South Wisconsin District | The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod | November 2022

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  1 Peter 1:3-7 

Mission and mercy in action can be a very exciting thing. To see the Lord at work calling sinners to repentance, gathering them into the community of the redeemed that we call the Church, enlightening them through the proclamation of the Word, sanctifying them through splash of Holy Baptism and the Feast that is the Lord’s Supper, and keeping them in this true faith is truly energizing and wonderful. To be a part of this labor is what the Lord has called us to and in our greatest joy! 

But this labor does not come without planning and purpose. The congregation is not living as an active steward of the Gospel if they are simply standing on the promises while sitting on the premises. Keeping the sign updated, the lights on, and the doors of the sanctuary open is not nearly enough for God’s people to be faithful. The Benediction that is laid upon God’s people carries with it a sending forth. God’s people are sent into the world to live out and give out the amazing grace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Scattering seeds wildly like the Sower in the parable, God’s people are sent out into the harvest field of the world.  

But we must also confess our desire to take credit for the harvest that we did not create. Faithful congregations have a plan for what they do. There is a plan for faithful worship. There is a plan for faithful teaching. There is a plan for faithful stewardship. There is a plan for faithful governance. Congregations without plans will not be around long. But congregations who put their trust in their plans over the power and purpose of the Holy Spirit face a similar danger. Neither apathetic indifference to plan nor slavery to plan is godly. 

Godly plans that clearly confess that the Church grows by the work of the Holy Spirit are not focused on results. Results are not within our power. As Peter confesses, is the Father through the Holy Spirit that has born in us the living hope that we have. It is an inheritance, not an accomplishment. It is God’s power the guards the salvation we have been given freely in Jesus. It is this freedom that gives us the greatest joy!  

But if it is God’s work, what kind of goals can we faithfully set as congregations active in Gospel mission and mercy work? Our goals are not of result, but they are of process. Faithful stewards of the Gospel lay the plans of their work within the process of faithfully proclaiming the Gospel and administering the Sacraments according to their institution by Christ. We can plan how to get the Word out. We can plan how to serve the needs of our neighbor while closing the circle of mission that brings them to the Word. We can reach out with the grace we receive each week at the altar with the full intention of being the means by which the Holy Spirit might bring the lost and erring back to the altar to receive the joy we have! 

This doesn’t happen by accident. It does take planning. But that planning needs to flow from the right mindset. We can’t make anyone believe. Only the Spirit can do that. But we know that where the Word is, there the Spirit is at work. We also know the heart of the Father that desires all to know the joy we have in Jesus.

CHURCH PLANT UPDATE

Fall River/Columbus area: 

Pastor Charlie Brandt reports that the mission continues to move forward. A recent service had 26 in attendance! Two families that were unchurched are now in the instruction process! The faithful labors of Pastors Brandt, Serbus, Juhl, and Sorenson have led the way in Word and Sacrament ministry. A small but faithful band of regulars give us great hopes for the future of this potential congregation. Please continue to keep this effort in your prayers. 

Monticello(Green County): 

This effort continues to gather momentum. Pastor Randal Poppe, Southwest Circuit Visitor and Rev. Dr. Nathan Meador met with leaders of this effort on October 31. The number of people involved and interesting in being part of this exciting start continues to grow. There are as many as 6 potential adult confirmands in this plant already! They are working at organizing the mission start and planning an Adult Class that will begin right after the start of the new year! The first services will be scheduled as soon as that first Adult Class is completed. Please keep this effort in your prayers! 

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC PARTNERSHIP UPDATE

The hurricane season has not been friendly to our mission partners in the Dominican Republic. Fiona brought more damage to Puerto Rico, but there is a great deal of wind and rain in the DR. Relief efforts continue through LCMS Disaster Response (https://www.lcms.org/how-we-serve/mercy/disaster-response). We are thankful to the Lord that our partners in ministry were spared serious damage and loss. The work that continues down there is exciting and inspiriting! 

Financial support and “boots on the ground” short-term mission teams continue to be the best avenues for partnership going forward. NOW is the time for your congregation or group of congregations to start the planning process to take a team down. There are a list of updated team needs in the areas of Mercy, Construction, and Education that are available at https://servenow.lcms.org. If you have more questions, please reach out to the DR coordinator of service teams Erin Mackenzie (erin.makenzie@lcms.org)  

Members from St. Peter's Lutheran Church, MO repairing damage from the hurricane.

Please make sure that you are connecting your college aged members with our campus ministry across the SWD and the nation. We have made it easy for you. Provide the basic contact information at https://swd.lcms.org/campus/index.html. This information will be passed on to the Campus Ministry and they will make contact with the student.

Campus ministry is not a replacement for family local congregation, it is a partner. Please help us be the partner for your college-aged members.  

