The Indiana District comprises some 212 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. Following a period of significant transition within the district office, the past few years have been a time of increasing stability and of growing equilibrium in our week-to-week operations. As the undersigned has settled into his office and role as district president, to which he was reelected in June of 2025, it has become easier to clarify our collective goals, to lay the groundwork for future plans, and to make concerted efforts to advance the faithful and consistent catechesis and confession of our Savior Christ Jesus and His Word. A persistent focus has been maintained on the following five key priorities, identified by the undersigned in 2022:
- 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; and
- Fostering a more harmonious unity of worship practice across the district, for the sake of our confession of Christ.
Along with regular attention given to each of these concerns, the district president and secretary were able to record a couple of podcasts on the theology and practice of closed Communion and on the benefits to be found through increased harmony of worship practices among the congregations of our church fellowship. Those recordings are readily available on the district website. In addition to the above concerns, another priority of focus has been on Lutheran education. An investigation of classical Lutheran education, initiated by the 2022 district convention, culminated in a report presented to the board of directors in December 2024 and acknowledged with thanksgiving by the 2025 convention. We were also able to partner with the Consortium for Classical Lutheran Education in sponsoring a number of practicums within the district. Conversations continue and future plans are being pursued with various parishes interested in exploring a classical pedagogy. Broadening the scope of our considerations and discussions in response to a resolution adopted by the 2025 district convention, we are exploring the theology of Lutheran education and looking for ways to promote and support distinctively Lutheran schools as valuable partners in the Church’s overall ministry of the Word. We are well served in those efforts by our new education executive, Mr. Nathan Wingfield, and his capable administrative assistant, Mrs. Martha Peters, both of whom came on board in June of 2025. Now in 2026 we are preparing for the retirement of our longtime missions executive, Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Robinson, who will have served the district for 19 years as of the end of July. Plans are underway to fill his big shoes with a new executive, who will most likely serve as an assistant to the president with a focus on missions, outreach, mercy, pastoral care, and other duties as needed. We are profoundly grateful for Dr. Robinson’s faithful and steady service to the district throughout these past many years. The district has been especially pleased to continue its significant support of the ongoing mission and mercy work among our Lutheran brothers and sisters in Tanzania, including the training of new pastors, the establishment of a seminary, and the building of much-needed orphanages. The 2022 and 2025 district conventions and the board of directors have been consistent in their support of these and other efforts, and we are grateful to God for the progress, indicative of a commitment to the purity of the Word of God and the clarity of our Lutheran teaching and confession of the faith. As we have worked with the Office of International Mission and partnered with other Synod districts in supporting the work in Tanzania, so have there also been a variety of efforts over these past several years to partner with the Office of National Mission and the recognized service organizations of the Synod in our district, as we strive to exercise our fellowship in the Gospel for the benefit of our congregations and circuits. Besides our ongoing relationships with Concordia Plan Services, the Lutheran Church Extension Fund, and the LCMS Foundation, we have also worked with various agencies of the Synod in the areas of stewardship, worship, counseling, worker wellness, youth ministry, and the recruitment of future pastors, teachers, deaconesses, church musicians, and other workers. The district is also privileged and pleased to have Concordia Theological Seminary in our midst, with whom we cherish a close working relationship. In the area of mental health care and counseling, in particular, the past few years have seen the beginning of Concordia Counseling in Seymour, Ind., and Cross Connections of Tippecanoe County in Lafayette, Ind., indicative of the desire and effort to provide theologically sound temporal assistance and support alongside the ongoing spiritual care of the Church and ministry of the Gospel. It is noteworthy that parishes in other parts of the district are likewise exploring the possibility of providing similar counseling services. Within the life of the district, the undersigned has focused on visitation as a primary means of oversight and pastoral care for the pastors and parishes of Indiana and northern Kentucky. He has thus far been able to worship with roughly 70–75 percent of the congregations and to visit in some capacity as many as 85–90 percent of the parishes. As those efforts continue through this new triennium, a process of more formal visitations will begin, for the sake of providing counsel and encouragement in the ministry and mission of the Church on earth. The president and regional vice-presidents also make regular visits to the circuit pastors’ meetings throughout the year, in order to maintain communication and close connections with the pastors and their labors in the Lord on the front lines of the Church and in the trenches of this life under the cross. The circuit visitors are likewise instrumental in this exercise of care and oversight for the congregations, all the more so because of their close proximity to and familiarity with the parishes of their circuits. Similarly, our education executive is making regular visits to schools and principals, in order to know them and the challenges they face, and to serve and support them in their work. There are challenges, of course, facing not only the schools but the congregations of the district in general as well. The Synod’s Set Apart to Serve initiative has helped to spread awareness of the urgent and growing need for more theologically trained teachers and pastors for the present and future generations of the Church. As more pastors are reaching the point of retirement, the number of vacancies increases, some of which are harder to fill. At the same time, demographic declines have contributed to the struggles of our small congregations. We look to the Lord for wisdom, even as we pray that He will continue to provide what is needed for His Church. We know and trust that all things depend upon His faithful Word! D. Richard Stuck wi sch Jr., President