# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S477 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 464 STEWARDSHIP AND FINANCES; RETIREMENT AND BENEFITS The mission education function of the department aims for a year-round program of mission education throughout the congregation. Inspiration and informa- tion is needed if we are to be with Christ on His mission. The mission education function of the department is setting up a new cycle of long- and short-range studies for the next 6 years. Interpreting both the mission and the missions of the church through personalities and events, the mission studies will use a full range of printed and audiovisual materials and will aim to satisfy particular needs and requests of our congregations. All of these services are aimed at three basic levels: chil- dren, youth, and adults. The mission education function of the department has been hampered by staff vacancies. Our staff has had to stretch itself to cover the most essential responsi- bilities of the department. The result has been less at- tention specifically given to mission education. Our hope and prayer is that God will lead competent people into this area of the church’s need for a new and stronger thrust in mission education. Facts for Which to Be Thankful After Twenty Years In 1949 Dr. John E. Herrmann was called by the Board of Directors of the Synod to function as the first stewardship counselor and to build a stewardship de- partment on the old Department of Missionary Educa- tion and Publicity. The program was developed in close touch with the people of the Synod and prospered in response to their current and growing stewardship needs. It has endeavored to remain a grass-roots move- ment through the years, seeking to reevaluate and im- prove its program through pilot projects, stewardship schools on the District and synodical level, and keeping well informed about stewardship advances made in other church bodies. The stewardship program of our Synod focuses on the total stewardship life. It endeavors to equip our members for a lifelong ministry of service that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. God has richly blessed the stewardship efforts of the past 20 years in some very evident ways. A growing number of dedicated stewardship leaders and followers in every congregation and every District of the Synod live for Jesus Christ, both in their daily vocations and in the institutional church. Our people show a marked missionary consciousness and a growing number of Mis- sion Eds and Ednas encourage a greater mission con- sciousness through congregation mission projects. Many lay people volunteer for services in mission fields at home and abroad. The mission materials produced by the department enjoy wide usage. The regular giving of our people for their work through the Synod has increased from $3,564,788 in 1949 to $24,651,211 in 1968, and from $3.08 per communicant in 1949 to $12.80 per communicant in 1967. From a place well down the scale compared to other larger Protestant groups, giving for synodical missions is now among the forefront of larger American Protestant churches. All- purpose giving has also markedly increased. In 1949 per communicant giving in this category was $49.57. In 1967 it had climbed to $119.56. Many other statistics evidence growth in Christian stewardship. Such evidences of “success” cannot help but stimulate us to thanksgiving for past blessings and confidence in God’s power to face the stewardstip challenges in our present day with hon- esty and optimism. The Times in Which We Live These are not easy days in which the church is to be the church. Yet this is the very time when the church should be at her best. This is the time when she has her great opportunity. The great battle on Cal- vary has been won. She is promised victory over the very forces of hell as Christ leads, nurtures, and strengthens her to fulfill her glorious destiny. What is needed if the church is to move forward with enthusi- asm in such times as these? Without Christ through His Word and Spirit no church body or synod can accom- plish anything that pleases Him or hastens the greater fulfillment of the petition, “Thy kingdom come.” But He can use that church whose members continue to grow as His disciples. Communication Congregations came together to form the Synod for the singular purpose of helping each other more mea- surably to fulfill their God-given mission. To see this accomplished with the highest degree of effectiveness. attention must be given to meaningful and frequent exchanges among all involved. Today with both “big- ness” and complex issues facing the church, we must remain open to new means of communication and strive to find new ways which will encourage congregations and the Synod to grow together in oneness of purpose and program. We must be wide awake to the use of modern techniques in graphic and visual aids to inter- pret our corporate program to our congregations. Effec- tive methods of communication are not luxuries but necessities critical to the success of Christ's mission. Fiscal Problems Legitimate fiscal demands made by each part of the church’s program, coupled with the lack of dollars to go around, understandably create tensions within synodical structures. Some facts help bring the problem into focus. 1. The average member is giving a decreasing per- centage of his increased income through his congrega- tion for the work of his congregation, his District, and his Synod. 2. From 1964 through 1967 the average congregation gave less and less of its local income to its work through the Synod. 3. The percentage of total income which the Synod has received from the Districts in recent years has been shrinking.