Entry Form

How has your congregation “Listened Up” to the needs of others on a local, national, or international level over the past year?  Enter the 2019 Annual Gathering Photo Contest and share your stories with us!  

The LCMC staff is once again welcoming photo submissions from LCMC pastors, leaders, and church members that depict how their congregation has been "in Mission for Christ" over the past year.  

We especially love to see photos from service projects, outreach events/activities/programs, mission trips, creative/artistic projects, disaster relief, and church planting efforts from any and all age groups within your congregation!

HERE'S HOW TO ENTER:

1. Go to www.lcmc.net/2019-photocontest and review the photo guidelines
2. Upload a photo, fill out the entry form, and click “submit"
3. You will receive a confirmation message once your photo has been submitted.  

You may enter as many photos as you’d like, however to ensure that we are able to communicate the story behind your photo, the entry form must accompany each submission.  

Photos will be selected based on subject matter (how closely they fit the theme), quality of the photo (not squished, blurry, or overlapped by text or clip art), and the story behind the photo (the photo description explaining how your congregation is making a difference).

Due to printing requirements, time restraints, and the high volume of photos we receive each year we are unable to guarantee the publication of each and every photo submitted, however all eligible photos received by Monday, July 15th will be considered for publication in our 2019 Annual Gathering books.  

Hard copy books will be available at the Annual Gathering in October, and a digital edition of the book will be available on our website and in our mobile app once the Annual Gathering begins.

The LCMC 19th Annual Gathering and Convention takes place September 29 - October 2, 2019 at the CHI Health Center Omaha in Omaha, NE. 

The theme of this year's event is “We Confess Our Faith”.  Our format will be a bit different this year, hoping to engage those attending in the conversation of three of the fundamental teachings of the Reformation:

• Justification
• The Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms
• The Priesthood of All Believers

The format will start with a brief introduction of the topic from a theological perspective, a panel discussion focusing on application to daily life—both domestic and international contexts – and discussion at tables by those attending the gathering.

This year we also celebrate the 500th anniversary of the nailing of the 95 theses of Martin Luther to the church door in Wittenburg, the beginning of the Reformation.  We will be screening documentary commissioned by Thrivent, “Martin Luther, The Idea That Changed the World”.

Once again, this year's event will include service projects, vendors, breakout sessions, and great worship opportunities. 

Early bird registration ends September 1st, so be sure to sign up before the price increases! 

For future updates on this and other events, be sure to download our mobile app and enable push notifications. 

Learn More  |  Register Now!

If your congregation is currently carrying out an Hispanic ministry, mission, or agency in our association, and you would like to get connected, please click here and sign up.  If you are interested in learning more about developing an Hispanic ministry, feel free to sign up as well. 

As we get some folks on our list, we will assign a coordinator, put together a “mission statement” and see what the Lord might do with this.

We have a number of non-geographic districts, and LCMC grew out of one many years ago called “Word Alone Network”. 

The purpose of non-geographic districts is to give people who are separated by many miles, but united in interest, a chance to connect, support and encourage, and even offer insight and training for those who want to grow a ministry. 

I think this network could also be a tremendous resource for those who would like to initiate a ministry in this arena.

Click Here to Sign Up!

Pastor Samuel Chim, Service Coordinator for LCMC Cambodia, has led mission in Cambodia for 20 years, establishing 50 house Churches, 9 Congregations, and 5 major regional projects.  Some of his work includes establishing a floating school for 500 impoverished children, digging wells throughout the country to ensure clean water, and training pastors for mission work. 

LCMC Cambodia is partnering with ALWM to create mission experiences for groups and congregations in the west and to raise awareness and support for the needs of Cambodian Christians and the Christian communities there.  ALWM, founded in 2007 by Pastor Bill Moberly, works to call, mobilize, equip, and network congregations for effective global outreach.

LCMC Cambodia is joining together with ALWM, ILT, and Lutheran Asian Ministries (LAM) to establish a new model for seminary training throughout Southeast Asia, including Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam.  School for Asian Lutheran Theology, or S.A.L.T., is a project of ILT to establish training centers throughout Asia for the training of pastors and church leaders.  

The 5 Year Challenge is a call to individual Christians as well as Christian Churches and Organizations in LCMC United States to strengthen their resolve to support Global Missions and to be part of pushing LCMC Cambodia into a new era of mission and evangelism. 

