# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1905_S130
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

130 Proceedings of the 26th General or

...money for Home Missions is in noticeably short supply, every reader of the "Lutheraner" knows. The Synod treasury, too, is beginning to run short, as a recently published issue of the "Lutheraner" shows.

"What is the reason for this? In our view, not a lack of means or goodwill on the part of our congregations, but solely because the Synod has not established and maintained any system for raising the funds, and because the Synod does not properly concern itself with whether every congregation is doing its fair share.

"Do the individual congregations go about raising the funds they need in the same way? No; they have a system and keep to it. Through their elders and collectors they see to it that every member contributes his share toward the current annual expenses. If special buildings are needed, they have the system of approaching every member; whoever contributes nothing must give a good reason for it. If our congregations simply resolved to raise the funds but did not keep to the system of holding individual members to their contributions, they would find themselves in the same situation we experience as a Synod: they could close the year with a deficit. Keeping to a system prevents disorder in the congregations. The system in a congregation regarding its members' contributions is an evangelical one and should be carried out in an evangelical spirit.

"The apostolic congregations already had such a system for raising needed funds. See 1 Corinthians 16; 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. The congregations of Judea suffered want through a famine. This want brought word to Paul, who made it known to the congregations in the Gentile lands. The congregations resolved to help their brothers in need, and chose several men who were to encourage the congregations to give generously and to receive the gifts. The congregations thus set up a system by which a generous collection was secured. In carrying out this system, however, they avoided all legalistic pressure and compulsion; through the gospel of Christ's love they made hearts willing to give generously.

"Because we have this apostolic model of a system for raising needed funds, and because, moreover, our congregations keep to such a system, no one can say it would be wrong or improper if, in our Synod, for the main treasuries, namely the Home Missions, Synodical, and Building funds, a certain system