# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S1103
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK 405
Youth Leadership Training

" Synod at its Centennial Convention “encouraged the Board for
s; Young People’s Work and the International Walther League to

... continue the development and expansion of their program for pro-
. fessional leadership training schools” (Proceedings, 1947, p.332).

4 Accordingly, one of the principal concerns of your Board and the
; Walther League was to set in motion machinery to provide help

. for pastors, teachers, and other youth counselors in the art of youth
guidance and program development. This work falls into two

E categories, the students at our teachers’ colleges and’ ministerial

. seminaries and the workers serving the youth in congregations.
» We are happy to report that at least a beginning has been made
in both groups. For the past two years Dean L. C. Wuerffel of
.. Concordia Seminary, St.Louis, has given an elective course to
seniors with two semester hours credit in the art of youth work

and guidance. In an all-day workshop on youth work men of the

Church who have served in the youth program for a number of
. years presented lectures to the senior class on the following topics:
- worship, group technique, counseling youth, the Bible in the life
of youth, choral activities, administration, recreation, youth work
on the campus. There was a panel when the students had oppor-
tunity to direct questions to the lecturers. The group was divided
into committees, and each one reported at the evening panel on
that portion of the program for which the committee was respon-
sible. The day closed with the evening devotions in which one of
the students. delivered the message on youth and the work among
youth. We hope that similar arrangements can soon be effected at
Springfield, River Forest, and Seward.

For the workers in the field, youth workers’ conferences were
held, one at Druce Lake, Il, in 1948, and two during 1949, at Camp
Arcadia and Concordia Teachers College, Seward. Lecturers and
leaders at these sessions were persons expert in their particular
activities. Among the topics presented were: worship, group tech-
nique, recreation, drama, community singing. It is true that not
all pastors, teachers, and counselors guiding youth can attend these
meetings; however, if each District will send a few representatives
year after year, it will be possible to bring the experiences to the
conferences of pastors and teachers and to other groups.

These two-week training schools were financed in part by
contributions from the Districts and the individuals attending, and
in part they were subsidized through the Lutheran Youth Fund,
which was established through special offerings in connection with
Youth Sunday, May 23. Since, however, many pastors and others
urged the Board not to arrange these special collections, but to