# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1926_S137 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 135 duty towards their offspring. More than is now the case colored homes must learn to see the im- portance of order, cleanliness, and obedience. We must, above all, do all we can to make the future Wives, mothers, and’ home-makers of the colored race well fitted for their duties, since a people will never rise higher than its mothers and home-makers. Churches among the Negroes. The churches among the Negroes of our country may be put in two groups, those belonging to de- nominations which are exclusively colored, and those affiliated with churches having white and colored members. ‘The exclusively Negro denomi- nations have a total membership of over four mil- lion, while the Negro members in denominations with a mixed membership number a half million. In other words, the distinctively Negro denomi- nations had 87 per cent. of the Negro communi- cants. About 3,000,000 Negro communicants call themselves Baptists, 1,400,000 belong to some Methodist body, while about 190,000 are Presby- terians, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, “Chris- tians,” “Disciples,” Lutherans, or members of some smaller body. The Roman Catholics have a Negro communicant membership of about 40,000. Our Negro Missions. Our Negro Missions will celebrate their fiftieth anniversary next year. The work was begun by Rev. J. F. Doescher in the fall of 1887. The first resident missionary placed in the field by us is the venerable Prof. F. Berg, Immanuel College, Greens- boro, N. C. He served at Little Rock, Ark., for several years, was then pastor of two white congre- gations, and now is again serving the freedmen as professor of theology in Immanuel College. Another pioneer worker was Pastor N. J. Bakke, who spent all his years of service in our Negro Missions, first as missionary in New Orleans, then as the pioneer of our North Carolina field, as the first president of Immanuel College, and as superintendent of all our Negro Mission work. In. 1915 we were called to the Black Belt of Alabama, where our work has been most signally » blessed. Station after station has been opened, until we now have in that State no less than twenty- six congregations and preaching-stations. Since 1922 we also have a training-school for teachers in this field at Selma, the Alabama Luther College. All told, our laborers are now working at 68 places. Most of our congregations are in Louisiana, North Carolina, and Alabama, but they are also a eeeeeeeeamsaaaaa————————<—<—<——$__—___—_—_—_—_— found in New York, Virginia, Illinois, Pennsyl- vania, Missouri, Florida, South Carolina, Arkansas, Ohio, Michigan, and California. At the present time more than 7,000 persons are under the direct care of our mission-workers in church and school, but besides these there are hundreds, if not thou- sands, of Negroes who are more or less influenced by the work which we are doing. We hold that it is no exaggeration to say that 20,000 to 25,000 per- sons are being blessed by our Negro Missions. F.J.L. Nore. — God willing, our next number will bring the full biennial report on our Negro Missions by Director of Missions C. F’. Drewes. Our Colored Mission in Buffalo, N. Y. In the last issue of his Bulletin, Pastor H. F. Wind has the following to say concerning the progress of the work our Church is doing among the colored people of Buffalo: — “Fine progress has been made in the past months in the work of our Colored Mission in Buffalo, although this progress cannot be measured in numbers, but rather in the interest shown by those who are attending our mission. We cannot hope to make great progress in numbers in this mission until we have a worker to devote his whole time to this enterprise. The men who are now giving their time and efforts to this mission are unable, because of other duties, to do much visiting in the homes of prospects, and this fact makes it impossible to gain those people who might be gained by persistent effort, but will not come without much urging. “While our mission has not grown in numbers, it has grown in the estimation of those who are at- tending its services and other activities. People are _ becoming more and more interested and are showing a fine spirit of devotion and sacrifice for the building of God’s kingdom. ‘The women particularly are anxious and willing to labor for the success of the mission, and about twenty of them are giving ‘much time and effort to this cause. ‘We expett that much better progress will be made in gaining new attendants for the mission when Student Ralph Burow, who has been engaged to labor in this mission, will take charge. He will devote his entire time to this work and will be able to visit in the homes of the colored people in the Cold Spring section. In this way he, no doubt, with God’s blessing, will be able to interest many who have not as yet been drawn to the mission.