A Hopeful Vision for the LCMS Part 1: Loved + Sent Summit: Who’s Next?

On September 17-19, 2025, three of us from the ULC Team, Jack Kalleberg, Tim Ahlman, and myself, attended the Loved + Sent Summit at Christ Memorial Lutheran Church in St. Louis. I first found out about this gathering last May when I presented with Jeff Cloeter, the Sr. Pastor at Christ Memorial during the Multiethnic Symposium at Concordia Seminary. While there, Jeff and I realized that we have a common passion for a more culturally diverse church body. Both of our churches are embracing intercultural ministries that worship in different languages and are training leaders from a variety of cultural contexts. In the months following, I began to learn more and more about the “Love + Sent” movement happening among several churches and other ministry partners in the greater St. Louis area and more specifically the Summit gathering they were hosting. They were wrestling with many of the same issues and asking a lot of the same questions as my ministry in Texas and the ULC. Therefore, I felt compelled to make the trip up to St. Louis and attend the Summit.   

One thing that struck me about the Summit event, and the Loved + Sent movement in general, is how positive and future-focused they are. When you look at some of the trends and challenges facing Christianity and our own church body, it can be pretty easy to become negative and discouraged. I consider myself to be a mostly positive-energy and upbeat person, but even I find myself struggling to see the best in what we have as the church and to remember the reasons we have to be hopeful, starting with our identity in Christ. Love + Sent has taken this mantle with the following bold vision, as found on the website lovedsent.org:        

What we see: We imagine a future where . . .

• The LCMS is the youngest church body in America.

• The LCMS is the most ethnically diverse church body in America.

• The LCMS has an abundance of workers with the capacity to send to new places.

• The LCMS is starting new ministries in places the church has not gone before.

• The LCMS is a reforming movement in American Christianity, influencing a rediscovery of the gospel.

• Our heritage is a clarity of the gospel that crosses generations, nations, and languages. 

We are hopeful in our assertion that the power of the gospel does mighty things               (Rom. 1:16).

Again, this positive, gospel-focused vision aligns well with many of the initiatives of the ULC and the Texas District where I serve. Though the progress is slower than I would like, we are seeing pockets in which more ethnically diverse churches are happening.  We are also seeing creative movements to identify, train, and develop new leaders and workers from our church from a variety of diverse backgrounds.

The Summit itself was an extremely encouraging gathering for a variety of reasons. For one, it was great to see so many different types of organizations work together as sponsors, contributing time, money, space and food for the gathering. Hearing the stories of the three ministries spotlighted was also a great encouragement. I really appreciated the format of shorter presentations followed by longer time to debrief and even provide feedback from our table groups. However, what I appreciated most about the Summit was being in the room and interacting with so many others from across the nation and church body who share a similar passion for equipping more leaders to serve a more diverse church body.

With this in mind, the overall theme or thread for the Summit was the simple question, “Who’s Next?” This was presented as the first step in a longer process and deeper conversation, which they summarize as:    

As a coalition of Lutheran Christians (LCMS), we are compelled by the greatness of the gospel and the severity of the mission. Through trust and unity, we commit to sacrificial sending for the sake of “Who’s Next.” Scripture speaks in generations, not momentary fads.  So we ask, “Who’s Next?” How can we join?

• New generations

• New people groups

• Young leaders

• Future church workers

  
  

I think this is a great question for all of us to wrestle with—who’s next, and is that who me? How is Jesus calling each of us to be a part of His solution, not just another discouraging voice. I am excited to have been part of this first step in a bold, hopeful, Jesus-centered movement that reminds us how we are all Loved + Sent. I also look forward to being a part of the next step, whatever that might be. 

uniteleadership.org

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