# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1983_S124
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

126 OTHER PRESENTATIONS

who are all heirs of Luther’s legacy and a land from
which many of the fathers and mothers of this church
body came to America.

That wall is symptomatic of life; since time im-
memorial people have been building, both literally and
figuratively, walls to divide themselves from their
neighbors. Sometimes those walls are built deliber-
ately—such as that of a divided Germany; at other
times, we are unaware of their being built and possibly
even their existence—such as those resulting from
biases and prejudice.

There are walls within Lutheranism; all of us have
had a part in building them; from my perspective they
unnecessarily divide and separate. Because of our sinful
humanity, they exist. Should we not seek to remove and
tear them down? The Lutheran Council is neither
mandated nor empowered to remove those walls; we of
the member church bodies alone can do that. But the
council can be a facilitator; it can assist us, even as it
has done for 17 years.

As a church body, you respect the convictions and
practices of other members of the council; they likewise
respect and honor yours. It is because of this mutual
respect that together these five churches continue to
cooperate with one another. All rejoice when one re-
joices; all suffer when one suffers. I know there is regret

7. Address by the President
of the Lutheran Youth Fellowship

(Youth ministry was one of the two major convention emphases.)

Greetings and welcome from the nearly 4,000 youth
groups affiliated with Lutheran Youth Fellowship
throughout the Synod. We in Lutheran Youth Fellow-
ship—“LYF” for short—are particularly excited about
youth ministry in this, the Year of Youth Ministry, and
also a less-recognized but equally important celebration.
This is the 487th anniversary of Lutheran youth, for it
was 487 years ago that Martin Luther became a teen-
ager!

LYF, Lutheran Youth Fellowship, is your synodical
youth organization, and we’re five years old. Actually
LYF was chartered six years ago at the 1977 convention,
but it was in 1978 that we began affiliating member
groups. Today we number almost 100,000, a 10th of one
million teenagers. On a synodical plane, LYF serves as
a resource and communications network. Four times a
year all LYF-affiliated groups receive a splendid packet
of materials under the title of L YF (pronounced “‘life’’)
Supports. These are FREE and come filled with Bible
studies, activity ideas, resource reviews, game sug-
gestions, and music; plus, this year, for the first time, by
action of the Council of District Chairpersons of LYF,
each issue of LYF Supports will include a new “Youth
Supplement” that will address the Biblical perspectives
of many contemporary issues that puzzle today’s youth

on the part of your leadership that The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod has not been able -to par-
ticipate in the programs of the Lutheran Council to the
degree it desires; I trust that the financial circumstances
that have limited your participation: will soon be
resolved—so that our common agency, the Lutheran
Council, can help us to see the walls between us, its
members, and everywhere in God’s great world and
assist us in tearing them down.

The common agency which I represent has a com-
petent staff; it has good leadership. For the last four
years—and now just reelected to a second four-year
term—Dr. John Houck has served as general secretary
of the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A. I am pleased to
present him as your and my colleague, as a servant and
leader for cooperative Lutheranism, as a faithful brother
in Christ—John Houck.

Thank you, President Bohlmann; thank you, dele
gates, for according me the privilege of addressing you
May you be edified in knowledge, strengthened in faith
and inspired in spirit as you continue your deliberations :
together. You have gathered as disciples of our Lord and»
Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you for your witness to
Him; thank you for your partnership in the Lutherar
Council in the U.S.A.

Reuben T. Swanson, D.D.

and, candidly, probably many adults. We’re thrill
about this new aspect of ministry to youth through LY ;

But no youth ministry program is complete witho
ministry by and with youth. In LYF this is particulat
evident at the congregational and Circuit leve
although there is certainly much youth initiative’
work in the District and synodical scopes. More a
more, youth are becoming active church leaders a: th
take ownership in their particular groups and coo