# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1850_S132
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 132 —

a. Expected from the St. Louis congregation-college fund..................$ 264.00
b. From the fund of the "Lutheraner," from the surplus remaining at
       the close of its sixth volume [Jahrgang] .................................... 250.00
c. From the cemetery fund of the St. Louis congregation....................... 200.00
d. From the hymnal fund of the St. Louis congregation........................... 225.00
e. From the synodical fund ........................................................... 145.00
                                                                                            ______
       Total........................................................................................$1084.00

Home Missions [Innere Mission].

Visitors, care of pastorless congregations, etc.

The Reverend Pastors Fricke and Johannes, who had been charged
last year by the Synod with seeking out the scattered and forsaken fellow
believers here in this country — particularly those in Cincinnati and the
settlements of the western states — and, where possible, founding purely
Lutheran congregations among them, were unfortunately unable to carry
out their commission. Pastor Sievers, however, on the Synod's
commission, visited the city of Cincinnati and its surroundings in April of
this year, and Pastor Gräbner visited the German Lutherans on the
Grand River.

When Pastor Sievers arrived in Cincinnati, he found, to his joy, that
Pastor Wichmann there, troubled by the unlutheran character of the
united Protestant congregations, had already separated, together with
part of it, from the united Zion congregation (which he had until then
served), and was already on the point of building his newly formed
(Trinity [Dreieinigkeits]) congregation on the foundation of the pure
Word of God. He explained this his aim to Pastor Sievers on the very first
day of their being together, and so Pastor Sievers resolved, in league with
Pastor Wichmann, to help strengthen and nurture his already-existing,
upward-striving congregation. He states in his report his conviction that
among the great mass of Lutherans in Cincinnati there are many honest
people who long for a purely Lutheran fellowship.

As for Pastor Gräbner's report, it reads less encouragingly. The
reporter went first to Lansing, but found there only a few Lutheran
families indifferent to the Word of God, and since he also learned that the
Germans on the Grand River were Catholics, he traveled no further, but,
after much fruitless effort, returned again to his own congregation.

This year, too, several congregations had turned to the Synod for
faithful and capable pastors; unfortunately, however, there was still a
lack of manpower to meet the demand of all of them. Still, the Präses has
been charged with seeing to the soonest possible filling of the vacant
pastorates.

In order to be able to look after the poor fellow believers as much as
possible — particularly those who are only now immigrating, or those
who find themselves in places where they are not yet served with the
pure preaching of the divine Word — the Synod has adopted the following
resolutions:

a. A pamphlet, "Church Guide for Immigrating Lutherans" [Kirchlicher
Wegweiser für einwandernde Lutheraner], is to be composed, which shall
contain, among other things: a warning against the many dangerous
sects of America, a brief account of their distinguishing marks, and
guidance as to where teachers and congregations of the pure confession
are to be found, etc.