# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1930_S40
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

40 Proceedings of the thirty-second convention

Business Proceedings.

*Negermission* [Negro Mission, the period's term for the mission among African Americans].

The following was before the convention for deliberation:
Twenty-fifth Report of the Commission for Negro Mission.

July 1928 to July 1930.

Our dear Lutheran Church celebrates this year the four-hundredth anniversary of the Augsburg Confession. Three things in particular are what move our hearts at this jubilee: humility, thanks and the missionary spirit.

We recognize and confess that we are not worthy of this glorious treasure above others and that we have in no way deserved it. Quite the opposite we have deserved with our manifold sins. This precious jewel, the Augsburg Confession of Faith, is nothing else than grace and gift. Therefore we owe our God humble thanks. The recognition that the Augsburg Confession, this glorious treasure, is an undeserved gift, awakens in our hearts, however, also the desire to share this jewel with others also; it awakens the missionary spirit.

Our Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference [*Synodalkonferenz*] began already fifty-three years ago to convey the precious content of the Augsburg Confession, the pure Word of God, to the neglected Negroes of our country, left without the Church. God has laid his blessing on this mission work. So we have today sixty-two Lutheran congregations as well as fifteen preaching places. In these preaching places and in these congregations this year thousands of Lutheran Negroes are offering praise and thanks to God for the precious gift of the Augsburg Confession.

We have experienced God's blessing also in the two past reporting years. Two years ago the number of souls or baptized members who were under the care of our missionaries amounted to 5,885. Today, on the other hand, the number is 6,930. That means a net increase of 1,045 souls. Stated in percentages, the growth in these two years was 17½ percent. What this increase of 17½ percent means a comparison can show most quickly. [Printed in English:] "Comparisons are odious," says the American. But if the comparison drawn has the purpose of making a matter clear and comprehensible, one may well venture it. Our Missouri Synod grew in its last two reporting years by about 3 percent. Our Negro Mission, on the other hand, has grown by nearly 18 percent.

From the steady and astonishing growth of our mission it appears quite evidently that our LORD Jesus Christ strongly acknowledges this work despised by so many. To him therefore be praise, honor and thanks for blessing and prosperity which he has given in so rich measure to the sowing and planting of our dear missionaries!

The growth of our mission stated in figures naturally does not indicate the whole, full blessing which the LORD has bestowed through our mission in this period. The stream of blessing has poured out over further thousands, indeed over tens of thousands. First, there are about 2,500 children in the mission schools and Sunday schools who have not yet had themselves baptized or confirmed, but who are being instructed in God's Word and Luther's doctrine and carry this precious seed in hun-