The continuation and expansion of the mission and ministry of the Mid-South District remains expressed in the words of our mission statement: As an alliance of congregations and schools, the Mid-South District provides leadership, resources, and encouragement for reaching the lost for Christ’s kingdom and equipping the found for service in our churches, community, and in the world. As the theme for the 2025 district convention we chose Christ the Church’s One Foundation. The theme inspired the convention and member congregations and schools to encourage our members to be equipped as the priesthood of believers and to make significant strides to touch the lives of those in the communities in which we live. The district was founded on the principles of mission and outreach to the lost within the geographical area we serve. The last three district conventions encouraged delegates to focus upon the Gospel of Christ and consider how they can touch the lives of those who are un church ed or de-church ed here and around the world. In the last three years, the board of directors and executive staff have diligently worked to build an awareness of the tools needed
to provide the necessary resources to strengthen congregations and schools to assist them in the fullest use of precious resources of the Gospel and all God’s gifts. A strong emphasis has been placed on assisting congregations to be faithful stewards of the gifts God offers so that they may help their members profoundly impact their communities with the Good News of Christ crucified and risen. Through the district’s IMPACT efforts, we have continued to raise dollars to fund and support missions and ministries throughout the district. IMPACT has raised over $3 million to continue to support the missions and activities of the district. Cooperative arrangements have been developed to assist smaller congregations in exploring collaborative efforts for ministry. At least two examples of this collaboration have been introduced into a “hub-and-spoke” type of relationship. Another model encourages two or more congregations to share services to build ministry effectiveness together. The district has launched a “Grow-Grant” process that allows all congregations, schools, and agencies to apply for start-up dollars to bring new mission and ministry initiatives. Additionally, there has been one new mission plant in the Nashville area as well as three other locations for more mission church plants. The Mission and Ministry committee will be reviewing potential sites for micro schools and home school co-ops. The district continues its church planting efforts through a relationship with the Synod and its Church Planting Simplified project. Three additional potential church plant sites are being developed along with several re plants and a number of revitalization efforts of the Mission and Ministry subcommittee of the board of directors. On the international scale, the continuation of our support for international and national missions includes convention support for the South East of Lake Victoria Diocese (SELVD) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania, Trinity HOPE in Haiti, and the Lutheran Institute of Managerial Enterprise (LIME) with the Malagasy Lutheran Church. The district also provided one-time assistance to St Martin’s Lutheran Church in Ghana for its expanding ministry. The Congregational Assessment Resource (CAR) and COMPASS continue to flourish, with over 12 other districts and over 100 congregations and schools using the CAR tool pioneered by the district and implementing the process offered by the district’s COMPASS program to help them find a new direction for their ministry and mission outreach. These resources have been shared with the Council of Presidents, Synod leadership, Concordia Plan Services, and the Lutheran Church Extension Fund. The district will continue to provide leadership, resources, and encouragement for congregations, schools, and church workers on their focus for mission and ministry. The district established a Set Apart to Serve task force to identify, encourage, support, and recruit church workers for Christ’s kingdom. Through town hall meetings, individual visits to congregations and schools, and regular newsletters, these efforts are showing tremendous results here and throughout the Synod. During academic years 2025 and 2026, the district had 11 and 13 men respectively in one of the several seminary tracks toward ordination—a ratio of one seminarian for every 1,750 confirmed members of the district’s membership. Thanks be to God! The 2025 district convention adopted resolutions that focus on the mission and ministry that is entrusted to our stewardship of the Gospel of Christ. The district continues to conduct extensive evaluation of the viability and optimization of our ministries across the district, including:
- Reaffirming Church Planting
ers, and the kingdom of God with the Good News of the Gospel.
