‘Appreciative response’: Listening-based giving

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The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) has been blessed by two large gifts, each in excess of $3 million.

An anonymous couple from the Great Lakes Region provided a $3.7 million contribution to open the new “Together as Synod” endowment, an invested fund that will provide annual income to be used wherever budgeted LCMS mission and ministry opportunities or financial pressures are greatest. As part of the gift, the couple allowed an amount equal to the first year’s projected income for use in the current fiscal year (FY). They also chose an already recognized name for the endowment in the hope that others in the Synod would be able to add to the fund as the Lord leads, without concerns about satisfying a minimum required gift amount.

At almost the same time, a family foundation in the southeastern U.S. committed a $3.56 million grant to accelerate several strategic areas of the Synod’s work. Received at the end of FY 2023, the grant will be expended during the current fiscal year, with the family praying that their investment will inspire others to join them.

Mark Hofman, executive director of LCMS Mission Advancement, said, “Both gifts reflect a growing confidence in corporate Synod’s stewardship of resources to advance the Gospel. In both instances, in direct conversations with a mission advocate, the contributors exhibited high levels of trust that the LCMS is putting their interests and goals at the forefront.”

Hofman continued: “I couldn’t be more pleased with how both of our mission advocates spent time listening to what God is doing in the lives of these contributors as they seek to live out their calling as His disciples, and then spent more time coordinating with internal leadership to carry out the donors’ vision. These two gifts are yet another affirmation that the biblical model we’ve adopted for contributor care and service leads to phenomenal partnerships between God’s people and the LCMS. And they are not the only contributors thinking along these lines — that personal investment in the mission strengthens the overall mission.”

Hofman emphasized that neither contributor wanted attention, and the details about how they came to make these gifts is being treated with the utmost care. “These are their own stories to tell, to those they want to hear it,” he said. “With the donors’ blessings, we’re sharing some limited information about the two gifts because we’re seeing this same kind of joy and confidence across all the people and groups who also are choosing to support our Synod’s work, regardless of the amount the Lord leads them to give. The person who sacrifices personal comfort and security to make a $20 one-time donation is just as inspiring to us as those whom God has enabled to give ‘big’ gifts of the kind that catch the public’s attention.”

Since 2017, Mission Advancement has been shifting its approach to a model Hofman calls “appreciative response.”

“When we’re welcomed into a person’s home or a congregation,” Hofman said, “we don’t charge in with a list of things we’re trying to sell. What is more important is taking the time to be genuinely curious about what that person, family or group of people is trying to express about themselves and their faith through their charitable activities. We have to listen, ask clarifying questions, and try to see the world and their faith journey through their eyes.

“That’s the appreciating part. Only when the person feels they’ve been truly heard can we begin the conversation about what they are striving to accomplish in the name of Jesus for His glory alone. Then we can respond appropriately to how God’s Word has worked a desire to give in service to the Gospel and connect them to the best options available.”

In the case of the “Together as Synod” endowment gift, the couple wanted a way to continue their support of LCMS mission and ministry as their earthly journey was coming to an end. The option of establishing an invested fund, one that would generate an annual gift for them, was appealing.

Coordinating that plan required input from LCMS leaders as well as the expertise of the LCMS Foundation, which manages these kinds of investments under their charge and charter by the Synod. In the case of the family foundation grant, the decision to give such a transformative donation required close coordination and prioritization by LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, Chief Mission Officer Rev. Kevin Robson, Chief Financial Officer Nathan Haak, and the executive directors of all five of the mission units of the LCMS.

“What was, to me, most impressive about those conversations was how no one was competing for the greatest share of this offering. The goal was to deliver the deepest meaning back to the family foundation, focused on what was being made possible because they freely chose to give,” Hofman explained. “It should be that way with every donor, and by God’s grace that’s becoming the standard approach. After all, we are committed to being vigorous in making known the love of Jesus in word and deed, everywhere and at all times. God is the best giver, working through His faithful disciples to accomplish His work and will in the world.”

Posted Dec. 13, 2023