# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S367
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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MISSIONS 367

The Home Missions program is carried on by 32 District Mis-
sion Boards. The Board for Missions in North and South America
keeps in close touch with the mission developments of all Districts
and seeks to “help improve and extend these missions so that
Synod’s resources may be employed to the best advantage.” In
addition to the large force of home missionaries there are special-
ized workers at home who minister to the deaf and to the blind.
Our student pastors reach the college and university youth. Some
phases of the Armed Services Commission also have a special
mission significance. Then there are the missionaries who serve
in various types of institutions, hospitals, sanitariums, asylums,
penal institutions, etc. Nor dare we overlook the various auxiliary
organizations of the church: the LLL, the LWML, and the Walther
League. Each of them has something vital to add to the total
mission program of Synod.

As in the Army, so also in our Synod the mission program
must be well integrated. We must seek to make the best use
of our manpower and of our mission funds. For that purpose all
mission boards of Synod have organized themselves. into a volun-
tary organization known as the Mission Council. The Council
meets once a year. In addition to this annual meeting, the seven
mission executives, who have their offices on the fourth floor of
the Lutheran Building, have regular staff meetings to discuss mat-
ters of mutual interest. The Secretary of Missions attends as many
of the regular meetings of the various Mission Boards as possible.

A Period of Intensification

We entered only. one new country during the past triennium,
namely, Chile (in the fall of 1953). Not as though this was the
only opportunity; on the contrary, pleas have come to us from
several areas. Five of these have even been investigated, but
action has’ been deferred or denied for one reason or another.
While we entered only one new country during the past triennium,
our missions have experienced a tremendous intensification in
practically all the fields, at home and ‘abroad. Our largest and most
productive field is the home field, which deservedly receives the
bulk of our manpower. But in spite of the fact that only a very
small percentage of all graduates was assigned foreign calls or
calls into special fields, there were not enough ministerial candi-
dates to meet the opportunities of a growing church at home. This
problem demands prayerful and determined action. Even though
our Christians fill our mission treasuries and even though they pro-
vide the needed funds to build churches and schools, unless wé
can supply. the necessary trained personnel, the church cannot

expand.

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