Grace, peace, and mercy be unto us all in the name of our triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen! The Southern District is a geographically large district that encompasses Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Panhandle of Florida. Within this large geographic area, we currently have 155 LCMS congregations—32,000 baptized members—served by 206 called and ordained pastors. In addition, we currently have 16 early childhood development centers, 10 elementary schools, and 1 high school. All told, these 25 schools serve 2,000 students through the ministry of our 250 teachers. The Southern District staff includes the president, a full-time district president administrative assistant, one full-time business manager, and one part-time administrative assistant. With a small and limited staff, we are focusing on five important and interconnected areas: 1. Clergy health 2. Congregational health 3. Outreach/Evangelism/Witness 4. Facilitating small congregations in forming shared ministry agreements that will help to provide pastoral ministry to congregations that are unable to call a full-time pastor of their own 5. Prayer Our clergy are under stress from a myriad of issues including crushing student loan debt, shrinking congregations and the corresponding financial burden that creates, health and weight issues, and a lack of awareness and willingness to engage the help that is available. Pastors experience burnout and depression at higher
rates than other professions. For a congregation to be healthy, its shepherd/pastor needs to be healthy. Congregations can become unhealthy and turn inward upon themselves. Unhealthy congregations do not normally grow as they most often do not have a heart to reach the lost and do not intentionally reach out to their community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation; healthy congregations led by healthy pastors reach lost people in Christ’s harvest fields. Once the LCMS had a vital outreach and mission heart for those in our communities who are lost, dying, and going to hell without coming to faith, Baptism, and discipleship in Jesus Christ. A people who are focused on Christ and Him crucified are a people who have the joy of the Lord’s salvation and joyfully desire to share the hope we have in Jesus Christ alone with our family, friends, neighbors, and community. We as confessional Lutherans have what our world is looking for. Too often our pastors and congregations do not make reaching the lost with the Gospel that has been given to us a priority. As a result, we are seeing many congregations growing smaller and unable to afford a full-time pastor who will shepherd them and provide Word and Sacrament ministry. This is a rapidly growing area of great concern. We are focused on helping facilitate smaller congregations to form shared ministry partnerships with other congregations so that together they can afford to call a pastor. All these things we bring to the Lord in prayer. We cannot face the difficult road ahead on our own. In prayer, we confess our dependence upon the Lord; cry out to Him for His mercy, strength, and grace; and beseech Him to use us, His church, His baptized children, as His witnesses in our world where people desperately need Christ, His Gospel, and His church. We pray to the Lord of the harvest to raise up workers in His fields that are ripe for harvest in every community. Over this triennium, we in the Southern District will be working to help our pastors and professional church workers to become healthier in body, soul, and spirit so they can lead healthy congregations that will in turn reach outside the walls of the church building and into the community with the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. We receive Christ and His good gifts in the Divine Service, and as we are filled to overflowing with Christ’s Word and Sacrament, the Holy Spirit overflows those good gifts out of us to others who don’t yet know Jesus as Christ. Orthodox, confessional Lutherans want to share the gift of the Gospel; they want to go and be workers in the Lord’s harvest fields; they want to pray for the church, the world, their family, friends, neighbors, and community to come to faith; and they pray to be used by the Lord as servants in His harvest fields all around us. Being faithful in Word and Sacrament, we are faithful to the word go, and we desire everyone to be saved and do all we can to share the Gospel with people who are lost in the world without God. We have many struggles and problems facing the church today. We in the Southern District believe that in addressing the five main issues of clergy health, congregational health, outreach/ evangelism/witness, shared ministry, and prayer, the Lord would be pleased to use us as His servants to speak His life-giving Gospel to the world around us, trusting Him to cause the growth of the Gospel seeds we sow and to help us face the struggles on the road ahead with grace and mercy as His church and witnesses in our communities.