# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S908
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

FINANCIAL MATTERS 325
Standing
According Per Congre- Per
District to Salaries Workers Cent ' gations Cent
y-: a ©) 0) 2:1 0 (ce 8 30. «61 22 36
30. English 202 te eee eee 1 122 60 73 47
Unclassified Workers cele _ 6 — _ _
31. Argentina 0. —_ 37 71 5 8
32. Brazil __.... — 83 68 37 16 .
Total Registered, “March 3 31, 1944 4,531 2,520
Average eee eeeeeeen ences 80% 54%
Total Pension Fund Assets, as of March 31, 1944 ............. $2,071,818.11

For the worker who has performed his duty in the service of the
Missouri Synod and for his dependents there is, humanly speaking, only
one organization that can and will provide fully and permanently in
illness and bereavement —

SYNOD’S SYSTEM OF PENSIONS AND SUPPORT
200 McHenry Avenue — Crystal Lake, Illinois

A Report and a Request for Co-operation to the Hon. District

Presidents and Visitors from the Board of Support and Pensions
1943 ‘

Less than six years ago the fastest-growing and undoubtedly

the most beneficial undertaking of recent years, the Pension Fund,

7 _ was instituted by Synod.

We have enrolled 4,300 workers, or 80 per cent of the total
number; 2,300, or about one half, of the congregations and all
salary~paying boards.

The assets of the Fund, $1,683,822, are > rapidly increasing by
compound interest and by the steady stream of contributions from
loyal workers and employers; 163 Death Benefits, a total of $35,000,
were granted to the families of departed members; 212 retiring
veterans and 28 widows, 33 of whom have already gone to the
Church Triumphant, were granted respectively the $480 or $240
Old Age Benefit without the traditional formalities. To God all
praise and glory.

We cannot ignore the disturbing fact that after six years of
intensive publicity 1,000 active workers and 2,400 congregations
have as yet not joined the Fund. For this. reason the reserve is
smaller by two million dollars than it would have been had all
participated. As a result many thousands of dollars are, and will
have to be, unnecessarily added to the annual Support budget. All
non-members should realize that this cannot continue indefinitely.

The General Board of Support and Pensions alone cannot
cope successfully with the task of winning these reluctant workers
and churches for Synod’s Pension Fund. We cannot do the
necessary individual work among men and congregations over
the length and breadth of the United States and Canada; neither

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