Lutheran Witness: November 2018

What is the state of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in 2018? Find out in the November issue of The Lutheran Witness.

Contents

From the President: So many blessings

Features:

Mercy at work

Joyful in mercy — Dustin Beck

Offices of National and International Mission

Youth and Young Adult Ministry

Every One His Witness

Joyfully witnessing — Kevin Golden

Free to be Lutheran — an interview with Gregory P. Seltz

Annual Report

Partner churches around the world

The joy of learning and sharing life together — Kaitlin Sheridan

Lutheran K–12 schools

Lutherans on campus

Faithfully forming pastors

Farewell to Selma

Faces of the LCMS — a photo gallery by Erik M. Lunsford

Rosters and statistics

Departments:

world views: A monthly news column from Gene Edward Veith

bene+diction: In the belfry — Rachel Bomberger

From the editor

Recently, for fun, I pulled out and paged through a box of archival LWs published in the year I was born.

What struck me most about this fascinating trip down the yellowing pages of memory lane wasn’t the grainy black-and-white
photos or the humble newsprint, but the content. So much of what I was reading felt almost eerily familiar. I noted Robert Kolb’s name among the essayists; Herb Mueller’s among the notices. I saw the words of Martin Luther and C.F.W. Walther pop up with comforting regularity. I read articles on refugee struggles and missionary adventures … on marriage, parenting, aging, stewardship … on Gospel-centered care for the young, the old, the infirm, the unchurched and those of all races and backgrounds.

Much has changed since 1980 — I doubt, for example, that we’ll run another article like “Morning with the Moonies” anytime soon — but in essentials, The Lutheran Witness remains the same as it ever was.

So too the Church, as you will see in the 2018 State of the Synod report that follows: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl. 1:9).

As I look back over the past year — and the past four decades — what a comfort it is for me to rest in the certain knowledge that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

Rachel Bomberger
Managing Editor, The Lutheran Witness
lutheran.witness@lcms.org