The apostle Peter “preached Christ crucified” in his epistle and applied this preaching directly to the daily life of the forgiven sinner: “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Pastor and Bishop of your souls” (). God grant us comfort for the wounds of our sins and courage for the confession we make in our homes, congregations, and communities! The Wyoming District held its convention May 6–8, 2021, under the theme from : “Here I Stand before Kings and Princes.” Not only did we remember Luther’s great confession before Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in April 1521 but we also recalled Christ’s present command that we confess Him in our homes, our churches, and our civil communities. The preaching and confession of Christ Crucified includes the whole counsel of God, His commandments and statutes, His promises and blessings. All is summed up and has its head and source in Christ the Crucified.
God has blessed the Wyoming District with riches beyond measure. Our congregations are robust in their worship life and teaching. They have God’s rare and precious treasure of His Word purely preached and His Sacraments administered according to His command. Our pastors meet regularly in their Winkels for the study of Scriptures and the Confessions and for doctrinal application to their pastoral concerns and opportunities. Pastoral conferences and the pastors’ biannual continuing education courses are rich in content and well attended. District youth events (summer camp, regular regional gatherings, and annual district-wide events) are characterized by excellent catechesis, sound Lutheran worship from our hymnals, and lasting relationships among the youth. The district evangelism conference that is held annually continues to draw a large gathering for worship, excellent speakers, and opportunities for building strong bonds of love among attendees. Our classical Lutheran schools have grown to six, with three of them presently offering high school. These schools are marked by daily chapel, rich biblical content, strong Lutheran culture, instruction in Latin, and the restoration of the best of the history, literature, culture, and wisdom of Western civilization. The district now also supports the growing number of our home schools with an annual summer conference. The district encourages and promotes classical Lutheran education in the conviction that this education equips the next generation to read, hear, and understand the Holy Scriptures and transmits to them the riches of Christian knowledge, works, and virtues. In 2020, in response to a growing call for a Lutheran alternative to other classical colleges, some pastors, laymen, and congregations of the LCMS joined together to establish Luther Classical College (LCC) on the campus of Mount Hope Lutheran Church in Casper, Wyoming. The college, which will admit its first class in 2025, will offer a general education core curriculum along with tracks for pre seminary, teaching, and parish music. The vision statement of LCC reads, “Luther Classical College offers A.A. and B.A. programs in which students learn the truth of the Christian faith as professed in the Lutheran Confessions; are encouraged in genuine Lutheran culture; and are prepared for life in the home, the church, and the community—cherishing the Western corpus of literature, philosophy, music, art, scientific discovery, and Christian theology, and preserving the use of classical languages.” See luther classical.org for more information. Although LCC is not formally associated with the Wyoming District, the district president will provide ecclesiastical oversight and the district congregations will enjoy the benefits of the college in their midst. The Wyoming District supports a strong campus outreach to the University of Wyoming in Laramie. We have continued to provide a missionary to the Wind River Indian Reservation, though that ministry has been severely reduced because of government imposed health restrictions on the reservation. Our district has also been blessed with strong leadership in our interaction with civil government and communities regarding natural law issues of marriage, life, family, and morality, as well as defending the freedom of Christians and churches to live according to God’s Word. The challenges the Wyoming District faces are not new, but they continue to grow. Many of our communities are declining and aging, and so also are the congregations that serve them. Nevertheless, the members of our congregations demonstrate their deep commitment to God’s Word with their attendance in church, their love for their pastors and for one another, and their financial support to their
congregations and to the district. In our smaller parishes, pastoral compensation is burdened by the fact that health insurance now comprises a full third of the congregation’s financial outlay to care for the pastor and his family. This matter will demand more of our attention in the coming years. As finances become tighter, more congregations are considering or preparing to join in multi-point parishes. Our pastors are committed to doing the extra driving and time commitments required to provide full pastoral care to all our congregations. We thank God for our faithful congregations and their faithful pastors! The Wyoming District response to COVID-19 varied from congregation to congregation. Most of them returned to full, in-person worship by May 2020, and many of them not only weathered the crisis but grew and strengthened. District events were continued as previously scheduled by early June and were very well attended. We observed with amusement that our Wyoming and Nebraska Panhandle congregations—located in rural, small town, and frontier communities—had always observed social distancing. But in fact, many of our members found that they loved gathering together as Christ commanded for worship and for encouraging and building one another up (). We observe with deep concern that civil government has intruded so deeply into the worship life of Christ’s Church and into the homes which God Himself created through marriage. Our district response included a meeting with the Wyoming governor. In light of these events, we are preparing ourselves against future transgressions against church and home, and for the intensification of the persecution of Christian homes and churches, by studying God’s Word together and by strengthening our lives together as the Body of Christ. We recognize that under the moral evils of our day is the rejection of the one true God and of the preaching of Christ Crucified. But this is no time to be sad or to complain. It is a time of great opportunity for the Church and all her members. “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (– 15). It is the time for great joy, the time to rejoice. Jesus Christ, who was crucified, is risen again! “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (). Thanks be to God!