A Hopeful Vision for the LCMS Part 3: The AIM (Austin Intercultural Missions) Network

“Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” (Rev. 15:34)

January 6 marks the 12th Day of Christmas and the beginning of the season that we call Epiphany. Epiphany marks the journey of the Magi, or Wise Men (almost certainly not Kings or only three), from the east to visit the newly born King of the Jews. One thing I find truly remarkable about this story is that no one in Israel picked up on the significance of the star. It took people from a different country, culture, and language to connect the dots. Once they saw the star and realized its significance, they did not just celebrate the birth of the promised Messiah and King. Instead, they went on a long and dangerous journey, facing the jealous, paranoid, and evil current king, just to see the Christ child for themselves. 

These men were likely the first Gentiles (non-Jews) to see and worship Jesus, but they certainly have not been the last. The good news of Epiphany is that just like God opened the eyes of the Magi so that they might gather around the first coming Jesus, God is gathering the nations together in anticipation of the coming return of King Jesus in all his glory. In the Revelation 15 passage, we see that Jesus declared as King of the Nations and that all nations will come and worship him on behalf of his righteous acts. This is a hopeful vision for the whole church, the bride of Christ, and for the church tradition we belong to—the LCMS. As I have already mentioned in previous blogs (Part 1 & Part 2), the “nations” are literally coming to our communities. Therefore, we do not have to go anywhere to join Jesus in his work of gathering the nations to himself.   

One way for this to happen is for churches and followers of Jesus to pay more attention to what is going on around them. Are our communities, workplaces, shopping centers, and other gathering places becoming more culturally and ethnically diverse? If so, we can start asking, “What can we do about this reality?” and “Why can’t our churches start reflecting this reality?” These changes can  become an opportunity to do something new, like start a ministry outreach to a new group of people. This is already happening in some pockets of the LCMS with great effectiveness, and we celebrate this work. Yet, we are just starting to scratch the surface on what could be done. This is where I am the most hopeful, knowing the opportunity that lies before us. There are some of us in the LCMS who have a vision for our church body and churches to become the most ethnically and culturally diverse faith community in our country. While this is a bold vision, if we combine our clear proclamation of the gospel with a heart and desire to reach the nations, this vision could become a reality.

This is not a vision that we can expect our Synodical office, Districts, Universities, Seminaries, and other institutions to accomplish. Each of these has a role to play for sure, but an initiative like this only happens when local churches and ministry leaders network together to share a common passion and resources. Mission networks for this purpose have already popped up in places like the Twin Cities, St. Louis, DFW, Chicago, Houston, and the Bay Area, just to name a few. Still we need more. Imagine if every metropolitan area in the US with a population of 1,000,000 or more started a mission network with the goal of reaching the nations with the Gospel? 

This brings us to the AIM network—the new project I am helping launch in the greater Austin area. The idea for AIM initially came up a little over a year ago when I was meeting with some church leaders from Austin. Up to that point, there had been very little, if any, intentional effort to launch culturally and ethnically diverse Word and Sacrament ministries in the greater Austin area. However, similar efforts have been successful in both Houston and the DFW area. I was asked at that time why I thought this was the case, and I replied that there was no catalyst yet with the passion and focus to get an effort like that “off the ground.” I was challenged to pray about moving to Austin and becoming that catalyst. From that initial conversation, several churches and leaders have started to work together to realize what a great need and opportunity for a gospel-proclaiming movement like this exists in Central Texas. AIM was launched in July 2025 with the goal of 10 new Word and Sacrament proclaiming ministries being launched in the next 10 years.             

AIM VISION

• We see a partnership being built between existing LCMS congregations and other ministry partners in the greater Austin area.

  
  

• We see these partners investing Spiritual, Relational, Intellectual, Physical, and Financial Capital to further advance the Kingdom of God to more and more disconnected people of all languages and cultures in the greater Austin area.

  
  

• We see ten new LCMS Word and Sacrament missions, ministries, and church plants in a variety of languages and cultures in the greater Austin area.

AIM CORE VALUES

• Multiethnic: Our primary focus is to share the Good News of Jesus with groups that the Lutheran church has historically struggled to reach. This includes the growing non-Anglo and non-English speaking populations.

  
  

• Collaborative: We cannot accomplish our goal of 10 new mission starts in 10 years without being in partnership with each other. Through the Five Capitals, we trust that each partner brings something unique to the table.

  
  

• Intercultural: We seek an integrated approach to developing new mission starts where people from a variety of cultural backgrounds work together as one ministry. This includes the development of future leaders

  
  

• Word and Sacrament: The ultimate goal of each of our mission starts is to become a Gospel proclaiming Word and Sacrament ministries that reflect their communities and can be replicated in other communities. 

  
  

I am currently leading this effort from Dallas, with monthly trips down to Austin, and will be moving there in the summer of 2026. The supporting leaders, churches, and ministries are excited by the initial response as three new ministry opportunities presented themselves in just our first six months. If a movement like this can happen in Austin, why not other cities? Despite the challenges—intercultural missions are messy, I remain very hopeful for this growing movement within the LCMS. In closing, let me encourage you with this collect “prayer” for the Epiphany I recently discovered. 

O God,

who by the leading of a star

manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:

mercifully grant that we,

who know you now by faith,

may at last behold your glory face to face;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

Amen

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