Reflections on a Long and Satisfying Life No. 62:
EBENEZER THANKOFFERING (Part 1)
It was late 1965. Our family was living in San Antonio,
TX where Jane was dealing with a cranial aneurysm that doctors still feared
might rupture at any time. My job future was uncertain. The hopes were that we
could go back to continue working in Hong Kong. But every indication was that
we would not be given medical clearance to return. The Mission Board was patient,
gave me a couple short-term assignments. and we waited.
Then one morning I received a phone call. It was from
Dr. Martin Koehneke president of Concordia University Chicago who was on leave
working for a US senator in Washington D.C. “Mel”, he said to me, “I want you
to grab a plane and come see me. Get an early flight. We will talk for two
hours, and then you can return on the same day.” I tried to analyse that
request. But very soon I had bought and used my ticket and was with him in
Washington.
He explained that The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
was about to undertake a churchwide fund-raising effort, that he was the
director of that effort and he wanted me to be a part of his four person
leadership team. I was to be the Director of Organisational Services, whatever
that might mean.! accepted.
Dr. Koehneke had a radical idea for a fund raiser. He
was not going to use the usual tactic of first getting the majority of the
funds from major donors and then reaching out more generally. He was not going
to stress the need for funds-rather he was going to stress the need to give as
an expression of gratitude for gifts received. The primary leadership for the
whole effort was to come from lay persons rather than the clergy. And the name of
the project was going to have the strange moniker of EBENEZER-remembering a
stone by that name which the ancient prophet Saul had erected with words
“Hitherto has the Lord helped me.” The
theme hymn was going to be “The Lord has
helped me hitherto.”
Another major new idea. The project would use the
resources of the just newly developing technology called computers. The plan
was to have each of the 6000 congregations of The LCMS submit the names,
addresses and home mailing addressed of all, of their members. Using computer technology
these would all be entered into a massive data base. Then on the date of each
person’s birthday they would receive a card and an invitation to express gratitude
for the gifts in their lives by sending in a gift. The size of the gift was to
be calculated by taking one’s age and multiplying that by any number one chose
and to then send in that amount of dollars for a Thankoffering.
My job was put together, train and mobilize the organization
needed to support this effort. The entire denomination was divided into 7
regions. Each region had about 5 districts, each district had about 175
congregations and each congregation had about 330 members. So we wanted to
gather some 3 million names. My goal was to find and train and support the
Regional Director, and then help them do the same for a director for each
district, and each district director was to hopefully identify a director in
each congregation and each congregation would selected a director for each
month of the year.
The hope was that each congregation would list and
honor all persons who shared a birthday month and always stress that this year
they would show their gratitude for another year of bessings by sendnig in a
gift in response to the greetings they received in the mail from the national
office.
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