# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S366
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

MISSIONS

IV. MISSIONS

Report of Secretary of Missions
(Report 401)

For more than twenty years, Dr. F. C. Streufert, in his position
as Secretary of Missions, was a symbol of mission enthusiasm. His
fervent plea at the Milwaukee Convention in 1950 did much to
prepare the atmosphere for a successful “Conquest for Christ”
offering. His report to the Houston Convention in 1953 was his
Swan song. He departed this life on September 17, 1953, active to
the last. Even in his delirium during the final days he was pleading
the cause of missions. May his mission zeal spur us on to dare
greater things for the Lord.

When the office of Secretary of Missions was created in 1932,
it was not the intention of Synod that the Secretary of Missions
was to be the executive of any Board. In the development of our
mission program, however, the Secretary of Missions soon became
the Executive Secretary of Home Missions. Before long he also
served as the Executive Secretary of the Board for South American
Missions. In 1950 he was also made the Executive Secretary of
Church Extension. The Houston Convention (1953) intended to
restore the office of Secretary of Missions to its original intent.
It divorced it from the executive office of the Board for Missions
in North and South America but continued the relation with the
Church Extension Board. Last year the Board of Directors also
asked the Secretary of Missions to serve temporarily as the Execu-
tive Secretary of the Board for European Affairs. A memorial
before this convention asks that the original intent and purpose
of the office be re-established, as outlined in the memorial.

An Army on Many Fronts

Our mission activity can be compared to the strategy of war.
As there are different types of troops with a variety of specialized
functions on the home front and on foreign bases, so it is with our
mission program. We speak of home missionaries and foreign
missionaries. Our foreign missions are supervised by three sepa-
rate boards: the Far East is under the Board for Foreign Missions;
Africa, under the Missionary Board of the Lutheran Synodical
Conference; and Latin America, under the Board for Missions in
North and South America. The Lutheran Medical Mission Asso-
ciation serves as an auxiliary to these various mission boards. The -
Board for European Affairs is in charge of the work in England
and on the Continent.

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