# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S884
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

884 MISSIONS

countries and sent into the two western zones of Germany. Fur-
thermore, the German inhabitants of the former German provinces
of Pomerania and Silesia have been deported from their homes
in order to make room for Poles, who have taken over these
provinces. All told, there are nine million of these refugees in
Germany. Their economic situation is desperate. They are crowded
into villages and small cities of Germany without the possibility of
finding work or a solution of their difficulties. Since former
members of the Breslau Free Church form a segment of these
refugees, and since many of these refugees are assigned to sections
of Germany which are 100 per cent Catholic, it is important that
our Free Church be given the means to carry on work among them.

Furoure Procram

In the development of a future program of mission work in
Germany your Board was confronted with the necessity of making
a decision as to how this mission work was to be done. It is quite
evident from the foregoing that the Free Church offers the most
prospective means by which mision work, as we understand the
term, can be started. We intend to train the members of the Free
Church to become the nucleus of an active lay missionary force
which would be the foundation of a large-scale missionary effort
in Germany. It is the intention of your Board to use every means
and method to bring Christ and the pure Lutheran doctrine to as
many persons in Germany as we can reach. The outlined pro-
cedure is merely a beginning in an aggressive missionary program
which will try to reach the greatest number of people. Such a
Program will be developed as God gives us the wisdom and points
the way. This is the program which your Board has adopted and
for which it seeks synodical approval,

In order to carry out this program it will be necessary to train
both the clergy and the laity of the Lutheran Free Churches in
affiliation with us in methods of mission work as they have been
developed within our Synod, particularly the “Each One Reach
One” program. Your Board has established a monthly periodical
in the German language which corresponds to the magazine Today,
published by the Board for Home Missions. The European repre-
sentative of the Board will return to Germany in order to conduct
conferences and lay seminars for the purpose of introducing the
“Each One Reach One” program. This purpose has the enthusiastic
approval of the officials of the Saxon Free Church.

In order to train their future clergy, the two Free Churches in
Germany have agreed to set up a joint theological faculty at Ober-
ursel, outside of Frankfurt. In keeping with the German custom
this faculty is not merely to be a teaching faculty but also a