From Pastor Silas Hasselbrook, Campus Ministry at Marquette and MSOE: 

A few weeks into the semester, I began participating in campus ministry outreach on Marquette Campus with Pastor Doug Peters from Historic Trinity. We met on the third floor of Cramer Hall (the Psychology wing), and enjoyed New York style pizza for lunch as well as wonderful conversation with the Lutheran students that have come. It is a unique opportunity and position for me as I am also a student at Marquette (in the PhD program) and have been able to help those who have come better navigate discussions they have with roommates and formulate Scriptural responses to Catholic doctrines they encounter in class. 

What inspires and encourages me is to see college-age youth take time out of their busy schedules to come and enjoy an hour of fellowship and conversation together. It is also wonderful to witness how much they know about the Lutheran faith (good job home pastors!) and how much it means to them. The fact that they are in dialogue with Catholic friends and peers means that they are willing to engage in conversations pertaining to differences, but in a way that clearly communicates that they believe and live out the Lutheran faith. 

Being in the classroom and interacting with the doctrines and thought of Marquette has enabled me to converse with these great kids about some of the subtle, but significant, differences between Lutheran doctrine and Catholic articulations. This is what has seemed to be most important and helpful for them. For example, I led the Bible Study for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. We discussed the meaning of the Feast and Scriptural ideas surrounding angels for the first 10 minutes. But the conversation quickly changed to describing different interactions that occurred between the Lutheran students and Catholic viewpoints. The next class was a comparative look at the various beliefs Catholics have and Lutheran differences. 

The students are wonderful kids. I have met a young man from Naperville, an East Coast girl enrolled in the ROTC program, and a young lady pursuing a History major. There are others that have yet to come. But there is a Lutheran presence at Marquette and one that needs to be sought out and kept in the faith, especially amidst the many challenges at Marquette. An important moment of the lunch is when the students share what struggles they are going through or what in particular is stressing them out. We then finish the lunch with a prayer commending all these anxieties to our Father in the name of Christ. In the same way, please keep these students and this ministry in your prayers, that our youth may look to Christ alone as their guide and comfort during these formative years, and that the fear and love of God may be nourished in their hearts in the face of all that will come their way. 

At the recently completed SWD Fall Pastors Conference in Madison, the assembly has renamed the Micro-Grant to the Rev. Dr. Edwin S. Suelflow Mission & Mercy Micro-Grant. The sainted Dr. Suelflow, both in his parish service and time as District President was a champion for mercy work that was directly connected to leading those served into a connection with Jesus through the Word and Sacrament ministry of the local congregation. This exciting change helps to clarify the intention of the micro-grant program. These efforts are to connect the Four Mission Priorities of the South Wisconsin District with the mission efforts of the local congregation. The micro-grants are to help start or expand the mission outreach efforts of the local congregation that are distinctly Lutheran, seek to plant new Lutheran congregations and schools, encourage Christian vocation, and engage the community.  

To date, as was reported at the Pastors Conference that made the renaming of the grant, the Rev. Dr. Edwin S. Suelflow Mission & Mercy Micro-Grant program has disbursed over $54,000 in grants. The included graphs help give a clearer picture of how these micro-grant dollars have been utilized.  

These micro-grants range from $500 to $5000. Grant applications can be made by clicking on this link: https://give.ministrylinq.com/App/Form/81ffacab-ec1d-4ef5-bcd8-1f94722a9de0. Submitted applications are reviewed each month. Approved applications are funded within two weeks of their approval. They are open to SWD congregations and schools as well as RSO’s.  

Keep watching the SWD Mission and Mercy Moments to hear more about the stories of how these micro-grants have impacted our SWD mission work and how they might inspire new opportunities where you currently serve. 

LWML Fall Rally 

A pleasant September weekend was enjoyed by 151 attendees at the LWML South Wisconsin District Fall Retreat, held at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center in Fond du Lac. 

Under the theme of Empowered By God’s Grace based on Philippians 4:13, attendees gathered to hear keynote speaker Karol Selle lead an exercise to determine their God given spiritual gifts and more importantly how to use them to serve others. 

The LWML SWD focus of supporting missions was reflected in the giving of over 700 food staples for the Fondy Food Pantry, $1,575.75 in offering for the LCMS Sheboygan County Hispanic Outreach and $630.09 in mites.  

With praise and thanksgiving, it was announced that the third mission grant for this biennium- $30,000 for SWD Church Workers is funded and a check will be presented to the LCMS SWD soon! 

