experience question a bit more murky. Experience with what?  Just missions (witness)? Just human care (mercy)? Both?

All this is under the supervisory aegis of the Chief Mission Officer who, I can attest, fully understands the cross-cultural element.  He also understands the socio- economic- and political nuances of foreign environments, and is fully qualified in the arena of strategic planning. Those of us serving under him (4th Commandment) agree to execute the defined mission of the LCMS as the elected leadership designs and defines.

Again, the first point - OIM is more than a re-named WM - is a minor contributory factor to this thread; however, it is one that should be considered in the context of the discussion for those who haven't been following restructuring in as much detail as others.  Will bow out now.

Mark Hofman

(who - full disclosure - also wrestles with the issue of strategic direction and vision as the executive director of LCMS Mission Advancement because we ultimately have to communicate it to investing stakeholders)