# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S883
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

MISSIONS 888

and Reformed Churches produced a protest which led to the
formation of the Separated Evangelical Lutheran Church in Old
Prussia (Breslau Synod), and when a similar endeavor in Hessia
produced a protest by the Rev. F. Brunn of Steeden (one of the
original churches of the Saxon Evangelical Lutheran Free Church),
there have been so-called free congregations and Free Churches
in Germany. At the present time there are eight different Lutheran
Free Churches. The two largest are the above-mentioned organiza-
tions, which together at the present time number about 50,000 souls.
Besides these there is a Free Church in Baden, two Free Church
organizations in Hessia, and three in Hanover. Since the end of
the war efforts were made to bring all of these eight organizations
into unity of faith. This endeavor has been successful with regard
to the two larger organizations, but so far at least it has not been
possible to bring the six smaller organizations into this fellowship.
However, if the fellowship of faith between the Saxon and Breslau
Free Churches is officially proclaimed, and if this fellowship even-
tually leads to an organic union, there will be in Germany a church
organization through which a proper mission policy and program
can be most effectively carried on.

The Free Churches in Germany do not suffer from the weak-
nesses found in the Landeskirchen. Because the members of these
churches have had to face the difficult decision of social ostracism
in leaving their former churches and joining the Free Church, the
membership is made up of Christians who not only are well in-~
doctrinated but also give evidence of their faith by an exemplary
church attendance.

The members of the Free Church, however, are children of their
environment with regard to mission work among the people of
their community. They are too much inclined to accept without
concern the formal membership of their neighbors in the pro-
provincial churches and disregard the fact that most of such
members are to all intents and purposes nothing but heathen. The
personal testimony of the Free Church members is not strong.
Furthermore, there is a tendency on the part of the laity to regard
mission work as the duty of the pastors and not theirs. The fact
that the members of the Free Churches are scattered in small
groups throughout Germany with the viewpoint just stated has
not helped the mision program of the Church but, on the contrary,
hindered it, because it is necessary for the pastors to serve large
numbers of scattered small groups.

In the postwar period a promising field has been opened for
the work of the Free Churches. Large numbers of German-speak~
ing people living in the Baltic Provinces, Russia, Hungary, Poland,
and other east European countries have been deported from these