To learn more about the 5 Year Challenge, visit www.alwm.org, Awakening Lives to World Mission. 

To find out more about S.A.L.T., visit www.ilt.org, the Institute of Lutheran Theology. 

To see an informational video about LCMC Cambodia and the 5 Year Challenge, go to www.vimeo.com/168483946. 

To find out how you or your congregation can support LCMC Cambodia in the 5 Year Challenge, contact Pastor Chris Conner, S.E. Asia Coordinator for Awakening Lives to World Mission, at revcjconner@gmail.com or 620-225-4812.

• Community Outreach
• Service Projects
• Mission Trips
• Creative/Artistic Projects
• Disaster Relief
• Church Planting Efforts

Photos must be submitted via our online photo submission form and will be selected based on the following criteria:

• Theme:  The subject matter of the photo must be relevent to the topic. 
• Quality:  We are unable to use photos that are blurry, distorted, very small or have text over them. 
• Story:  Each photo must be submitted with a caption explaining what's going on in the photo and the event or project that it was taken during. 

The deadline to submit photos for this year's book is Friday, July 1. 

More Info:  Submit a Photo  |  FAQs  |  Past AG Books

One year ago, the AD sent a 12 person fact finding team to visit with the Tabor congregation in Ethiopia. Out of that meeting came a partnership where the AD committed to supporting in various ways the tremendous mission outreach that the Tabor congregation already had in place, but wanted to expand even further into their neighboring Muslim areas.

In 2014, the AD raised over $100,000 and distributed $85,000 to the Tabor congregation for designated projects, or a 50/50 split of financial support to related mission projects of their choosing. Some of these mission projects included training and sending 39 evangelists to minister to the local people at 50 local community gathering mission centers, and beginning an agricultural mission to reach out and partner with local farmers in heavily Muslim regions.

Today's AD mission update newsletter reports that during the first quarter of 2015, an additional $15,000 was distributed to grow the number of evangelists to 46, add 5 farmers to the agricultural program, help purchase land to construct two more outreach centers, and more gathering mission sites in Muslim areas.

In addition, during the month of June, an additional $17,000 will be sent for continuing 50/50 support of the evangelists and farmers, as well as additional purchases of motorcycles and bicycles to assist the evangelists in reaching out to their local communities. The cost to support each evangelist is $600 per year.

The chairman of the AD Board of World Missions, Pastor Paul Knudson, reports, "The experience of the AD with the Tabor Partnership has been and continues to be a blessing beyond anyone's imagination. The Board wishes to extend its profound gratitude for all of your generosity."

Linked here is a page from last quarter's newsletter which gives a general summary of this positive partnership that is bearing much fruit for Christ's Kingdom.  (Click Here for Article)

Your in Christ,

Jim Dix

• We’re free in Christ
• We’re accountable to one another
• We’re rooted in the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions
• We’re all working together to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations

In accordance with this year’s theme, we’re inviting all “LCMC-ers” out there to show us, in a photograph, how their congregation exemplifies what it means to be an LCMC congregation. 

More detailed information, including a list of photo guidelines, can be found here. 

Special consideration will be given to all photos submitted on or before Tuesday, June 30th, however all photos received by Friday, July 31st will be considered for publication in our 2015 Annual Gathering Book and on our website.

Throughout the year, the 833 congregations that make up LCMC came together to raise a total of $91,005.40 for our service project with Meals from the Heartland (13.75% more than our goal of $80,000).  On the evening of Tuesday, October 7th, many of the people who attended the gathering met up at the convention center and assembled a total of 291,168 meals.  [Watch Video]

During the Business Session of the gathering, Pastors Christopher Miller (Area 2) and Kenneth “Corky” Spitler (Area 5) were elected to the LCMC Board of Trustees.  Pastors Nathan Hanson and Stephan Turnbull were appointed to serve on the Ministry Board.  

Rev. Mark Vander Tuig announced the launch of the LCMC Prayer Chain, an opportunity for people to sign up to pray for all of the congregations in LCMC on a weekly basis.  Click Here to learn more and sign up.

It was also announced that our 15th Annual Gathering will take place from October 4-7, 2015 at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center in Frisco, TX. 

