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Synodical Council Report to Northern Wisconsin District

October, 2013 The majority of the information in my report comes from the Report of the Synod President and other reports from the 62nd Biennial Convention of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod held in New Ulm, Minnesota on July 29th through August 1, 2013. It is either a direct quote or a paraphrase of the information from the convention. I think it is important to look at the Synods purpose as indicated in President Schroeders Report When we look at our synod, we need to do so realistically. Part of the realism will focus on what God has done and still does for us. We treasure the blessings that God has showered on our church body. He has preserved his pure Word among us. He has filled our churches with people who confess their sins and who rejoice in Gods assurance of forgiveness in Word and Sacrament. He has blessed us with schools in which faithful workers are trained to carry out a wide variety of ministries and talented students willing to prepare for ministry. He has moved us to value Christian education and has moved congregations to devote time and energy and resources needed to establish and maintain schools on all levels from early childhood through college. He has continued to help us focus on our double mission of holding on to this Word among us and proclaiming that Word to the world. With his help we have continued to find new opportunities in foreign fields and have been able to establish more home missions than in recent years. He has lifted our eyes to see the need to reach people of all cultures, many of whom are living in our communities and neighborhoods. We have demonstrated how much we value sound worship by committing our synod to developing a new hymnal. We have shown our high regard for the Word of God with the time and effort we have dedicated to choosing a translation for our synods publications. God has move the hearts of our people to provide help for victims of disasters and to show Christian love through humanitarian aid projects around the world. He has moved our members, even in these difficult times, to support generously the gospel ministry in their congregations and beyond their congregations in the work we do jointly as a synod.

In Christ Alone
In Christ Alone was adopted at the 2011 convention as a road map of where we hope to be as a synod in 2017. This will help to establish ministry priorities and goals, along with the funding that is required for these ministry programs. Mission work continues abroad and at home. Or mission efforts in Africa, Indonesia and India have been blessed with increasing numbers including the training of national pastors. The Board for Home Missions has planned to establish 8 to 10 new home missions in the coming year and the same number in the years to follow. The last several years home mission starts were at a very modest pace. Our two ministerial educations schools are in much stronger financial positions than they have been recently. Both Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and Martin Luther College have been able to increase their

programs of training for pastors and teachers. The prep schools have not seen the same financial situation and we will continue to monitor these schools in the coming years.

Ministry Financial Plan


The synod has been very blessed in these tough economic times and was able to end the year with a balanced budget without having to reduce any ministry programs. Through careful planning and stewardship we were able to significantly under-spend the original budget to help balance the budget. The future budgets are asking for a 4% annual increase in Congregational Mission Offerings (CMO). If this plan is met we will be able to do the following: Provide for a significant number of new home missions Expand world missions and multi-language publications We will be able to continue to fund our ministerial schools to provide the quantity and quality of called workers needed for our congregations Enables our vicar program to remain strong and properly place vicars for training Provide adequate funding for ministry support areas such as technology, communications and financial services Continue to pay off the synods debt ($1.6 million per year) Provide a small salary increase for synodical workers

It has been brought to the attention of the Synodical Council that the current WELS Pension plan is underfunded by about 30%. Because of that, it is being recommended that the retirement age be increased to mirror the retirement age for Social Security. Other options are being looked at, including the raising of payments by the congregations. This will be discussed in more detail at the November meeting.

Bible Translation
At Synod Convention it was voted on and adopted by the convention that the WELS utilize the best translation for publications and usage. There was not a single bible translation that was adopted, so we will use multiple versions for official publications by the synod. There was significant discussion and opinions on this and the general feeling is that there is not a single version out there that is perfect for all applications. It was also decided by the voters of the convention that the WELS not translate our own bible or even a Lutheran bible. There was also a lot of discussion on this and the vote was about 2/3 against it. The Missouri Synod had expressed some effort in working on this together.

Inter-Church Relationships
The following were points of update and interest:

Talks continue with the LCMS and future discussions are planned ELS President John Holdstad was present at the convention and spoke We are in doctrinal fellowship with 23 other Lutheran churches around the world The Lutheran Confessional Church in Norway was welcomed into fellowship Pastor Egil Edwardsen was present at the convention (LCCN pastor)

Synod Administration Move to Waukesha


The WELS Center for Mission and Ministry in Waukesha has become the new home for the synod as of June of this year. Two years ago the 33,000 sq. ft. facility was purchased for $2.85 million after the synod received an unsolicited offer on the Mayfair Road office building. This sale fell through at the last hour leaving the synod with two office buildings. Both buildings were recently put up for sale and an offer of $2,000,000 was accepted on the Mayfair property. The sale closed in April and the terms allowed us to stay in the facility for three months as the new facility was prepared for occupancy.

Lutheran Education
Our Lutheran elementary school and high school system is one of the largest parochial school systems in the country. This continues to be a blessing to our synod by being an effective training ground for church leaders and called workers. Our schools remain committed to biblical doctrine and Lutheran practice. These schools also have reached out into the community and created mission opportunities. The fastest growing aspect of our Christian Education system is Early Childhood education. The WELS now has more Early Childhood programs than elementary programs. The synod has called a national coordinator of early childhood ministries to assist in the establishment of these programs. MLC has just recently dedicated a new Early Childhood Center for the training of workers for this ministry field.

Synodical Debt
In 2007 the synod realized that it had a debt of $22.4 million, that debt has now been reduced to $8 million with continued payments on debt and a special synod wide offering. Currently our debt cost is about $1.6 million per year. Because of that, the Conference of Presidents has submitted a memorial calling for a special offering in 2015 to eliminate the debt of $5 million that is anticipated to remain at that time. The will free up money to be used for missions and other ministry programs.

I hope that this information provides a snapshot of the work of the synod and what our future ministry plans are. Respectfully submitted Tom Schermerhorn

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