MN North District President

Rev. Don Fondow

MN North District President

“Sent to Share Christ’s Healing Grace” is the theme for the 21st Regular Convention of our Minnesota North District Convention on April 16-18th at Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria, Minnesota. This theme is based on these words of our Lord as recorded in John chapter 20 verse 21: “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.’”

   From its very beginning The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has had a double focus, that of its firm commitment to the Word of God with its message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and its desire to share that message with the world which is in dire need of it. If our LCMS is to continue to be a genuine blessing we will need to hold ever firmly to God’s inerrant Word, and our Lutheran Confessions as a correct exposition of that Word, as well as aggressively, energetically, and positively reach out with the Gospel on a personal, congregational, district, and synodical level.

    You and I are sent, each of us in a different way. Pastors don’t just happen to be in a particular congregation. No, the Holy Spirit placed you as overseers and undershepherds of God’s flock.  He sent you there, to bear testimony to the risen and coming Christ, to share His healing grace. Teachers and other commissioned workers – God has sent you to the places where you serve. All of us; you didn’t just happen to be in that family, or in that job, or in that community. You have a vocation from God there in that place. It is your station, your place in life that God has given to you. He sent you there so that Christ’s healing grace may be shared with others, so that they may glorify your Father who is in heaven. He sent you there, so that you might learn how to speak of human need and divine solution, of Jesus who was crucified by sinners and for sinners, raised in victory for all, and coming again in glory.

   Each of us is sent in a specific way, to share Christ’s healing grace where God has placed us. To the ends of the earth – because that’s how far Christ’s arms reach since He stretched them out for us on the cross. That’s why we will go. For the grace of Christ compels us. That’s why we join together in sending missionaries and others to go to places for us.

    At our Convention we will have the opportunity to consider how we can join with the North Dakota District in helping our brothers and sisters in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya to share Christ’s healing grace through Project 24 by building 3 orphanages, supporting the 1001 Orphans program, Children’s Bible Clubs, and the Mary Okeyeo Mercy Ministry Scholarship Fund. To help this effort get started we ask you to participate in a Special Convention Offering by receiving offerings within your congregations and schools to bring to the Convention. This happened at the North Dakota District Convention on January 23rd and God’s people there gave over $19,000. Needless to say, the challenge was given to the Minnesota North District since we are twice the size they are, to double their amount.

    We believe: God has given to His Church the great treasure of the Gospel and the promise of life it contains. We thank God for preserving His Gospel in our midst in all of its priceless beauty.

Therefore, we cannot keep to ourselves what God has given us (cf. Acts 4:20), thus we share Christ’s healing grace. We want every person in the world to know: in Christ you have been reconciled to God.

   The first President of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod stated in his “Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod 1879”:

 "A synod is to be a living member of the body of Christ, and together

 with every other living member of that most sacred body in the whole

world, it must do whatever it possibly can to spread Christ’s kingdom

and, wherever possible, to win for Christ and to lead into His sheep-

fold all those whom Christ has bought with His precious blood, and

ultimately to lead them into the salvation of everlasting life.”        Dr. C. F. W. Walther.

The peace of the Lord be with you as you bring this message of peace to others!

President Fondow