# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S837
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

ce LE ILS
onhenneineiianin aaa
————————————_

138 SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

its present rate of growth and which can be met only if we begin d
now to adjust our existing schools so that they will eventually
fit into a senior college pattern and so that they will soon supply;4
more ministerial and teacher training graduates regardless off
whether the senior college is introduced at this time or not. Such;
a plan necessarily involves considerable internal organizational;
adjustment at the colleges and seminaries. It should also involve a
making use of the available Lutheran high schools in the Middle %
West, and it should recognize the need for some type of co-ordinator °
to carry forward a continuing study and a measure of control over a
the various and complex supply and demand problems which are 4
becoming progressively more acute in direct ratio to the growth 4
of Synod. F
Changing Factors

As the Board progressed in its studies, it found that revision
of several previously held viewpoints became mandatory. At one
time there was a strong opinion that considerable savings in
operational costs plus greater operational efficiency could be
achieved if the number of educational institutions were reduced.
The present study showed, however, that under existing circum-
stances it would be both uneconomical and unwise for Synod to
attempt such a reduction.

This change in viewpoint results from the fact that former
studies of the supply and demand problem concentrated upon a
minute scrutiny of Synod’s past experience; however, the pro-
jection into the future, which is a part of the present analysis,
indicates that the methods used in previous studies led to an
inadequate recognition of the significant implications involved in
the tremendous growth which has been experienced during the past
25 years and which may reasonably be expected to continue in
the Missouri Synod. :

It should be borne in mind, also, that the Lord builds His
Church. The result has been that during the past five years many
new doors have been opened to our Synod in places where the
Church did not plan to enter. The very extensive developments
of our mission fields since the conclusion of the Second World War
and the opportunities for €xpansion and growth were, and had to
be, totally unforeseen a few years ago.

The Board’s study of such a proposal made it clear that in
order to establish a smaller number of institutions which could:
accommodate the required enrollments, it would be necessary:
to double the capacity of eight existing institutions, to adjust two
others, and.to abandon four entirely. The cost of the expansion
required, plus the large investments which would have to be