By Ray Schkade

The Mission

By God's grace, Christ's work of redemption through His suffering, death, and resurrection has become real for me through the miracle working power of the Holy Spirit via Holy Baptism. I am a member of God's family, blessed today, and an heir of salvation.

As a member of God's family, I have been blessed to be a blessing. Together with all my brothers and sisters in Christ, God has made me a partner in His business of searching for lost sinners and reclaiming them as His adopted family members.

Jesus fulfilled the major assignment in that partnership by means of his redemptive life, death, and resurrection, even having to remind His mother at an early age: "Don't you know that I must be about my Father's business?" Jesus successfully completed His #1 assignment in His Father's business: redemption of all lost sinners.

Before ascension into heaven, Christ handed over to His followers, the Father's family members, the partnership responsibility of seeking and saving the lost so clearly stated in the Great Commission mandate: "Go, make disciples of all nations..." That's the #1 task of the Church -- the primary mission of the Father's business.

That has to be the #1 task of the LCMS. All the affirmations, as important as they are, must fit under search and rescue mission, assigned to each and every congregation. The lost sinners, in their community and in their world, must be every congregation's #1 concern.

The Urgency

The LCMS is growing smaller. We are a stagnant, dying denomination. For too long, we have majored in maintenance ministry, satisfied with biological and transfer growth, with little emphasis on the Father's #1 business of seeking and saving the lost.

Today, the median age of our membership has risen to the point where biological growth is minimal, forcing congregations with limited transfer growth to either face slow death or drastically change in ministry emphasis.

For too long, in only too many LCMS churches, the present members of the congregation are its primary concern. His or her needs receive primary consideration, with very limited focus on the unchurched & unsaved in their community.

As is the case in so many major Christian denominations, the LCMS has changed the primary purpose of the Father's business. Seeking and saving the lost has become a by-product.

The LCMS is struggling with a lot of issues. To mention a few: liturgy, communion practice, the role of women, authority of clergy, legalism, autonomy of the congregation, top-down control, priesthood of believers, fellowship. All of these, and any other issue that may be added, must be secondary to the #1 issue: The primacy and urgency of tending to the Father's business and seeking and saving the lost!

The LCMS needs synodical, district, and congregational leaders who support this by word and by example. This must be the mission urgency of the Jesus First movement.

Rev. Ray Schkade recently retired from the staff of the Texas District.