Rev. Landon Schkade, Jr.

Urban Missions Facilitator & Church Planter

Rev. Landon Schkade, Jr., has served as a "Mission Facilitator” in the Greater Boston Area since July 2006. Initially he did so part time while pastoring Trinity Lutheran Church in West Roxbury; since January 2009, he has served full time as "Urban Missions Facilitator and Church Planter” through a partnership between the LCMS' Board for Mission Services (BFMS) and the New England District (NED). His  wife Doris serves with him to witness of our faith in Christ Jesus, and she supports him by sending birthday and "thinking of you” cards with Scriptural citations and personal notes in her beautiful calligraphy, making phone calls to keep up contact with friends and contacts, and through fervent prayer as he seeks to identify, disciple and train leaders, and identify and promote opportunities for partnerships between NED congregations, the District, Synod and social service agencies to plant new and daughter congregations.

FORMATION OF THE "BOSTON MISSION PLANNING COMMITTEE”:

 

In order to more effectively pursue these objectives, we invited a number of LCMS mission-minded pastors and laymen from within the I-495 ring road, along with President Keurulainen, Dr. Yohannes Mengsteab (BFMS), and Jon Jensen from LCMS Campus Ministry Association (CMA), to participate in a newly formed "Boston Mission Planning Committee". The Committee met for the first time on August 26th, and began the process of setting priorities for ministry efforts during the next five to ten years in metro Boston. In Committee's first meeting we discussed: (1) outreach opportunities to the large university community in Boston, and (2) identified existing LCMS congregations by community within the target area:

•Christ LC ~ Scituate •LC of the Cross ~ Hanover •St James LC ~ Canton

•Wollaston LC ~ Quincy •First LC ~ Back Bay, Boston •Trinity LC ~ West Roxbury

•St Luke LC ~ Dedham •LC of the Way ~ Raynham •Mt Calvary LS ~ Acton

•Messiah LC ~ Lynnfield •Our Savior LC ~ Topsfield •LC of the Savior ~ Bedford

•ConnectingPoint Church Lutheran Mission ~ Marlborough (new plant)

Churches/ ministries located immediately outside the I-495 ring road:

•Trinity LC ~ Clinton •Our Savior LS ~ Westminster •Messiah LC ~ Fitchburg

•Bible study ~ Worcester/Shrewsbury

The goal set for this planning effort over the next several months was to develop a strategy for initiating a church multiplication movement in metro Boston that will result in the proclamation of the Gospel and the formation of Confessional Lutheran faith communities in dechurched, unserved communities, among unchurched ethnic groups, American & international university students, young professionals, office workers, etc…

In the second meeting of the committee in September, it was determined that the first and second priorities for future ministry efforts should be:

1) University student outreach/ Brazilian mission in Boston. To undertake such a dual-call Dr. Yohannes Mengsteab has recommended a highly qualified pastoral candidate, Mr. Paul Lantz, who was formerly the outreach director for Faith Lutheran Church in Troy, MI, who is the first-ever American to graduate from our sister-church seminary. The NED Board of Directors voted on Dec. 6, 2010 to extend a Call to him to serve as Missionary-at-Large to the New England District. This ministry will be considered a partnership with First Lutheran Church, Boston. Paul will serve in the area of Campus and Portuguese Outreach ; and

2) A new church plant in an area where there are presently resources, that is, where a number of active LCMS Christians/ families live. The committee identified Foxboro 02035 and the surrounding zips as a prime target area for a first new church plant effort, as a number of members and friends from Our Redeemer Lutheran–Smithfield, R.I., St. Luke Lutheran–Dedham, Lutheran Church of the Way–Raynham, and St. James Lutheran–Canton live in the immediate area.

In the third meeting of the committee in early November, demographic reports developed through the MissionInsite demographic program for the above priority areas of ministry were presented and are included for your information as links below. In summary, it was determined that there are an estimated:

• 178,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional school students studying in 61 campuses within the 22 zip codes located within one and one-half miles of the First Lutheran Church (FLC) campus, and that an estimated 95% of those students are unchurched or dechurched. (/images/university%20students%20demographics.pdf)
 
• 75,280 Portuguese speakers within a 27-mile radius –roughly paralleling I-495 ring road– around FLC, the great majority of whom are unchurched and dechurched. (/images/Brazilian%20Ministry%20Demographics.pdf)
 
• 166,378 souls live within Foxboro 02035 and the surrounding zip codes, of which 148,500 or 92.4% are White (non-Hispanic) and middle class. There are approximately 39,000 children under the age of 18 and 45,000 individuals who are married couples or single parents with children, providing ample opportunity for a family-oriented ministries. (/images/Foxboro%20Area%20Demographics.pdf)
 
In relationship to the Foxboro church plant, three meetings have been held with the four pastors that have parishioners in the area, and it has been learned that 27 to 30 LCMS members live in the proximity. All of the pastors have agreed to talk to their members to determine their interest in participating and have committed to: encouraging their members to be part of this vital effort to bring the Gospel to the unchurched in the Foxboro area; praying corporately and personally for the undertaking; and working with me to set up meetings with their interested parishioners to explain the church-planting process through small-group Bible studies, "kids' club”, young adult activities, etc. On December 5th, 2010, I attended second service and met afterwards with interested individuals and families in Smithfield, RI.
 
OTHER MINISTRY ACTIVITIES:

•Brazilian Mission: I have served with Rev. Ingo Dutzmann to provide interim pastoral services to the Brazilian Lutheran Mission since February 2008, when Pastor Augusto Riss returned to Brazil. On December 6, 2010, the NED Board of Directors voted to call Candidate Paul Lantz –a recent graduate of our sister church seminary in Brazil (his wife Rosangela is Brazilian) as missionary to Brazilians and university students out of First Lutheran Church–Boston. Candidate Lantz visited Boston on September 24th to 26th; he led worship and preached at the Saturday evening Brazilian service and preached in the two English services at FLC on Sunday morning, and was well received by all.

•Hispanic Outreach in Providence, RI: I have worked with Pastor Leon Schultz and the leadership of St Paul's Lutheran Church to begin English Second Language and a children's after-school programs for outreach into the Dominican community around the church; ESL classes are planned to begin in early 2011.

•Metrowest Church Plant: ConnectingPoint Lutheran Mission is worshipping regularly at Marlborough Middle School at 25 Union Street at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings since spring; a "public launch” of the ministry was initiated in September and an average of 65 souls are worshiping and attending Sunday school on Sunday mornings.

•Worcester Church Plants: I lead a mid-week Bible study that meets at the Burger King in Shrewsbury since June 2010, from 7:00–8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays; we are presently studying 1 John. Attendance has been somewhat sporadic of late.

•Ethiopian Immigrant Outreach: I'm presently working to develop a relationship with an Ethiopian Lutheran pastor that is studying at Gordon-Conwell Seminary in Boston, with the hope of initiating an outreach to that immigrant community.

•Liberian Immigrant Ministry: I continue to study Lutheran doctrine with George Ware and wife Sophie, immigrants from Liberia. George and Sophie are excited about using Koehler's Annotated Catechism to teach the two study groups they shepherd –15 souls in the Manchester, N.H. study, and another 6 in Concord.