# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S184
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

184 SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

| prayerful guidance to promising recruits. Only a few parishes tric
systematically view participation in a congregation-wide recruit- ser
ment effort as a proper function of the congregation. Here and enl
there parish organizations such as men’s clubs, ladies’ aids, and cor
| youth organizations. have seen in recruitment participation a in
| proper avenue for their activity. It is to be hoped that the great
| lay organizations within Synod — such as the Lutheran Laymen’s ; 195
| League, Lutheran Women’s Missionary League, and the Inter- tee
| national Walther League—can see the proper and increasing of
| opportunities for leadership in this regard which they can seize. res
Recruitment by alumni for the synodical colleges and seminaries the

| as such has never been a primary emphasis. Next to the pros-
| pects and their parents, the most important recruiters in Synod’s Di
| history have been the teachers and: pastors of our congre- 18
| gations.
As recent years have brought about a reversal in the previous Bre
synodical attitude of restricted enrollments at Synod’s schools for
‘ and static capacity within them, the synodical colleges and semi- of |
| : naries have carried on various recruiting activities. While limited cal
iz activity in this regard is wholesome and desirable, the interests of
| Synod will not be served if the members of Synod ever come to for
feel that the primary, if not the exclusive, responsibility for re-
cruitment rests on the synodical institutions themselves. Synod’s cor
yo basic point of view has long been that its institutions are not to aw
i engage in a competitive race for enrollments, but rather to. strive na
1 for excellence in the maximum development of each student’s
potentialities for training for the service of the Lord. The kind ba:
| of school recruitment which has all too often disgracefully char-
i} acterized some institutions of higher learning in America is not gat
iA compatible with the selective recruitment which must characterize
; ; recruitment for the church professions. The responsibility which tes
i Synod has a right to impose upon each of its institutions is in the wo
; area of selective admissions and in selective training, resulting in pre
‘t the retention of those who are truly fit for the work of the Lord. inc
: | Improved Organization for Unified and Systematic Recruitment en
4 Your Board has searched for more effective ways to recruit for are
4 Synod’s colleges and seminaries. It has worked for heightened
aj if effectiveness in what often has been a partial and unsustained Bo
| } recruitment effort. fro
4 The current absence of any synodical District officer, board, or pel
boa ‘ committee charged with specific functions in the interest of synodi-
| Fi a | f cal recruitment is a definite handicap in any effort to secure a iny
is higher rate of beneficial recruitment for Synod. col

Rather than to contribute to a further complication of the Dis-