# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1935_S133
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States. 1935. 121

Our Synod conducts educational work and Foreign Missions,
publishes church-papers and other literature, but. the most important
work of all, Home Missions, is delegated to individual Districts.
Problems are not coped with on a Synod-wide scale.

This probably accounts, in part at least, for the fact that of the
5,021 congregations and preaching-stations composing Synod, almost
1,000 report 50 souls or even fewer and almost half have fewer than
100 communicant members. It is admitted that mission-work should
be done in every place where souls are to be found; but whether or
not such small congregations and preaching-stations are self-support-
ing or are subsidized, the fact that. such congregations comprise
almost half of the membership of Synod points very clearly and dis-
tinctly to a ruinous weakness in our system. In spite of the fact
that some of these congregations become self-supporting, yet accord-
ing to statistics such small subsidized congregations and preaching-
stations are increasing in our Synod at the rate of 25 to 50 each year,
and this despite large deficits in the treasury of Synod.

We have failed to place our resources of men and of money
where the opportunity is relatively greatest. To illustrate, a few
figures are needed. It is asserted again, for fear of being misunder-
stood, that soul-winning should be attempted wherever souls may be
found. However, to expend $630,000 in eight years for mission-work
in a territory where there are only 2,500,000 people in an area of
2,100,000 square miles and as a result have little or no funds left for
mission-work in places having a density of population of thousands
and tens of thousands to the square mile, does not seem to be wise
stewardship.

Because we have so many congregations in unpromising localities,
and because we are obliged to pay subsidies for so many years, we are
unable to start work where there is crying need and every promise for
healthy growth. Because we are obliged to support mission-stations
which year after year show little or no growth, potential missionaries
must stand idle, and promising fields cannot be opened.

The Districts are Synod. Synod does not exist for the work of
the Districts, but the Districts exist for the work of Synod. As long
as every District considers only its own particular needs without
taking into consideration the relative needs of other Districts, we
shall continue to multiply static mission-places with long-continued
subsidies. If Synod were to take over the Home Mission work instead
of delegating it to the Districts, as it now does, the resources of
money and of man-power could be used to better advantage than is
now the case. After all, the principles of stewardship apply also to
Synod. We have the duty to invest the talents which the Lord has
given us most advantageously for the Kingdom.