Loved & Sent Summit

The week of September 17-29, 2025, Lutheran Mission Society San Diego was invited to participate in the Loved & Sent Summit in St. Louis. Loved & Sent in an organization started by an alliance of Lutheran Church Missouri Synod churches in the St. Louis area for the purpose of exploring options for the church to better respond to the challenges of the world today. The name Loved & Sent is a reminder that as Christians we have both and identity (loved by God in Christ) and a purpose (sent by God for important work).

This was the first Loved & Sent Summit. The focus of the summit was to respond to the question, “Who’s Next?” In a denomination known for declining numbers and ageing congregations, who will be the next leaders and workers and how will they be trained up for the task at hand. We were invited to participate because our answer to that question is the many local missionaries that we are working with and raising up. Our story was told by mission society president Dave Lindsey and missionary Karen Swift. Pastor Voss was not able to attend due to a previous commitment but he shared his thoughts via a pre-recorded video. Our treasurer Dawn Lindsey was also there to share her thoughts and ideas in the discussion sessions.

We also heard from two other ministries. The Harbor Leadership Collective is an organization that is providing leadership and skills training for young people. They provide personal mentorship, hands-on ministry experience, and opportunities for community building, to inspire youth to respond to God’s call in their vocations.

GenConnect works with 2nd generation immigrants, the “1.5 generation” who lives in two cultures but may not be totally at home in either. Their purpose is to reach and raise the next generation; to foster faith in Christ through relationship building and worship.

The Summit was designed to be not the usual conference where you sit and listen to the experts as they tell you what works and what doesn’t. Instead we were encouraged to talk about what we heard, share ideas, ask questions, learn and teach as a collective of people seeking direction in ministry.

We were thrilled to discover that there are people all over the LCMS who get what we are doing, who are also seeking ways to spread the church beyond its walls, and who are seeking collaboration inside and outside of our denomination. We were also reminded that ministry requires sacrifice and is hard work, but it is work directed by God, inspired by Jesus, and led by the Holy Spirit.