Photo galleries from the Annual Gathering, downloadable copies of our 2014 Book, and presentation notes from our Keynote Speakers are now available at our website.  To view any of these materials, Click Here. 

Videos of our speakers will not be available until later this winter.  We will announce via E-Newsletter, blog, Facebook and Twitter when these videos have been posted.  

100% of the donations that we have received will be used to purchase enough food, packaging supplies and shipping to feed 400,000 people in need, both in the U.S. and abroad. 

The food packages will be assembled on Tuesday, October 7th from 5:00 to 7:00 P.M. by LCMC-ers from around the globe. 

The process of assembling and packaging the meals will require the help of about 1,000 people, so if you plan to attend the Annual Gathering this year, we need your help!  If you haven't already, please consider signing up to help package meals for an hour or two.  All you've got to do is check off one or both of the "Meal Packaging Project" boxes when you Register for the Annual Gathering. 

If you have already registered for the Annual Gathering, but did not sign up to package meals and would like to, you can also notify our staff that you are interested via email at cathy@lcmc.net. 

See you in Des Moines! 

 
For the next several weeks, our staff is inviting all "LCMC-ers" to send us photos of themselves (or fellow members of their congregation) "in Mission for Christ".  All photographs received by Thursday, July 31st will be considered by the LCMC Staff for possible inclusion in the design of the book that will be distributed at the Annual Gathering this October, and on our website!

From 5k races to beauty treatments to English as a Second Language programs, we've seen all kinds of interesting photos and creative ideas in the past.  We are very much excited to see what is going on within the congregations of our association, and to incorporate these stories into the artwork of this year's Annual Gathering book.

Before you get started, please read through the requirements and instructions below.

What we're looking for:  Photos of you (or people in your congregation) in action!  For examples of photos we've used in the past, check out some of our previous books here. 

What we're not looking for:  Pictures of buildings, but no people. 
 

Here are a photo guidelines, terms & conditions:

1. Our staff welcomes photo submissions from now through Thursday, July 31st, with special consideration being given to photos received by Monday, June 30th.  Due to early printer deadlines, any photos submitted after this date will be ineligible for consideration.
2. Please do not place text or clip art on photos, as these things can be difficult to read should we need to re-size your photo. 
3. Because chosen images will be used in a printed publication, please send only high resolution/print quality images.  Very small and/or distorted images will not print clearly.
4. Acceptable file types are: JPG (preferred), GIF, TIFF and PNG.  (No PDFs or Word documents, please!)
5. Any photo submitted must be an original work (owned by the individual or the congregation), and not the intellectual property of another party.  
6. By submitting any photo(s), you agree that any images (and likeness or subject matter within) submitted may be used without compensation for the purposes described above.
7. Photos must be submitted by pastors, congregation members/staff or associate members of LCMC.  
8. Photo content must be relevant and in accordance with who we are and what we believe.
9. Each photo submission must be accompanied by your name, the name and location of your congregation, and a brief description of the photograph (see below for more info).  
10. Please note:  Due to space, time and other constraints, we are unable to guarantee the publication of each and every photograph submitted to us.
     

How to Submit Photos:

Please be sure that we receive your photo entries no later than Wednesday, July 31.  All photos submitted to LCMC must be accompanied by the following information:

1. A brief description of the photo(s) 
   • Who is in the photo?
   • When and where does it take place? 
   • What's going on in the photo?
   • How has your congregation been "in Mission for Christ" over the past year?
2. The name of the person submitting the photograph and/or the photographer's name
3. The name of the congregation, and the city and state in which it's located. 

Photo entries and all accompanying information may be submitted to us in one of the following ways:

1. Online:  Click here for an online form, which will allow you to upload a photo.
2. Email:  Attach the photos to an email and include all description information in the body of the email.  Photo entries should be sent to Kristy Thomas, Communications and Public Relations Specialist for LCMC, at kristy@lcmc.net. 
3. Flickr Users:  If you have a Flickr account and would like to submit your photos by sharing an album, please email a link to the album, along with the requested information, to kristy@lcmc.net.  If you are submitting multiple photos this year, we highly encourage you to submit your photos using this method. 
4. Instagram:  Photos uploaded to Instagram will be considered for submission when accompanied by the hashtags #lcmc and #2014agbook. 

For more info: