The Indiana District comprises some 235 congregations, along with their pastors, schools, teachers, and commissioned workers in Indiana and northern Kentucky. By God’s grace we are a strong and healthy district with many blessings received with thanksgiving and being used to the glory of His name and for the good of His church. As Dr. Brege indicated in his report to the 2019 convention, our district office has gone through some significant transitions.
Indeed, over the past five years we had almost a complete turnover among our executive and support staff. Toward the beginning of his fourth year in office, Dr. Brege made the difficult decision not to let his name stand for election to a second term. We give thanks to God for his faithful leadership, especially his consistent confession and teaching of the Word of our Lord. As he was concluding his service, the undersigned was elected at the 2022 Indiana district convention and is grateful for the beautiful example that Dr. Brege provided. Dr. Kevin Brockberg was brought on board in 2018 to serve as our new education executive. And Mr. Cody Dodson was brought on board the following year to serve as our new finance executive. We are grateful that Dr. Geoff Robinson remains in his office as our mission executive, faithfully serving in a variety of capacities. The district president’s office has been immensely blessed with a new administrative assistant, Mrs. Lisa Slack, who stepped into the position held for over forty years by Mrs. Jan Koenig, and we give thanks for both of these ladies. The education executive’s office likewise has a new administrative assistant, Mrs. Kirsten Bohnke, who is serving admirably in that position. Mrs. Sara Pierce now handles many of the secretarial duties within the office. And Mrs. Diane Ottinger remains our excellent accounting assistant. Along with so many transitions within the district office, the last four years also included the COVID-19 pandemic and the whole assortment of challenges that went along with it. Christ be praised that our pastors and congregations found ways to stay the course and continued to provide pastoral care and administer the Gospel to God’s people. And in support of those efforts, our district board of directors set aside significant funds that were made available and distributed as needed to churches and workers who were severely impacted by the pandemic and the accompanying lockdowns. In response to a resolution of the 2018 district convention, the board of directors took a careful look at our polity, structure, and governance in an effort to discern various ways in which we might better serve the goals and purposes of the Lord’s church among us. To that end, the regional vice presidents met with the circuit pastors to discuss potential improvement, and then met together with Dr. Brege to formulate a recommendation to the board of directors. Although further work remains to be done, the board presented the 2022 district convention with an overture, subsequently adopted to dissolve our current commissions and some of our committees at the conclusion of this current triennium, and to address the areas of education, finance, missions and outreach, worship, and pastoral care by way of ad hoc committees, task forces, working groups, and individuals, to be enlisted by the board of directors as needed. Among the more exciting endeavors of our Indiana District, we have been able to contribute significantly to ongoing mission and mercy efforts in support of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. That support has included the training of pastors, the building of orphanages, and the beginnings of a seminary. And as a district we have committed to continue our support of these endeavors. Closer to home, within our district, some initial efforts have gotten underway with “Outreach Kentucky,” the goal being that we would establish a Lutheran church for the ministry and mission of the Gospel in Richmond, Kentucky. Rev. Vernon Wendt has been called to serve Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Lexington, KY, while also doing outreach in Richmond, focusing especially on the campus and students of Eastern Kentucky University.
Stemming from a resolution of our 2022 district convention, the board of directors authorized the undersigned to form a task force for the study of classical education and a consideration of the ways it might inform and assist the work of our Lutheran schools. That task force had its first meeting in January of 2023, and will aim to provide a report and recommendations to the board of directors at the conclusion of this calendar year. It is hoped and expected that the efforts of this task force will be of great assistance to our schools in strengthening their curricula, pedagogy, and catechesis, and also in resisting the growing pressures of “progressive” ideologies. Also significant in early 2023 was the “Katie Retreat” for the wives of our district pastors, gathering together in person again for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. In this case, the retreat was conducted by Doxology, which has been of such benefit to so many of our LCMS pastors, but which has not previously done any such retreats for pastors’ wives. It was well attended and went well. The “Katie Retreat” has been a blessing and benefit for many ladies over the years, but an annual retreat (pandemics aside) is not the answer or solution for the ongoing day-by-day needs of pastors’ wives. Meeting those needs and providing year-long care for those women and their children are among a number of key priorities and emphases that the undersigned has set forth for himself and for the pastors and congregations that constitute the Indiana District in the present triennium. Simply stated, those priorities are as follows: • Encouraging, facilitating, and/or providing pastoral care for the pastors of the Indiana District
- Likewise, supporting and caring for the pastors’ families
- Promoting an active fellowship between brother pastors and sister congregations at the circuit level
- Increasing the clarity and consistency of the practice of closed Communion throughout all of our congregations
- Fostering a more harmonious unity of worship practice across the district, for the sake of the clarity, consistency, and continuity of our catechesis and confession of Christ
God grant us, according to His tender mercies and steadfast loving-kindness in Christ Jesus, to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, as together we hear and confess His Word, receive the gifts He freely gives in faith and with thanksgiving, and live in love for Him and one another, to the glory of His Holy Name. D. Richard Stuck wi sch Jr., President
liturgy in Divine Service as each congregation prepares to receive the Holy Supper of our Lord. An intentional effort is being made this triennium to increase our church worker recruitment. We are working with Synod to be involved in the Set Apart to Serve campaign headed up by Rev. Dr. James Baneck from the International Center. We have assembled a task force to implement recruitment efforts with on-site visitations and communications with each congregation. While we have been blessed in the recent past with few vacancies, the shortage of church workers graduating from our colleges and seminaries is beginning to increase our vacancies. We make ample use of available candidates (those currently without a call) to fill out call lists. The pastoral and lay leadership in each parish highly value the Word of God and the Lutheran Confessions. As such they dearly desire to be led by properly and adequately prepared servants. Our goals each year are to assist our pastors in preaching and emphasize visitation in the homes of their members. The same is true of the district president. My intent is to exemplify visitation by being present in our congregations, attending the needs of our church workers and assisting each parish to live the baptized life that our culture so desperately needs to see and hear. We have not planted any new congregations these past four years and have had some congregations close. The challenge to IDE is the demographic changes to our population, and in some cases, pure apathy of its citizens to the Word of God. Farms are being purchased by corporate industry, and what used to be 10 family farms is now cultivated by one or two people. While there are fewer families who remain in Iowa and tend the farm, there are still plenty who have no relationship with Christ Jesus as members of His church. There is as much opportunity for harvest in the populace as there is in the fields planted with grain. It is a matter of value for what God gives us as His free gift of grace. What we receive is worth inviting others to come and receive. Encouraging our membership to invite their neighbors from all capacities to Divine Service is a focus we must emphasize. We have the holy treasures of our Lord. Our pastors preach and teach the pure Word of God. Our schools prepare our children rightly. We have everything Pentecost has given the church in every era. We have work to do and by God’s grace we will do it. God help us all and bless us with the promise of eternal life in Him until we rest securely in the resurrection.