Texas District Officers Deny Validity of Lutheran Annual Statistics
by Rev. Jack Cascione

Three Vice Presidents of the Texas District were present for the lectures given in 1999 titled "Reclaiming the Gospel in the Texas District."

Vice President Joeckel was present at Arlington, Texas on Feb. 11th, 1999, Vice President Linderman was present in San Antonio, Texas on Feb. 12th, 1999, and Vice President Black was present in Houston on Feb. 15th, 1999.

Both Joeckel and Linderman vehemently proclaimed at the meetings that the financial statistics of the Texas District from the Lutheran Annual were false. They insisted that the amount of funds given to the Texas District by member congregations and the amount of funds the District sent on to the Synod were incorrect.

They both had no idea what the correct numbers were. They had no advance warning of what the numbers shown on the screen would be, but they immediately told everyone at the meeting that the financial numbers published in the Lutheran Annual were false.

They also insisted that the number of people published in the Lutheran Annual working "at the District Office" were completely in error. The following numbers were taken from the Lutheran Annual and Statistical Year books.

Now more than a year later the latest statistics for the Texas District as found in "The Lutheran Annual 2000" report an increase of $876,729.00 dollars from 1997 to 1998. This resulted in an increase of $45,000.00 to Synod from the previous year or 5.1%. Yet the Texas District past a resolution that it would give 40% of its budget to Synod.

Year	Work at Large	Synod's Budget	At District Office	Confirmed Members
1968	$1,747,549	$680,854		69,245
1972	$2,141,338	$835,488	4 staff listed	76,368
1992	$6,905,724	$2,454,774	11 staff listed	100,215
1997	$8,684,579	$2,025,000	15 staff listed 3 deployed offices	107,550
1998	$9,561,326	$2,065,000	12 staff listed 2 vacancies 3 deployed offices	108,527

The numbers are so embarrassing and indefensible that President Kieschnick's Vice Presidents had little choice but to publicly claim that the Lutheran Annual numbers are wrong.

What they show is that Texas and many other Districts are steadily collecting more and more funds and giving less and less funds to the Synod. The Texas District collected approximately $1.7 million more mission funds in 1997 than in 1992 but reduced its giving to the Synod by more than $400,000.00 in 1997.

The Texas District has a resolution that 40% of its funds will go to the Synod, but in 1997 it sent in only 23%. In 1998, it sent in 21.5%. Where do the extra funds go? Who can tell? The Texas District added three deployed offices between '92 and '97.

The number of people listed "at the District Office" rose to 15. They have now full time "Facilitators," whatever they are, at the District Office and in three deployed offices around the state.

When confronted by the numbers from the Lutheran Annual, the Texas District Vice Presidents deny, deny, deny, as if there was a conspiracy on the part of the Synod to publish fraudulent statistics about the Texas District.

Local Texas pastors report that the Texas District may have opened no more than two new mission congregations in the past 10 years. However, the Texas District President reports that the District opened 33 mission congregations in the past 10 years.

When challenged to produce the names of these phantom mission congregations by Attorney James D. Runzheimer of Arlington, Texas, District President Kieschnick has refused to respond.

The entire mission philosophy has changed. Rather than finance "traditional mission congregations" the Texas District is giving funds to Texas Mega-Churches to start missions inside these congregations. They claim this method of support brings them more results.

In essence, the small congregations are now financing the large congregations. The "traditional" congregations thus finance their own extinction.

Meanwhile, the so-called "confessional pastors and congregations" have started and financed two "confessional missions." A "confessional mission" means they use Lutheran hymnbooks, catechisms, agenda, liturgy, creeds, the name "Lutheran" etc. according to Article VI.4 of the LCMS Constitution.

The financial figures for the Texas District are typical of many LCMS districts. They have increased their staffs, decreased their support for Synod at large, and opened fewer mission congregations.

In other words, they have increased the bureaucracy and decreased their mission out reach at home and through the Synod. There is little wonder that the larger districts are growing more slowly and the Synod as whole shrank by more than 18,000 baptized in 1998.

Rev. Jack Cascione is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church (LCMS - MI) in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. He has written numerous articles for Christian News and is the author of Reclaiming the Gospel in the LCMS: How to Keep Your Congregation Lutheran. He has also written a study on the Book of Revelation called In Search of the Biblical Order.
He can be reached by email at pastorcascione@juno.com.

May 31, 2000