The Lutheran Church was born of a call to repentance and a call to confession. Repentance takes us out of the center of our lives and places our Lord Jesus there. In repentance, we turn to our Lord Jesus for forgiveness, which He readily supplies. Forgiven, we see our lives differently from when we are ruled by sin. With the Lord Jesus at the center of our lives, we confess His holy name. Generations before us made that good confession, passing the faith on from generation to generation; from fathers and mothers to their children, and then on to their grandchildren, and then to us. It is our time to pass that faith and our confession to those who follow us. Building on that truth, the tagline of the South Wisconsin District (SWD) is “Confessing Christ for the Next Generation.” Beneath that slogan, we have four strategic targets: 1. This is our time to be distinctly Lutheran. 2. This is our time to plant new congregations and schools. 3. This is our time to honor our Christ-centered vocations. 4. This is our time to embrace our communities. First, “This is our time to be distinctly Lutheran.” We are Lutheran Christians as defined by our catechism and our Lutheran Confessions and as displayed in our historic liturgy. We are unique in our confession, unique in our worship, unique in our identity as the people of God in this time. We are Lutheran Christians. We are not neo-evangelicals, not Reformed or Baptist. Our confession is clear, and we need not be ashamed of who we are. Second, “This is our time to plant new congregations and schools.” Currently, the SWD will have a new classical high school starting the fall of 2023, added to our seven other high schools, one of which is a special-needs high school. Not long ago, our SWD board of directors approved “Lutheran Neighborhood Schools” for the city of Milwaukee. The plan is to plant Lutheran elementary schools of 50 students or less in congregations that have the facilities for such a school. Rob Lunak has accepted the Divine Call to serve as the Lutheran Neighborhood Schools superintendent. The first school is in the planning stages. The congregation that will host this school recently baptized 10 children on one Sunday. Other areas are exploring schools, including Holmen/Onalaska, Northern Ozaukee County. Regarding new congregations, we have established a “top ten list” of prime locations for a church plant. One such plant is well on its way, with over a hundred in Divine Service each week. Two others are in the planning stages. One is a preaching station. One is preparing to charter. There will be more. Third, “This is our time to honor our Christ-centered vocations.” We are fathers and mothers, grandchildren and grandparents. We are laborers and farmers. We are supervisors and employees. We are civilian and military. We are rich and we are poor. We are various colors and races. Regardless of our station in life, we are the people of our God in this world. Peter defines what that means for us: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your
conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (). Fourth, “This is our time to embrace our communities.” South Wisconsin is historically German. Our oldest congregations trace their ancestry back to Pomerania. Some came to America to escape the Prussian Union. Others came because they had served in the Prussian Army and were wearied by the fighting. However, in recent times, the face of the SWD has changed. Our fastest-growing population is Latino. We have several congregations that work exclusively with those of Hispanic descent, and even an elementary school with some 200 students. We also have extensive Gospel witness among the African American community and among the new immigrants from Africa such as Nigerians, French Congolese, Ethiopians, and others.