Index

Introduction

1.	Basis of our mission – The fascination and vision of hope that livens us up
2.	Action proposals – Ways for our action
Action 1	Participative planning in the community
Action 2 	Church Day – Lutheran meeting
Action 3	Celebrating Pentecost
Action 4	Planning our mission work in the campaign area
Action 5	Public responsibility
Action 6	Ecumenical responsibility
Action 7	Leadership training
Action 8	Volunteers training
Action 9	Synodical teams
Action 10	6th Synodical Assembly
Action 11	Synodical team action
Action 12	Offering plan
Action 13	Northwest Synod partnership
Action 14	Getting to know the church and the Synod
Action 15	Challenges

Introduction
“The fascination and vision of hope that livens us up”

“God has a project of life for his children.  Before the horizon of God’s promises that were realized in the form of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the conscience that we are instruments of God for his service and testimony.”

We want to be a missionary church:
The church and Christian people have a commitment with a project of life.  Whoever has experienced the liberating grace of Christ is an agent of transformation, is someone that acts in favor of dignity, justice and peace.

We want to be a participative church:
The principle of “general calling of all believers” expresses the vital idea of participation of the communities and its members.  Participation becomes the means of community that we look to experience in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Our public ministries look to help the communities to achieve this mission.

Our goal: Participation, Involvement and Training
The actions of the churches in the area of the Center Synod-Campanha Sul will direct itself on the goal of building missionary and participative communities and it will develop initiatives that have in view the participation, the involvement, and training in the communities of its members and chosen leaders.  In this action, the Synod will guide itself by the proposals that have come from the communities; it will pay attention to the realities and special challenges that the communities and parishes go through.  With dialogue and actions, it will try to develop actions that aim the revival of the communities and the participation of the communities and its members.

ACTION 1	
Participative Planning in the community

Objective:	Support the community and parishes in the goal of getting to know each other better and to undertake dynamic actions with regards to missions.

Goals

1.	To put together manuals such as:
a.	What is the community?
b.	Getting to know the reality
c.	Participative planning methodology

2.	Putting together multiplication teams in the area of planning and missionary action

ACTION 2
Church Day – Lutheran meeting

Objective:	To bring together in a meeting people such as community members, missionaries, team leaders and work groups to celebrate the Holy Communion, CONFRATERNIZAR and to be encouraged by the service and testimony of those who are present at the meeting

Goals

Meeting to take place on Church Day, August 26, 2001
Place to be announced

ACTION 3
Celebrating Pentecost

Objective:	Celebrate Pentecost in the community

Goals

1.	Prepare aids for the celebration and motivate service and testimony
2.	Motivate communities, missionaries and leadership team members to celebrate Pentecost in all communities and to get involved in the missions of the church.

ACTION 4
Planning our mission work in the campaign area

Objective:	To prepare a missionary action plan for the campaign area, with regards to the situation of the communities, distances, characteristics of the communities and creation of future communities.

Goals

1.	Meeting for volunteers from the area, with the purpose to train them for local and regional mission work.
2.	Meeting for leaders and volunteers
3.	In 2001, begin with 4 projects in parishes that already have their missionary action planning done

ACTION 5
Public responsibility – Faith challenge

Objective:	Support political leaders in their public task and in reflecting of the challenges that comes from faith and Christian ethics.

Goals

1.	June 9, 2001		Synodical meeting of evangelical political leaders
“To gather community leaders in the rural area to discuss a proposal of respect for life and its conservation.”	

ACTION 6
Ecumenical responsibilities

“The year 2000 brought us an intense ecumenical agenda, in the context of Fraternity Campaign. Growing relationships were shaken by doctrinal documents published by the sister church.  The challenge to build communion and authentic ecumenical cooperation continues strong in our part, which we want to continue working on.

Objective:	Develop initiatives that encourage and consolidate relationships and ecumenical communion with our sister churches.

Goals

1.	Participate in regional meetings of the Ecumenical Forum
2.	Support communities/volunteers in parish meetings
3.	Establish contact with CEBI – in order to get to know the proposals and materials

ACTION 7
Leadership training

Objective:	Support the community and parishes in the goal of getting to know each other better and to undertake dynamic actions with regards to missions.

Faith basic course
Objective:	Confront people with the basic contents of the Christian faith and help them discover or rediscover the reason for their lives.

Children’s Worship
Objective:	To prepare volunteers to work with children

Evangelical Youth
Objective:	To prepare youth leaders tied to the work in progress with youth from the communities
	
Women of the Church (OASE)

Objective:	To prepare working women and link them with women from the community

Spouses Group

Objective:	Motivate and integrate working couples with couples in the community

Senior Citizens

Objective:	To prepare community leaders to work with senior citizens

Liturgy and Music team

Objective:	To prepare community leaders in the area of liturgy and music

Disabled assistance

Objective:	To prepare community leaders to work with disabled people

Communication

Objective:	To prepare community leaders in the area of communication

Visitation teams

Objective:	To prepare community leaders to become visitors 

CAPA (Support Center for the Small Farmers)

Objective:	To motivate and prepare rural leaders of our communities that want to participate in a proposal of family and ecological agriculture.

Evangelical Legion

Objective:	To promote the well being, material and spiritual, of the evangelical men.
	CONFRATERNIZACAO amongst legion brothers
	To develop spirituality between legion brothers
ACTION 8
Volunteers training

Objective:	To prepare volunteers to work building up the communities. Also to help the community live their spirituality and exercise creativity and participation in their special ministry.

