ABLAZE In Historical Perspective

As I see it, there’s nothing new about an “Ablaze movement” in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.  This effort to share the good news of Jesus Christ worldwide with 100 million people, to plant 2000 new ministries in North America, and to revitalize 2000 existing congregations, is at least the third great “mission movement” in the story of our Synod. 

The first occurred in the second half of 19th  and early years of 20th centuries as millions of German immigrants were coming to the shores of the New World.  With C. F.W. Walther leading the fledgling group of congregations that had come together in 1847 to form the “German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States,” our forbears reached out to these newcomers.  They came down to the harbor in Baltimore and held up a sign, “Fruehstick” (breakfast).  They not only provided a warm meal and help in getting settled, but the hope and comfort of the gospel.  As a result, our Synod, in less than 70 years, reached the million mark in membership.  In 1914, we were in fact the largest of the 20 plus Lutheran denominations in the United States.

Because our country entered World War I in 1917 on the side of the Allies, there was great social and political pressure placed upon our Synod’s congregations to do the unthinkable—to start using the English language rather than German in our worship and public discourse.  The painful change, however, proved to be a blessing.  For in the 1930s, God raised up a prophet among us.  Walter A. Maier was his name. 

Maier saw radio, the new piece of technology of that time, as a way to communicate the pure gospel of Jesus Christ in the English language to millions of people. So resoundingly successful was “The Lutheran Hour” that it was aired eventually on 1200 stations worldwide in 34 other languages besides English with an estimated annual audience of 2/3rds of a billion people.

Maier also succeeded in touching off another mission movement in the LCMS.  His program inspired our grandparents and parents to become missionaries.  During World War II and the decades that followed it, military commitments assigned them to new places around the world, and as the American economy started to boom, their jobs took them to new communities throughout our land.  When they found no LCMS congregation in such places, they willingly made the sacrifices and did the hard work of planting new missions.  “The Church of the Lutheran Hour,” interestingly, was the sign that often appeared on or beside the new buildings they put up.  As a result of the mission work of this generation of “builders,” the membership of the Synod by 1970 was approaching 3 million. 

We live in a new time today and face a different set of challenges.  But now it is clearly “our turn” to take up the mission of our forbears.  It’s also the reason I thank God for the opportunity the “Ablaze movement” presents. 

Jon Diefenthaler, President

Southeastern District—LCMS