# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1884_S64
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

64   Proceedings of the 19th General [Synod], or

    In the course of carrying out the admissions listed above, it was
pointed out that now and then some of our pastors, who have been
equipped and sent out at great expense for the office of traveling
preacher, remain at their post only a few months and then leave it
again in order to accept a call that has come to them to some
congregation, often quite a small one. This way of acting is all the
more regrettable since these pastors are for the most part people to
whom God has given a special gift for the office of traveling
preacher. One does not consider how greatly the work of Inner
Mission suffers through such conduct. Apart from the cost of
equipping and sending them out, which is lost on them, such traveling
preachers have had no success in the mission field, and may even have
caused harm that their successor will scarcely be able to repair. Our
traveling preachers must, after all, in part look after 8 to 12
preaching stations. Every 6 to 8 weeks some stations can only be
visited that often. In the short time of their service they have not
even come to know the people properly, nor the people them, let alone
that they could already have exercised real pastoral care over these
people. All at once the people hear: our preacher has moved away and
is not coming back. Anyone can easily imagine what impression this
must make on them. We readily admit that in most cases the fault lies
more with the pastors and congregations within our synodical body
than with the traveling preachers themselves. The latter are
recommended to congregations by pastors who know them, and the
congregations then seize on them. Thus each looks only to itself and
does not consider the good of the whole. Added to this is that the
call is often made so urgent that such young traveling preachers, who
are at times left entirely to themselves, think they would be sinning
against their conscience if they did not follow the call that has come
to them. Yet for the sake of the general welfare of the Church of God,
all congregations ought to submit to the order established among us,
and ask their district president's advice before exercising their
right to call, so that they do not exercise their right in a way that
amounts to a crying wrong — and this happens every time it is done
against love. But with regard to our traveling preachers, love
requires that a man be left at his post, where above all he can serve
the kingdom of Christ under God's blessing.

                Inner Mission.

    Although the conduct of the work of Inner Mission is in
particular the business of the district synods, in whose territory
there are still German settlements, the number of which continues to
grow through immigration