# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1973_S288 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 288 PARISH SERVICES AND YOUTH agencies, urging statistical analysis, soul accounting efforts, and vigorous outreach in harmony with the Great Commission. 6. Emphasized the need for quality Christian education as one of God's expectations when He commissioned the church to teach God’s people. IV. THE BOARD OF PARISH EDUCATION Is COMMITTED TO PROVIDING THE BEST POSSIBLE STUDY PROGRAMS AND MEDIA FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING THE FAITH The Synod has delegated to its Board of Parish Education the task of planning and directing the production of books and other materials needed for an effective program of parish educa- tion (Handbook 7.25). Throughout its history the Board has devoted much of its staff time to the development of curricular plans and materials, especially for the teaching of the Christian faith through basic courses of study. Because the Board is committed to providing the best pos- sible study guides and resources for the various schools and programs of local congregations, its staff has not only promoted the best use of existing materials. It has also regularly revised its previously published programs and periodically developed some new lesson materials. The Mission: Life Program For a number of timely reasons, reported to the Synod at previous conventions and through other communications, the Board of Parish Education resolved on Jan. 21, 1969, after ex- tensive staff studies. to authorize the development of a new coordinated curriculum for teaching and learning the Christian faith in the various parish church schools. This huge endeavor, later to be called the Mission:Life Program, has engaged most of the time and energy of the Board's staff ever since the Board made its courageous decision in love of God and His church. The preparation of the major part of the Mission:Life Pro- gram required a 3-year period. Hundreds of fellow pastors and teachers were involved in preparing and evaluating the manu- scripts for the 182 courses and the thousands of items included in teachers kits and student packets. All of the publishing resources of Concordia Publishing House are being used to the fullest in what by God's grace and blessing has become one of the largest and most amazing pub- lication programs ever undertaken by a church denomination or publishing corporation. Not enough can be said about the unreserved support, cooperation, and dedication of Concordia Publishing House management, artists, and craftsmen in the production of the materials. God be praised for this marvel of His Spirit and grace without which the Mission: Life program could not have come into being! The first of the Mission:Life courses were introduced to the Synod in the spring of 1971 for initial use in the fall of that year. Since then the Board of Parish Education editors and Concordia Publishing House employees have been working unstintingly and heroically to keep the flow of course materials at the high- est possible level of quality and on schedule. The materials for third-year courses are in production and will appear for initial use in the 1973-1974 school year. The 1973 fall quarter kits and packets are already available for examination and are being in- troduced in workshops for teachers and leaders of the agencies. With the appearance of the third year of courses for prekin- dergarten (ages 3 and 4), 6th, 7th, 8th, and 12th grade classes in day and weekday schools, the Mission:Life program will have made available complete and closely graded lesson plans and related materials for all age levels in four color-coded series: a Blue 4—5 session weekly program primarily for day schools (preprimary, elementary, and secondary): a Red 2-hour weekly program covering 36 sessions: a Green series of one-hour-a-week session plans designed for Sunday morning classes: an Orange 10 session, 24-hour program for vacation Bible schools or other summer church programs. New “Christ-Style Resources” for youth classes will replace the Spirit/Talk Resources in fall 1973 on a continuous but short- term, undated basis (6-week units). The Gate, the Green study guide for adult groups, will continue to offer a variety of courses on a quarterly basis. New Orange (VBS and camp) materials now appear annually on eight levels, including youth and adult. Some Red adult courses (for six 2-hour weekday sessions) will continue to appear twice a year. Response to Concerns About Mission:Life What about revisions and improvements of previously pub- lished Mission:Life courses? Any human production is bound to be less than perfect and subject to improvement. As a part of its commitment to provide the best possible study programs and media resources for the teaching of the Christian faith, the Board of Parish Education and its staff are more than ready to revise, correct, and improve the Mission: Life materials. In fact, its editors eagerly create and await opportunities for critical review and desirable changes of whatever they produce. In response to some expressed criticisms and concerns about the Mission:Life program, the Milwaukee convention was assured that “the primary concern of the Mission: Life editors is that the theology, doctrine, and content of all Mission:Life courses, as well as the teaching of them, be in accord with the Holy Scriptures, the Lutheran Confessions, and the officially adopted resolutions of the Synod. To this end the editors subject their work to not just one but a number of established review procedures, including the critique of official theological re- viewers.” The convention also was assured that the editors “stand ready to make revisions at their earliest Opportunity.” As a way of checking on the validity of the criticisms of a number of overtures regarding some details of Mission:Life courses, the Milwaukee convention resolved “that the synodical Board of Doctrinal Review be charged with the responsibility of reviewing immediately the material critically.” To implement this resolution, all first and second quarter course materials and manuscripts were resubmitted for a second review (they had been reviewed and approved previously). It can be reported that all courses that were under criticism have been reviewed officially a second time and that all Mission: Life course materials have been approved by official theological reviewers appointed by the President of the Synod. In the light of reviews and the comments and suggestions of other members of the Synod, corrections and improvements were made immediately in a number of published courses. All unpublished manuscripts are revised in the light of valid criti- cisms before they are published. And now that the demanding tasks of preparing new courses has in large part been com- pleted, at least temporarily, some of the Board of Parish Educa- tion staff is giving attention to the possibilities of large-scale revisions of those courses that have been least satisfying to pastors, teachers, and parents of the church, particularly in the Green series. Plans for Revisions of Mission:Life For example, a reconstructed course on the care of God’s world for grade 3 in the Green series will become available already in fall 1973. An alternate course plan for the Green 3! course titled Our Environment—the Earth has been prepared and added to the existing Teachers Kit as a supplement. The alternate plan uses all the original kit material on God’s work of creation and the care of His world, but compresses the previous three units into two and provides a third unit of four new sessions on the new heaven and the new earth which God promises through Jesus Christ. This supplement allows previous as well as new pur- chasers of the Green 3! Teachers Kit to use the course either as originally planned or according to the revised plan. The sup- plement will be available to previous purchasers of the course and has been added to all kits in stock. Nursery and Kindergarten Life-in-Christ and Mission:Life story books that appeared in the first four quarters of the 2-year series of materials will be changed and perforated so that Sun- day schools can continue to send home story pages weekly instead of using a quarterly book (if they prefer to do so). Other changes have been made in papercraft and kit items to improve them. The Teachers Guide for the 1973 fall quarter has been revised. The Life-in-Christ Old Testament series of lessons that will again begin in December 1973 will include the Christmas and Easter stories in the December and March quarters to satisfy those who prefer to break the chronological sequence in ob- servance of the church year. A number of student papers in the Green 7° course titled My Faith and Others were revised already for the March 1973 quarter, and a thorough revision of the Green 7! course titled The Case for God's Power will appear in 1974. Many other cor- rections and improvements will be incorporated into the ma- terials as they are reprinted.