More than half a million LCMS households -- better than double the usual mailing -- will receive the February issue of 3The Lutheran Witness.2 The magazine will comprise a 44-page special report on the Synod's work worldwide.

"This is probably one of the best efforts in recent years to inform a large number of LCMS members about the many good things their church is doing nationally, regionally and locally," said Rev. Tom Lapacka, executive director of the Synod's Board for Communication Services.

Work on the special-report issue of 3The Lutheran Witness2 began last spring after the Synod's Board of Directors asked how more members of LCMS congregations might learn about the work of their Synod. The February issue has 16 more pages and is being mailed to 338,000 more households than a regular issue of the magazine.

LCMS World Mission, LCMS World Relief and Human Care, Concordia Publishing House (CPH), Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF), the LCMS Foundation and the Worker Benefit Plans (WBP) provided the additional funds necessary to make the larger special-report issue possible, said Rev. David L. Mahsman, executive editor of the magazine as well as of the Synod9s 3Reporter2 newspaper. The magazine receives no funds from the Board of Directors.

Mahsman said individual sections of the February issue focus on congregations, districts, missions, higher education, human-care ministries, funding, the Foundation, LCEF, CPH and the WBP.

"It's our hope that all of us would look at what the Lord is doing through the Synod and be thankful for the many blessings He has given us and to be thankful to be part of this church body," Lapacka said.

By Albert H. Lee
chtoday_editor@chtoday.com