Dr. James Tino is a former LCMS missionary. He is a clear, accurate and unbiased expert on how world missions under the current LCMS leadership has been in a steady decline.
The reason I say that he is unbiased is because he is a product of the LCMS missions system. He has a PhD in Missiology from Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne. I studied side by side with the missiology students for several years while I earned my Doctor of Ministry degree. It is fair to say that they are comfortable using far more sociology and psychology in their mission efforts than most readers of this website would be. My point is not to pass judgment on such but to clarify why I consider Dr. Tino to be an unbiased reporter of the current LCMS missions situation. He is from the world of LCMS missiology. If anything, his bias leans toward supporting world missions but he and others are not happy campers when it comes to what is happening to LCMS missions.
Here is the opening paragraph from one his most recent blogposts:
I, for one, am completely fed up with the “shell game” that LCMS World Mission is playing with the missionary numbers. LCMS World Mission works very hard to give the impression that we are sending more career missionaries now than ever, even though that is absolutely not true.
We encourage you to read the rest of his post by clicking here. We also encourage you to read his biography to see a real life example of how our missionary numbers are dwindling.