# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S374
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

374 MISSIONS

C. Urban Advisory Commission

and advise this area of church work. The following men were
appointed: Rev. Wm. Drews, Buffalo, N. Y., chairman; Mr. Ferd,
Gast, St. Louis, Mo., secretary; Prof. Ross Scherer, Valparaiso, Ind.;
Rev. Norman Temme, Omaha, Nebr.; and Mr. Milford Eggerding,
Valparaiso, Ind. The commission has adopted the following as its
purposes:

1. To assist the Home Mission Board, District mission boards,
and congregations in doing more effective Kingdom work in the
urban areas.

2. More specifically the commission shall study and analyze
various types of parish situations for the purpose of establishing
various general principles for the conduct of congregational life,
particularly with regard to the external community.

3. It shall make the members in the church aware of the
peculiar nature of urban social relations and alert them to the
basic responsibility of ministering to all men.

4. Eventually, when adequate research facilities are established,
the commission shall stand ready to give specific advice in case
situations.

The first major undertaking by this commission will be to
conduct an Urban Church Work Institute at Valparaiso University
during the month of August.

Also in this area we are limited in the service which we can
render because, unlike many other denominations, we do not have
a full-time person on our staff who devotes himself fully to the
subject of urban church work,

Il. Home Mission Expansion
Sponsor-a-Mission Plan: With the approval of the Board of
Directors our Home Mission Board has launched this plan. Accord-
ing to the plan, which is not new, congregations able to do some-
thing for the Kingdom over and above their support of the synod-

mission board. We believe that this plan should be promoted more
intensively.