# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S418
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

418 CHURCH LITERATURE AND PUBLICATIONS; PUBLIC RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS

in-office piece to keep church leaders abreast of the re-
ligious world, now has an outside, growing mailing list
of more than a hundred.

News Releases — biweekly continentwide news ser-
vice that highlights the synodical scene for both the in-
ternal and the external news media.

P/R Orbit — monthly twofold newsletter packed
with ideas/suggestions/reminders for District directors,
area reps, and leadership personnel.

Attention should also be drawn here to the depart-
ment’s compilation of “Position Statements” voiced by
the Synod in recent years and made available on a wide
basis to the news media, government officials, and
church leaders. Included also are comparative state-
ments issued by other Lutheran church bodies. Since
publication, numerous requests have been received for
this convenient resource material.

While this is an area of large responsibility for the
department, it should be noted that the department’s
function is to present, not to formulate the synodical
viewpoint on issues of the day. The department is al-
ways conscious of these boundaries and in every case
looks to the elected officials and others charged with
this responsibility for the correct formulation of the
Synod’s position.

In a day of such tremendous social, moral, and ethical
problems on the modern scene, the church’s voice dare
not be silent or less than forceful. Religious news is
hard news today: no longer is it confined to the once-
a-week religion page. Society is floundering for solu-
tions, listening for a sure prophetic voice above the din
and upheaval.

If the Synod needs encouragement here, the depart-
ment offers it and its ready assistance as well.

Contacts/Relationships

The department for obvious reasons maintains a
number of varying relationships necessary both to its
own specialized function as well as to its specific syn-
odical assignment. Of particular interest here might be
the following:

* Professional memberships in the Religious Public

Relations Council, Public Relations Society of
America, etc.

.

Representative to the National Safety Council, Re-
ligion in American Life (RIAL), and the National
Conference on Citizenship.

Cosponsors of three annual seminars: Easter Sem-
inar for Lutheran Students, Washington, D.C.
(postponed for 1969); Church and National Life
Institute, Gettysburg, Pa., for top-level church
leaders and government officials: and Churchmen’s
Washington Seminar.

* Special note should be made here of the depart-
ment’s developing relationship with the Division of
Public Relations of LCUSA. Temporarily the staff
serves on the Council’s Social Action Advisory
Committee. The department closed its Washington

office in favor of the Council’s Office of Public
Affairs. The director is an ex officio member of the
standing committee of the Division of Public Re-
lations. Meetings to explore coordinative efforts
have been arranged by Dr, John Tietjen, executive
secretary of the Council’s Division of Public Rela-
tions, for the public relations directors of the three
church bodies. As a result of such relationships the
department is intent on recognizing the areas of
feasible, cooperative effort and actively supporting
them.

Communications

Departmental relations with the communications
media (press, radio, television) on both national and
local levels continue to be uniformly good as a result
of proper attention over the years,

“The Mission Is the Message,” depicting the ministry
of Riverside Lutheran Church in Detroit, Mich., and
broadcast by CBS Television at the outset of the New
York convention, may have set a record for the depart-
ment in the number of requests received from local
congregations.

“T Believe,” the Synod segment in the NBC network
television series Frontiers of Faith, featured the Heri-
tage Singers and the NBC orchestra under the direction
of Dr. Ralph C. Schultz of Concordia Collegiate Insti-
tute, Bronxville, N. Y., in the fall of 1968.

The same series in 1969 will present Dr. Oswald
C. J. Hoffmann in an interview format on the general
subject of evangelism. Tentatively scheduled for repeat
showings in 1969 and 1970 is an on-location portrayal
of the “Bethesda Ministry,’ as demonstrated by the
patients and staff of Bethesda Lutheran Home, Water-
town, Wis.

At Christmastime 1967 and 1968 the Concordia Col-
lege Choir of Bronxville, N. Y., was heard on “Voices
of Christmas,” annual network presentation of NBC
Radio.

Three network programs for the 1969 season are
presently under consideration by CBS Television. If
the submitted ideas find acceptance, the story themes
will focus on Vietnam, modern youth, and prison min-
istry.

Participation on two panel/interview shows pro-
duced by CBS Radio and CBS Television was arranged
by the department in the course of the 1968 season.
Synod panelists were Dr. George W. Hoyer, Dr. Richard
P, Jungkuntz, and Dr. Arthur Carl Piepkorn.

Were the Synod to pay for the air time and produc-
tion costs of the above programs, it would run into
hundreds of thousands of dollars. This does not begin
to calculate the similar generosity of local radio and
television broadcasters. Nor do these totals include the
truly incredible number of column inches given to the
church by the nation’s press,

A big debt of gratitude we owe to the communica-
tions media, and the Synod often has expressed its
appreciation to the media. Expectedly, this convention
will wish to do the same and perhaps even more. The