Official Workbook PDF page source text

LCMS 2026 Convention Workbook: Reports and Overtures, PDF page 56

2026 Convention Workbook
21
OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
La Chorrera, Panama; Cienfuegos, Santiago, Dominican Republic; 
Salto, Uruguay; and Canelones, Uruguay.
The planting of Lutheran churches requires that a missionary be 
prepared and supported in this task. As such, our Language Insti-
tute, which teaches missionaries Spanish and English, is in its tenth 
year. A missionary needs, through the Network Support Mission 
model, to have an average of 150 donors before deploying to the 
Dominican Republic for orientation. Once they arrive in the DR 
for orientation, missionaries engage in four months of intensive 
language learning, cultural adaptation, and studying of religious 
currents in Latin America. They also make visits, preach, and the 
like. Following this, they deploy to their field of service, often still 
learning Spanish and beginning their church-planting work.
Human Care missionaries, Deaconess nurse Tirzah Krey and 
Deaconess nurse Jamielynn Tinkey Flores, lead the human care cir-
cle. Rev. Dr. Jonathan Naumann and Rev. Dan Conrad, both veter-
an pastors and missionaries, serve as chaplains to our English- and 
Spanish-speaking missionaries and serve as professors at CMSCR. 
This human care circle advocates for our missionaries, helping 
them obtain visas, housing, and access to medical services, helping 
them with finances, helping them find education for their children, 
and the like. Our average tenure of missionary service in LAC is 
6.9 years, potentially the highest average achieved in the past 20 
years. The human care circle continues to directly contribute to the 
longevity of missionaries continuing to serve in LAC.
LCMS Mission LAC Human Care also supports a once-a-year 
missionary conference, which this past year was held in St. Louis in 
recognition of the LCMS mission work that began in Brazil in 1900 
with missionary Mahler. Concordia Historical Institute partnered 
with the LAC region under the banner “Remember, Repent, Re-
joice” and has upheld Brazilian missionary work in its main exhib-
it for 2025–26. All of our missionaries were made CHI members. 
Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly dedicated its spring issue 
to missionary essays. Additionally, Krey and Naumann published a 
missionary book of eight historical essays of LCMS LAC work in 
her mission fields. We are grateful to Altenberg and historic Trin-
ity in St. Louis for allowing us to use the two chalices that were 
brought from Germany with the Saxons for our Divine Service in 
those churches as we visited our American Lutheran roots and stud-
ied with Rev. Dr. Lawrence Rast the early church planting efforts of 
LCMS and the founding of her seminaries.
B.2.a. Theological Education
CMSCR is in its ninth year of existence. Forty-four men have 
graduated from our residential and online (Formación Pastoral 
para Hispanoamérica, FPH) programs, and via colloquy since its 
inception. In May 2026, we anticipate the graduation of 13 pastoral 
students. Twelve men are currently in the pastoral residential pro-
gram, which teaches men to be evangelists, shepherds, and teach -
ers. In this four-year program, men study Greek and Hebrew and 
receive four classes in the Lutheran confessions. Additionally, 16 
men are currently in the FPH online program, which is also a joint 
program with the Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, 
Specific Ministry Pastor Program in Spanish/English. In July 2026, 
we await with joy the graduation of our first seven men from the 
FPQ program in Bolivia, which is in the Quechua language. We 
anticipate 10–12 new men entering in our residential pastoral pro-
gram this September 2026. Our ninth annual symposia is focused 
on church planting, in which Rev. Dr. Detlev Schulz’s book Mis-
sion from the Cross will be presented in Spanish, and church plant-
ers from LAC and missionaries alike will participate.
making this hymnal, the use of which the Synod encouraged in the 
last convention (2023 Res. 4-04), even more versatile, especially 
in mission settings where it is difficult to make accessible physical 
books across Latin America.
Luther Academy courses, in coordination with executive Rev. 
Dr. Bennett and Rev. Carlos Schumann, also continue to be taught 
yearly across the Americas. In the last triennium, 34 theological 
conferences have been held involving 19 countries and more than 
600 pastors and seminarians across 15 countries.
B.2. Plant Lutheran Churches
The planting of Lutheran churches is the primary focus of 
LCMS LAC, as we are committed to bringing to the people in the 
countries that we serve the fullness of the Gospel as confessed in 
our liturgy, creeds, Law and Gospel preaching, pastoral care, Small 
Catechism, and instruction in Christian righteousness.
Church planting continues, as in the last triennium, in Belize, 
the Cayman Islands, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Ja-
maica, Panama, Peru, and Puerto Rico. Our missionaries also assist 
in planting Lutheran churches in Mexico and Uruguay. At the time 
of this writing, 50 LCMS and alliance missionaries are actively 
planting Lutheran churches. In 2025 alone, we have seen 12 new 
missionaries join the work in LAC, which is the largest influx of 
missionaries in one year in the past six years.
Twelve districts, perhaps hundreds of congregations, RSOs, 
Rev. Dr. Ross Johnson of Disaster Response, and individuals from 
Synod visit our mission sites twice a year during FORO meetings 
to receive reports, attend worship, study theology, and review the 
work that is presented to them.
In Cuba, we have seen our work expand from one pastor to 
three, with an additional two men currently studying, a deaconess, 
and five more preparing for diaconal work. We are also glad to re-
port that the Sinodo Luterano Mexico has grown from three pastors 
a decade ago to 10, with another five studying and potentially an-
other six joining the Concordia Seminary (CMSCR) in the Domin-
ican Republic Seminary next year.
In LAC, an average of 30 short-term teams support church 
planting. A secondary goal is to have 50 percent of our teams focus 
on mission education, strengthening our laity in their understand-
ing of Lutheran missions both abroad and at home. Our capacity 
to handle short-term teams in proximity to Lutheran church plants 
through our FOROs has allowed us to see an average of 50 teams 
a year with 25 to 30 of those being handled by our LCMS mission-
ary coordinators and the rest through RSO partners such as the Be-
lize Mission Society, Ysleta, and MOST. We are grateful for these 
partnerships with our RSOs at our FOROs and their collaboration 
in placing their teams in proximity to our church plants. Special 
thanks to Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and Concordia Theologi-
cal Seminary, Fort Wayne, for sending nearly 100 seminarians and 
deaconess students to the Dominican Republic for three consec-
utive years for mission education on short-term teams. Likewise, 
through an initiative by the Office of the President, 10 new dis-
trict presidents were in the Dominican Republic in 2025 with Rev. 
Dr. Cory Rajek to learn of the work of LCMS Mission around the 
world and how to partner with her in her worldwide work.
New Lutheran church plants in the past three years are found 
in Choluteca, Honduras; Havana, Cuba; San Juan, Puerto Rico; 
Tijuana, Mexico; Chetumal, Mexico; San Pedro Peralta, Mexico;