Welcome to the FAQ

For the present time the content of this page will be focused on attempting to answering 2 most asked questions of the Lutheran Activities Organization (LAO).

1. Who are you and
2. Why are you doing this?

Who:

While human pedigree has no place with our Lord and Savior, as a life long Lutheran it seems as though if you have a relative that is or was a full time church worker within the LCMS there is always someone in EVERY congregation that know them, went to school with them or was a member of one of the congregations they served.

My name is Loren Kinne, a child of God!  And a DREAMER. I am the son of Rev. Lawrence (Larry) Kinne (Class of 52, Springfield) now serving as visitation pastor at St. Matthews Walled Lake and Brother of Rev. Timothy Kinne (Former Vocal Music Director & Assistant Football Coach at Lutheran High School West 1975-78 & Fort Wayne - Class of 89) recently accepted a call as Executive assistant to the President of the Minnesota South District.

I attended Lutheran Day School at St. Matthews Walled Lake until 1974, Christ the King Southgate until my confirmation in 1976 and I am an alumni of Lutheran High School West (Yes I sang in my brothers choir and played football for him).  I received a BS in Engineering from Michigan Tech University 1985 and a teaching certificate from IU Southbend, IN, 1992.  Married to Kimberly, spring of 1993 have been blessed with 7 children thus far (6 boys).

Why: 

1. As a boy, when my family took vacations, my dad had this ritual every Saturday right after lunch.  He would pull out the Lutheran Annual from under the front seat of the car and the local map to determine where we were going to church the next day.  As I got older, and left the security of my bubble I found that almost ALL the people I knew did not attend worship when they were on vacation.
2. 1967 Lutheran Night at Tiger Stadium.  My brother, Tim, is receiving his 2nd place Mel Ott trophy from Mickey Mantle while standing next to Al Kaline.   Seven years later when it was my turn to play Mel Ott (a LCMS youth baseball program for all congregations in the metro Detroit area) my congregation opted to no longer participate. This left me on the outside looking in.
3. I have fond memories of going to Camp Pioneer; Angola, New York with my family.  Dad was a camp counselor during confirmation week from 1958-76 (the year I was confirmed).  During the “Hay day” over 2000 confirmans would grace the camp each summer.  Now some 30 years later they process less than 200.  Now family sizes in general are about half what they were during the “Hay Day” but not by a factor of 10!  So, my wife thought maybe the camp was no longer affordable.  We contacted 8 LCMS congregations in our area that we felt would benefit from a scholarship program. To our dismay none of the churches were even interested in our proposal.
4. While I am thankful for the wife and family that the LORD has blessed me with, as a bachelor there was no opportunity made known to me of how I could meet available LUTHERAN (LCMS of course) young ladies.  I know of MANY young Lutheran men who married non-Lutheran Christians because of a “Singles” network made available at larger Protestant Churches in their area.  I also know that today these families either struggle internally with their theology or the man has relinquished his High Priestly duties to his wife.
5. At the time I was in the Lutheran Day School System and now as a parent it is very apparent that there is very little interaction between the families of Day School Children those families who have decided not to send their children to the Day School.
6. In general, Lutheran Day School Sports programs are not open to non-student members of the congregation.
7. Negative experiences with Secular Sports programs.
8. Just makes practical "German" sense to centralize some outings, activities and retreats to allow congregations to concentrate on the Ministry of the Word and Sacrament in the community they serve rather than diverting their recourses and duplicating effort of other LCMS congregations.

HOW can you help?

• Pray that LAO and its participants always stays focused on our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
• Put a LINK to LAOus.com on your congregational web site.
• Put a notice in your bulletin and or monthly newsletter looking for interested participants for the activities available.
• Check out our web site from time to time, look at the pictures, the schedule, and see what we are up to.
• If you are hosting an annual activity, outing or retreat and would welcome other LCMS Christians to participate send us the information to post.