# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S30
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

30 MISSIONS

Illinois District in Belleville, Ill, the synodical head-
quarters, Concordia Publishing House, Concordia Sem-
inary, the main office of the Lutheran Laymen’s League,
and Missouri Synod Radio Station KFUO. And with
all of this, many opportunities for ministry in metropolis
fall “between the cracks.”

But there is potential in the St. Louis metropolitan
area too! One out of every 15 persons in Greater St. Louis
is a Lutheran. What could happen if more and more
of these people of God were equipped and freed for
meaningful witness and ministry where they were and
in new situations in the metro area? And what of the
resources available from the metropolitan, District, and
synodical agencies mentioned above—what could
happen if each of them made its own unique contribu-
tion while being related to the whole? To discover just
“what could happen if—” is the purpose of the larger
area pilot project launched in St. Louis—Metro Mis-
sion Movement.

b. Goals. Objectives. and Basic Procedures. Metro
Mission Movement is not a “program” designed on the
synodical level and “imposed” on St. Louis. In keeping
with its philosophy that the faithful fulfillment of Christ’s
mission comes out of the people of God on the local
level, the Board for Missions determined that the initia-
tion and development of this project be indigenous and
process-oriented rather than program-oriented. A steer-
ing body of 16 local people, principally laymen and
women, was therefore selected and given a broad
framework of overall goals, objectives, and basic working
principles with the freedom and authority to determine
the shape or direction of Lutheran witness and min-
istry in St. Louis as the Holy Spirit led them.

1) Goals. Primary goal of the pilot project is a more
unified witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and an
intensified ministry to the whole Greater St. Louis
community. A secondary goal is the possible emergence
of a more effective and viable form of the church in
mission in metropolitan St. Louis, an overall structure
that would develop and manifest the unity and inter-
dependence of a diversity and multiplicity of ministries
in Christ’s mission.

2) Objectives. The three basic objectives of the
project are:

a) the identification of the needs of people and
the whole society in the Greater St. Louis area
and of the resources available to meet these
needs;

b) the communication of people’s needs and of
opportunities for ministry to Lutheran Chris-
tians in the area;

c) the involvement of resources of the church
(people) into existing or new church or com-
munity ministries that meet the needs of people
individually and collectively in Greater Saint
Louis.

c. A Chronological Overview: What’s Happened So Far

1) The steering body spent its first month in orienta-

tion: becoming more fully acquainted with the goals
and objectives of the pilot project; becoming fully im-
mersed in the Mission Affirmations; choosing a name
for the project—Metro Mission Movement; hearing
speakers from church and community. The 16 members
of the steering body were each commissioned for their
special ministry in their home congregation on Easter
Sunday 1968.

2) Next came a monthlong period of ‘‘search and
struggle.” The problems and needs of metropolis were
so big that “handles” were hard to find.

3) In June 1968 the steering body began to move,
initiating a number of task forces and projects in the
next few months and involving additional people in the
identification of needs and in action.

* “Eyes and ears” seeing and listening task forces
were initiated on a trial basis in three subareas:
in East St. Louis (an inner-city area); a mid-city
area in north St. Louis; and a west suburban area
in St.Louis County. Task force members (two
thirds from the community, a third from elsewhere
in St. Louis) visited their area to discover the bur-
dens and problems of people there and then met
together once a week to share their experiences
and findings with one another.

* Two special projects were initiated in response
to proposals by the local Lutheran Human Rela-
tions chapter: one task force to gather information
on Lutheran attitudes on race and poverty, another
(composed principally of black Lutherans) to
gather and suggest educational materials on the
urban crisis.

‘ A communications task force was launched to
study how well we as Lutherans were communica-
ting in St.Louis to ourselves and to the whole
community.

* Steering body members themselves individually
met with area pastors during August and Septem-
ber, asking pastors to identify the needs and prob-
lems they saw in the metropolitan area.

4) In January 1969 a task force for a day-care center
in north St. Louis was approved with members of the
original “eyes and ears” group in that area heading it
up. MMM also had a catalytic role in a three-pronged
job-training program being set up by the Lutheran
Mission Association in Wellston, a blighted suburban
area. Two task forces are being set up, one composed
primarily of black Lutherans throughout the city, to
encourage people in the Wellston community to take
advantage of the training program; the other to en-
courage Lutheran businessmen in the area to hire
trained individuals at salaries large enough to support
their families. A task force was also formed to get at
MMM’s second goal: to develop a model of the kind of
metro church structure needed to “manifest the unity
and interdependence of a diversity and multiplicity of
ministries in Christ’s mission.”