ACTION 9
Synodical Teams

Objective:	To speed up and implement missionary actions throughout the parishes and communities.

ACTION 10
6th Synodical Assembly

Objectives:	1.	To approve the goals and objectives of the church mission in their area
	2.	Maintain themselves informed about the Synod’s activities and administration 
	3.	To search for reflection and the debate about fundamental themes
	4.	Search for communion and sharing of faith experiences

ACTION 11
Synodical Team Action

Objective:	To gather members of the Synodical Council and management, so they can exercise their abilities 

Objective:	To create the physical resources for the installation of Administrative Office and the Synodical Pastor’s residence

Goals:	In 2001, start construction of the buildings that will house the Administrative Office and the Synodical Pastor’s residence

Objective:	To gather with members of the Parish leadership groups to: share our hopes and our realities, to get know the Synod’s action plan, to equip ourselves for our administrative and financial tasks.

Goals:		Meeting for Parish presidents, treasurers and secretaries
		Visits to the Parishes by the Synodical Team

Objective:	To search for qualification for the practice of the tasks and functions performed at the Synodical management and council, as well as the Parish leadership groups

Goals:	To facilitate throughout the year several 2-hour meetings in the area of qualification for administrative staff

Objective:	To facilitate the registration of members of the communities
	To facilitate the administration of the parishes/communities
	To facilitate the communication between parishes, their leadership, their volunteers with the Synodical team

Goals:	To provide parishes with the basic computer equipment.  The communication office of the IECLB is studying the possibilities of funds, by means of a loan, for such purpose.

ACTION 12
Offering Plan

Objective:	To aid several mission and specific groups during the year.

18 Sundays out of the calendar year, the offering is designated to groups such as:
•	Synod’s newsletter
•	Work with senior citizens
•	Campus ministry
•	Missions
•	Evangelical legions
•	Youth formation workshops
•	Nursing homes
•	Married couples’ retreats

Goals:
•	The offering received on Sundays must go to specific people or groups
•	It is necessary to prepare oneself well for the announcement of the offering
•	Remittance of the offering to its destination can be made once a week or once a month
•	The offerings bound for the IECLB or the Synod must be mailed to the Synod’s office, with clear specifications to whom they are destined for

ACTION 13
Companion Synod
“Northwest Synod of Wisconsin”

The exchange between the Center Synod-Campanha do Sul and the Northwest Synod of Wisconsin in the United States has been solidified and deepened in various levels:

•	Regular contact via mail 
•	Personal contact with mutual visits
•	Campus Ministry
•	In the area of training of lay people, especially the “School for lay leaders” and our participation in ELCA via the internet
•	In the rural area, especially CAPA.  We have received visitors connected to the rural area from the United States.
•	Offerings received to support the missionary work of the Synod

Beyond this brotherly relationship between Synods, some direct exchanges have been established directly with the community:

•	Our Savior Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls with Santa Maria’s Evangelical Community
•	Saron Church in Ashland with Cachoeira do Sul’s Community
•	Bethesda Lutheran Church in Dresser with Sobradinho Evangelical Parish
•	Lutheran community in Danbury with the community in Arroio do Tigre

ACTION 14
Getting to know the church and the Synod
Statistics

Some statistics related to the IECLB:

Number of Parishes	413	
Number of Parish Unions	10	
Number of communities	1770	
Number of places of preaching	1162	
Number of Synods that make the IECLB	18	
Number of schools connected to the Education Department	46	
Number of nursing homes connected to the IECLB	13	
Number of hospitals connected to the IECLB	20	
Number of retirement homes	12	

	Total number of IECLB baptized:		713,502

ACTION 15
Challenges

All the Synod’s actions are initiatives that come from proposals and action plan from the Missionary Plan of the IECLB (PAMI) and are inspired by it and its objectives.  Action 15 gathers impulses, initiatives, and goals that need our continued and new attention and participation.

Mission:
•	Create leadership teams that would work with missions on a permanent basis, at a Parish and Synod level (Action 1)
•	Identify in the geographic limits of the Synod, municipalities, cities, regions and places where we have no presence as the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession
•	Broaden and deepen the reflection of the relationship between faith and money in relation to time and talents in the communities. (Actions 1, 11 & 12)
•	Implement goals proposed by the Missionary action plan of the IECLB, like the specific IECLB challenges for the next 7 years:
o	That the average participative percentage of the members in some field of community performance grow from 5-10% to 15-20%
o	That in a seven-year period, no pastor have an area of responsibility of over 1000 baptized members
o	That the Synods establish goals and qualitative actions that will result in an annual quantitative growth in the order of 5% along the next 7 years

The Synod’s responds to these challenges with all its action plans.  In order to evaluate if its goals are being met, they propose to:
•	Motivate the communities to have a membership roster 
•	Create a means to evaluate the propose growth in membership
•	In the year 2001, initiate a study called “Parishes with over 1000 members”

Communication:
As soon as we gather a Synodical Council of Communication, we propose the fulfillment of the following projects:
•	Have Synodical communication in 2001
•	Have a Synodical support team in 2001
•	Fulfill our goals set on Action 2, as far as training agents and writers at the community level

With the students:
We would like to provide support to the students that are studying for the IECLB ministry and that come from the Synod’s geographical area.
We would like to do what we can, within our financial means, in cooperation with the communities, parishes and the students’ families.
We would like to help those in need within the communities/parishes.