# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S416
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

416 CHURCH LITERATURE AND PUBLICATIONS: PUBLIC RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS

successfully with a commercial industry that has grown
by multiplying leaps creatively, financially, and in in-
fluence.

Advertising revenue for commercial television has
grown from !¢ billion dollars in 1950 to three billion
dollars in 1968; commercial television growth has ex-
ceeded 240’, while the synodical subsidy for “This Is
the Life’ has not grown measurably since the program
began.

Without real financial growth the program continued
to gain station acceptance (400 at present), overcame
increased costs for production and distribution, and
moved to color,

The television board looks to the ongoing and gen-
erous joint sponsorship association with the Lutheran
Laymen's League for financial regeneration and as a
new opportunity for experimentation and development
to take additional advantage of television's ability to
reach immense and varied population segments.

Mission Efficiency

The Synod's television ministry is one of her more
efficient as well as economical mission tools. Television
professionals measure efficiency by the cost-per-thou-
sand people exposed to a message. Assessing “This Is
the Life” in this light offers a very bright perspective.

Produced at more than 75’; below competitive half-
hour television shows,

“This Is the Life.” according to professional
research, reaches people at a cost of less
than 810 per thousand!

Our present TV ministry exposes 1.000 people to the
life-giving Word of the Gospel for $10! Thousands have
found their Savior: tens of thousands have been
strengthened in Him: millions have been exposed to
Jesus Christ and His Word through a unique television
ministry that penetrates into the innermost sanctions of
the ghetto. the jungle. the bush, the high rise, and the
home.

Professional Reputation

Twenty-five broadcasting awards, more than 2.500.000
letters of request and commendation, 18 years of pro-
duction leadership. and professional acceptance today by
334 domestic and 79 international bookings testify elo-
quently to the blessings of God upon the television min-
istry of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod.

An Unparalleled Continuing Opportunity

In contemporary terms our Lord's Great Commission
surely translates into getting the Gospel increasingly
into the marketplace. where it can function to amplify
our concern for human value in a technological society
and to provide multiple outlets for the Holy Spirit to
nourish the Word of Life.

The ever-growing potential and the challenge of
television necessitate a substantial continuing basic level
of synodical and auxiliary support and will require
broader and deeper financial commitments to expand.

We have an enviable communication history, a rich
present program. Now we must be ready and anxious
to experiment with the new and unusual. In today’s
circumstances we must also be willing to risk mistakes,
for if we are not. we will not make vital discoveries.

We face a double-edged challenge characterized by
both greater capabilities to reach an audience and grow-
ing competition to attract its attention.

Never has The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod
been in a better position to exhibit to all the world the
life-giving Christ. and never in its history will failure
to do so be more calamitous.

LUTHERAN TELEVISION PropuctTions Boarpb
LEONHARD C. WUERFFEL, Chairman

Frep L. KUHLMANN, Vice-Chairman
ROBERT KAMPRATH, Secretary

Rosert G. BAau

KENNETH BAGWELL

CHARLES H. BURMEISTER

WILLIAM W, DRIEMEIER

ROBERT GARMATZ

A. W. HERRMANN

BELNO R. LANGE JR,

Au. H, SENSKE

HerMan W. GocKEL, Program Director
Martin J. NEEB Jr., Executive Secretary

(10-05)

Report of Board for Public Relations
“Go West”

Horace Greeley said it, the board contemplated it,
and in September 1967 it happened. Department
headquarters, located in New York City since 1948,
were transferred to the Lutheran Building in St. Louis,
Prompting the move was closer proximity to synodical
leadership and action.

The New York office had experienced an earlier
change in 1967. It was relocated from 2112 Broadway
to 315 Park Avenue South, same address as that of the
Lutheran Council in the U.S.A. Under the capable
supervision of Mrs. Marie Maier, the New York office
continues as an important liaison in the center of the
communications industry.

With the relocation of headquarters to St. Louis came
Rev. Kenneth M. Lindsay of Detroit, Mich., newly ap-
pointed executive secretary for the department, former
director of the Greater Detroit Council of Lutheran
Churches.

The Chicago office was not unaffected by the changes
in New York and St. Louis. Now only an hour's dis-
tance from the relocated headquarters, the Chicago
operaticn seemed somewhat burdensome administra-
tively and financially. The office was phased out as of
June 30, 1968, and Rev. Edgar Albers, who had been
serving there as assistant director for the department,
accepted a call to Immanuel Lutheran Church, Mokena,
Ill.

Rev. William E. Wessler, director of church relations