# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S1340
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

876 . CONVENTION MINUTES

CONVENTION MINUTES

Session 1
June 21, P.M.
Nore. — T. B. refers to Today’s Business, the daily convention report

The forty-first convention of The Lutheran Church — Missouri
Synod, held in Milwaukee, Wis., June 21—30, 1950, was opened on
June 21 with a divine service in Trinity Lutheran Church. The
Second Vice-President of Synod, the Rev. F. A. Hertwig, earnestly
besought all delegates to pass all their resolutions so that God
should be glorified through Jesus Christ in all things, speaking
only the oracles of God, in fervent charity, in sobriety, and in
watchfulness.

The first business session was opened with a devotional service
at 1:30 P.M. The President of Synod addressed the body on 1Cor.
15:58. He urged the delegates to be unwavering in their orthodoxy
and to settle the current controversy in a spirit of devotion to the
revealed truth of Scripture, to take up the mission work to which
the Lord is calling us with increased activity, in the blessed
assurance that our labor will not be in vain.

The Secretary reported that 233 voting pastors and 214 lay
delegates had registered, totaling 447 out of a possible 629.
A quorum being present, the President declared the 41st convention
ready for business in the name of the Triune God. Prof. Paul F.
Bente was appointed Assistant Secretary.

Mayor Frank P. Zeidler of Milwaukee welcomed the conven-
tion and pointed out that the teachings for which the Missouri
Synod stood had contributed to making Milwaukee the outstanding
city it is. Dr. M. Holls responded in the name of the convention.

Followed the President’s report, containing the necrology of
those who had rendered special services to Synod. He reported
that the name of Synod adopted at the last convention had been
ratified by. the congregations; that the vacancy in the vice-
presidency had been filled by the appointment of the Rev. E. J.
Friedrich to be Fourth Vice-President; that Vice-President Licht-
sinn had been appointed to the Board of Control of the St. Louis
Seminary. In conformity with the resolution of the Centennial
Convention the President sent studies on the Church, on Fellow-
ship, and on Rom.16:17 to the ministerium. On the basis of the
responses from the field the authors have been asked to make some
changes. The report covered the activity of the Praesidium in the
matters of Lutheran Union and the arrangement of the free con-
ferences at Bad Boll and elsewhere. On behalf of the Lutheran
Laymen’s League of the South Wisconsin District, Dr. Behnken

CONVENTION MINUTES 877

presented a plaque of appreciation to Mr. Fred C. Pritzlaff of
Milwaukee. Greetings were received from the following: the
Michigan and Northern Wisconsin Districts of the Wisconsin Synod,
the Norwegian Synod, our church in France, President C. Hoop-
mann of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia, and
President P. H. Petersen of the Saxon Free Church. The official
visitors of the Slovak Church and the representatives of the honor-
able Wisconsin Synod were welcomed.

Resolved to have sessions from 8:30 to 11:45 A.M. and from
1:00 to 5:00 P.M. with a ten-minute recess. Synod resolved that
no interviews are to be granted to representatives of the press, no
statements to be made for publication, and no news releases to be
issued by any member of the convention unless previously cleared
through the Public Relations Department.

The following were elected to serve as a nominating committee
for the Committees on Appeals: Pastors Karl Maier (Southeastern
District) and D. A. Kraft (Atlantic District); Teacher John A.
Klein (English District); Messrs. Benjamin Timm (Southern Mli-
nois District) and Irvin Ehlers (Northwest District).

Committee 2 began its report with an appeal by Dr. H. Harms
to carry out our Savior’s last command to be witnesses unto Him.
Rev. Herman Mayer presented an overview of the challenge to
greater missionary expansion presented by the many doors the
Lord had opened to us. Synod thereupon resolved to call upon
its total membership for greater love and devotion to our Lord,
for burning zeal to save souls, and for a more prayerful sense of
stewardship. After hearing a brief report of the growth in vacation
Bible schools, preaching missions, of the blessings of the Epiphany
Conferences, the Just a Minute leaflets, and Today, of the remark-
able growth during the past three years both in accessions and in
Sunday School by Mail enrollment, and of the development of
conferences on evangelism, Synod acknowledged by resolution the
energetic and consecrated spirit of the Board for Missions in North
and South America and resolved that the course in evangelism
be continued in the graduate school at Concordia Seminary,
St. Louis, and that similar courses be introduced in the under-
graduate curriculum of both seminaries.

Synod adopted the change in By-Law 6.27 to provide an addi-

_tional teacher on the Boards of Control and that no more than

two lay members be engaged in the same profession or business.
Synod received the prayer for God-pleasing Lutheran unity sub-
mitted by the convention of the Lutheran Laymen’s League and
the felicitation of the Lutheran Laymen’s League which assured
Synod of renewed zeal and deeper consecration and invoked the
favor of Almighty God upon the work of our Church.