# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S226
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

225

and to the service of the church will mark a most important mile-
stone in the development of Synod’s ministerial training program.
At the Houston Convention, Synod adopted the principle that

the erection of Concordia Senior College “on a new site in the
suburban area of Fort Wayne does not preclude the possibility
that another senior college or even several senior colleges may
be established in various parts of the country in the future if

under the blessings of God and because of the missionary aggres-
siveness of our members the church we love, The Lutheran Church

~— Missouri Synod, continues to expand and to embrace an ever

larger number of members in her fold” (Proceedings, 1953, p. 133).

In view of the objectives and functions assigned to the school, the
opening of this new institution with an optimum plant capacity
of 450 resident students in the 1957—1958 school year means that
by the time the 1959 convention meets, the institution will have

completed its first year of full use. On the basis of present prepara-
tory school enrollments it is not expected that the institution will

in the immediate future find its capacity taxed even though it
admits every qualified young man who presents himself for

enrollment.

Both in relation to Concordia Senior College in the minis-

terial training program and also in connection with the available
terminal training capacity for teachers at Concordia Teachers Col-
lege at River Forest, Ill, and Concordia Teachers College of
Seward, Nebr., Synod once more must give comprehensive atten-
tion to the effective and responsible answers to the corresponding
key questions: What is the optimum and maximum size of senior
college training units? What is the case for and against a certain
number of senior colleges for ministerial training and for teachers
colleges to meet the needs of the schools of the congregations for
synodically trained teachers? It may also well be that Synod’s
total teacher-training program could be
enhanced, if after careful study and analysis terminal teacher-
training facilities were to be established on the West Coast of the

United States.

An Additional Campus on the West Coast?
The Houston Convention of 1953 instructed the Board for
Higher Education to study the training needs and potential of the

synodical West Coast situation.

In order to gain the advice of responsible leaders active in
the area, the Board for Higher Education invited a group of ten
pastors, teachers, and laymen to gather in special meeting on
December 5, 1955. The members of the special advisory com-
mittee were: Rev. Oscar H. Reinboth of Oakland, who served as
chairman; Rev. Victor Behnken, President of the Southern Cali-

strengthened and