# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S827
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 825

the matter. To keep ever before us the importance of having the
best material and methods for Bible study, the Board for Parish
Education will appoint a Bible Study Council.

Since the Walther League program is Synod’s official youth
' program, we deem a summary of the League’s activities in place
in our report. How well the League and its program has endeared
itself to the hearts of our young people may be judged by the many
fine letters that were received from them at the Walther League
office, especially during the war.

The past three years have been unique in their opportunities
for the promotion and development of the Walther League program.
Many factors combined to incite and maintain a profound interest
in young people and especially in their religious training after
confirmation. It is not necessary to trace these factors beyond sug-
gesting that many of them are the result of the intense concern for
youth which war develops. Not often have both the world and the
Church been more youth conscious than they are today.

The impact of this interest in youth is clearly reflected in the
history of the Walther League also during the past three years.
In these three years the number of Walther League societies has
increased by more than 500 and now totals above 3,100 societies.
It is undoubtedly true that the consistent growth in Walther League
membership throughout the years of war can also be attributed
to the efforts of the League in behalf of the men and the women
in the armed forces. Walther League societies gave more than
$120,000 to support the wartime service program of their organi-
zation. This amount does not include what the individual society
contributed for its local program in behalf of its members in the
armed forces. The manifold projects which the Walther League
societies developed in order to maintain the bond of Christian
faith and love with their absent members not only kept the Wal-
ther League strong and active, despite the losses especially in
senior membership, but they also demonstrated the possibilities of
great achievement in an organized youth program. They were an
excellent way to make the Walther League known and attractive
to those youth groups not yet organized or affiliated. They proved
again that the expansion of the Walther League depends upon a
program which is effective and challenging. ,

This interest in the youth of the Church was likewise reflected
in every part of the League program. Attendance at conventions,
conferences, and rallies never has been better than during the
past three years. The summer-camp movement has developed
steadily since its inception in our Church with the establishment
of Camp Arcadia in Michigan by the League twenty-five years ago,
but the progress never has been more rapid or the attendance