# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1953_S561
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS 561

Projects Discontinued

During the course of the past triennium. three Projects which
had been approved were discontinued. They are the following:

1. The First Twenty-five Years of the Missouri Synod. — The
untimely death of Dr. H. O. A. Keinath prevented the continuation
of this project.

2. Documents in the History of The Lutheran Church — Mis-
souri Synod. — The untimely death of Dr. W. G. Polack has made
it impossible to continue this project.

3. Our Church’s Rural Program. — This project suggested from
the field was referred to the Board for. Missions in North and South
America.

A conference of interested people called in January, 1953,
agreed that no research project was necessary in this area at the
moment. Therefore, the C.T.O. Research Committee discontinued
this project as of March 31, 1953. .

The Scope of the Committee’s Work

On the suggestion of Dr. L. Meyer, Synod’s Planning Coun-
selor, our committee has re-examined its functions. We also con-
sidered how in co-operation. with the Board for Higher Education
and the Literature Board of Synod we might shape up a more
comprehensive program of research than we have thus far dealt
with.

Our committee was originally set up to allocate the funds
which Synod had set aside from the Centennial Thankoffering for
research. At the Milwaukee Convention, Synod resolved that the
committee continue the work of supervising the funds already
allocated and make further allocations to the extent of funds
available and that the fund for such research work be replenished
. by an annual appropriation of not less than $15,000 to carry on
special research projects. In the light of the definite contribution .
that research can make to the work of our Synod we believe that
the functions of our committee should be enlarged to include the
encouragement and direction of an integrated program of scholarly
research within and for The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod,
namely:

1. To consider research projects that may be proposed by mem-
bers of Synod and to approve those that meet certain standards,
allocating funds for the carrying on of these projects;

2. To initiate research in the following areas: (a) Biblical re-
search, (b) Reformation research, (c) Church history, (d) subsidiz-
ing when necessary the production of pertinent theological litera-
ture, (e) Church problems of today; 7