Survey summaries highlight key needs of LCC pastors and lay leaders

CANADA – Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC) has released summary reports highlighting areas of need identified by pastors and congregational leaders from a “Future Planning” survey conducted in the winter of 2024.

The surveys were sent out by the President’s Ministry Council (PMC) on behalf of our synod and seminaries, collecting both general information about the state of LCC churches as well as specific comments on the issues deemed most pressing by pastors and lay leaders.

Many of the same concerns came up in survey responses from both pastors and lay leaders, including topics such as: aging and declining membership; financial constraints; secularism and spiritual decline; as well as pastoral shortages and seminary recruitment. For more details, see the respective summary reports of Pastor Responses and Lay Leader Responses, which are both available on LCC’s website under News > Latest Reports.

The survey reports are intended as a tool for our synodical, seminary, and congregational leaders to provide a better understanding of the challenges facing our congregations today—so we can work together to address the needs of our synodical family.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to those of you who took time out of your busy schedules to provide responses to this recent survey. The overall participation was encouraging, with many taking the time to give serious reflection in the long answer portion.

The PMC and our seminaries have already conducted careful review of the responses and are looking at ways to incorporate the feedback into future planning in our walk together as a synod.

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