The Ohio District ABLAZE! 
by Rev. Terry Cripe
January 2008

Happy New Year! I'm going to talk a bit about ABLAZE! In fact, I want to talk a lot about ABLAZE! Every President's page article for the next year will feature some aspect of this movement. Our Synod's ABLAZE! initiative has been called a movement rather than a program. I am very glad of that. Once a program has been developed and shows up in print, it is very hard to make corrections, contractions, or expansions. But a movement is always developing and maturing. What one begins with is not always what one ends with. ABLAZE!, as it is developing, is not a top-down program. True, it's origin is from the World Missions department. But ABLAZE! is becoming a Synod-wide sharing of outreach-related resources top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top, and side-to-side. Some have contributed Bible studies and orders of worship. Some have written songs and hymns. Others have prepared devotions and sermon series. Still others have offered criticisms. Some Districts have embraced the ABLAZE! program completely, while others follow the spirit (preferring to use some other fire-related words), but not the letter. Yet a survey prepared by the Zimmerman Marketing Research indicates that 43% of LCMS congregations say they are not involved in ABLAZE!. Of those, 23% of the pastors/outreach leaders surveyed say they are willing to become involved, and 33% of those not involved say ''maybe.'' What is ABLAZE! all about, anyway? According to the Zimmerman Marketing Research report, 99% of our pastors know what it is. The stated goals of ABLAZE! are these: start 2000 new missions by 2017, revitalize 2000 congregations by 2017, and share the faith with 50 million people stateside by 2017. Admirable goals. Ones that your Ohio District staff and I fully support. They are compatible with our goal of beginning 25 new missions by 2017, and leading 50-60 congregations through a process of revitalization by the same date. On January 29th the District's Outreach Task Force will meet to consider ways to help congregational members become more aware of the opportunities they have to share their faith on a regular basis within their various vocations. You might ask, ''Why would any set themselves in opposition to ABLAZE! ?'' From the day our Franconian forebears brought the Gospel to the Indians in Michigan, we've taken seriously the Great Commission in North America. My earliest memories of Synodically developed outreach programs were the PTR's of the '50's (Preaching, Teaching, Reaching) – a tamed, Lutheran version of a Nazarene week of evening crusade or revival services. The Zimmerman Research report notes that of those pastors/outreach leaders surveyed, 30% view ABLAZE! in negative terms. They criticize the movement for being non-Lutheran, oriented to marketing and numbers rather than being theologically based, and a poor fit for some congregations. I especially noted with interest the correlation between congregational size and attitude: larger metropolitan churches tend to be involved in many facets of ABLAZE!, while the smaller or rural congregations tend to believe ABLAZE! won't work for them. In my opinion, the underlying engine driving ABLAZE lies neither with the starting of

new congregations, nor of revitalizing others. When ABLAZE! leaders speak of their hopes to change our Synod's ''culture,'' I think they are talking about changing our hesitating witness for Christ. What seemingly comes easy for some other branches of Christianity has been slow going for us. Not that we haven't tried. During one weekend at Concordia, Ann Arbor in 1968, Pastors Ted Raedeke and Leroy Biesenthal led students and staff in a crash course in what would become Dialog Evangelism. In the early '70s, our Springfield seminary offered an elective in personal evangelism, held as an evening class. We turned to the likes of Dr. Kennedy's Evangelism Explosion and tried to tinker with its doctrine to make it more palatable. We were part of the evangelical – ecumenical Key '73 outreach initiative. We tried a telemarketing-derived approach until telemarketers became the bane of humanity. Some have attempted direct-mail endeavors. The Lutheran Hour continues on radio and we had This is the Life on TV for many years. Nevertheless, for most Lutherans (are we the ecclesiastical equivalent of Northwestern Mutual, the insurance company that bills itself as ''the quiet company?''), speaking about our faith to another individual does not come easy. So what does one do with a Synod whose leaders set a goal to share the Gospel with 50 million people, but whose members seem reticent about engaging others with the Good News of salvation in Christ Jesus? How does one change that culture so that we share the New Testament conviction, ''we cannot help but speak of what we have seen and heard''? This is where much criticism and disagreement has arisen, and that will be the topic of future President's Message pages. For now it is enough to pray that God will lead us in ways He can bless so that by His grace and the Spirit's power, we may start 2000 new congregations, revitalize another 2000 by 2017, and remember to pray daily, ''O Lord, open my lips.''

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