# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1953_S1087 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 382 MISSIONS part of our pastors congregations, and 1 , E) le. we propose that with the beginning of 1954 ren : n° that énd _ 1. Enlisting and helping m unto Christ. Ping more of our people to be witn, 2. Visiting Prospects, 3. Greeting visitors. 4. Welcoming new residents. 5. Assimilation of new members. 6. Soul-keeping, , Since we believe that it is helpful to select certain periods of time during which you give special attention to specific phases of congregational mission activit » We propose that during ensuing yeas we offer to our congregations and pastors special helps on suc emphases as the following: Evangelistic meetings and sery- icés, a community census, integration of new members, soul keep- ing, extending the outreach of the congr ion i i i towns and communities. Sregation into neighboring Evangelistic Agencies Through its Evangelism Department your Board for Home Mis- A. Sunday School by Mail Sunday School by Mail was be i i ay r gun in October of 1948. It is operated jointly by Synod’s Home Mission Board, the Lutheran Hour, and the Board for Parish Education, py the Lutheran Hour office, they are forwarded to Sunday Schoo] y Mail, and we then Proceed to complete the enrollment. MISSIONS 888 Board for Parish Education prepares the “Parents’ Guides” 3, Sunday School by Mail. _administration of Sunday School by Mail is altogether Rizr the direction of Synod’s Home Mission Board.’ Reorganization Originally Sunday School by Mail was operated by each Dis- through a Sunday School by Mail director appointed by the District mission board. At the suggestion of several District direc- tofs and mission boards Sunday School by Mail was reorganized diiring the summer of 1951. One phase of the reorganization was that our Home Mission office offered to take over Sunday School by Mail and operate it from St. Louis instead of operating through District directors. Each District mission board was asked to decide whether it desired to retain Sunday School by Mail or turn it over to our office. Up to the present time all Districts except eight have turned their Sunday School by Mail operations over to us. Enrollments handled through our office are as follows: For the United States and Canada —1,878; for foreign countries — 169; making a grand total of 2,047. During the year 1952 the enroll- ments handled in our office increased by 846. The total enrollment in the eight Districts which have retained Sunday School by Mail is 2,146. There has been virtually no in- crease over the previous year in this figure. Among the eight Dis- tricts which have retained Sunday School by Mail we find the three Districts with the largest Sunday School by Mail enrollments, namely, the Alberta and British Columbia District with 563, the Manitoba and Saskatchewan District with 378, and the Northwest District with 1,080. Summary of Enrollments * Total number of enrollments for North America: handled by the St. Louis office — 1,878. Total number of enrollments for foreign countries handled by the St. Louis office — 169. Total number of enrollments handled by individual Districts — 2,146. ‘ This gives us a grand total of 4,193 enrollments in Sunday School by Mail. Religious Affiliation It is interesting to observe the religious affiliation of some of the pupils from North America enrolled in our St. Louis office. - About 1,000 of the 1,878 are Lutheran, representing various Synods. Seventy are unchurched. No religious affiliation is indicated for 243. All the others are from various denominations, the Baptists lead- ing with an enrollment of 142.