# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S369
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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MISSIONS 369

information. Information begets interest, and interest leads to
action.

Special gifts for designated mission projects during 1955
amounted to almost $150,000. What better way to give expression
to special joy or thanksgiving than to make special gifts to mis-
sions! All such special gifts are used in accordance with the
wishes of the donor. To be able to make pertinent suggestions to
people who want to make special donations “over and above their
regular budget contribution,” a special “gifts catalog” was prepared
in co-operation with some of our foreign missionaries. This is
available upon request. By selecting items from this gifts catalog
many needs can be met which enhance the effectiveness of our
mission endeavors. The Mission Call will also continue its so-
called “Want Ads.” To insure that all gifts are properly recorded
and accounted for, they should be sent through the regular chan-
nels of Synod.

Disconcerting Facts

As a church we have just cause to be thankful to God for the
rich blessings upon our weak efforts. Our church has had a pro-
portionately larger growth in Home Missions than most other
church bodies in America. And yet our Synod after 109 years still
constitutes only 1.2% of the U.S. population. And what is worse,
four out of every ten people in the U.S. are avowedly unchurched
(the ratio of the unchurched in Canada is less).

And what shall we say when we look at the heathen world?
During the past 40 years about 14 million heathen were baptized.
But during that same span of time the heathen population in-
creased by more than twenty times that number. Each year there
are more Christians, but each year there are still more heathen.
We face the strange paradox: The church grows, and yet it becomes
relatively smaller.

Thus it remains evetlastingly true that the harvest truly is
plenteous, but the laborers are few. We dare not rest on our oars.
There is much to be done. Let us pray that the Lord may fill us
with courage and zeal to go forward in His name.

H. A. Maver, Secretary of Missions

ACTION

Concerning this report, Committee 2 submitted the following
resolutions, which were adopted:

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