# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S413 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) CHURCH LITERATURE AND PUBLICATIONS; PUBLIC RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS 413 used in schools, Bible classes, youth groups, and men’s and women’s organizations. The Witness and the Reporter are mass media going into more than half a million homes around the nation and the world. The people in these homes reflect a broad range of age, education, occupation, interest, and bias. It cannot be expected that all will be eager to read everything or agree with everything they read in the magazine and newspaper. However, both publications try to offer material of interest and value for all seg- ments of the readership. Not liking everything people read in their church papers “is no reason for not getting them,” a District President wrote in a recent bulletin for clergy and lay leaders. “I don’t like many of the things I read in the daily newspapers,” he went on, “but I continue to subscribe to them because it is the only way I can find out what is going on.” He stressed the importance of reading the Synod’s official periodicals to find out “what the church is do- ing.” Many people, he said, “are indifferent toward the work of their church when they don’t know what it is doing.” He called on leaders of the churches to take positive steps to close the communication gap by urging people to subscribe to their church publications. “Qur church papers cost so little,” he said, “and are worth so much.” The commission recognizes that many claims are made on congregational dollars, but it is persuaded that few bring such rich returns as the dollars invested in an every-home subscription to the Synod's church papers and the District editions. A 5-minute filmstrip dramatizing this fact is available from the periodicals promotion department of Concordia Publishing House. WiuviaM E. WESSLER, Chairman Joun E. HorrMeyer, Secretary (10-04) Report of Lutheran Television Productions Board Joint Sponsorship Association In keeping with Resolution 11-01 of the New York convention of 1967, the Lutheran Television Productions Board has the benefits of a joint sponsorship association with. and the valuable cooperation of, the Lutheran Laymen’s League in carrying out its responsibilities. Personnel Dr. Martin J. Neeb Jr. accepted a call as executive secretary of the board and was installed into office on July 11, 1967, at the New York convention. Dr. Herman W. Gockel, who has served as program director of the board since its inception in 1952, is the other full-time executive. Dr. Eugene R. Bertermann, executive secre- tary from 1960 to 1967, accepted an appointment as executive director of the Lutheran Laymen’s League on Feb. 1, 1967. In accord with the New York joint sponsorship reso- lution, the board has been expanded to 11 members with the addition of four members appointed by the Board of Governors of the Lutheran Laymen’s League. Another Threshold The Synod stood on a threshold in 1951 when it com- mitted itself to television; the Lord has blessed that commitment beyond measure. The television board suggests now that nothing dis- covered, proposed, or developed in the 20th century will have more implication for The Lutheran Church — Mis- souri Synod than the enmeshed phenomena of mass communication and the present population explosion. In that light we stand today on another threshold. as the report of the mission board to the 1967 New York convention so clearly points out: It is imperative that the church develop a broader under- standing of the communications revolution in the world today and of the whole psychology of “mass man” — man who is constantly exposed to the influence of the mass media. This is an age in which words and print are being replaced by images and the electronic impulses. ... The world’s values are to a large degree shaped by mass com- munications today. (Workbook, 1967, p. 12) An Image-Saturated Society Consider that: 9 of 10 American homes have at least one television set today. More than 30 percent have more than one TV set. And that: The average American family has a TV set on 6% hours a day. Only sleeping time surpasses television viewing. The average high school graduate today has spent more time with television than he has in school! He averages 20 hours a week for fifteen years with television — 15,000 hours, while school hours beg for equal time — 10,800 hours computed at 5 hours a day, 180 days a year! Our electronic society is “postliterate.” Children used to “see” the world open through books as they learned to read; now they come to school sophisticated with knowledge gained through television and film and later read about these same experiences. They are surrounded by visual language. Dick and Jane and Spot pale before Apollo, astronauts, and the moon. Television brings it — instantly, alive, and in color. Around the globe the picture is the same. Satellites make the visual image primary wherever men live. There are 140 million TV sets outside the United States now. In Japan, 75 percent of households already have TV sets, with neighboring Latin America a close run- ner-up. The rest of the world is not far behind.