# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S832
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

880 YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK

seminaries and at our normal schools” was adopted. (See Proceed-
ings, 1926, p. 268.) It is our opinion that section F of the committee
reporting on young people’s work in 1926 at the thirty-third regular
convention be no longer considered binding upon the Board inas-
much as these courses for college credit should be arranged by the
faculties of the respective institutions. (See Handbook, 1945 ed.,
p. 93, par. 8 and 9.)

It is evident that our teachers entering into the profession
expect to place all their efforts into the service of the Church, but
very few will be able to serve equally well in all fields of activity
in the congregation. If they are inclined toward youth work, they
should be given a thorough understanding as to the sphere of their
responsibilities in this phase of church work,

We firmly believe that the replies of our pastors to certain
questions, should a similar questionnaire be sent to them, would be
identical. They, too, must feel the inadequacy of training for youth
work. We therefore recommend strongly the introduction of the
necessary courses at our colleges and seminaries to provide the
theoretical part of the training. Fortunately, all our colleges and
seminaries are located in areas where Walther League societies
exist. This is especially true of River Forest and St.Louis. We
recommend that the practical side of youth work be learned in
these local Walther Leagues. Also this phase of training should be
a part of the curricula. The value of such practical training and
becoming acquainted with the Walther League program, Synod’s
youth program, is apparent from the questionnaires returned.

For a number of years representatives of the Walther League
have appeared at most of our colleges on request from your
Board and delivered a series of lectures on youth work. But this
does not satisfy the men in the field. They ask for more and better
training. We must arrange to satisfy their wishes.

Your Board is duly grateful to the many who singly and jointly
have assisted us in discharging our duties. We think of the Dis-
trict committees who have carried the banner of youth work to
the front in their respective Districts; of the District Presidents
who have supported these committees and have given youth work
the prominent place which it deserves on the agenda of synodical
District conventions; of the editorial staff of the Lutheran Witness,
ever ready to open the pages of the official publication of Synod
to the cause of youth work; of Dr. Theodore Graebner, who is
always ready and willing to counsel in the matter of junior or-
ganizations, especially the Boy Scout movement, the policies of
which were shaped to a great degree during his regime as chairman
of the Board; of our former chairman, the Rev. E. L. Roschke,