# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1941_S876
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Financial Matters 389

Plan to be Devised to Help Congregations
to Wipe Out Their Debts
an (Unprinted Memorial 143)

This memorial first points out that Synod’s mission-work is
amipered by the fact that our congregations are carrying an enorm-
iS'debt (the sum of $25,000,000 was mentioned), on which large
iounts must be paid as interest (the writer estimates it at
BOOK 0,000).

e of Christian schools, that it accounts for low salaries of
s, teachers, missionaries, etc. The writer then suggested the

To refrain henceforth from creating new debts for the pur-
lase, the improvement, or the erection of new churches, schools,

ia and appeal to the members of the respective congregation to
an the money for expansion purposes without charge of interest
me congregations have been paying interest on a debt created
to forty years ago and have paid twice as much in interest as the
nceipal debt amounted to).

2. It would appear to many interested observers that right now
‘an opportune time to begin with plans that have for their goal
the: wiping out of congregational indebtedness. Employment is
‘apidly increasing, pay-rolls are gradually rising to new heights,
factories and shops are working overtime, business has improved,
rofessional men report increased patronage, the service of skilled
workmen seems to be hard to obtain and is at a premium, many
eople are paying up old debts, weekly pay-checks have, in many
stances, reached the point of prosperity existing in the late
twenties, and every conceivable effort from every direction is made
0 induce all the people and also members of our Church to spend
‘the increased earnings for things that appeal to the flesh; and
“while it is admitted that living expenses have increased, yet it is a
‘fact that, when earnings are high, more money is being spent, and
en is the time when our people should make more than an -
ordinary effort to pay the debt they now owe on their church
“property.

3. As Christians we cannot, we should not, in fact we must
not, first take care of our physical requirements beyond our ability
as we go; but our Lord and Savior wants us to preach the Gospel
o immortal souls. A soul is of far greater value than the whole
arth and all the riches in it. These were created by the power