Missionary Alumni blog

A new Web site launched by the Lutheran Society for Missiology could be dubbed “everything you always wanted to know about LCMS missionaries — and more!”

The Web site, which has been “live” for about two months, profiles 60 veteran LCMS missionaries, most of whom have served for 20 years or more. It will eventually include information on as many as 1,000 missionary alumni with at least five years of service.

Known as the “Missionary Profiles Project,” the idea grew from a challenge from Society Board Chair Robert Scudieri. Research for the project was provided by Laura Koepke, the granddaughter of LCMS missionaries to India and a Ph.D. student at the University of Virginia.

Each missionary entry includes information about family and service, as well as a biographical summary.

Each missionary also provides information in the following categories:

• Biggest missiological issue faced?
• Most significant contribution during missionary service?
• Connection to today’s mission?
• Lessons learned.
• Best practices.
• Inspiration for entering mission field?
• Quotation by/about or brief story.

Dr. Allan Buckman, executive director of the Lutheran Society of Missiology, says the project is “entirely unique.”

“It’s a niche in Lutheran missionary resources — the whole Lutheran picture has not been shared by any other group.” The Web site provides a valuable “information base” about missionaries, Buckman says, “that has a relevance that carries from yesterday to today and that provides information and insight.”

Most valuable, he says, are each missionary’s “best practices and lessons learned,” which will benefit those missionaries who are just starting their service. Says Buckman: “Missionaries who are contemplating service in these countries can go [to the Web site] and see what the missionaries’ learnings and best practices are.”

The site also has a “wiki” feature that allows registered users — missionaries and their families — to update entries. Those changes must be approved by site facilitator Dr. John Lautenschlager.

• To access the site, go to www.lsfmissiology.org/wiki.
• For more information about the Lutheran Society for Missiology, visit www.lsfmissiology.org.

Prepared by the Division of News & Information, Board for Communication Services