Mission Central’s Gary Thies bestowed Concordia Nebraska’s Servant Leadership Award

During Homecoming weekend, the Concordia Alumni Association honors alumni and friends for their outstanding service and accomplishments. The Servant Leadership Award is presented to an alumnus or friend of Concordia Nebraska serving in or retired from a local or global mission field or ministry demonstrating servant leadership to the church and world. 

On paper, Gary Thies’ title is currently “missionary and support advocate and mission development counselor”, which means he serves as a specialist advocate for missionaries and mission projects through Mission Central in Mapleton, Iowa. But Thies prefers to simply be referred to as “Old Missionary Gary.”  

His story in missionary service has lots of twists and turns, so it’s best to start at the beginning. Thies has traveled to more than 75 foreign countries and mission fields since 1965. He has presented mission programs and travel lecture projects in more than 1,250 cities. He has traveled to mainland China to explore mission possibilities, visited West Africa to explore opportunities in Ghana, Togo and Cote D’Ivore, traveled to Russia, Siberia, Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan to visit and film mission work being done there, and visited Thailand, Philippines, New Guinea, Guatemala, Venezuela, Jamaica, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, Cambodia, Macau and Hong Kong to film, teach and interview. He has served as a mission presenter in congregations and settings across the United States and is the former chair of the The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) Board for Mission Services. 

Thies has a background in banking, real estate and insurance, having served in a variety of roles before being selected in 1994 as the first deployed mission development counselor for the LCMS. In that role, Thies worked fervently to support the work of the church at large and missionaries with a lot of prayer, a lot of grit and determination, a simple desk and one, lone file cabinet in his basement. But he quickly outgrew that space. In 2003 Gary and his wife Maxine purchased a group of farm buildings across the road from their home in Iowa. That cluster of buildings on five acres in an Iowa cornfield became Mission Central, the largest mission-supporting agency in The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The space includes offices, a worship center, mission museum, fellowship hall, lodging space for guests, a Creation Theater and more. 

“This ‘not normal’ location and agency has one specific vision: mission education and raising the awareness of the mission of Jesus Christ in the world,” said Thies.  

Marked by a large, lighted sign and flanked by Wayside Chapel, Mission Central is located two miles east of Mapleton, Iowa, 45 miles southeast of Sioux City and 85 miles northeast of Omaha, Nebraska. Each year, Mission Central welcomes thousands of visitors, from missionaries and their families to members of supporting congregations and others. They all come to tour the space, pray for the mission work being done and provide support for missionaries across the globe. 

Thies calls Mission Central “a miracle in the middle of a cornfield.” 

“This ‘not normal’ location and agency has one specific vision: mission education and raising the awareness of the mission of Jesus Christ in the world.”

In 2023, Rev. Steve Schulz installed as assistant director of Mission Central. Thies and Schulz visit churches, schools and other interested supporters, encouraging them to pray for and to financially support mission projects and missionaries. Today, Mission Central is operated by more than 100 volunteers who are spread across the Midwest.  

“God sent 20 volunteer secretaries that type in their homes. Five pilots have donated their planes and their efforts to fly me to various locations, where I have now spoken in more than 1,700 congregations in the United States and Canada,” he said. “Currently in the 26 file cabinets in Mission Central’s offices, we are working with 9,000 individual families and 1,100 individual congregations. Last year, 118 furloughing missionaries and their family members stayed overnight at Mission Central from all over the world. This past year 50 bus loads of visitors came to visit, and the five groups of volunteer cooks provided 59 groups of people delicious dinners, all at no cost, as the food is all donated by the LWML and the meat by area farmers.” 

Mission Central began as a collaboration with then-named LCMS World Mission. After 2010, Mission Central became part of LCMS Mission Advancement, and as such it helps to sustain the Synod’s 100-plus missionaries with the support of the LCMS area and districts such as Nebraska, Iowa West, Kansas, South Dakota and others. Each year, Mission Central facilitates millions of dollars to send and keep missionaries in the field.  

Thies has received the “Christus Vivit Award” from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri and was awarded “Doctor of Humane Letters” from Concordia University, St. Paul, Minnesota, in 2012. Active in his community, he has served as secretary and treasurer of the Fisher-Whiting Memorial Library since its founding in 1969. He has had various roles with the Mapleton Chamber of Commerce, served with a local Boy Scout Troop and served with the local rotary club. He is a member of St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Mapleton, Iowa, where he was past president and former director of education. He has served as a Bible class teacher for 35 years. He has also been active in a variety of county and state-level organizations. 

Although a long and winding path led Thies to his current service, he said he wouldn’t trade it for anything. 

“What a joy it is to be a vital part of LCMS mission advancement and to share the exciting stories of our Synods missionaries and their eternally significant work,” he said.  

During Homecoming and Alumni Reunion Weekend, Concordia University, Nebraska joyfully celebrates alumni and friends whose faith-filled service, leadership and achievements inspire the Concordia community and beyond.