About the Nebraska District

Our Mission: Serving God’s Family—Living His Good News 

We serve God’s family, encouraging them to be fully engaged in living and sharing the Good News of Jesus.

Our Vision: God’s Family Together—Joined in His Mission

God’s forgiven family walking and working together in God’s mission of making and maturing disciples of Jesus Christ.

The Lord is giving Christians in Nebraska a tremendous opportunity right now to share the Good News of Jesus with those who don’t know Him. God has brought the mission field to Nebraska and instructed us to let our light shine among them. The Nebraska District of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has been developed by the congregations of Nebraska to be a place to turn for tools to be used in these fields. Each person in your congregation receives the tools he or she needs to enter the mission field through Word and Sacrament worship, Bible studies, Sunday school, training in outreach and evangelism, youth activities, and all the other ministry opportunities your congregation offers.

Our Core Beliefs

• There is only One God, eternally existent in Three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• That all humans are fallen creatures, and our salvation is only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and is only through the Spirit working through the Means of Grace.
• That the Means of Grace proclaims our salvation and enables us to live out our faith, declaring the light of Christ in the darkness where God has placed us to make disciples.
• We are here to glorify God and to love and serve all people in body and soul.
• The resurrection of both the saved and lost: those who are saved into the resurrection of life and those who are lost into the resurrection of damnation.
• The Bible is the inspired, inerrant, authoritative, living Word of God and the only source of absolute truth.
• The Lutheran Confessions are a correct exposition of the truths of the Scriptures.

For more information on the beliefs and practice of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, please visit Synod’s beliefs and practices resources.

Our Values

• We are compelled by God’s love for the world.
• We are completely reliant upon the Holy Spirit working through Word and Sacraments; therefore, these are our primary instruments.
• We see local congregations as the primary venue for discipleship and Gospel outreach.
• We proclaim God’s inspired Word as correctly understood in our Lutheran Confessions.
• We are committed to one another as the Body of Christ.
• We glorify God as we proclaim His Word, and love and serve all people’s earthly and eternal needs.
• We are committed to lifelong discipleship, including Lutheran Education in all its forms.
• We believe discipleship is most effective when there is a culture of joy, loving acceptance, community, and caring admonition.

From Our District President

My focus as a pastor has always been connecting people in the heart of Jesus. We help people connect with the Lord through Word and Sacrament, and the Spirit gives and matures faith. We strengthen our connection with one another in the body of Christ as we serve each other with His truth, mercy, love, and encouragement. We connect Christ with those outside our congregation as God’s people take the presence of Jesus out into our community in word and action, serving others with His compassion, love, and mercy. I appreciate our Synod’s focus on “Witness, Mercy, Life Together.” I seek to strengthen and encourage pastors, congregations, and individuals in these connections, and then get out of the way so the body of Christ can do the work “which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Our mission is to be who we are—the Body of Christ reaching out to His creation broken in sin. I see three primary mission issues in our District. Like Jesus, we must first be willing to speak the truth in love to each other and to our communities amidst growing opposition to the Word and the Gospel. Second, like Jesus, we need eyes and ears open to see community needs and opportunities where we can serve as we live out the love of Christ. Third, it is crucial that in Christ we strengthen marriage and families to be faithful and focused on the task of faith-shaping. All of this can only happen if we are immersed in the Word and actively using our gifts to serve others; therefore, the focus has to be on the local congregation. I plan to use current conferences, conventions, and gatherings to equip and encourage pastors and congregation leaders. I will also maximize electronic communication and resources. But, as with most ministry, it is all about developing relationships, caring for the hurting, reaching out to the lost, encouraging the broken, and standing on the truth.

—Rev. Richard Snow, Nebraska District President

Sculpture from the Center for Liturgical Art

We are reminded in the glint of ceramic mosaic of our Savior’s triumphal victory over death. The light of Christ’s resurrection shines out in a great burst of light and color.

On the reverse side deep blue stucco depicts a fingerprint, indicative of Christ as true man. The bright center with dimming periphery suggests an upward view from a great depth or out of a great darkness, emphasizing the mortality that is so essential in what it means to be truly human. This allows the viewer to on one side contemplate Christ’s mortality (as well as their own) before passing around to the other side and experiencing the splendor of the resurrection. By faith we participate in Christ’s resurrection, and through the work of the Holy Spirit he uses our “fingerprint” on the world to touch others with his love and grace.

This sculpture’s concept and design come from Mark Anschutz, and has been brought to life by the efforts of Zach Moll, the Center for Liturgical Art’s 2019 Fellow.

Visit the Center for Liturgical Art

The Circuits of the Nebraska District

In our workroom, we have images of one congregation from each of our District’s circuits set in the shape of our District, which comprises most of the state of Nebraska, minus the panhandle.