# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1910_S43
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1910. 43

of its manifold benefit. If, then, even in the field of our so-called Home Mission a mission director is necessary
and beneficial to the Mission, how much more will that hold for the Negro
Mission!

The Commission's reasons for the said recommendation are
chiefly the following:

a. However gladly the members of the Commission serve the cause,
yet only the most necessary work can be done by them.
They receive the missionaries' reports, deliberate on them, conduct
the correspondence connected with them and try to visit the mission field
within two years. That is not sufficient. But no more
can be done under the present arrangement, for the
whole territory of our Negro Mission is too extensive, the correspondence
very large, and the matters that come up for deliberation are always
very numerous, and besides, the members of the Commission are all
fully occupied with work in their congregations in the large
city or, like Prof. Mezger, with his lectures at the seminary.

b. But more should and could be done for the healthy progress of the
Mission. Our mission congregations and institutions
ought to be visited regularly. First, for the sake of our mission
workers. For our white missionaries it is a need
to associate frequently with white fellow ministers, to strengthen themselves
in their difficult calling. For our colored fellow ministers an
interchange as lively as possible with the direction of the Mission is no
less needful, so that they may not fall into a special position in the Mission,
but, the longer the more closely bound to their brethren in the Synodical
Conference, may with them become and remain truly Lutheran pastors. Then we must also be careful to keep our mission
congregations in close touch with the mission direction,
so that they may be exposed less and less to the influences of the surrounding sectarian congregations and
sectarian pastors. Finally, a man familiar with the
local conditions can judge of them much more reliably
than someone who informs himself from a distance.

c. The consciousness of belonging together among our mission
congregations ought to be raised and fostered. The mission
director would be a constant intermediary of news between the
individual missions, and under his direction something like a synodical connection
could gradually be initiated and cultivated, which could serve only
to establish the congregations in the Confession and to carry out
sound practice ["Praris" as printed].

d. The mission work could be carried on more systematically. Until
now, especially in the last years, it has been possible to carry it on only piecemeal. In that case gifts and
powers all too easily fail to be fully utilized. The
important mission among the Negroes entrusted to us by God is truly worth being
carried out systematically, purposefully and well regulated.