# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S270
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

330 MISSIONS MISSIONS 881

with the Board for Parish Education and the Lutheran Hoy,
It was inaugurated in order to bring the Gospel to the inaccessible
child—the child who, because of illness, distance, impassab], e
roads, or other valid reasons was unable to attend a regular Sunday
school. The guidance and direction of this effort is in the hands
of Pastor William Hillmer, Assistant Executive Secretary of the
Board. Sunday School by Mail Directors have been appointeg in
each synodical District, who help expedite this far-flung Program,
The present enrollment of the Sunday School by Mail is 3,100 (as
of March 1, 1950).

Promotion of Evangelism. — This is a new endeavor on the
part of your Board for Missions in North and South America.
Soon after the launching of the “Each One Reach One” movement
in 1946 it became evident that our pastors and people were eager
to receive help in the development of the all-important grace of
Christian witness-bearing. More and more of our people were
eager to do personal mission work and looked to their Pastors
and to their synodical servants for guidance. In order to develop
this important phase of our home mission program, a special
Department of Evangelism was begun and placed under the super-
vision of Pastor William Hillmer.

During the past few months Pastor Hillmer has conducted
21 “Conferences on Evangelism” in four Districts with a total
attendance of 2,336, which included 194 pastors and teachers.
In each instance our people expressed their gratitude for the
inspiration, help, and guidance which they had received. Invitations
from three other Districts have been accepted for the fall of 1950.
It is the intention of this department to assist our District Mission
Boards in the promotion of personal evangelism (personal mission
work) in their respective Districts.

During October, 1949, an experimental “Women Mission
Workers’ School” was held in Detroit, under the direction of
Pastor William Hillmer. Twenty-three women attended these all-
day sessions which were held five days a week for a two-week
period. One of these women has entered the full-time service of
the Church, while others are serving their local congregation in
a part-time capacity. This experimental school demonstrated
beyond all doubt that our laity, particularly the women, are eager —_ :
for additional guidance particularly in the field of personal mis- Missions in North and S
sion work.

“Today,” a Journal of Practical Missionary Procedure. — In
January, 1946, the Board for Missions in North and South America
secured the services of Rev. H. W. Gockel to edit a special pro-
fessional journal for the clergy, the purpose of which was to

stimulate our pastors to ever-increasing missionary activity and
to acquaint them with the latest methods of procedure in this field.
This magazine, now in its fifth year, has served as a clearinghouse
of: practical ideas which have been used effectively. by pastors
throughout the Church. To our pastors this magazine needs no
introduction. The Lord has given Pastor Gockel a ready pen, for
which we are grateful.

While employed by the Board for Missions in North and South
America, Pastor H. W. Gockel is serving our Church in a number
of promotional and literary capacities which, strictly speaking, do
not come under the supervision of our Board. He is editor of
the missionary tract Just a Minute, published bimonthly by Con-
cordia Publishing House in an edition of 150,000 copies. He is the
author of the newspaper series known as “Preaching Through the
Press,” a series of newspaper mats which are made available
through the St. Louis Lutheran Publicity Organization. A brochure
giving a complete list of these live, interesting, striking articles,
each one stressing the way of salvation, may be secured by writing
to the office of the St. Louis Lutheran. Pastor Gockel has also
rendered valuable service to the Church during the past triennium
by collaborating on the synodical movie “Reaching from Heaven”
and on Synod’s recent film “Beyond Our Own Horizon.”

tasks which has confronted your Board for Missions in North and
South America for a number of years is the task of determining
the relative importance of our various North American mission
fields. Only by an accurate study of the relative importance of
these fields can we arrive at an equitable distribution of Synod’s
manpower and money power. A thorough analytical study is
now under way which, we hope, will be completed within the com-
ing year. This analysis is being conducted under the general super-
vision of Pastor William Hillmer.

Also to be analyzed is the problem of the blighted areas in
metropolitan centers. This problem has become quite vexing ‘in
a number of our cities, and your Board hopes to be able to make
some constructive suggestions.

It hopes also, in this way, to encourage and to strengthen the
brethren who have been given the important assignment of carrying
on the important work of District Missions.

Relative Importance of Mission Fields. — One of the tremendous -