# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1983_S55
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

PARISH, YOUTH, AND COMMUNICATION SERVICES Esta)

with Families,” ‘Discipline in the Sunday School,” ‘Worship
in the Sunday School,” and “Topics from the 1982 Sunday
School Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod.” This resource of fers teacher training ideas for half-day
congregational] training sessions as well as for Circuit Sunday
school associations.

5. Publication of two new courses as additions to the
Concordia Leadership Training Series. These courses were:
How to Become a Better Teacher and Teaching High School
Youth Today.

6. The offering of a variety of bulletins to help congre-
gations in Sunday school administration. Bulletins offered
include: The Preschool-Age Child in the Church, Evangelism
for Sunday School Growth, Organizing and Maintaining the
Sunday School, Measuring Sunday School Strength. Sunday
School Teacher Selection, Training, and Support, The Small
Sunday School, Annotated Bibliography for the Sunday School
Teacher's Library, Developing the Sunday School Association,
and Bridging the Gap: from Home to Sunday School.

7. Our board continues to publish Interaction, a periodical
designed especially for pastors, educational leaders, and Sun-
day school workers. As this is our major vehicle for serving
Sunday school teachers, we believe that every congregation
ought to provide a subscription for its pastor and every Sunday
school worker.

8. We cooperated with Concordia Publishing House in the
production of its important book. Over 200 Ways to Improve
Your Sunday School. This book deserves wide circulation
among pastors, educational leaders, and Sunday school
workers.

9. Our board continues to publish the take-home magazines
for children, Happy Times. Story Time, and Mv Devotions. Use
of these magazines can strengthen a Sunday school's ministry
to children and form an important link with the parents of
students.

10. As the teacher is the most significant ingredient in the
Sunday school program, our board plans to focus on 1984 as the
“Year of the Christian Teacher.” During this year every

ngregation is to be encouraged to recognize the value of its
volunteer teachers, acknowledge their contributions to con-
gregational life, and support them in their work through
resources and training events.

11. In view of the growing number of unchurched children,
youth, and adults, board emphasis for 1985 will be child
evangelism. During this year we hope to cooperate with the
Board for Evangelism Services in focusing on our challenge to
involve in our Sunday schools all those baptized in our
churches as well as many people now outside our fellowship.

In the area of weekday schools:

1. During the past biennium courses for additional grades
in the Eternal Word* curriculum have been produced. The plan
is to have the entire N—8 program completed by 1985. Editors
for the series are Arnold Schmidt and Jane Fryar.

2. To help congregations evaluate and strengthen their
weekday programs of Christian education. the board has
produced the bulletin Planning Weekday Programs in Your
Parish.

3. Our board continues to publish courses for youth and
adults that can be used in weekday as well as Sunday settings.

In the area of vacation Bible schools:

1. Under the editorship of Arlon Rueter the Board for
Parish Services continues to produce new vacation Bible
school courses each year. The materials include resources for
the vacation Bible school administrator. to provide help in the
organization and administration of the school.

2. The Board for Parish Services during the past two years
was directly involved in regional vacation Bible school work-
shops in the Northwest, California-Nevada-Hawaii, Southern
California, South Wisconsin. Iowa East. Minnesota South.
Southeastern, Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado Districts.
Additional Districts organized and conducted vacation Bible
school workshops. Concordia Publishing House also offered
vacation Bible school workshops through dealers.

3. The Board for Parish Services offers the following

bulletins: Creative Summer Programs in Christian Education
and Evangelism Through the Vacation Bible School.

In the area of confirmation ministry:

1. The Board for Parish Services currently is involved ina
review of the theology and practice of confirmation.

2. The Board for Parish Services offers staff services to
Districts for their confirmation ministry workshops.

In ministry with directors of Christian education:

1. The Board for Parish Services offered five regional
conferences for professionals in education and youth ministry
in 1981, in New London. Minn.. Holden Village. Wash..
Chicago, II., St. Simons Island, Ga.. and Kansas City, Kans.
In early 1983 regional conferences were conducted in Menlo
Park, Calif.. Cedar Rapids. Iowa, and Marriottsville. Md.

2. The Director of Christian Education bulletin was revised
and continues to be offered to congregations studying the
possibility of adding a director of Christian education to their
staff.

3. The quarterly periodical The Directors of Christian
Education Bulletin continues to be published and is sent to all
directors of Christian education and their pastors.

4. An annual salary survey of directors of Christian educa-
tion within the Synod is made each year to assist congrega-
tions in the process of calling a director of Christian education.

5. Board for Parish Services staff continues to meet with
appropniate synodical officials to resolve issues concerning the
status and certification of directors of Christian education.

6. In the spring of each vear the Board for Parish Services
cooperates with the annual Tri-School event. Sponsored by our
Concordias at River Forest, St. Paul, and Seward, this annual
retreat involves all juniors and seniors in the DCE training
program at these schools. At this event we inform these future
DCEs of the resources and services provided them for their
ministry by the Synod.

7. For groups of congregations studying the possibility of
calling a shared director of Christian education, our Board
offers the bulletins: Have You Considered Sharing a Director of
Christian Education’, Sharing a Director of Christian Educa-
tion Through Multi-Parish Cooperation. and General Qualifi-
cations fora Shared Director of Christian Education.

H. Parish Education Month

In May of each vear the Board for Parish Services sends all
congregations a packet of materials to help them to celebrate
September as Parish Education Month and to plan a program
in Christian education for the coming vear.

Themes were: 1981— God's Family Learns to Live; 1982— By
Water and the Word; and 1983—God's Word in Every Season.

XI. Him We Proclaim and Adore in Our Worship

It was gratifying to notein the 1980 parish survey conducted
by the Executive Coordinating Committee of the Synod. the
purpose of which was to develop’’A Master Plan for the 1980s"
for the Synod, that parish pastors and congregation chairmen.
in the area of worship, gave first priority to increasing among
congregation members an understanding of the importance of
corporate worship as an integral part of their lives. Indeed, the
survey corroborated the conviction of the Synod that it is by
worship in Word and Sacrament that the church lives; it is
there that its heart beats; and the only parochial activities
which have any real justification are those which spring from
such worship and in turn nourish it.

With the completion and production of Lutheran Worship
(*Pew Edition”), Lutheran Worship Accompaniment for the
Liturgy, and Lutheran Worship Accompaniment for the
Hymns in December of 1981, the result of the Synod’s authori-
zation in 1979, there still remained for completion another
companion volume, namely. Lutheran Worship Altar Book.
This book, which appeared on the market July 15, 1982, was
prepared to aid and facilitate ministers in the privileged and
joyous task of leading congregations in corporate worship. It
includes only those liturgical portions from the * Pew Edition”
which are considered necessary and useful for corporate
worship. Certain portions from the “Pew Edition” are ex-