# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S403
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

MISSIONS 403

Wuereas, The Secretary of Missions with his many other duties
can give only a very limited amount of time to the Church Exten-
sion program; therefore be it

Resolved, 1. That the Church Extension Board be empowered
to appoint with the approval of the Praesidium a full-time Exec-
utive Secretary of the Church Extension Board, preferably a lay-
man, to be salaried out of the proceeds of the Church Extension
Fund, whose primary duties shall be

a. To promote the cause of Church Extension on the Synod-
ical level.

b. To give assistance to the Districts in the promotion of their
respective Church Extension funds.

c. To keep all loans under constant study.

2. That the Church Extension Board and the Home Mission
Board continue to work in closest co-operation in order to achieve
the best possible use of Church Extension Funds for the Home
Mission program of the church.

The Board for Missions in North and South America concurs
in the above resolution.

3. That the necessary changes in the Bylaws of Synod relative
to this office be duly noted in the Handbook.

Report of Board of Missions to the Deaf
(Report 417)

On March 4, 1894, the now sainted Pastor Augustus Reinke
preached the first Lutheran sermon in the language of the deaf.
The service was held in Bethlehem School, Chicago, and sixteen
deaf were in attendance. Soon calls came from deaf in Milwaukee,
St. Louis, Monroe, Sheboygan, and other cities. In the course of
time Rev. Reinke could not do justice to deaf work in addition to
his work in Bethlehem Congregation. Therefore when our Synod
met in Fort Wayne in 1896, he put in a fervent plea for the deaf
and urged our Synod to take over this work. And our Christians
gladly resolved henceforth to minister also to the spiritual needs
of the deaf. A Board of Missions to the Deaf was elected, and
these at once called two candidates into this new mission. Can-
didate T. M. Wangerin was called as assistant to Rev. Strassen in
Milwaukee and as part-time missionary to deaf. However, shortly
thereafter he became full-time worker among the deaf in Wis-
consin. Candidate Herman A. Bentrup was placed into the Louis-
ville, Ky., Field as full-time worker.