# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S129
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

126

‘mission activity) would force the conclusion that the

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

is an unfavorable one. If-we continue our efforts to maintajp:
the current rate of growth, pastors in congregations wild :
automatically be required to supervise lay activity in missig,#
efforts and will need much more time for adult education,
pastoral counseling, etc., than was incumbent upon pasto,
ofa generation ago when, as the figures show, a slower rata’
of growth existed. The study assumes, therefore, that th.
trend in communicants per pastor will gradually be reverseq 3
and that by 1980 a ratio of 1 to 250 (same ratio as 1920) wij
be reached. (Chart No. 3.)

CHART Nod
SHOWING NUMBER CF CONMUNICANTS
“
zd
ze
20
Tt
Tt
3g
vo
Year sige o ak ;

i

. Ratio of pastors leaving the service annually to total pastors?

in service. :

A factual study of the number of pastors in servicef}
shows that there was a net increase of at least 1,300 in th i
number of pastors in parish service in our Synod from 1917%
to 1947. The projection of this same rate of growth over
the next 30 years would give us 6,000 in such service by
1980. (Chart No. 4.)

The number of candidates annually required to supply

-the needs created by vacancies due to retirement, death, or

calls into other fields (foreign missions, professors, wel¥
fare posts, etc.) is assumed to be in direct proportion td :
the total number of pastors serving congregations or station

' Statistics of this group were more difficult to obtain, bu

figures for the last 27 years indicate an average (mean)
annual loss of 2.4 per cent of the total pastors in paristj
service. It will be apparent, in the light of the increasin
effectiveness of our retirement program and of the ever
increasing demands for theologically trained personnel i
our educational, administrational, and welfare activiti

- that this figure is most conservative. (Chart No. 5.)