# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S399
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

MISSIONS 399

What Lies Ahead?

Forecasters tell us that by 1965 105,000 new churches and
church-related buildings will be needed in the United States.
Our Synod will undoubtedly build its proportionate share of that
number, The Church Extension treasury is at the present time
only interested in the new congregations which require their first
facilities.

In 1953 we opened 134 new stations. All but four were with-
out facilities of any kind, many even without a building site.
In 1954 there were 92 new congregations, and in 1955, 107 new
congregations which started without a place of worship of their
own. We are happy to learn that congregations are organized in
spite of the lack of suitable places of worship, but this condition
dare not continue for long without serious handicap to the growth
of the new congregation.

What makes this matter even worse is the fact that the majority
of new congregations are organized in the 13 subsidized Districts.
These subsidized Districts have only one fifth of the communicant
membership of Synod, and yet this one fifth is required to raise
more Church Extension money than the remaining four fifths of
Synod. It is for this reason that Synod’s Church Extension Fund
has been appealing to the numerically and hence also financially
stronger Districts to come to the assistance of the subsidized Dis-
tricts, which have the open doors of mission expansion but lack
the wherewithal to grasp the opportunities. Unless this fact is
recognized and acted upon, Synod’s mission expansion program
will be seriously handicapped.

Ten-Year Projection

The Home Mission Board hopes to open a total of 1,350 new
mission stations by 1965. It is estimated that 606 of these will be
in the self-supporting Districts and 744 in the subsidized Districts.
While Synod’s Church Extension Fund is ready and willing to
help all Districts,-it must by force of circumstances almost com-
pletely confine its help to the subsidized Districts. We are con-
vinced that with proper promotion the self-supporting Districts
will be able to raise enough money to provide properties and
buildings for the new congregations within their Districts. Our
concern are the 744 planned new stations in the subsidized Districts.

On the basis of the figures of the past year, Synod’s Church
Extension Fund will be asked to supply on an average about $6,000
for property and parsonages and an additional $24,000 for the
erection of the first unit, all-purpose building, a total of $30,000