# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1938_S133
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Missions in General 188

For nearly a century we have carried on. At present more
than eleven hundred missionaries are in the service of our Church.
Of these more than 800 are active in the Home Missions depart-
ment, 79 in South America, 52 ‘in Europe, 70 in foreign Fields, 20 in
the Deaf-Blind Missions, 119 pastors and teachers in the Colored
Missions. We are preaching in more than 20 different languages.
Our Church is truly a Pentecostal Church.

For nearly a century we have carried on in the Home Missions
Department. We might think that the country must now be filled
with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet, in spite of the fact
that at the present day there are 826 missionaries engaged in
Home Missions, there still is room. There are numerous cities
with a population of more than 100,000 where there is no semblance
of a Lutheran church of any kind. There are today more than
400 communities with a population from 5,000 to 25,000 with no
Lutheran church of any type.

For nearly a hundred years we have been conducting Home
Missions. The days of our forefathers, of the covered wagon, and
of frontier life are no more. The stage-coach of the earlier day,
the covered wagon, the ox-cart, and the mule team have long
ago disappeared and made room for the auto and swift-moving
trains. There are marked changes everywhere; yet the mission-
aries of today are confronted with the same evil heart and with
the same adversary as the missionaries of old, and even today they
have but one means of grace to rescue the perishing souls, the
same that the fathers of old had. The one saving means of grace
is the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Mission-work has undergone decided changes. From the days
of our forefathers until about fifteen or twenty years ago the chief
work of the missionary was to gather the scattered Lutherans as
they immigrated from European countries or migrated from one
State to another. Immigtation has come almost to a standstill,
and migration of families from one State or community to another
occurs only after a given territory for years has been stricken
by serious droughts or some other calamity. The mission oppor-
tunities presenting themselves to the missionary of today are the
more than 60 million unchurched in our communities. To reach out
to the Lazarus at our door, to bring in the unchurched of our
communities to the already existing churches, is no doubt the call
of the hour.

And these are the plans for the future in the Home Missions
department. It is to reach out to the more than 60 million un-
churched in our country and the 17 million of our youth that
have no church connection of any kind. It is our aim to press
forward along the whole line. We plead for the cooperation of