# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S5 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) MISSIONS 5 Each of the following sections offers further examples of edification —of sharing, of mutual giving and receiving _so that all are built up for Christ's mission. B. Edification: World Conference on Lutheran Education The task of all formal Christian education is the task of edification, of building up the saints for mission. Be- cause of the important relationship between education and mission, the Board for Missions called together Christian educators from various countries for a World Conference on Lutheran Education in Hong Kong in February 1968. The conference, in its composition and in its conclusions, gave evidence of the unity and diver- sity inherent in all communication and edification. The official report of the conference began: When 39 delegates from 15 countries assembled in Hong Kong for the first World Conference on Lutheran Education they expressed their diversity and felt their unity. The ses- sions were filled with the constant buzz of whispered trans- lation as English was simultaneously interpreted into Chi- nese, Japanese, German, or Portuguese. .. . For the first World Conference on Lutheran Education sponsored by the Board for Missions of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod brought together Lutheran representatives from Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, New Guinea, Nigeria, Philippines, Switzer- land, Taiwan, and the United States of America. In spite of the diversity of their cultures, delegates found unity in their approach to man “as God's fallen creature, under the grace of God.” The delegates had something else in common also: they all agreed, the re- port said, that in every country congregations have “failed to really be the channels of the Gospel, but instead become clogged perhaps even broken pipes that no longer function.” Delegates recognized that Christian education ‘“‘assumes many shapes and under pressure emerges in a variety of patterns,’”’ but they affirmed the unity of the Christian education or edifica- tion task, to equip the saints for mission. Participants declared: Christian education is an integral part of the mission of the church. The terms in which Christ speaks of His church and sends it on God’s mission to the world imply communication and education processes: His sent ones are to be a light, a leaven, a witness, proclaimers, and teachers of the good news of help and hope in Christ. The daily worship and Eucharist in the Chapel of All Nations also gave evidence of the unity among diver- sity. The report stated: As they gathered around the circular altar railing they re- ceived new strength for the one task from the one Lord whom they serve and who served them. Special music rang- ing from Bach chorals to original hymns in Cantonese and in Chinese musical settings enriched each worship. Reli- gious banners, wood-cuts, crucifixes, ancient Korean Bibles, etc., were displayed in the chapel together with the flags of all nations. Each day a representative from a different country assisted in the distribution of the sacrament. Another effective testimony to the one Lord is the one Redeemer who was brought when sections of the Pentecost lesson were read in many different languages and dialects. At the final session of the conference, participants adopted an omnibus resolution calling for ‘“‘a thorough evaluation of what our respective churches are doing in the whole field of Christian education . . . to improve and extend the mission of the church to the church and to the world through Christian nurture.”’ The resolution also declared: We face a common need and a common task with resources inadequate for the task. We must therefore learn to coop- erate, pooling the resources that the Lord has already made available to His church for its task of Christian nurture. We are particularly grateful for the help of the Lutheran World Federation and encourage it to continue to send out teams to work with the Lutheran churches and help them to better recognize and meet the challenges before them. The full text of the omnibus resolution as well as the complete summary report of the Hong Kong Conference will be given to the floor committee on missions. As an outgrowth of the Hong Kong education conference, a number of joint efforts in curriculum development have begun in overseas countries. C. Edification: Interaction Among God's People Here are some ways in which individual Christians have been sharing their particular gifts with others in the body of Christ. 1. From West to East a. Project Timothy. Seven North American pastors served in congregations overseas last summer (four in the Philippines, three in Japan) in an experiment in short-term missionary activity — Project Timothy. An overseas unit does the inviting, a home congregation the sending and funding, and the Board for Missions the initiating and facilitating. Each pastor works with a national pastor—in evangelism, stewardship, educa- tion, medical missions, or campus ministry. Short-term missionaries may be able to carry out special or particu- lar tasks, may be able to open opportunities for the local pastors. They afford the national and expatriate workers a chance to talk heart to heart about the mission. And they themselves catch a new spirit of urgency and in- volvement, becoming aware of the need for the church to be in mission ever and always. Planning is under way for another such effort during 1969. b. Youth. Eight Walther Leaguers from southern California engaged in a work-visit to the Far East in 1967. They lived with national Christians and mission- aries, spent time in youth camps, rallies, and retreats, and even witnessed door to door in the Philippines. In 1968 eight young people from the Florida-Georgia Dis- trict were involved in a similar work-visit to Central America. In their ‘Christian witness crusade”’ the young people helped with a vacation Bible school; visited, lived, and worshiped in the homes of Lutheran Chris- tians in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, and Caracas; and then returned to the U.S., “enriched by the love their hosts had showered on them.” A pastor in Costa Rica, Rev. Tapani Ojasti, wrote to the Florida- Georgia District afterwards: “Your group was not Yankee tourists but people with the same hope and tasks as my members.”