# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1911_S320
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 106 —

...which can be carried out by the boards of oversight, with the
approval of the General *Präses* [president], without a special
synodical resolution, should no longer be taken from the Building Fund
but from the Synodical Treasury. (Report, p. 138, under 5.) Should one
not now go a step further back and thus return to the original
arrangement? Why should our Christians not give just as generously for
new buildings if their offerings pass through the Synodical Treasury
as through a special Building Fund? Would it not be easier to collect,
through one treasury, the funds we need for the Synod's actual
purposes, than through two? Should we not, in general, work with all
our might toward filling our Synodical Treasury regularly and
systematically, so that new buildings too, when they do not require
extraordinary sums, can be paid for out of it? The ongoing, regular
expenses would of course always be paid first.

2. The Mission Treasury: a. of the General Synod, b. of the District.
So it was originally. "For missions there exists a treasury of its
own." So it says in our constitution (VI, I, 5). The congregations
would then no longer collect for each individual mission but simply
for the Mission Treasury. All gifts for missions that the whole Synod
carries on would be sent by the treasurers to the General Treasurer,
and by him to the General Mission Committee — the present Committee
for Home Mission in North America — and the latter would distribute
the money to the committees of the various missions, by percentage,
according to need. Gifts for mission work within the district would be
sent by the treasurers to the district committees. Of course, under
this arrangement, special gifts and bequests could still be designated
by the givers for particular missions.

3. The Church Building Fund: a. of the General Synod, b. of the
District. Through this fund should pass all gifts and interest-free
loans collected for congregations in need of help. Petitions for help,
whether for gifts or for loans, should in no case be sent directly to
congregations but to the committee — to the General Committee if help
is sought from the whole Synod, and to the district committee if only
the district is to help.

4. The Relief Fund: a. of the General Synod, b. of the District.
Through this fund would also pass all gifts for charitable
institutions, for the needy, and for victims of misfortune. If it were
not desired that money for particular orphanages, etc., should also
pass through the committee's hands, the treasurer could of course send
it directly to its destination; but in every case, gifts for the
needy — whether individual persons or whole congregations and
communities — should be sent to the committee by the district's
treasurer. All gifts without a more specific designation of their
purpose would be used, as before, to support sick and aged pastors
and...