A Deployed Church

Complete and radical change. Being totally uprooted. Sacrificing home and family. Risking life itself. Empowering young leaders. Trusting the people of the church to be the church. Total devotion to God's Word and readiness to sacrifice tradition. Always on the move, bringing Christ to every corner of the community and world.

Those phrases describe the DNA of Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

In 1838, 1,100 Saxon Lutherans left Europe for the United States. They were on a quest for religious freedom, resisting the pressure to compromise Biblical teaching fueled by the Prussian Union. Only 750 of these daring and entrepreneurial immigrants made it to New Orleans. One ship was lost at sea.

After weathering their personal grief, the rigors of a new land, and their leader's corruption and sexual misconduct scandal, the group of believers did not collapse in failure and despondency. They grew stronger. Not yet 30-years-old, C.F.W. Walther became the leader of the group. He helped a Biblical model of church and ministry take hold among this group of Kingdom focused Christians.

What was important to this fledgling church?

Being People in Ministry and Mission: The church saw the danger of the old European hierarchical system. They followed the Biblical model of church and ministry, an active balance of people and pastors reaching out and serving.

Discipleship: Christian and theological education became a cornerstone of its existence.

Kingdom Unity: Walther's vision of a Lutheran Church across the United States resulted in the formation of the LCMS in 1847.

Kingdom Expansion: Loehe's "sent ones" (Sendlinge) set the pace for outreach, beginning with Native Americans and culminating in World Mission efforts of Lutherans that continue today.

The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has been a deployed church from the beginning: Sent ones, sending more and more people--both young and old--to share the news of Jesus Christ and equip more missionaries for the Gospel. The LCMS is a deployed church: crossing the ocean and intent on infiltrating every corner of every land with ministry for Jesus Christ.

That's the church I know.

Complete and radical change. Being totally uprooted. Sacrificing home and family. Risking life itself. Empowering young leaders. Trusting the people of the church to be the church. Total devotion to God's Word and readiness to sacrifice tradition. Always on the move, bringing Christ to every corner of the community and world.

How are you doing as you are entrusted with that legacy in your community, for your state and nation, and for the world? How will you deploy your ministry in 2011?

Some churches are bringing church to nursing homes and youth shelters. Some churches are starting preschools in newly populated area. Some churches are implementing multi-site strategies. Some are planting new churches. Some are flooding neighborhoods with missional communities that form relationships and break through the barrier of the anti-institutional post-Christian culture. Ministry at local universities, the raising up of ethnic leaders to create a movement in another culture, Alpha groups that introduce people to the Christian faith--it's the DNA of the LCMS.

Complete and radical change. Being totally uprooted. Sacrificing home and family. Risking life itself. Empowering young leaders. Trusting the people of the church to be the church. Total devotion to God's Word and readiness to sacrifice tradition. Always on the move, bringing Christ to every corner of the community and world.

What's your next step?