# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S677
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

MISSIONS . 93

evaluate the present-day manpower with a view of placing
the best advantage;
“build for a national Church in the respective countries.
mpower. — Not so long ago we battled with the problem of
up to 400 candidates not permanently called, The war has
d this picture. About 240 of our pastors are serving as
plains or as service center pastors. Hence we now have a
rtage, and this shortage is acute. There is not a Mission Board
ich'is not affected. Many of the Mission Boards have important
ancies. New and important mission developments are in dire
sd“of pastors and teachers. At present there is a scramble to
jonaries at all cost. And at times it seems as if little
ght. is given to the question whether the removal of a given
tor or,a missionary to another field means the breaking down
work which during many years of consecrated effort gradually
eloped. Every District, every Mission Board, every congrega-
is trying its utmost to fortify its front and get the necessary
npower.
Our Church can well be compared to a country surrounded
:many enemies. Our forces are assembled at many fronts.
he battle is raging. Is it discreet on our part to remove one of
ur pastors from one front (district) to another without even con-
ulting with the commanding officer in charge (the District Presi-
lent) and without giving it serious thought whether said front
sean afford to lose that particular leader, whether said front must
tt be held at all cost? As good stewards we cannot lend a hand
9. destroy the work in one field to build or hold it in another.
‘The question arises whether present regulations and the in-
ormation available enable-us to make a judicial distribution of
‘Manpower. One will say: According to the Statistical Yearbook
re have so many small places with a small number of souls that
it ought not to be so difficult to decide which fields are of lesser
and which are of greater importance. If it were a matter of
‘arithmetic only, there would be no problem. Yet the fact is that
‘even a small group in a community with a rather small population
‘is at times located in a strategic center, which must be held and
Zonsidered for the development of an entire area. So often a com-
‘munity with a small population offers even greater mission op-~
portunities than many of the populous centers. Then, too, the
‘qualification of the pastor or missionary and his leadership in his
district and circuit dare not be overlooked.
: Some of our mission districts have sustained serious losses,
‘because so many of the outstanding men so necessary for the
‘furtherance of the work in the respective districts were called to
other fields. As good stewards we will endeavor to place our man-