Zone 18 Rally 

Women from the LWML South Wisconsin District Zone 18 met at Divine Savior Lutheran Church, Hartford, on Saturday, October 1, 2022 for their Fall Rally. Guest speaker Rev. Dr. Nathan Meador, Mission Executive for the South Wisconsin LCMS, engaged the group with the topic “Closing the Circle in Mission,” based on Ephesians 2:1-10. He encouraged everyone to witness “vigorously” when sharing the love of Christ! “A good work is good only if it flows from grace and faith” gave everyone food for thought. Just as a person who discovered a cure for cancer would be excited to share that good news with others, so we should be excited to share the Good News of the “cure” for sin: Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

The group prayed, sang praises to God, enjoyed warm fellowship, and brought ingathering items of school supplies to benefit the SOS Center in Milwaukee. Mites were collected to support district and national LWML mission grants.  

All those in attendance were encouraged to sign up to be a “worker” at the upcoming national LWML Convention to be held in Milwaukee on June 22-25, 2023, under the theme “Celebrating the Lord of the Nations,” based on Psalm 33:12-13. Thousands of women and men are expected to fill the Wisconsin Center as they celebrate 80 years of joyously supporting worldwide missions with their prayers and mites. 

Elected as LWML SWD Zone 18 officers for the next two years was Kati Meyerhofer (President), Kimberly Terry (Vice President), and Marilyn Fulton (Secretary), all from Divine Savior, along with Janet Hessler (Treasurer) from Peace, Beaver Dam. 

From Mark Brueggemann, LERT Leadership from St. Paul – Grafton: 

"On October 9, 2022 we deployed to Venice, Florida to assist with the cleanup of devastation caused by hurricane Ian. We worked in Venice, Englewood and Port Charlotte cleaning up damaged and downed trees at Lakeside, Redeemer and Trinity Lutheran Churches. In addition, we aided many of the parishioners of these churches and some of their neighbors. The days were hot and long but so gratifying being the hands and feet of Jesus doing His work. 

A big thank you to Pastor David Dalke and Lakeside Church for providing us lodging, hot meals and noon lunches. We could not have done it without them! 

Continue to pray for the people of Florida as they work to put their lives back together. 

Stewardship is an on-going topic that every Christian and every congregation needs to deal with if it is to faithfully serve the Gospel. Here are some resources for pastors and steward leaders in the congregation. 

Rev. Dr. Nathan Meador serves the SWD as Mission Executive and resources LCMS Stewardship. He is more than happy to come speak to your congregational leadership about stewardship issues. He can also be a resource for helping your congregation get a better understanding of why the Lord has you in your community for such a time as this and set in place a plan for what the Lord is leading toward and how to accomplish it. Again, contact meador@swd.lcms.org for more information. 

Please include the following in the Prayers of the Church this month: 

November 6: 

Righteous God, bless all ministers of the Gospel and the congregations committed to their care, especially those who are leading our mission starts in Fall River and Monticello WI, that the comfort of Christ’s sacrifice and the joy of His resurrection may be proclaimed to all those in our communities who are grieving their sin and mourning the death that is so evident in our world, and inspire the greatest confidence that Christ has now and always will overcome even our greatest enemies.  

November 13 

Lord God, we have this command from Your blessed apostles, that we are to be busy at work and not walk in idleness. Strengthen us in the Lord Jesus Christ to do good without weariness. Bless the homes and businesses of this congregation, and give to our people the fruits of their labors. Especially we pray for the work of those who have become part of the Lutheran Early Response teams who have committed to being Christ’s hands and feet to meet the needs of those who face disaster and destruction. Grant that, in the conduct of our life’s work, our hearts may always be directed to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.

November 20 

O Christ, our King, You have delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into Your kingdom. In You we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Guard Your congregation and Your ministers, and preserve Your Word among us. Work your mercy through your people and use us to engage our neighbors with your Holy Word so that we might close the circle in mission as your grace flows to us and through us to our neighbors for their benefit and Your glory. Rule over Your Church with the forgiveness of sins and work all things together for her good, until at last we rise with You. 

Thanksgiving Day 

Heavenly Father, graciously remember the needs of Your children. Sustain the weary with hope, lead Your Church to be generous in their support of the poor and the hungry, and bring an end to all jealousy and strife. Embolden us your people to seek to meet the physical needs of our neighbor with the full intent of bring them to Your Word of Truth, that the Holy Spirit may use that Word to bring them to see that you have met their greatest need in Jesus Christ, crucified and raised.  

November 27 

Gracious Lord, though we do not know the day or hour of Your Son’s appearing, grant that we would always be prepared by sending us faithful pastors and teachers who will boldly proclaim Your Word of Law and Gospel to us, that we may be constantly encouraged and built up in the faith. Spare us from the ungodly spirit of anxiety while inspiring us a godly urgency to communicate your Holy Word to those in our families, our neighborhoods and world who do not know you who even now face an uncertain eternity. Make us instruments of your Grace that labors urgently in the day, before the night comes when no man can work.

Rev. Dr. Nathan Meador

Mission Executive

South Wisconsin District - LCMS

meador@swd.lcms.org

swd.lcms.org