# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1973_S99
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

100 ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF LCUSA

to come to trust each other —

to strengthen our partnership in the Gospel —

to give the greatest possible credibility to our wit-
ness to Jesus Christ to the world in which we
live.

I know that the participating churches have all con-
tributed significant resources of leadership, of time and
effort, of funds for the good of all.

I am certain that the LCMS has benefited from this
partnership in the Lutheran Council in ways that most
of you have never personally experienced and that
many of you have never had the opportunity to hear
about.

One of the significant contributions of the LCMS to
the Council has been the people who have been called
to the Council staff from the LCMS. That contribution
is most evident, physically and in terms of responsi-
bility and leadership, in the person of Dr. C. Thomas
Spitz. Dr. Spitz serves so very effectively as general
secretary of the Council, a post to which he was just re-
elected for another 4-year term. He knows more about
the workings of the Council than anyone I know and I
invite you to listen to him comment about its work as

it relates to the LCMS. When he finishes I hope to
have time for a closing paragraph.

* ¥ ¥

Last May, a mother brought her 4-year old son to
the Vacation Church School conducted by the congre-
gation of which I am a member. This mother came to
my wife, who serves as Director of Education on the
congregation staff, and told her: “Last week our family
drove by Calvary Church and our son exclaimed ‘there’s
my church.’” She went on to say, “This disturbed me
and I said, ‘Now, Tommy, this is the first time we have
driven by Calvary since last May when I brought you
to Vacation Church School, and we have gone to our
own church which isn’t Lutheran nearly every Sunday
since then. Why do you say Calvary is your church?’
He thought quite a while and said, ‘Because there is
so much love there.’”

My hope and prayer is that the Lutheran Council
may be such a witness that those who obeserve or relate
to Lutherans working and acting together in their com-
mon agency will observe “There is so much love there.”

God bless you, your convention, and the actions you
take.

Dr. ARNOLD R. MicKELSON