With Barbara A. Below
The theme for this year’s 65th Regular Convention of the Synod is “Baptized for This Moment” (Acts 2:38-39). You are going to see this theme showing up in all sorts of places long before the July 20-25 convention in St. Louis.
Schools will be getting involved, using the same theme for the 2013 National Lutheran Schools Week, which is Jan. 27- Feb. 2.
Lutheran education has played such an important role in the Synod’s history and it continues to do so. As Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 3:21, “Baptism is for you and your children.”
It is wonderful to encourage schools to get involved with the convention theme, study Baptism and its meaning and build activities around the theme. We are encouraging Lutheran schools to talk about Baptism and all its blessings: forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and eternal salvation.
As part of National Lutheran Schools Week, schools are invited to apply the convention theme in two specific ways.
Students in LCMS elementary, middle and high schools are invited to design, create and submit a baptismal banner for display at the convention. From among those banners, 150 will be selected to display onsite at the convention in the halls of the America’s Center Convention Complex. As delegates, participants and visitors walk back-and-forth through the convention complex, they will be surrounded by wonderful artwork made by our Lutheran school students.
Also, students, educators, staff and families of LCMS schools are encouraged to share in a video what Baptism means to them. Videos might include students and others talking about what their Baptism means, what it means to live as a child of God, recitation of the catechism sections on Baptism or singing a baptismal hymn.
Selected videos will be shown on the large screen in the convention hall where convention participants will see them throughout business sessions. Delegates and others will surely be uplifted and encouraged in their work to hear from our LCMS schools about what Baptism means to them.
Detailed instructions for submitting a banner or video are in the National Lutheran Schools Week resource packet found at www.lcms.org/lutheranschoolsweek.
Thank you in advance to all the students, teachers and families of our Lutheran schools for embracing the theme “Baptized for This Moment” and for blessing the 2013 Synod convention with your excitement, creativity, talents and abilities.
To learn more about the 2013 convention via social media, visit www.facebook.com/LCMSConvention and www.twitter.com/LCMSConvention.
Barbara A. Below is an assistant to the Synod president.
Posted Dec. 27, 2012