- Continuation of Our Relationship with the SELVD in Tanzania
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- Commending Support of Trinity HOPE in Haiti
- Maintaining Accountability and Transparency of Financial Gifts from God’s Stewards
- Encouraging Financial Support for Professional Church Workers
- Establishing Locum Tenens Ministries for the District
- Establishing an LCMS Men’s Ministry
- To Shape the Faith Formation Paradigm for Generation to Generation
- To Encourage Generational Ministry
- To Evaluate, Study, and Use Biblically-Based Stewardship Services
- To Encourage and Facilitate Personal Evangelism
- To Encourage Further Consideration of Successful Completion of Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) Coursework before Ordination and Placement
- Regularizing SMP Classification
- To Extend Overture to the 2026 Synod Convention Concerning Specific Ministry Pastoral Training
- To Direct Offices of National and International Mission to Decline Applications of Recognized Service Organization Status from Organizations Currently Supporting, Advocating, or Otherwise Promoting LGBTQIA+ Agenda and Lifestyle and To Direct Offices of National and International Mission to Revoke RSO Status of the Same
- To Participate in Building a Culture of Church Work Formation and Recruitment
While we recognize an overall trend of declining congregational membership and support for congregations and the church at large, the district has focused attention on the many external factors that impact our vitality and effectiveness. The large geographic size of our district and our relatively small number of congregations requires us to be strategic in the services we provide to our congregations, schools, early childhood centers, and church workers. As a result, our strategic initiatives will include the following goals: • Reestablish the Small and Rural Congregation Council
- Continue the Education, Family, and Youth Ministry Executive position
- Develop efficiencies and accountability in church planting to maximize use of limited and valuable resources under the church planting covenant
- Continue to expand the fundraising efforts to support the essential services of the district to its membership
- Continue and encourage participation in the pastors’ wives’ retreats
- Celebrate the district’s 60th anniversary
Following the 2025 district convention, we are committed more than ever to increase our size, abilities, and resources in the ongoing privilege of serving our member congregations, church work-
Roger C. Paavola, President
Minnesota North District But 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. (1 Peter 2:9)
Strengthened in Christ. Faithful. Visitations. Each week in the Minnesota North District, 194 congregations proclaim the crucified and risen Lord Jesus, forgive and retain sins, and mercifully serve their communities in His name. Every school day, our 7 elementary schools, 1 high school, and 17 preschools declare the truth of Christ to our young people and instruct them in His ways. I am deeply humbled by the commitment and steadfast faith of our workers, our congregational leaders, and all the baptized who abound in the mercy of Christ. The purpose of our district is to preserve and promote unity in the one true faith (1 Cor. 1:10). We pay careful attention to what we believe, teach, and confess because salvation is at stake (1 Tim. 4:16). One of our central goals is to ensure that our confession of faith remains the same for generations to come. More than 70 percent of our congregations are over 100 years old. We pray that 100 years from now, our ministries will still confess the same inerrant Scriptures, the same bloodied and resurrected Christ as Lord, the same Small Catechism, and will trust the same Holy Spirit to grow the Church through His Word. The Lord grant it by His grace. To remain steadfast in Christ, we continue to prioritize visitations. Our office is lean, only three full-time staff, and ready to serve. Since 2022, we have visited 191 of our 194 congregations and are scheduled to complete visits to every ministry by the end of August 2026. Our ongoing goal is to visit each ministry at least once every triennium through the district president, vice-presidents, and circuit visitors. Each visit centers on prayer, building up the Body of Christ, encouraging our workers, and exhorting one another to holy living. We thank the Lord for the opportunities to uphold the sanctity of human life by two congregations, Redeemer Aurora and Faith in Silver Bay, extending mercy through their Swaddling Clothes ministries. As pastoral vacancies continue to increase (currently 55 of our congregations are without a called pastor), more than 160 men attended an elders retreat to strengthen their spiritual leadership and assistance in their congregations. The importance of teaching the faith in the home is being actively promoted through circuit seminars and various district initiatives. While many changes occur each day, we cling to the same promises of our Savior. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Brady L. Finnern, President